Footballer and gentleman
Former England captain Ray Wilkins dies at 61
Last month, when Chelsea played Crystal Palace, Ray Wilkins was making his way to the seat he always occupied at the front of Stamford Bridge’s East Stand. As he passed the press box, he spotted his old Queens Park Rangers team-mate Paul Parker on radio duties. For most of us a quick wave and a thumbs-up might have sufficed as a greeting. But not for Wilkins. He piled across the desks, politely excusing himself as he went, and engaged in a long, substantial bear hug with his old chum.
But what was more remarkable was what happened next. It took him another 10 minutes to reach his seat as he posed for selfies and shook hands with ordinary Chelsea fans. That was Wilkins writ large: friendly, approachable, he was a man with time for everyone.
As it turned out, that was the last match he ever attended at his beloved Chelsea. And the tributes which poured in following his death at the age of 61 in St George’s Hospital, Tooting, were universal in their warmth. Never mind that he had secured 84 caps for his country, that he had been Chelsea’s youngest captain at the age of just 18, that he had gone on to play for clubs as celebrated as Manchester United, AC Milan, Paris Stgermain and Rangers, this was a football gentleman.
“A delightful man, it was a pleasure to have played alongside him with England. No team-mate was more supportive or helpful. I’ll be forever grateful,” said Gary Lineker. “He was such a charismatic character, great in the dressing room, great on the pitch,” added Terry Butcher. “It was an absolute pleasure and a real privilege to play with him.” While Peter Reid, who played alongside him for England, said: “He was an absolutely outstanding human being. His legacy would be ‘win, lose or draw, you’ve always got to have class’. And that’s what Ray Wilkins was.”
He could also play a bit.
And that was obvious from his earliest days. His Chelsea colleague Clive Walker remembers that he was head and shoulders above his contemporaries, a man while everyone else was still a boy. A brilliant technician, he could read the game with a natural ease. No wonder Chelsea made him captain when he was still a teenager. When, in later life, he was asked what it was he did as captain, Wilkins characteristically insisted that a good captain didn’t shout or chivvy. He should be kind, helpful, relentlessly supportive.
Colleagues remember Wilkins was all those things. Blessed not just with a wand of a right foot that could pick out a colleague at 50 yards, he was also implausibly good looking. But he was never swanky, never arrogant, always a team man. It was those qualities which Manchester United valued when Dave Sexton took him to Old Trafford in 1979. And he showed them in abundance for club and country: always calm, in control.
In 1981, Sexton left the club and was replaced by Ron Atkinson. The new manager made some derogatory comments about his inherited player’s enthusiasm for the sideways pass, christening him “The Crab”. But Wilkins was adamant that possession should never be squandered. And while capable of playing the most Hollywood of passes, he would rather be seen as dull than to relinquish the ball.
Wilkins did not hold it against his manager: he scored one of the finest goals ever seen in an FA Cup final for him in 1983, a scorching long-range shot against Brighton that he celebrated with an unfettered sprint to the corner flag. It was, Atkinson reckoned, the fastest he had ever seen him run.
But Atkinson now believes Wilkins was ahead of his time. “He’d have been an absolute superstar in today’s game,” the former manager told Radio Five Live. “Given a bit of protection from referees, on the pitches they have now, he’d have sprayed the ball around from deep, keeping possession, everything you want in the modern game.”
Lineker reckoned a mark of his quality was evident in the fact his next club was Milan, then at the top of the most sophisticated league in the world. Wilkins flourished in Serie A, his game perfectly suiting the Italian rhythms.
Indeed, the one blemish on his record is the most puzzling: he is now renowned as the first player ever to be sent off for England. It happened in the 1986 World Cup group game against Morocco, when he reacted over-vigorously to a pedantic referee. It was the most uncharacteristic moment of his career. But it demonstrated he was a competitor at heart.
After a fine spell at Rangers, he ended up at Loftus Road, where his wonderful passing underpinned an ambitious Queens Park Rangers team. But when he became player-manager, despite Atkinson’s belief that he was destined for a career in the dugout, he found himself on the wrong end of a relegation struggle.
From there, he worked in the media and had spells coaching. In later years drink took a toll on his health, and he had entered rehab just before his death.
But whoever he met, he was uniformly courteous, polite, kind. The broadcaster Colin Murray remembers interviewing him on his first day fronting BBC Radio Sports Report. He may have been assistant at Chelsea at the time, but when Murray muddled up his notes, Wilkins did not belittle him, he was unfailingly kind, suggesting they start the interview again when he had sorted himself out. That was Ray Wilkins: football’s presiding gentleman.
Obituary: News P27
“It was an honour to have you as a companion” Franco Baresi, ex-ac Milan
“I’ll always remember the humility that he had” Gareth Southgate
“He was my idol, my inspiration, my teammate” Andy Sinton, EX-QPR
“No teammate was more helpful and supportive” Gary Lineker
“He wanted football played the right way. He wanted to get it and pass it” Terry Butcher