Tackles Like a Ferret by Paul Parker

Author:Paul Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paul parker, alex ferguson, manchester united, qpr, england, football biography, soccer
Publisher: Pitch Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
Published: 2013-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

United’s Double delight

NELSON MANDELA helped kick off the biggest season of my career. For no obvious reason, the South African hero and black icon was something of a Manchester United supporter and insisted on being in our team photo and knew the names of all our players when we began 1993/94 in buoyant mood on a pre-season jaunt.

We played Arsenal in Johannesburg and lost 1-0 and then drew 1-1 with South Africa’s big team, Kaiser Chiefs, in front of an incredible 65,000 near-hysterical fans, also in Johannesburg. Arsenal were also our opponents in the Charity Shield on 7th August and, for the first time in the competition, the match went to penalties. Roy Keane, our £3.75m signing from Nottingham Forest, made his senior debut and converted one of our spot-kicks. We won the penalties 5-4 after the match had ended 1-1 with Schmeichel easily saving a weak effort from his opposite number, David Seaman.

As usual when it came to penalty-taking, I was a long way down the list, crossing my fingers the fate of the shield would be decided before it was my turn. I was, therefore, a medal better off already and the season had not begun in earnest. Before it had ended, nine months later, I had added to it with a league winner’s medal and another for winning the FA Cup – and there was almost a fourth. Only our failure in the final of the League Cup prevented us completing a clean sweep of all the domestic trophies.

It was also my most productive year in terms of appearances for United and, at 29, I felt on top of the football world. Even Graham Taylor was obliged to recall me, on the weight of performances, to the England side, but in this game you can never take anything for granted. There was a problem in the shape of increasing pain in an ankle, but there was no way I could, or wanted, to rest it. Competition for places at United was predictably fierce, and because of the fear of losing my position, I was determined to get on to the pitch at all costs. As it was, only the dreaded cortisone got me out there, time after time.

The problem with cortisone is that it gives you a false sense of well-being. Properly administered, it gets you through a match but only afterwards, once the effects have worn off, does it become clear that the basic injury is not getting a chance to heal. There are lots of players of my generation and older who have limped into middle age, the worse for over-using cortisone. I don’t limp, but the damage is there. The ligaments in my ankle became badly over-stretched and the weakened foot is now inclined to collapse on me on an uneven surface. It needs to be strapped if I am involved in anything physical like playing veterans’ football. I told you earlier how my shoulder, so often dislocated but now repaired, also causes

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