ENGLAND’S TEENAGE WORLD BEATERS 1975 STYLE)
ENGLAND’S youth teams are enjoying a fine summer. Today at FIFA’s Under 20 World Cup in Korea, England face Italy in the semi-finals, while in the Toulon Tournament another England side meet Scotland in the last four. Here we look back to a proud triumph abroad 42 years ago...
The suits were cream, the goals were golden and the future beckoned for england’s young footballers as they returned from Switzerland with tales of plunge pools, apple juice and strip bars — and a trophy fondly if inaccurately referred to as ‘ the little World Cup’.
It was, in fact, UeFA’s 28th International Youth Tournament for Under 18s, the forerunner to the modern european Under 19 Championship, and had been won by england for a fourth time in five years. This vintage was the best of the lot in the eyes of Brian Owen, the physiotherapist and trainer who saw them all.
It contained two future england captains: Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins. One future england manager: Glenn hoddle. And another who made it as far as the interview: Alan Curbishley.
Peter Barnes was a prodigiously skilful winger about to burst on to the scene at Manchester City, winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award and scoring in the League Cup final at the end of the 1976 season.
Robson, Wilkins, hoddle and Barnes went on to win 249 senior caps between them.
They were coached by Ken Burton, who owned a sports shop in Kettering, where he set up the youth football Weetabix League which still survives and produced players including the Burnley manager Sean Dyche.
england qualified back in 1975 by beating Spain over two legs and topped the group by beating the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and Northern Ireland.
They won 3-1 in a semi-final against hungary with two goals from free-kicks by Chelsea fullback John Sparrow, and the final against Finland was goalless until Wilkins produced a chip for the ‘golden goal’ five minutes into extra-time.
‘None of us had even heard of a golden goal,’ confessed striker Tommy Langley — and UeFA’s next-goal-wins experiment was not the only new encounter. ‘It was the first time I’d seen apple juice,’ said Langley. ‘I’d had plenty of orange juice but never apple juice, that jumps out.
‘Switzerland was beautiful and we stayed in a hotel with good facilities on a lake.
‘I’m not sure who had the idea of the cream suits. Not the best. We must’ve been fashion icons.’
With three group games in five days, early signs of sports science appeared in the form of salt tablets which were handed out, and plunge pools which provided a source of comedy.
‘We were throwing each other into the freezing water,’ said Keith Bertschin, scorer of five goals in seven games in the competition.
‘I spent a lot of time with Glenn hoddle. We both had Vauxhall Vivas in the same colour, probably our starter cars. I was getting off the coach at White hart Lane a few years later and I saw him getting out of some flash car.
‘I said, “Still got the Viva, Glenn?” and he said, “Yeah, still got the Viva”. had he hell!
‘We had so much fun. But when we played, we played well.
‘Standards were set and most of those boys went on to have good careers in a very competitive world. It played a big part for me. Rubbing shoulders with the best made me a lot better.’
earlier in the year, they had won a mini-tournament in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, when england manager Don Revie and assistant Les Cocker turned up.
‘They came in at half-time, took off their jackets, rolled their sleeves up and started massaging our legs,’ said Bertschin. ‘We’re all looking at each other thinking, “These two are nuts”.
‘An old photo from that trip of Don Revie with his arm around me had pride of place at my mother’s house for many years,’ said Bertschin, then an Ipswich striker who coached on Steve Bruce’s backroom team for years and is now manager of Solihull Moors.
Langley scored twice in a 4-2 win against West Germany in Las Palmas. ‘I was unplayable that day, which was unusual,’ he said.
‘When we played Spain in the play- off, their coach couldn’t believe I wasn’t starting and there was this frenzy when I came on with coaches pointing at me.
‘They’d seen me in Las Palmas and were telling their players to watch me. No one listened because I went on and crossed the ball and we scored.’
It was Bertschin who applied the finish to Langley’s cross and he was on target again in the second leg, played in front of a big crowd at Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon.
‘ I’d forgotten my boots and borrowed a pair from my neighbour,’ said Bertschin. ‘They were two sizes too big and the lads were taking the p***, but Curbs put me through, I’ve gone round the keeper, hit it with my right foot, it’s clipped the near post, hit the far post and gone in.’
In Switzerland, the FA promised the players a night out if they won the group and Owen, in his memoir
A Man For All Seasons, told how they ended up in a strip bar. ‘The lads formed this sort of funnel, a guard of honour,’ said Owen. ‘So when the girls finished their act they had to run the gauntlet to get away. It was just a bit of fun to help them wind down. No harm was done.’
On another night out they invited the assistant manager of the hotel with them but he forgot the key and they had to find a ladder and climb back in through a first-floor window.
These stories are regaled when the old friends cross paths. Most are still in football. ‘The camaraderie survives,’ said Langley, who became a favourite at Stamford Bridge before leaving in 1980 for QPR, the first of 15 clubs in the next 12 years. he is now an agent and a pundit on Chelsea TV.
Steve Wicks was another Chelsea player. he ended up at Loftus Road where QPR fans sang: “Sixfoot two, eyes of blue, Stevie Wicks is after you”. he has coached in Malaysia and also joined QPR’s corporate hospitality team.
John Trewick was a fresh-faced lad in 1975 but did not go on to be
‘I spent time with Hoddle — we had Vauxhall Vivas in the same colour’
‘Don Revie came in, rolled up his sleeves and gave us a massage’
a great tourist. He was famed for saying, ‘When you’ve seen one wall you’ve seen ’em all’ during a West Bromwich tour of China.
Paul Bielby was a winger from Manchester United who was forced to retire because of an ankle injury at 23. He forged a career as an excutive in the food industry, while working to improve youth football in his native Darlington, for which he was awarded an MBE in 2008. ‘They had great ability and a positive attitude,’ said Bielby. ‘They were winners and I like to put myself down as a winner because I took those same qualities and transferred them into other areas.’
Coach Ken Burton died in 1985, aged 55, and two of his 16 players have also passed away.
Goalkeeper John Middleton was Nottingham Forest’s promotion goalkeeper in 1977 before being sold to Derby in part- exchange with Archie Gemmill to make way for Peter Shilton. He died last year at the age of 59. Dale Roberts was part of Ipswich’s Youth Cupwinning successes in 1973 and 1975. He returned to Portman Road on George Burley’s coaching staff but died in 2003 after a battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
They are not forgotten by their team- mates and are forever young with all to play for as they disembark the British Airways aircraft in London with their flares and silverware.