‘Beattie the closest England had to Maldini’
Ipswich legend, who has died at 64, carried the hopes of a generation, as Jim White explains
For those of a certain age, the news that Kevin Beattie has died will be greeted with disbelief. Because, for a whole generation of English football fans, the Ipswich Town defender was regarded not simply as a gifted prospect. For a time in the mid-seventies, he was the man who was going to change the game. He was the future.
Quick, brave and resourceful, as comfortable passing the ball as he was resolute in the tackle, when he emerged as the centrepiece of Bobby Robson’s superb Ipswich side, he looked as if he might alone lift English football out of its backwoods doldrums. The closest thing we have ever had to an English Paolo Maldini, when he was declared the PFA’S inaugural young player of the year in 1974, everyone agreed: the future looked bright with Beattie at the back.
His international debut as a 21-year-old in 1975 was so mature and accomplished it confirmed what had become the widespread insistence: Beattie was the answer to all our defensive needs.
Despite his long association with Ipswich, he was born in Carlisle and was first noticed as a boy by Liverpool. But when he turned up for a trial on Merseyside and there was nobody to meet him at Lime Street station, he caught the first train home.
Robson proved far more assiduous in his courting of the young prospect and persuaded him to sign for Ipswich. Bill Shankly, the Liverpool manager, would later describe it as the biggest miss of his career. Beattie returned Robson’s kindness, sticking with Ipswich despite courting from more sizeable clubs.
Sadly, injury curtailed all the hopes invested in him. Almost every time he was called up to national duty, a chronic problem with his knee would intervene. It meant easily the most gifted defender of his era was restricted to just nine international caps.
His club career was stalled, too: he played 296 times for Ipswich. After missing countless games, including the 1981 Uefa Cup final, he was finally obliged to retire at the age of just 28. Several aborted comebacks with non-league clubs ended in disappointment. Arriving so much earlier than he anticipated, retirement was not easy. Without the financial cushioning that today’s top players enjoy, he was never secure. Unable to work because he was obliged to care for his wife, who had multiple sclerosis, eventually he found himself on the wrong side of the law. In 2012, he was convicted after admitting to taking payment for work on BBC Radio Suffolk while claiming benefits.
Ultimately he resolved the issue and continued to supply his punditry to the broadcaster. Indeed, he was working for BBC Suffolk last Saturday, on the day Ipswich lost at Hull City. As they learnt from him of a defeat which rooted their club to the bottom of the Championship, how the listeners must have wished he was still able to pull on a blue shirt.
The sad truth is, everything seemed to end sooner than it should have done for Kevin Beattie. Now that he has died at the age of just 64, in Suffolk the sense of loss will be particularly acute.
Although he was not local, he was long ago absorbed into Ipswich’s fabric, regarded as not just one of their own, but the finest there has ever been. The minute’s applause in his memory before tomorrow night’s home fixture with Brentford will ring loud and long.