The American dream goes on for Stevie Nicol -
From life on the dole in Ayr to playing for the European champions, Stevie Nicol has lived the dream. And not only in the UK, as a move to America saw the good times continue. Matthew Lindsay reports
STEVIE Nicol is sitting in the ESPN studios in Connecticut watching a Champions League match, and has a few minutes to chat before he goes on air. But how can you possibly talk about Nicol’s career in such a brief time? The former Liverpool and Scotland man has crammed rather a lot into the four decades he has been involved in football. Mercifully, he agrees to speak again a few days later.
It is probably no bad thing that the 54-year-old has finally decided to pen his autobiography, the intriguingly titled Five League Titles and a Packet of Crisps, given everything he has experienced in the game and the myriad successes he was a part of.
Having been the butt of many practical jokes during his early days at Liverpool, there is certainly no shortage of tales for Nicol to regale readers with in his new tome. His team-mate, Alan Hansen, once described him as being “the most un-streetwise professional footballer in Britain” after he was signed from Ayr United for £300,000 in 1981.
“I was a godsend for them,” he says. “They just wound me up for fun. Hansen used to wind me up about anything and everything. But the whole place was like that. Everybody was at it. But it was all done in the right way.”
Famously, Nicol once spent several hours sitting in his car at a motorway service station on a Sunday morning waiting to talk about a boot deal with a Puma representative who, mysteriously, never appeared.
It was perhaps no great surprise that, initially at least, he struggled to hold his own with the pranksters in the Anfield dressing room. After all, the 19-year-old had gone from signing on the dole in his native Troon to joining a club that had just won its third European Cup in four years with a victory over Real Madrid in Paris.
“I had a lot of jobs, but I was mainly unemployed,” Nicol says. “Ayr got me a job with a local construction company, but that only lasted about six months. But my dream was always to be a footballer, had been since I was a small boy. Fortunately for me, Liverpool came calling.
“Back then, that’s what Liverpool did. Transfer fees weren’t crazy in those days. They brought in young players with potential and developed them. It wouldn’t happen now. It probably won’t happen again.”
It took two years for Nicol to establish himself in the Liverpool first team. But during that time he was far from idle.
“Talk about an apprenticeship,” he says. “You just absorbed things. I sat on the bench taking it all in. It was a good grounding. You get sucked into a way of doing things and a way of thinking. It was like being in the Moonies.
“When Bob Paisley or any of the coaching staff at Liverpool spoke, you listened. He didn’t waste any words. There were no long speeches. But you became a sponge. You devoured any information that was given to you. You picked things up without realising.”
Nicol would go on to win the English title five times, the FA Cup on three occasions and the European Cup once, but he wasn’t the most celebrated member of the fabled Liverpool side. Indeed, the Scots who were his team-mates, Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and Graeme Souness, were far more revered. But he appreciates why.
“You can talk about what a great player Kenny was,” he says. “But actually, as a team-mate, as a manager, as a friend, he was unselfish. In every way you can think about.
“He would go out of his way to help you. Whether that was giving you a bit of advice or sticking the ball in the back of the net to earn you a win bonus.”
YET, the versatile two-footed player was certainly a considerable talent himself. When he was named Football Writers’ Player of the Year at the end of the 1998/99 campaign he had filled six positions in the Liverpool team.
Rather unfairly – for he won 27 caps and played in memorable wins over both France and Spain during his international career – Nicol is best remembered by Scotland supporters for the opportunity he failed to convert against Uruguay at Mexico 86.
With goalkeeper Fernando Alvez caught out of position and the net beckoning invitingly, he would almost certainly have scored if he had struck his shot with greater power. Alas, his effort was weak and easily saved. The national team drew an infamous game 0-0 and once again failed to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament.
However, Nicol bears no scars, at least not psychologically, from the experience. “To be honest, it never crosses my mind,” he says. “I don’t think about it. If it was the only thing that ever happened to me in my life then maybe I would be locked up somewhere, but I have had a lot of other things to think about.”
He reveals, though, that he played in all three games in those finals while injured. “I had a torn stomach muscle,” he says.
“I couldn’t train properly, but, at the end of the day, I was playing in the World Cup for my country. A wee bit of pain wasn’t going to stop me. But I missed the majority of the following season because of it. That really gave me a jolt. There were times when I thought I was never going to recover.”
Nicol was in the Liverpool team on Saturday, April 15, 1989, when they played Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough Stadium. The crush in the Leppings Lane Stand that day took the lives of 96 supporters. It remains the worst disaster in British sporting history. He welcomed the verdict of unlawful killing returned by an inquest this year.
“It is impossible to put into words how it feels,” he says. “The campaign for all those years was called ‘Justice for the 96’. If ever a word was appropriate, that was it. At the end of it all, justice was done, but that doesn’t make up for 96 people not being here.”
Nicol has been pleased to see the
resurgence Liverpool have enjoyed under Jurgen Klopp since the German succeeded Brendan Rodgers as manager last season. He believes they will be genuine contenders for the Premier League – if they can strengthen their porous defence.
“There seems to be a real drive and purpose back,” he says. “A front three of Coutinho, Mane and Sturridge, if he is fit, is pretty good. You have goals, dynamism, ability, everything. But I think it is pretty clear the problems they have with the back four. If Klopp can solve that problem then they are in business.”
CELTIC supporters have been energised by the appointment of Rodgers as manager and the Irishman has enjoyed an encouraging start to his tenure, in the league, if less so in the Champions League (though the team did at least qualify for the group stages for the first time in three years). You sense, though, that Nicol is not an admirer.
“Kl opp fits in at Liverpool perfectly ,” he says. “He’s not full of it. When he says something, he means it. He doesn’t try to kid or fool anybody. He is following in the mould of the good managers of the past. As a player, you want somebody who’s straight. The last few years? Talk about being fed nonsense. This guy doesn’t do that. He gives it to you straight.”
Having finished his playing career with the Boston Bulldogs, Nicol stayed in the United States and spent 10 seasons as manager of New England Revolution, a record for the MLS. Since then, he has moved into punditry with ESPN. It’s a long way from being out of work in Ayrshire.
“It’s fantastic. I sit and watch the best teams in the world and comment on it. It’s not all serious either. We have good banter on the show. It is good fun. And I get paid for it.”
I had a lot of jobs, but I was mainly unemployed. My dream was always to be a footballer, had been since I was a small boy. Fortunately for me, Liverpool came calling Talk about an apprenticeship. You got sucked into a way of doing things and a way of thinking. It was like being in the Moonies You can talk about what a great player Kenny was, but as a team-mate, as a manager, as a friend, he was unselfish Klopp fits in at Liverpool perfectly. He’s not full of it. He doesn’t try to fool anybody. He is following in the mould of the good managers of the past. The last few years? Talk about being fed nonsense