So, why DID you give up your job watching football on the sofa?
JAMIE REDKNAPP TALKS TO ALAN HANSEN
I wouldn’t give up five minutes of my 14 years at Liverpool for the money they earn now
JAMIE REDKNAPP joined Liverpool in February 1991. He was the last signing Kenny Dalglish made before resigning. Captain alan Hansen followed by retiring a month later. Despite the abrupt exit, they’ve remained friends and golfing rivals ever since. and when they got together to film a Walkers Crisps ‘Tear ’n’ Share’ advert,
LEE CLAYTON went along to listen in.
JAMIE REDKNAPP: When i first met you in 1991, i was 17, in awe, playing with my heroes. The first time i got on the bus, playing for the first team, all i could hear is this growling voice in the background: ‘You cannae sit there.’ So i moved to another seat. The same. ‘You cannae sit there.’ i moved again. You got me up and down, i didn’t know where to go. i looked around and you were all laughing. Welcome to Liverpool.
ALAN HANSEN: When i first went into the same dressing room in 1977 i was 21, Liverpool had just won the title. i was meeting these superstars and Kevin Keegan put me at ease. We spoke for about 30 minutes and he relaxed me. it allowed me to settle. That would be the difference between now and then, for any young British players going into wouldthen REDKNAPP:a or Premierbea You playera i’ll very give talk League lonelynow you aboutwith first-teamplacethe the the chancefor rewardsthem. money dressingto be on theya room.offer. playerare it
HANSEN: earningmy 14 yearsnow butat Liverpooli wouldn’t for give any up of five it. minutesNot only of because i had the best time ever but we won everything in sight. When i was growing up, if you had said to me: ‘You can be at Liverpool for 14 years and you’re playing all the way through the 80s, with some of the greatest players the game has ever seen, be part of a team who played in six major european finals in 10 years, winning five . . . ’ it’s OK talking about Real madrid and Barcelona, but nobody has ever done that before.
REDKNAPP: You were a Rolls-Royce of a defender. The way the game has gone and the rules now, it would be easy for you. i can picture you striding out with the ball going past two or three, laying the ball off. The game would have suited you.
HANSEN: it would have suited me, yes. No centre forward can come and obliterate you, like Billy Whitehurst. He was crazy! Boxing Day, 1987, he played for Oxford with nine stitches. He wasn’t meant to play — it said in the newspapers — and i was delighted. But he did. Ten minutes to go, winning 2-0, i could hear him growling as we tried to pass the ball across the back four.
He had a collision with Bruce Grobbelaar, his stitches burst, the blood went everywhere. The physio said: ‘it’s bad Billy, you have to come off.’ He said: ‘You try to take me off and i’ll effin kill you.’ Now there are so many cameras in the ground it makes it impossible to play as he played.
REDKNAPP: You couldn’t get away with some of the things you did too. Tell that Grand National story.
HANSEN: We’d been arguing who was the fastest — me or John Barnes. We were at aintree and we decided to sort it out, on Grand National day! We’d had a few drinks, but we got into the final furlong. it was the day of the race and the punters were coming in, i’d been out injured, so on ‘3-2-1’ i went on ‘3’. We raced for £20. i got to the finishing line first, John pulled his hamstring! Kenny was the manager and he wasn’t too pleased. i told him it was nothing to do with me.
REDKNAPP: imagine that now, the video would be all over MailOnline before you finished the race!
HANSEN: at that club, we were winning and they encouraged you to laugh. When we needed to be serious, we played. But i had such a great time. i played with great players, but also great characters.
REDKNAPP: it was some team too! We talk about Barcelona now but your Liverpool were playing that way a long time ago.
HANSEN: i was on Match of the Day and Lee Dixon was talking about passing in triangles, watching Swansea. But i remember triangles from the european Cup semi- final against Dinamo Bucharest in 1984. it wasn’t like now, we didn’t know their players and suddenly they are playing triangles, playing us off the pitch. Never seen anything like it. Their No 8 . . . Bomp, bomp, bomp. Like a mixture of Hoddle and Platini. awesome. Then . . . i thought it was an elbow but there is only one camera in the ground . . . REDKNAPP: Did Souey sort him out? HANSEN: Sort him out? He’s flattened him! There’s one camera, which is following the ball. So is the referee and linesman. So am i, to be honest. Graeme broke his jaw! That’s the way to beat them. No point in trying triangles with a broken jaw. The ref missed it, the camera missed it. You couldn’t get away with that now.
REDKNAPP: The team could mix it, but they could play too. What was your standout performance?
HANSEN: manchester United, Boxing Day 1979. They were a point ahead of us and we had a game in hand. i scored after 21 minutes, but it’s the greatest goal nobody has ever seen. Not a camera in the ground! We had wonderful players. The best side was 78-79, 79-80. Kenneth Dalglish was the best player i ever played with, but the midfield quartet of Souness, Kennedy, Case, mcDermott . . . awesome. Liverpool being Liverpool and because they’ve had so many fabulous players, three of them don’t get the credit they deserve.
and then there is Souness, but for a quartet they had everything. Formidable! Unbelievable!
REDKNAPP: and you keep your 17 medals in the Liverpool museum . . .
HANSEN: my mum and dad used to have them at home in Scotland. They were proud — they’d have a ‘Night With alan Hansen’s medals’ which was really irritating, but when i got them back i thought there’s no better place to have them than the museum. it’s a great museum and from time to time i go and look at them. Why? Pride, a reminder of what i achieved with that team.
REDKNAPP: How did you ever settle any arguments in that dressing room?
HANSEN: Souness and Dalglish never lost an argument in their lives, even when they argued with each other — and i wasn’t far behind. We had talent and phenomenal team spirit. Before a game, at 10 to three, the
manager would say: ‘Stick together. Be a team.’ When we were at home, we’d get to Anfield at 10 to two. Then we’d watch the 2 o’clock, the 2.10, the 2.15, the 2.30, the 2.35 if it was five or six furlongs in the lounge, whipped to the dressing room, I would touch my toes and then go and play.
The last one in would be the manager! Souness tells a story that when he was captain, he’s going to lead the team out and there’s only seven of them! ‘Where’s the team?’ Still watching the racing. Sometimes the last one would be the manager. Bob Paisley was the best I played for. Everything was simple. Not the high ball, not the low ball, not the long ball or the short ball. ‘Play the right ball.’
REDKNAPP: You never warmed up before a game . . .
HANSEN: No. Never. I’d listen to some Billy Joel . . . I was nervous.
REDKNAPP: Is that why you didn’t go into management? I remember the day Kenny leaves and you come in the dressing room and wind us up, tell us you are taking over. You go around the room . . . ‘John Barnes, no more Kentucky Fried Chicken, Steve Nicol . . . No more going into The Crown . . . ’ You knew what everyone got up to, but you were telling them it was all finished.
HANSEN: I was 6/4 to be the next manager. I didn’t want it, I wanted to retire. But before I retired, I wanted a parting gift for the players. ‘Right, I’m the new manager ... Everything is going to change. No drinking, double sessions in the afternoon, every Sunday we’ll be watching a video of the match . . . ’ Their heads are going further and further down.
REDKNAPP: I looked at them. Everyone was going white with fear!
HANSEN: I’m laughing all the way to the lounge but then two Irish kids come out of the reserve-team dressing room. One of them is on a mobile phone to Dublin and I can hear him saying: ‘Get all the money you’ve got on Hansen to be the next Liverpool manager.’ I had to grab the phone off him. I thought I had better get back in there and tell them I was joking. As I get there, I can hear them saying: ‘He’s a . . . ’
REDKNAPP: After that you had the chance to manage Man City?
HANSEN: Yeah. Francis Lee had asked Trevor Brooking to get me to call him. I told him no thank you. He said: ‘We are going to bring in a great coach, you be the manager.’ I wasn’t interested.
REDKNAPP: So it was punditry for you and you became the best at it. You changed it. You made it a cool job to have. It was the perfect life, staying close to the game.
HANSEN: There was no training, it was sink or swim. I was lucky to work with a master, Des Lynam. After 22 years I kept on telling myself I wouldn’t get so nervous, but it got worse. That was one of the reasons I left. I was getting more nervous and I’d say: ‘What are you doing?’ The BBC were terrific, I loved the people and Match of the Day but I didn’t enjoy the nerves.
REDKNAPP: I remember asking you once to have a good word for me after a game with Everton. I had tackled Tim Cahill and I knew I might be in trouble with the FA. I respected your influence, so I asked you to come down on my side . . . you slaughtered me. ‘It’s a disgrace.’ Thanks, Al. I got a three-game ban.
HANSEN: Players used to call up all the time. ‘Can you go easy?’ I used to call it on instinct, I tried to be fair but I would usually go with my first thought.
REDKNAPP: Like saying ‘Manchester United would win nothing with kids’ and then they won the title. You used to say that statement made you (as a pundit).
HANSEN: They had a T-shirt on sale at Old Trafford, Man United sent me one. The line actually came from Bob Paisley. I was in my first season at Liverpool, we were struggling and Bob tells the press: ‘The only person playing half-decent is Alan Hansen.’ I think I’m doing all right. Of course, the team sheet comes in on the Friday and I’m the only one missing. So I go and see him and he just says: ‘Son, the longer you are in this game the more you will realise that experience is everything.’
Fair enough. The more I played, the more I realised experience is everything. So, I’m thinking, I can’t say that on TV, so I flipped it, but what I meant to say is: ‘You can’t win everything with kids.’ In the history of punditry, I imagine that phrase gets used more than anything else. I got it dramatically wrong . . . but in many ways it’s right. Even the Manchester United lads will tell you they had Bruce and Pallister, Schmeichel in goal, Keane, Cantona. Experience, you see.
REDKNAPP: Even now you are getting your shovel out and digging yourself out of a hole! Did anyone ever ask you to come back? It’s a dream job.
HANSEN: When I played I didn’t like pundits. When I was a pundit I didn’t like the other pundits because I was scared they might be better than me. Honestly, I thought they were all better than me. It was my insecurity. On the pitch I had tremendous belief in my own ability. I never thought I wasn’t good enough to play for Liverpool when the game started but before the match, before a programme . . . I never found out why. It is the way it is.
REDKNAPP: What about Liverpool now? They are a long way short of your team.
HANSEN: This has been a poor league but they are still a long way off. I like the manager (Jurgen Klopp), he gets the balance right with the supporters and he could be a success. But it’s about the players, the right recruitment and that’s becoming harder, without the prospect of Champions League football, up against the huge spending power of Manchester City, Chelsea, United. Brendan Rodgers got close but it shows that it’s not easy.
REDKNAPP: If there is a modern player who reminds me of you, it is John Stones . . . do you rate him?
HANSEN: I do, but as soon as you start taking chances you’ve got a problem. Central defenders should not be taking chances. You’ve got to know your opponents too. In my second game at Liverpool I tried it on with Stevie Coppell. Stevie isn’t one to try a drag-back against because he is a very clever boy, plus he’s quick, plus he can put his foot in.
If I’m John Stones, I’m playing against Sergio Aguero, don’t take chances. Not because he is a goalscorer, but because he is perceptive and he’ll get you. John has to work out what taking a chance means and don’t do it. He looks to be a very good footballer, with total control of the ball, but if you’re in danger with three opponents round you, do not take a chance.
REDKNAPP: How much would you be worth in the modern game? HANSEN: I don’t know.
REDKNAPP: Come on . . . HANSEN: No. I’m not answering that, but if I could play for one team, I’d be perfect for Barcelona (smiles). I went to Italy and I watched Franco Baresi and he could have been playing until he’s 95, get the cigars out. That’s the difference in football in England. Any team will give you a fight. This English league . . . it’s a bad league this year in terms of the major teams, but the competitiveness of it. That’s what makes it a hard league. Anyone can have you.
REDKNAPP: Who wins the league this season?
HANSEN: I wouldn’t write off Manchester City yet. It’s a poor league, they haven’t been great, but they’re not finished.
REDKNAPP: And what difference will Pep Guardiola make when he comes?
HANSEN: City don’t need to make a statement. They are not the coming force, they are the force. If you finish ahead of City, you win the league. His appointment puts fear into everyone else. Their opponents will go into the season thinking: ‘We can’t beat these.’ It will create panic.
REDKNAPP: So . . . what should Manchester United do?
HANSEN: Nothing. Don’t change. Don’t panic. Keep doing what you are going to do, believe in what you are doing. If you are Manches- ter United, be measured. Don’t panic like others.
REDKNAPP: Where do you stand on John Terry? Is he the best in the Premier League era? Would you let him go?
HANSEN: No, I wouldn’t let him go. He’s a player. Left foot, right foot . . . he was awesome last season. I admit, when Liverpool scored those three goals at Stamford Bridge and he was on his backside for all of them, I thought ‘ Hmmm’, but do they have three better centre backs at Chelsea? No. Is he the best in the history of the PL? Rio Ferdinand — very good, terrific. But any coaching manual — getting into position, staying on your feet and taking no chances . . . Terry is very good. John Stones should maybe have a look at John Terry’s videos.
REDKNAPP: Finally, is there any chance you let me win at golf? You take money off me and the lads every year in America.
HANSEN: No.
John Stones needs to look at videos of John Terry