Tributes for former Ireland No2 Setters
MAURICE SETTERS 1936-2020
THE FAI’s farewell yesterday to the late Maurice Setters, who has died at 83, was far more respectful than their rough- shod attitude towards the former Ireland assistant manager 25 years ago.
After Jack Charlton re signed as manager in December 1995, following the Euro ’96 play-off loss to Holland at Anfield, the FAI blazers assumed Setters would head off quietly into the sunset with the former boss.
Only the teak-tough Devonian would have none of it. Within weeks of Charlton’s exit, he was at the FAI’s door in Dublin seeking clarification of his role as the Ireland No 2 and U21 manager.
After the FAI dared to stand up to Setters and showed him the door, Setters initiated a claim for unfair dismissal. It was a rash move.
When Big Jack breezed into Dublin to voice his support for his right-hand man at the employment appeals tribunal, the FAI sensibly caved in and settled.
It was evidence of Charlton’s unswerving loyalty to Setters, who rode shotgun at Sheffield Wednesday (197783), as chief scout with Newcastle United (1984-85) and for almost a decade with Ireland (1986-1995).
Through t heir j ourney together, Setters was fiercely protective of Charlton. The Irish players respected Setters, some feared him, but there was nothing like the affection they felt for Charlton. That didn’t bother Setters who, I suspect, secretly approved of the edge he brought to training and the dressing room.
Only Charlton was allowed to wind Setters up, which he did regularly. Setters would grin and bear it, aware of his debt to Charlton. As U21 manager, Setters had an undistinguished record, not helped by the fact that Charlton needed him around the senior team, who generally played the day after the 21s.
Once, in Latvia, Setters called out the team to play the next day. He listed ten players. When pressed for the missing name, he s ai d brusquely, ‘The boy, Jones’, and stormed off. Only there was no boy Jones.
Like most of us on the press beat, I kept my distance from Setters but every now and then, he’d stop growling and chat about his life in football, which was eventful.
A wrought-iron wing-halfwith West Brom in the late 1950s, he was selected in England’s provisional squad for the 1958 World Cup finals but didn’t make the cut.
He later signed for Matt Busby’s Manchester United, making almost 200 appearances and winning the FA Cup in 1963 alongside John Giles, Tony Dunne and Noel Cantwell. He was particularly close to Bobby Charlton, and was best man at his wedding in 1961.
Not short of an opinion, Setters fell out with Busby and was sold to Stoke City in November 1964, later playing for Coventry City and Charlton before retiring in 1970.
After they crossed paths at a coaching course in Lilleshall, Big Jack brought Setters back into football at Sheffield Wednesday in 1977.
Roy Keane felt Setters was only around to keep ‘Big Jack supplied in chewing gum’ but the No2 arguably didn’t get sufficient credit for his work with Ireland. For club and country, he covered Charlton’s back.
After battling Alzheimer’s disease, Setters died a few weeks short of his 84th birthday, and j ust over f our months after Charlton.
‘Players respected Setters and some feared him’