BLOND BOMBSHELL
Gary Shaw on Villa glory and the day Maradona wanted to swap shirts
Gary Shaw will get round to the time he was the only local lad in the aston Villa team who shocked Bayern Munich to win the European Cup.
he will revel in the night Diego Maradona asked for his shirt, and smile at the memory of being man-marked nearly to the toilets by Claudio Gentile.
he will also talk candidly about the serious health problems he suffered after contracting septicaemia in 2016. But before all that, as he settles down for lunch on a sun- kissed afternoon in Birmingham, he tells the riotous story of the day his boyhood club were crowned English champions.
Needing a point at highbury to secure the 1981 First Division title ahead of Ipswich on the final Saturday of the season, things did not exactly go according to plan.
‘Our preparation was absolutely s***,’ he says. Tone set. ‘we went down on the morning of the game but didn’t realise there was a rugby league final on at wembley. The M6 was chocca. we had to phone up for a police escort and go down the hard shoulder. we didn’t get to the ground until about half an hour before kick-off. and then all sorts of things were going on. Phil Collins was knocking on the dressing room door asking for Tony Morley’s shirt. I was a Genesis fan, I was gutted he didn’t ask me. “Do you want mine instead Phil, and you can sort us a freebie for a concert?”
‘Then when we’re doing our warm-up Pele is there jogging in between us waving to the fans. “F*** off Pele, we’re trying to concentrate on the game here!” Nightmare. ron Saunders was tucking into his remy Martin, passing it round the lads to “calm our nerves”. Calm our nerves? we were 2-0 down by half-time!’
Shaw tells his stories like he played the game, with maverick glee and, usually, a killer finish. In the Eighties, Shaw had a flash of blond hair, glamour model girlfriends, and lived the dream as a player for the club he supported during their most successful years, culminating in victory over Bayern in rotterdam 36 years ago.
Trent alexander-arnold has the chance to replicate the homegrown feat with Liverpool tonight on the day Villa try to reach the Premier League again, taking on Fulham in the Championship playoff final. Shaw will provide opinion on both subjects.
But first, that chaotic May day in 1981. at the break Ipswich were 1-0 up at Middlesbrough. ‘Our chins are on the floor, ron is going potty,’ Shaw recalls. But in the second period Boro scored twice and that was enough.
‘we only used 14 players that season. we had continuity. away from home our attitude was to keep it tight. Our manager would be more ecstatic at a 0-0 draw than a 3-2 win.’
ThE following year they were in the European Cup and Shaw remembers a ‘gimme’ first-round tie against Icelandic side Valur, and how in the second Jimmy rimmer’s fingertip save squeezed Villa past a ‘bloody good’ Dynamo Berlin side on away goals.
Not that Saunders would be around to see the quarter-finals. ‘ron resigned, cheers gaffer!’ Shaw says. Saunders’ shock decision coincided with the return to the club of Doug Ellis as owner and the absence of an improved contract. Villa promoted Tony Barton from his position as chief scout.
‘I thought he was the postman because he used to bring me all my Valentine’s cards!’ laughs Shaw. ‘No, he was a great talentspotter, bless him.’
The first leg of the last-eight at Dynamo Kiev was tight. ‘The hotel accommodation was awful — cockroaches in meals, no curtains, toilets weren’t working.’
Shaw scored the opener in the home game as Villa eased through 2-0. Then came anderlecht. Villa protected a 1-0 lead into the second leg in Belgium to reach the final, where the opponents were a Bayern side featuring Karl-heinz rummenigge and Paul Breitner.
‘wE wErE 10-1 with bookies,’ says Shaw. ‘I wish I’d have known that before the game! we were just there for the ride. They had world- class players and we had none recognised by the Fa coaching staff. what chance did we have?’
when rimmer went off with a neck injury on nine minutes, the odds looked even longer. Nigel Spink, a 23-year-old deputy with little senior experience, was thrust into action. Spink pulled off a number of saves and Villa struck through Peter withe in the 67th minute.
‘I put a great ball in to Tony Morley, he did his bit, and withy shinned it in off the post. I was first to the celebrations.’
Shaw had won the biggest club prize at the age of 21 and his performances earned him the Bravo award for outstanding young talent in Europe. The list of names that followed him is illustrious indeed: Marco van Basten, Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi. he gained further admirers when taking on Barcelona in the Super Cup at the Nou Camp. ‘Oh, El Diego?’ he says. ‘I didn’t even think I’d had a decent game, then at the dressing room there is all this commotion with bodyguards, or whoever Maradona had with him, and they were asking for my shirt to swap.
‘I’ve gone, “are you taking the p***? The best player in the world?” But I wasn’t allowed because of our Black Country flippin’ kit manager. “I’ll have to phone up for a new shirt”. For f*** sake it’s Diego Maradona!’
In the 1982-83 European Cup Villa were knocked out in the quarters by Juventus, with Gentile, the legendary Italian defender, manmarking Shaw. ‘ he wasn’t interested sted in the game, just stopping me. I swear if I’d gone to the toilet he’d have been at my side.’
GrOwING up in the Kingshurst area of Birmingham, Shaw honed his touch by kicking a ball against the wall of the Punchbowl pub for hours. ‘I worked on my weaker left foot, which proved very useful for finishing when I got older.’
he began his association with Villa as a supporter. ‘I’ve been to every Villa appearance at wembley since 1971,’ he says. ‘I saw them lose the League Cup to Spurs when I was 10. Broke my heart.’
Shaw was named the PFa young Player of the year in 1981 and rode the crest of a wave heading into the world Cup in 1982 but was overlooked by ron Greenwood.
‘To watch Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking go on the plane injured was tough. They were good players, but I’d just scored 24 goals, no penalties, and I’m sitting on a beach in Ibiza having a San Miguel. Then we got knocked out for not scoring enough. Now you only have to play a few games in the Premier League to get an England cap!’
IN aLL, Shaw scored 79 goals in 213 games for Villa but those statistics are warped by events against Nottingham Forest one Tuesday night in September 1983. ‘Kenny Swain brought me down, and as Ian Bowyer’s pulled me up something didn’t feel right,’ says Shaw. ‘I’ve carried on but my knee’s locked. No St John ambulance men around, I’ve had to hobble off. Next day they operated. really that was the end of my first-class career.’
Battling through numerous operations, Shaw would never again hit the same heights and left Villa in 1988, enjoying a nomadic postscript that included spells in Copenhagen and austria.
had he remained fit he would have gone abroad to more glamorous destinations. ‘I had phone calls from real Madrid, whispers of Juventus,’ he says. ‘I’d have loved to play in Italy.’
NOw 57, Shaw can go untroubled through the concourse at the stadium he once sent into raptures.
‘The blond hair has gone and I limp now.’ he is talking about his chronic knee problems. ‘I’ve had too many ops, I wouldn’t even know the number.’ he often gets injections to relieve fluid and his struggle became serious in august 2016. ‘I was walking down the stairs and tweaked my knee.’
his physio did some work on it but the swelling came back six weeks later. a steroid was administered istered bu but danger struck. ‘I woke up in the m middle of the night. It had explode exploded. Throbbing, red hot, it was g going all down my leg. I thou thought, “I’m in trouble her here”. I phoned my physio. he said, “Get yourself down to a&E, quickly”.’ Doctors at the Queen Elizabeth ac acted with speed.
‘They put all the antibiotics ic into me straight away. I was wa in hospital for six weeks and an had two ops to try to get the infection out. I lost two stone. They were monitoring toring it every day. If that travels els up fr from my knee to my main organs, it’s it’ lights out, isn’t it? Septicaemia ticaemia is i the silent killer. It took me about three months to recover. I had to shower with crutches. Then it was a walking stick.’
Shaw is moving unaided now but slowly. he is pleased alexanderarnold has the chance to emulate his feat by becoming a homegrown European champion tonight. ‘It is nice to have that in this day and age, when the game has changed so much,’ Shaw says.
his beloved Villa are also in action today, but he won’t continue his streak of seeing them at wembley. Instead he is hosting a night at a pub in Stourbridge with ex-Villa team-mate Mark walters.
at least now he won’t have to contend with the M6. Or Phil Collins.
‘I’ve had so many ops on my knee. I wouldn’t even know the number’