THE CLASS OF ‘ 92 STAR WHO WAS LEFT BEHIND -
Ben Thornley was set for greatness at Old Trafford in 1994, but a bad tackle brought him four years of struggle and a very different life to his former team-mates. Stewart Fisher reports
AT first, Ben Thornley was taken aback by the request. “I did a show for MUTV with Paddy Crerand and they asked me did I mind if they showed the tackle,” he recalls.
“It was the first time I had seen it since the court case. I remember him hitting me but all the build-up to it was a bit of a blur after 24 years. The technicians had had to dig deep into the archives to try to find it. Maybe surprisingly, it didn’t make me turn away and cringe, or stir any dark emotions. I think I have exorcised those demons now. Doing the book probably helped.”
Thornley was one of the stars of Manchester United’s Class of ’92, a quicksilver left winger who played alongside David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville as they beat Leeds in the 1992 FA Youth Cup final. He was rated at least as highly as Ryan Giggs in that summer of 1994, and compared favourably to even more exalted Old Trafford deities.
“Ben is the closest I’ve seen to George Best in all my time at the club,” Nobby Stiles was overheard saying at one Manchester United function when he in charge of the B team.
Even now, his contemporaries in that team rave about what he could do with a ball. He was a “step above all of us, he could do everything”, is Scholes’ assessment. Neville spoke movingly at Thornley’s book launch about “one of the most outstanding talents I ever played with”. “Ben would have outdone us all – that’s the sad part,” says former England captain Beckham.
That he never did go on to reach those heights was because of “that tackle”, a dreadful challenge – late and dan- gerous – by a veteran professional called Nicky Marker who, at the age of 28, should have known better. It occurred in the later stages of a reserveteam match against Blackburn Rovers and the circumstances surrounding it only make it more poignant.
The 18-year-old, who had already made his first-team debut under Alex Ferguson, was given the nod that he might be required for United’s forthcoming FA Cup semi-final against Oldham Athletic at Wembley and told that the reserve match against the Ewood Park side was the perfect chance to put himself in the frame.
Sixty minutes in, he remembers reserve-team coach Jimmy Ryan turning to him and asking him if he wanted to come off to keep something in his legs for the big game. He declined, but was soon to regret it. No sooner had he moved the ball on in the direction of Clayton Blackmore in the United midfield than Marker was going right through him.
The damage to his knee was total. His medial collateral ligament was completely ruptured, as was the medial capsule. Both cruciate ligaments were ruptured too and the medial meniscus detached with a tear in the hamstring attachment. RATHER than participate in the FA Cup semi-final, Thornley embarked upon four years of rehabilitation and attempts to get back into Ferguson’s first team. When it still hadn’t happened, he knocked on the manager’s door and both agreed it was time to move on, his career t aking him to Huddersfield, Stockport and Aberdeen before Blackpool.
The bond between the two men was only strengthened by a fiveyear civil suit which successfully secured a compensation pay-out for Thornley’s loss of earnings.
“He was in the stands at the time, Sir Alex, so he grabbed hold of my father because he knew I had gone down,” recalled Thornley. “Everyone inside the stadium and on the pitch had heard the sound of the impact. And he was adamant there was no way that the guy who did it at Blackburn Rovers should get away with such malicious treatment of one of his players. Because they were trialling TV coverage of reserve-team games, he was able to go ahead with that slightly more easily than he otherwise would have.
“And he stuck with me right the way through it. As you can imagine at Manchester United, I had the best possible legal team with me. The only disappointment was that it took so long. At 18 years of age, dealing with a very expensive court case wasn’t anything I ever envisaged being involved with. I see now that Sir Alex wanted the best for me should I never recover, to at least give me a financial platform to build the rest of my life elsewhere.
“There were all sorts of things that people don’t necessarily think of that Alex Ferguson took control of. He arranged the best possible treatment, I was at the best possible club for that, and when there were times where he could see mentally and physically it was becoming a bit much, he gave me time away to recharge my batteries.
“I would spend time with my family and my friends for a few days then come back ready to go hard at it again. That took me right up to 1998, when I went into his office and said ‘I think the time is right’. I think we both knew that it was time I moved on and tried to carve out my career again.
“Even then, there was a letter from Sir Alex, thanking me for my services, and saying how sorry he was that things didn’t work out the way they once looked like they might. And any time in the future I needed to call on him, I only needed to ask. His phone was always available.”
Unfortunately, the one testimony you won’t read in Thornley’s book Tackled is that of Ferguson – not unless you hold out for the paperback version. The two men had spoken about a contribution to the book on the very day Ferguson first began complaining of symptoms related to his recent brain haemorrhage, from which he has thankfully recovered.
No one was prouder than me at the Nou Camp in ’99. I know I could have been part of it but I am thrilled they have had the careers they have had
“I obviously knew about his illness and me more than most because I actually spoke to him on the day he was taken ill,” said Thornley, who now works for MUTV as a pundit. “I spoke to him at the Arsenal game last season to see if he would be good enough to contribute to the book. He was one of the last people I wanted to talk to. And he said ‘no problem, let me see how my diary is next week’.
“He duly did that, without any question. Due to his illness he wasn’t able to contribute but he has already said he will do something for the paperback book.” NO tinges of jealousy are apparent from Thornley when he considers what his youth-team contemporaries went on to achieve in the sport – a group which also includes the likes of Keith Gillespie and Robbie Savage, whose names were made elsewhere.
“No-one was prouder than me when I went to the Nou Camp in ’99 by what they went on to achieve. I know I could have been part of it but I am absolutely thrilled they went on to have the careers that they did have.”
Instead,Thornley’scareercontinued at a lower level, including two seasons under Ebbe Skovdahl at Pittodrie, the forerunner of a path which James Wilson is on as he attempts to rebuild his career after knee surgery. It was a period which gave Thornley a son, Lucas, though the relationship with his mother Claire did not last.
Having been a productive part of the Aberdeen team in his first season, things started to spiral into a destructive pattern of weekend drinking during the second campaign. He would have stayed at the club rather than leave for Blackpool had he known of Steve Paterson’s arrival sooner.
“By the time I got to Scotland, I had long since stopped worrying about people tackling me,” he said. “In fact it had gone full circle. By then, I actually wanted people to tackle me. Because if people were coming for me like that, I knew I was getting the better of them. I had learned at an early age how to see the tackle coming and get out of the way at the last minute. I just didn’t have a chance when it came to that Nicky Marker tackle.
“I went through a spell when I was out of the team at Aberdeen – although I still made sure from week to week that I didn’t give anybody, my manager or my team-mates, any reason to think that I wouldn’t still be professional at training,” he recalls. “And there’s no two ways about it, I did enjoy a night out.
“I only did it at the right times. I just did it more often than some. Without question, that is something that would have been a long way from my mind had I been considered and included in the squads that Aberdeen were playing. I knew from week to week that I wasn’t going to be.
“Instead of meeting up to travel to Kilmarnock or Glasgow or wherever, I had a weekend to myself and I went out because I didn’t want to sit on my own and there were always people who were willing and happy to oblige. In hindsight, I should have done things differently and I was disappointed with myself and almost resented myself.
“I met a girl in Aberdeen, it is up there that my son came from so I still loved my time there, especially my first season. The new management team of Duncan Shearer and Steve Paterson came in, they had been keeping a close eye on what was going on. But they were probably a week too late. They wanted me to stay but I had already agreed a pre-contract to join Blackpool from January 1. If I had had that information a week to 10 days earlier I would have stayed.” BY way of a coda, only once did Thornley come into contact with Marker again.
“I did play against him once afterwards, about 18 months later,” he said. “But I have never spoken to him. He played at centre-half, not rightback, we never came into contact and we never shook hands at the end.
“The only thing that disappointed me was that he never apologised. At least it would have salvaged a little bit of dignity for him and the club although I know the club made a formal apology to me. It wouldn’t have changed my circumstances, but at least it would have indicated that he knew that what he did was wrong. The fact that he didn’t suggests that he still doesn’t.”