Den head over heels with boss
DENNIS TUEART says he would still be running around Wembley now after scoring one of the famous stadium’s greatest goals if Manchester City team-mate Asa Hartford hadn’t stopped him.
Without fail every time the League Cup Final comes around, his spectacular overhead kick in the 1976 final will get an airing.
It’s now 45 years since the winning goal against Newcastle United – the club which left him heartbroken after calling time on his Toon dream at the age of 15.
Memories will come flooding back for Tueart, who went on to become a Manchester City director, when he watches Pep Guardiola’s side this afternoon against Spurs.
A self-confessed Guardiola disciple, he would have loved to have played for him – and the feeling you imagine would be mutual.
“Pep seems to give his players freedom in the last third of the pitch,” he said. “City are rigid at the back and keep possession.
“One of the best pieces of advice came from our manager at the time, Tony Book, who said to me, ‘Start wide and go where you can cause some trouble’.
“That to me is what I needed and obviously Pep encourages his players to do similar.”
And with the likes of Tueart, Hartford, Peter Barnes and Colin Bell, sadly injured in the 1975-76 League Cup run, City shared Guardiola’s current beliefs.
And the cup-winning overhead kick from a player deemed good enough to replace Pele in the New York Cosmos team epitomised the freedom Book instilled.
Tueart (below) said: “Willie Donachie flung a big high ball to the far post where Tommy Booth got his head on it as I raced towards the penalty spot.
“I’d had this conversation with Denis Law when I first signed for Manchester City about goalscoring. He said, ‘Get in the box, you know where the goal is, and just get some sort of contact on the ball’. That was in the back of my mind. So I just took off and connected with an overhead kick. To pull it off at Wembley was incredible.”