Budgie: The Autobiography of Goalkeeping Legend John Burridge by John Burridge

Author:John Burridge
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Football, Soccer, Non-Fiction
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

FOXY COXY

‘Arthur Cox was in the central reservation, hopping mad and with a teapot in his hand, about to launch it at my car.’

For the first few weeks of the 1984/85 season I became more used to watching games than playing, but then I finally got a chance to escape from my financial stalemate at Wolves. Tommy Docherty was good friends with Arthur Cox at Derby County, and I got a call from Tommy saying Arthur was interested in taking me there on a loan deal. I agreed and thought it would be a good move to make, just to get playing again and put myself in the shop window.

Derby County were another club that had been in serious financial trouble, and they had been relegated to the Third Division in what was their centenary year. But Robert Maxwell had invested in them, and his son Ian was put in charge as chairman. I went over to see Arthur and he gave me the warmest of welcomes. He was an old-fashioned football man, and I loved his dedication. He showed me round the training ground – the Ram Arena – which was probably the best training ground I ever played on. Arthur was very clear in his vision for the club and was confident Derby County were going places. He explained to me that I was being brought in to help them with their promotion push. We started off the season very well. Derby still had some big players like Kenny Burns and John Robertson – veterans of Nottingham Forest’s championship and European Cup-winning team – and Arthur had brought in a lot of new faces he was going to mould into an exciting side. I played six games for them, most of which we won, but while I was there I got a call from Ian Porterfield, the manager of Sheffield United. I was about to have my head turned.

Sheffield United were potentially a massive club, and were going well under Ian in the Second Division, and the idea of moving to a big city club really appealed to me. So, after I had played the last game of my loan deal for Derby County against Hull City, I went in to see Arthur. He had been over the moon with how I’d done and I was the blue-eyed boy because we’d kept winning during my spell on loan. He recognised that I was controlling the defence and liked my input. But when I went in to see him and told him: ‘Arthur, Sheffield United want to see me on Monday,’ he replied ‘Don’t be silly son, you’re signing for us.’

It was a Saturday night when I spoke to Arthur, and I told him that I had arranged to meet Porterfield and the Sheffield United chairman Reg Brealey, who was pumping a lot of money into the club, in Nottingham on the Monday at two o’clock. ‘No, you can’t,’ Arthur told me, as if that was the end of the matter.

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