HOME-GRO LADS WIL NEW MAD AND REAN

IT is 31 years since a 17year-old Neil Redfearn nervously laced up his boots and stepped out at Millmoor for his Bolton Wanderers debut. And though the midfielder would go on to make an incredible 790 Football League appearances, he’ll never forget that one – nor the defensive colossus who helped him through.

“Throughout your career, there are certain players who have a massive influence on you,” says the Leeds boss, now 49.

“I’ll always still remember my first game at Rotherham. We used to have a player called Mike Doyle, a former Man City and England centre-half who must have been 36 or 37 by then.

“He was so solid, so professional. He’d talk and organise. I remember looking back at Mike and thinking ‘We’re alright, we’ll get through this one’. When he played, I just felt better. Mike’s passed away now sadly, but I’ll never forget him.”

Ten years later, Redfearn would see the diminutive but driven Danny Wilson exert a similar influence on Barnsley.

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A free transfer from Ron Atkinson’s great Sheffield Wednesday side in 1993, the then 33-year-old transformed the Tykes from Second Division sloggers into a Premier League side within three years.

“Everybody knows what Danny did as manager of Barnsley,” said Redfearn. “But people forget he was a player-coach under Viv Anderson, then playermanager.

“For me, that time he spent on the pitch was when he was at the height of his powers and I think it’s what turned that side into winners. He had this big heart, this way of playing. He made people want the ball, made them believe.

“It was a difficult crowd of players at the time because Barnsley was going through a bit of a change and things weren’t quite happening on the pitch. The gates were down, money was short.

“He had this confidence and belief about him that was infectious. When he was on the pitch, everyone lifted their game.”

Later, of course, it would be Redfearn setting the examples. Whether it was his peerless fitness or bloody-minded will to win, the midfielder never let his standards drop, whether it was fending off Manchester United in the Premier League or slumming it at Scarborough in the Conference.

So combative was he, in fact, that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger once called Redfearn the dirtiest player in the Premier League.

“Ah, he was just bitter because they got beat!” laughs Refearn, who scored 181 goals from midfield during a career that took in 14 League clubs. “Listen, I competed. I battled. And if you do that then now and again you’re going to get booked.

“But let me tell you, there were much dirtier players at Arsenal. Patrick Vieira used to get sent off every other week – including that game for a challenge on me!”

Listening to Redfearn remi- nisce, it would be easy to look at today’s sensitive stars and pine for the days when men were men and players battled through two inches of mud.

Yet while he admits charismatic totems like Doyle and Wilson are thin on the ground, Redfearn says the demands of the modern game require a different sort of leader.

“A lot of older players will say ‘Oh the game’s not what it used to be, it was better when I played’,” he says.

“But listen, the game is better. Players are quicker, they’re more tactically aware. They’re fitter and more aware of their bodies. Everything has gone up a notch and it’s improving every year.

“Communications skills have changed. I remember when I was at Barnsley, Danny didn’t need to get involved. We used to sort things out in the dressing room before he even got there. That was the type of characters we had.

“Footballers are different now. It’s less about rolling your sleeves up and getting stuck in. It’s more about tactical responsibility – seeing a game and adapting to changes.

“That’s no bad thing because