You Can Have Chips by Steve Wignall

Author:Steve Wignall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: football, soccer, liverpool, scousers, anfield, wag, jumpers, goalposts, goal, golagolagolagolagolagolagola, world cup, aldershot, doncaster, vuvuzela
ISBN: 9781907792199
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2010
Published: 2010-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Our product had been on show to a huge audience, who could see how far we had come in a very short space of time. The players had attained good standards now and there was no turning back. They had shown their supporters and me what they were capable of. Anything below that would not be good enough.

Promotion was within our grasp by now and I had got to know the individual players quite well. Some of them had come right out of their shells and some had stayed pretty much as they were when they had joined us. The likes of Shaun May and Steve Harris were still quite reserved, whereas Mark Butler and Steve Stairs were lively in the dressing room. Ozzie was more confident in his role as skipper and, as for Tony Calvert, what a character he was! For me, he was rather like Gascoigne. He even looked a little like him. I think that I spoke to him on the telephone more than anybody. He was forever calling me to tell me he couldn’t make training for one ridiculous reason or another. Most of the time it was just a windup and he would be at the session as usual. I already knew that he had a reputation as a practical joker, as Bakes had primed me early doors. The problem was that you couldn’t always read his frame of mind or tell what the next prank might be.

On one occasion, he apparently went to his young daughter’s sports day at her private school. His wife Jo had suggested that he didn’t attend, for her own good reasons I’m sure! However, Tony had reassured her that he would be on his best behaviour. Everything was progressing nicely on a peaceful sunny afternoon until Tony took it into his head to go up behind one of the lady teachers organising the kids’ races and pull her shorts down around her ankles in front of everyone! Needless to say, the Calverts left shortly afterwards, Tony wasn’t just an instinctive player, he also had an instinct for doing outrageous things!

In training one night he arrived a minute or so late without his trainers. This was a problem because we were doing a road run that evening. If there wasn’t a midweek game we would do a two-mile-plus run around the Army base and back to the ground. I had already set the lads off when Tony came dashing out of the dressing room wearing a pair of Wellingtons! As usual I thought: what the hell is he up to now? He flew past me saying, “These will do, no trainers!” He was yards behind the rest of the lads but I just let him go. Some 15 minutes later the boys started to arrive back with the usual ones up front and who should be among the leading pack but Tony! Even in a pair of wellies he had managed to beat most of the others in a high paced road race.

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