Bayern’s heart shows up treatment of Stiles
ASTORY of infinite sadness from Germany reveals something significant about the way football can give something back to those who have enriched it and given it a history.
Gerd Muller, ‘Der Bomber’, the man who scored nearly 400 goals for the club, is in the advanced stages of dementia but for as long as it was practical Bayern Munich, the club to which he gave the best years of his life, did what they could to help. For ten years, they saw to it that the old striker would be collected up from his home and taken to their Sabener Strasse training ground, where he would go through the old routines. His doctors had said that maintaining as normal a life as possible would help, so a daily sporting regime was established for him. ‘Bikes, gymnastics, physiotherapy. Friends would drop in,’ said a source in Munich.
Such depths of kindness have not been forthcoming from Manchester United for Nobby Stiles, who is four years older than Muller and has been living with dementia for longer. The Irish Mail on Sunday revealed last weekend that old DVDs, located by the 75year-old’s family, are bringing flickers of recognition from the former European Cup and World Cup winner. United’s only correspondence this year has been a letter inviting him to a dinner marking the achievements of the Class of ’92, whom he helped coach. It has been known for over a year that Stiles is now unable to walk.
The BBC’s Mark Lawrenson, first converted into a right back by Stiles within the early 1970s Preston North End youth setup, recalled the part the Mancunian had played in his own development and suggested that some of the Bayern spirit would not have gone amiss. ‘We don’t do enough for players like this,’ Lawrenson told the Irish Mail on Sunday. ‘Especially when you see the money that washes through the game.’
The distress felt by football families stems from the fact they are still years away from knowing whether there is a link between playing the game and the abundance of early on-set dementia among players of Stiles’ generation. ‘The authorities are frightened to death about confronting that,’ said Lawrenson. The FA have still not commissioned a scientific study, though they are expected to do so within months. A PFA study failed because many of the players it chose to monitor drifted out of the sport.
Chris Sutton, the former Blackburn and Celtic striker, whose 72-year-old father Mike — ex-Norwich City — is deteriorating in the same way, said the Stiles generation had been failed by a game with no appetite to investigate possible medical links.
‘A PFA study ended and we were told nothing about it,’ said Sutton. ‘I don’t think clubs necessarily have to take responsibility for their former players, though if it’s a player like Nobby Stiles and all he gave the game, well, wouldn’t you move mountains to do every last thing you could? My dad was a good player but if it’s football we’re talking about, I can’t put him and Nobby Stiles in the same sentence.’
The question of how clubs can and should help players is complicated, though. There is an entirely valid view among many in football that paying for the care of players such as Stiles is impossible — even for United, who last week revealed £80.8million operating profits for the financial year to June.
One former player said: ‘How far should the club go? If you cover the costs for a player, what about the staff? What about the cleaners? Their financial needs are probably greater. What about the players who were less successful in the game? There are thousands and thousands of ex-players in the game. Where do you stop?’ United say they have done all they can.
Those Stiles worked with in the years after his playing days describe a humanity which many feel demands reciprocal thoughtfulness now. ‘He had all those accomplishments as a player and when he came to work with the junior players at United, you knew he would love you to have something that he’d had,’ said Alan Tonge, a member of the Manchester United youth team Stiles worked with. ‘You get a lot of coaches who seem to be interested in launching their own careers. Nobby just wanted success for you. An unbelievable individual.’
Tonge describes Stiles’s capacity to make him feel ‘10 feet tall’, with praise after a United FA Youth Cup fifth round game at Ipswich. Lawrenson, a member of the Preston reserve team Stiles coached and played in after Bobby Charlton had arrived as first-team manager, felt there was more to him than powers of inspiration. ‘He had these tiny feet but was really comfortable on the ball,’ said Lawrenson. ‘And incredible upper body strength. He was our protector. I remember us going to Newcastle who had “Jinky” Jimmy Smith, who’d signed for £80,000. Nobby said: “Don’t get involved with him. If he needs sorting out, I’ll sort him out.” Nobby would never let me pass up his offer of a lift to Preston station after training, even though it put half an hour on his journey.’
Bob Wilson, the former Arsenal goalkeeper, was in the Manchester United youth ranks with Stiles, though did not join the club because his parents persuaded him to undertake an education at Loughborough College instead. ‘What an individual he was,’ said Wilson. ‘What a huge spirit, from the start.’
In Germany, they will tell you that Muller did not deliver half so much as Stiles after his playing days were done. He had his own battle to fight, with alcohol. It didn’t matter. It was at a Bayern training camp in Italy that it first became clear there was a problem, after Muller wandered off and was missing. When they found him, it was resolved that he was not about to become someone else’s problem.