POWER FAILURE!
Ex-City captain Paul Power had a superb career but cannot shake pain of defeat by Spurs in 1981
Dear me, Gerry Gow — that’d be a sending- off today but he’s only being spoken to,’ says Paul Power with a chuckle as his former Manchester City team- mate mows down Tottenham Hotspur’s Ossie ardiles.
We are sitting in the lounge of Power’s home in south- west France and on the TV screen, a DVD is showing the 1981 Fa Cup final. It was the 100th final and the best-remembered of all 156 previous encounters between the two clubs who will meet in tonight’s all-english Champions League quarter-final. But don’t expect Power to reminisce fondly about ricky Villa’s slaloming winning strike for Spurs.
‘ ray ranson should have got the tackle in on Tony Galvin on the line before he was allowed to play the ball inside,’ he says ruefully. ‘ Or they should have got tight with Villa outside the box.
‘Once he’d come into the box, they couldn’t do anything. Steve MacKenzie scored a great goal but nobody talks about it because Villa’s goal outshone everything.’
The moustache may be grey these days but that defeat still smarts. Power, City’s captain and left-mid-fielder back then, can be forgiven his look back in anguish. That final, which John Bond’s side lost 3-2 in a replay after leading 2-1, represented his best chance of silverware with the club he represented 445 times. The Quadruple is firmly on for the current City side but they were different times back then, with glory harder to come by.
‘It’s the closest I got,’ adds Power. ‘We played in the Full Members’ Cup final as well against Chelsea and we got beaten 5-4. David Speedie scored a hat- trick for them. We actually won the League Cup final in 1976 against Newcastle but I was injured for that.’
Power also tasted relegation as City skipper in an era which began the trophy drought only ended by the club’s abu Dhabi takeover.
‘I never liked that banner saying, ‘‘34 years and we’re still here’’. The supporters stuck by the team through thin and thinner over the years. Now they’re getting good times to enjoy and I’m enjoying them, too.’
In Power’s case from afar, following his relocation to the village of Cruscades, near Carcassonne, after the loss of his job as a coach in City’s academy six years ago.
‘I didn’t want to retire and do nothing so we decided to have a gite business,’ explains the 65-year- old. Visitors to the holiday cottage adjoining his home find ready reminders of his lifelong affiliation — from the City collar worn by his Brittany spaniel Lucca to the motif of a blue-breasted robin beside the front door.
‘The French for robin red breast is rouge gorge but I couldn’t have red so the cottage had to be la gorge bleue,’ he grins. In his home, a black-and-white photo at the top of the spiral staircase captures him firing the free-kick that beat Ipswich Town in the 1981 semi-final to set up that Wembley meeting with Spurs. It was a final for which, unlike now, City were underdogs.
‘They had more star names than us,’ he says of the Tottenham of Glenn Hoddle, ardiles and Villa. ‘We had a young and local side — Joe Corrigan, Dave Bennett, Nicky reid and myself were from Manchester. ray ranson was from St Helens, Tommy Caton from Huyton.
‘We’d given everything in the first game. The second game was a bridge too far. We didn’t get as close to their skilful players.’
But it’s not City’s skilful players he sees as the difference between the two teams now.
‘ Spurs have good enough players to create chances and Harry Kane’s always a threat, but City have got quality defenders to be able to combat that whereas a couple of seasons ago that wasn’t the case. We look much more solid at the back since aymeric Laporte came in — he adds a little bit of pace so if the ball’s played over the top he’s as quick as the
strikers.’ IN a dining-room cabinet, Power still has the light blue Paddington Bear figurine he received for that 1981 Wembley appearance. It wasn’t the only perk. ‘I got £300 for wearing adidas boots, which wasn’t the norm as it was usually only international players who got a contract.’ a different world and, as the DVD underlines, a different game — and not just for the sight of City manager John Bond with a cigar hanging from his lips. ‘ It’s kick forward, lose it, then win it back — there’s no playing through midfield,’ says Power. ‘ It’s frantic. and look how disorganised the team was.’ Power was in City’s first team from 1975-86 before leaving for everton where, at 32, he won the title under Howard Kendall.
‘I never knew how to defend as a unit until I went to everton — about squeezing up and pressing and holding a line,’ he admits.
Life was never dull at Maine road — not with men like Malcolm allison, Bond and Peter Swales around.
‘ Malcolm was fantastic at improving players. I was only young, straight out of university (where he did a law degree) and he used to take me out and get me hitting long diagonal balls.
‘He introduced fitness training regimes, weights. He banned fizzy drinks but also introduced a diet that you couldn’t possibly eat. It was about 3,000 calories — a full cooked breakfast, lunch at the club, afternoon tea with scones and cream, an evening meal and a snack before bed.’
It was Bond who led City to the Cup final.
‘I liked him. He was a bit flash — always wore expensive suits, gold necklaces, rings, watch — but he knew how to boost players’ egos and get them to play.’
With chairman Swales, there was a different dynamic. ‘I was captain of his club and I spoke to him twice. I remember buying a Sharp music centre and a friend of Corrigan worked for a company called Telebank and he could get it to me on Christmas morning. The chairman had given me a quote for £50 more because he used to sell electrical equipment in altrincham and he couldn’t deliver until after Christmas. So I bought it off Telebank. He gave me a bollocking for buying a product off one of his competitors.’
For Openshaw- born Power, the only disappointing element when he surveys today’s City is the fact ‘Phil Foden is the only local lad who’s likely to get in the team. It’s difficult for Manchester lads to get into either of the Manchester teams.’
During his long spell as academy coach, it was Power who was sent to visit Foden’s parents to secure their son’s commitment.
‘everybody was wanting to sign Phil — he was the best eight-yearold in the north-west. They were a blue family so it wasn’t a difficult job. He had a tremendous left foot and saw things before they happened. He’d play one touch.’
Power remains proud of his work alongside then academy director Jim Cassell in bringing through players like Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Daniel Sturridge while playing matches on pitches borrowed from Whalley range High School.
‘We used to have to drag the goals over before the game and take them away afterwards. The facilities in the new academy are unbelievable.
‘My son, Nicky, works there now, so I go back quite often and you could be jealous but I’m not the jealous type. I look at Neil Young, who was my hero when I watched City. He finished up as a milkman but he was far more talented than I was and here’s me living in the south of France.’