The Diary

22 October 2004: It's The Regis And Godden Show!

Two days since I last posted, but I haven?t been idle, oh dearie me no. On Tuesday, I had the dubious pleasure of meeting an otorhinolaryngologist. That?s medical-speak for an ear, nose and throat doctor to you, squire. A bloody huge gobful for a specialism that covers disorders of the gob, among other things. And I?m still puzzled as to why I had to visit someone qualified in these matters, when the damn lump?s at the back of my neck, and therefore not really covered by the job description. Another thought ? what subtle influences combine to guide an aspiring medic into this somewhat polysyllabic field? I can just picture it now: young child earnestly imploring dubious Mum and Dad, ?Can I be an otorhinolaryngologist when I grow up? Oh, go on, please, Dad ? PLEEEEAAASE!? Whatever the motivating factor, I?ll bet you anything these guys don?t let on what they do for a living after they?ve sunk a few medicinal G and T?s at the golf club; sober, the handle?s damn difficult to pronounce, even at the best of times. Drunk, dead or otherwise, and you?ve got no chance, sunshine.

Returning to the matter in hand, my ?lump?, I?m very pleased to announce that after he had a good gander at the offending protuberance situated just below my right earlobe and on the uppermost part of my neck, the ENT doc at Dudley Road Hospital agreed: ?yep ? it?s got to go?. The annoying bit was they couldn?t shift it for me under local anaesthetic on the spot - it?s what?s known in medical circles as a ?sebaceous cyst?, aka a bloody (but harmless) nuisance, a bit like Bobby Gould, if you like - but they?ve kindly put me on the list for an op in about six weeks, provided the NHS plays ball, that is. It should be a one- day job, with a slight possibility of an overnight stay, so it won?t impinge too much on my Albion-watching. I?ll be well rid, though, because of late, it has become, literally, a pain in the neck; just like Albion with Fabian de Freitas, I?ll be mightily pleased when it?s finally banished from my life for good.

One way or another, it hasn?t been a particularly auspicious week for me and my poor little body. Last night, we were at a sofa place quite close to St. Andrews (yes, we?re still looking!), and somehow, despite the fact there were ?mind the step? notices plastered everywhere you looked on the upper floor, I managed to trip up in spectacular fashion. Before you ask, yes, it did hurt, and bloody painful it was, too. My language was pretty spectacular, according to my other half. Not that I noticed, I was still too busy trying to get over the shock of the fall. No real damage done, though; mind you, I?ve now got a giant-sized lump on my right kneecap, rapidly turning just about every colour you can think of, and it hurts like crazy every time I go upstairs. Look on the bright side ? firstly, at least I?ve now discovered I don?t suffer from osteoporosis, and moving on logically from my initial observation, secondly, it could have been much, much worse. Imagine breaking my leg and having to spend time in a hospital ward populated by Bluenoses? Quite.

Tonight?s events were much more pleasurable (unless you like pain as a hobby, of course!) and centred around the Royal Inn, Sutton Coldfield, where Cyrille Regis and former Baggies keeper Tony Godden were the invited guests. Cyrille, as we all know, is still operating as an agent, while Tony, formerly of Peterbrough, now runs a goalkeeping academy for 9-16 year olds in Cambridgeshire; it says much for the prestige of his establishment that four of his lads are on the books of Premiership clubs. Additionally, he?s still a specialist goalkeeping coach with Chelsea, so he keeps rather busy these days.

As always at Sutton, there was a good turnout; Fraser Allan, their chair, couldn?t get the ?big? room tonight ? there was some pop group or another using it ? so we had to make do with its bijou relation instead, but it wasn?t too much of a hardship, even if some did have to perch themselves in some very awkward places indeed. The meeting kicked off slightly late, hardly surprising Tony Godden had to come all the way from Peterborough ? a sod of a journey at the best of times, even assuming perfect weather conditions, which it wasn?t ? so the delay was understandable.

The session then commenced with a question to Cyrille about how frustrating it had been to be in three Cup semis and not go ?all the way? so to speak. Cyrille, unsurprisingly, thought it was very frustrating, especially in 1978. He thought Big Ron?s Wembley stunt had a lot to do with the defeat; Bobby Robson, the then Ipswich manager, used that as the basis of a very clever pre-match pep-talk which meant the whole thing backfired in spectacular fashion, of course.

Tottenham and QPR in 1982? That was sheer misfortune ? at the time, we weren?t playing very well. According to Cyrille, we were a cup side rather than one proficient in the bread and butter League stuff that year; the sad thing was, we couldn?t overcome the final hurdle and get to Wembley.

Tony Godden then butted in by saying Ron Atkinson was the best man-manager he?d had at the club. He was responsible for bringing in good motivational coaches like Colin Addision. And apropos of the present incumbent? Tony thought Meggo had done a tremendous job for the club, but wherever he went, there always seemed to be problems with the board or the chairman, but you couldn?t knock him for what he?d done for the club. Cyrille then expanded on this by saying Megson had done well getting the club into the Prem twice, but seemed unable to progress to the next level, managerially speaking. He was critical of some aspects of our gaffer?s style, saying you couldn?t rule by fear, which was what our leader seemed to be doing. You had a ?machine? costing, maybe, half a million to run, metaphorically speaking, and the present style wasn?t working; a change of style was needed.

In the Championship, the football, he felt, was functional, but things were different in the Prem. You had to play with the ball, and keep the ball. To be successful, it needed craft and precision, and for this, the players had to have freedom to do their thing.To get to the next level, actually staying there, you had to have players that could do that. You also needed offensive capability, but what our manager did, he?d done in a functional way. Cyrille reckoned it was an ugly game, not very good to look at. (Interesting to hear, later, his comments about the last game he attended, Hereford versus Wycombe. ?Marvellous! Football as it should be played!?)

Tony was then asked if supporters had got on his back because of the almighty clanger he dropped versus Liverpool ,and, more specifically, at the feet of Kenny Dalglish. He said he always got on well with the supporters and whilst with the club won the Player Of The Year award more often than not. Not long after the aforementioned incident, he was handed the award, along with a wing-mirror, and a little note saying ?Look behind you!?

In response to an enquiry from the floor about Jason Roberts, his nephew, Cyrille said that he was having a good time at Wigan, and enjoying his football, now. They?d got a certain style of play which suited him, and a fundamental difference was that players had much more say in how things were done at that club. Jason had a good partnership with Nathan Ellington, and it looked very much as though they?d be playing Premiership football next season. A manager was very much the captain of a ship, and got players to suit the tactics. The way Albion play was not a creative game. At Wigan, there was a lot more freedom about the structure, and there was no fear about it. Incidentally, apropos of the Jason Roberts injury saga, Gary Megson still won?t talk to Cyrille following the bust up they had over radically differing opinions about the best treatment option to take!

At that point, Tony Godden interjected by saying that when Johnny Giles was at the club, they passed the ball far more; that was the Albion way. That philosophy continued with Ronne Allen, also Ron Atkinson. As the club progressed, they had more gifted players ? but they still passed and played the ball to feet. As Cyrille added, it was our tradition at the Albion then, but it was, still, primarily a passing game at this level. He saw it as a balance between getting a better class of player, and getting them to perform to the desired standard. Cyrille then went on to say that he thought Megson was trying to change the style of play at the club, but getting sufficient time to do that was another matter altogether.

Tony then pointed out the fact it was pretty hard to play passing football in the lower sphere, and continue to do it over forty-odd games. You could play ?proper? football at that level, but not to the same extent as in the Prem. Cyrille then pointed out those teams that had got out of that league by doing precisely that ? Fulham, Pompey, Norwich, Wolves (spit!), and Bolton. Albion needed to build upon what they had already to stay in the top flight; to do that, you really needed to have a passing philosophy. It was easier to play that way getting out of the lower league, then you didn?t have to alter the style too drastically once you?d done it.

Would they like to be playing now? Cyrille said ?definitely?. You only had to look at the grounds, the pristine pitches, the current stadium set-ups, the players, the tactics, the techniques ? now was a great time to be playing football. Pitches these days were superb; then you had three months of mud more or less. The only negative, Cyrille said, was the relative lack of a private life these days. Tony chipped in by opining that in their day, players were more of a team off the park than they are now. Then, they?d stay after the final whistle, and have a few drinks in the bar, that sort of thing. These days, come the end of the game, they get changed and they?re gone.

Would professional referees improve the game? Cyrille thought that it would. He said refereeing was a hard job, and footballers were no angels, sometimes. Were Premiership referees becoming too pally with certain players, then? Cyrille didn?t think that it was necessarily a bad thing; it was a way of getting to know the players better. Tony chipped in with the observation that in their day, with the old refs, you could have a bit of benter and a laugh on the pitch. Now, they?re adjudicated on constantly, watched, rated for performance, so the scope for that sort of thing wasn?t there any more. In their day, referees used to talk to players before and after games, the latter, more than not, over a drink in the bar ? now, it was much harder to establish a mutual rapport. Cyrille pointed out that there was much more money in the game these days. A wrong decision on the part of the man in black could cost a Premiership side literally millions. Managers could lose their job, even, should an adverse decision affect an important game. Arsenal, for example, made ?60 million last season, and they were a perfect case in point.

Did being a good player make for becoming a good manager? It didn?t equate, according to Cyrille. A love of the game helped, though. Coaching a reserve side, say, there were a lot of factors mitigating against you, all bound up with the demands of the first team. Cyrille did mention former Baggies youth coach John Trewick, saying what a good job he did when at the club, and on little in the way of resources.

Tony was then asked whether he thought there was too much money in the game. Yes, was the answer; in the Prem, the amount of money thrown around was ridiculous. It tended to put pressure on people right through the club. And there was the contentious matter of ticket prices. Yes, the rumoured ?45 to watch Blues, for example, was too much, but it was a financial fact of life you had to charge that sort of money to balance the books. As Tony said, the problem was, it was market forces. Football was primarily an entertainment. Sky want to make a profit on the back of football. They?d educated a lot of people regarding tactics and so forth, so it wasn?t all bad, but the bottom line was the commercial one. To get the players, you had to pay the money via various commercial opportunities, and so forth. In response to those at the meeting who were angry at the thought of shelling out the sum previously mentioned for the Blues game, Cyrille thought that if it carried on, there was a strong possibility a good many supporters would be lost to the game.

Tony added to that by saying all this had been achieved at the expense of lower division clubs. Take Peterborough, for example. They had to put on a game when most other clubs had put theirs off because of the World Cup qualifiers because they needed the dosh very badly indeed; in fact, there was a strong possibility of them going out of business completely if things didn?t improve. That was the problem; everything was now geared up to the Prem.

Cyrille also pointed out that in contrast to when he played, the tendency now was for managers to want the finished product, rather than nurture youngsters in the reserves for a period of months and sometimes years. This meant that now, players couldn?t learn their trade in the stiffs. How many Premiership managers would splash the cash for young players these days? No chance. Following on from that Tony later made the observation that managers were under so much pressure to succeed these days. This meant the kids weren?t given sufficient chance to have a go themselves because of this reliance on a ?ready made? product, and this was something he didn?t agree with. Cyrille thought their argument ran along the lies of? well, we?ve brought on a young player for a long time and with the outlay, say, of some ?2 million, and he?s done nothing, so we might as well go out and get a foreigner instead?.

The conversation then turned to big Ron Atkinson. Was he really a racist, as per the recent accusation made following some intemperate remarks made, as he?d thought, off-air? Cyrille was quite emphatic about the reply. No, he was certainly no racist. What you?d categorise him as, though, he didn?t know. Sure, as an Albion manager, he?d have rucks with players and so forth, but fundamentally, he was OK. He could only state what he?d seen with his own eyes over thirty years; as far as he was concerned, it was just jocular banter. The true definition, according to Cyrille, was ?powered prejudice?, an attitude of mind that went deeper than chance remarks, which was what they were talking about here. It was a very tricky subject, and by the nature of the beast, hard to talk about, but he didn?t think Big Ron was of that ilk.

Did racism affect his game, then? Cyrille said it did at first, but you quickly learned to be positive about it. If you got insulted, during a game, you just ran harder. At the Albion, there was no prejudice among players whatsoever, although it was reputedly a problem at some clubs at the time. You could have a laugh and a joke with the other players, and turn the negatives into positives. Score goals, win the game; that was the answer, really. As Tony said, it bonded the team, primarily because they were such a close-knot bunch. If anyone had saod something to Cyrille about his racial characteristics, then one or more of the other players would have most certainly said something to the offender.

Thoughts about Laurie Cunningham, then? Tony Godden? Quality. Cyrille? Beautiful to watch, he had pace, style and grace. The tragedy was he only reached 45 per cent of his potential because of injury. His main regret was that Albion hadn?t kept him, along with Len Cantello, Gary Owen, and so forth.

Had Tony been back to see Albion play? The first time he ever went back to watch a game after leaving, during Ron Saunders?s time as manager, the club embarrassed him in public by refusing to give him a ticket, but things are a little better now. As far as our present custodian, Russell Hoult was concerned, he thought that there were aspects of his game that could be improved with coaching, but on the whole, he thought Russell was a pretty good keeper.

On to less savoury aspects of the game, then. Could more regular drink and drugs testing at the club have helped a certain player? Tony Godden responded by saying it wouldn?t surpise him if Albion hadn?t done that extensively already. When he was with Derby, then a Premiership outfit, the players were tested for those types of substance approximately every six weeks. The idea was to monitor fitness levels, apparently. Cyrille also pointed out that social drugs, so called, had always been around. The difference now was that if you chose to take such things these day?s, you?d get caught, end of story. The only difference was, it was more alcohol in his day. A lot of problems around drugs were caused because of pressures on young players. Because of their financial status, they had a certain lifestyle, and it came with the territory, so to speak. In his day, when Cyrille first started there were pressures even then. Despite popular opinion, football was most certainly not a part-time job, and an extremely pressurised one at that. There weren?t many occupations where other people wanted your job and were fighting to get it, and while you worked, you had around 45,000 people watching and commenting on how well you did it.

Tony added to that by saying when he as a player, there was much more time off, but now, it?s different. Even he?d gone three months without a break, such were the pressured of the game. He further pointed out that in contrast to his playing days, it was not at all unusual to find players turning up at the training ground as early as eight in the morning, going to the gym or having specialised coaching, extra fitness sessions, and so forth. And staying over once the formal session had finished. It couldn?t be described as a ?part-time? occupation any longer, not with those hours. When footballers got time off these days, they had it because they literally needed a rest. Cyrille said that players needed another spare-time interest, really; sure, thy do get advice, but they didn?t always take it; it was a human thing, really.

Wayne Rooney? Cyrille thought the lad had everything necessary to succeed in the game. Dedication, application, character, the lot, and this would eventually shut up his many detractors. Given time, he?d become a great player, both for club and country.

The next one was chucked at Tony. Did he specifically coach keepers to avoid injuries in situations like diving for an awkward ball, or lunging at the feet of strikers, for example? The reply was on the lines of when he used to play, not much attention was paid to that sort of thing, but these days, yes, keepers were coached to dive the correct way. When he played things were largely down to ability and agility, but the art of goalkeeping?s taught on a much more technical basis now. And did referees ever comment when he pulled off, say, a good save during Tony?s playing days? They might say ?well done? or similar in such circumstances, but as he said earlier, refs were much friendlier with players than they are now.

And what about our most recent signing, Robert Earnshaw? As Cyrille said, around 90 per cent of all strikes are made by other people. If the chances weren?t made for you, you wouldn?t score goals, no matter how good you were. It was a pressurised job because of you missed, then you?d get the crowd on your back. And, if your team-mates weren?t creating the chances, you?d struggle now matter how good you were. Having said that, putting the blue and white shirt on paid the mortgage, but it was the best feeling in the world. The highlight of his career was walking out at Wembley for Coventry. The 5-3 at Man United and so forth were highlights also, but constantly mindful of the fact you were mentally carrying the community on your shoulders, you had to be mentally strong. Public criticism could be painful, but it came with the territory, really.

Cyrille said that in retrospect, leaving Albion was a bad decision on his part. By then, the side had lost consistency and confidence and when Coventry came in for him, he went. The problem was, though, there, he didn?t have the players around him to make the goals, so he became a creator, rather than a goalscorer.

And there you have it. Well, most of it - I can't write all that quickly, and it's not exactly dictation speed you're delaing with, here. As per usual, afterwards, there was the obligatory munching of the sarnies, plus the draw. And a quick natter with the two guests, of course. Appropriately enough, two Albion publications about that late Seventies side were the prizes, and I?m sure the winners will be delighted with their unexpected acquisitions. It only remained to take the obligatory picture of The Fart with Tony Godden ? he?s already ?done? Cyrille more than once ? then take our leave. Incidentally, what with our ancient co-editor?s passion for getting celeb shots on these occasions, it doesn?t half remind me of the character in Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy? who makes it his life?s work to go to every planet in the known universe, insult someone, then tick off the victim?s name on a clip-board to indicate he?s ?done? that particular person; a bit like real ale enthusiasts ?collecting? pubs, if you like!

And finally?..One. Tonight, I was let into a little secret by Mandy?s (Sutton Branch secretary) mum tonight. She knows Tommy Gaardsoe personally ? apparently, he walks his dogs when Mandy?s mum is walking hers. ?A lovely quiet chap,? she told me, ?Which is why I couldn?t believe all these stories about the so-called fight on the bus after the Liverpool game!? Ah well, you know what they say, gal, the quietest ones are the worst!

Two. Heard another heartwarming tale about all-round ?good egg? Big Dave tonight. Unfortunately, the subject-matter is something about which I can?t go into detail, not without getting him into bother, that is, but suffice to say, our ginormous defender is now, more than ever before, Top Man at the club as far as I?m concerned!

 - Glynis Wright

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