by Ciggy » Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:08 am
Jewell still a kopite.
The first result I look for after a Wigan game is always Liverpool's. My dad was a fan and when I was a young kid he used to take me to watch the reserves a lot on the Saturday afternoons when the first team were playing away.
The first 'proper' game I attended was West Ham at home. I went in the Boys Pen and we won 1-0. The older I got the more regular I used to go and I remember collecting lemonade bottles and getting the money back off them just so I could go across to Birkenhead for a League Cup tie against Tranmere. I would travel all over the country to watch Liverpool, mainly on the special trains they used to run back then. There was a lot of trouble in those days and many times I just used to sneak off to the match without telling my mum or dad.
To be spotted by Liverpool while playing for my school De La Salle was a dream come true. I was like a kid with a new toy. When I went to bed at night I couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning and get into training. I loved it so much I used to go training on Tuesday and Thursday nights as well with the schoolboys. I was only 16 or 17 and they were the happiest times of my life. I didn’t have a care in the world. I felt like the luckiest kid in the world going to work, although my dad didn’t call it work; he used to call it playing out!
The likes of John Benninson, Ronnie Moran and the rest of the coaching staff at that time have all had a big influence on me. They were so humble and kept the game very simple, which is very hard to do, as I’ve discovered myself since becoming a manager.
Jewell on life as an LFC apprentice
To be spotted by Liverpool while playing for my school De La Salle was a dream come true. I was like a kid with a new toy. When I went to bed at night I couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning and get into training. I loved it so much I used to go training on Tuesday and Thursday nights as well with the schoolboys. I was only 16 or 17 and they were the happiest times of my life. I didn't have a care in the world. I felt like the luckiest kid in the world going to work, although my dad didn't call it work; he used to call it playing out!
Certain things were expected of you but you’d never be told what. They just expected you to know. ‘Work it out for yourself’, was their philosophy. They didn’t want players to run with the ball. They wanted it moving quickly and simply. If you look at old videos of the first team from that era you won’t see any fancy tricks from them. They were all intelligent players who put the team before themselves. Unselfish running was what Liverpool used to preach at this time. Give the ball and go. Pass and move. I think we all try to complicate football too much these days, talking about systems and formations but it means nothing. The game is all about players and getting the best out of them.
The training has probably changed a bit now but I was there for four years and I didn’t see anyone practise a free-kick or a corner. The first team was full of good players and the secret was that Ronnie, Joe, Bob and Roy knew how to handle them.
Saying that, everyday was intense and by that I mean Liverpool was a club that would always test you, without you even knowing it. It was sink or swim and you were very rarely praised. If you got a ‘well done’ off Ronnie Moran you’d run home and tell your dad about it!
I played in the A and B teams then made my debut for the reserves when I was 16, which was a big thing. I don’t know what our team was in full but big Oggy was in goal, Ronnie Whelan played, Colin Russell, Avi Cohen, Sheeds (Kevin Sheedy), Fairclough and Craig Johnston. There were plenty of good players in the Liverpool reserve team that I was part of. It was full of internationals and I know a lot of people used to say that team could have held its own in the Third or Fourth Division.
The fact I failed to progress to the first team was a source of huge disappointment for me at the time but I don't look back with any regrets. Maybe things would have been different had I played in another era, without the likes of Kenny and Rushie ahead of me, but to be fair I don’t know whether I was good enough to play for the Liverpool first team. If I had been good enough, Liverpool wouldn’t have let me go.
One player who should have made the grade though was my former reserve team-mate Tony Kelly. He was as good, if not better, than some of the players in the first team and should have played for Liverpool for a long time. Football-wise he had everything. The brains, confidence, great technical ability and, despite what some people thought, he could also run. He was a great lad but I think his lifestyle at the time let him down. If he'd have put his mind to it, he could have even played for England, that's how highly I rated him.
The closest I got to the first team being part of the squad that travelled to Bucharest for the 1984 European Cup semi-final against Dinamo. As it turned out I failed to make the bench but the memory of being in the dressing room after we'd just reached our fourth European Cup Final will live with me forever.
Another vivid memory is the first time I trained with the Liverpool first team. They were a man short and I was sent over to join them. I was shaking in my boots and the first thing I did was give the ball away. I got a right bollocking off Souness and Dalglish, and I never gave the ball away again after that. Things like that can eithermake or break you and in situations like that you had to shout for the ball again and not go hiding.
Jewell on being a Kopite
I’m not really into all the sentimental stuff that surrounds an ex-player returning to his former club but I must admit that but coming back to Anfield always means a great deal to me. One of the nicest things that has ever happened to me occurred when I returned with Bradford in 1999. My son was mascot and the Kop sang 'Paul Jewell is a Kopite'. They were right and that will always be the case.
There would be plenty of stick flying about at Liverpool back then and you just had to survive. It was a sink or swim mentality. I remember back in 1984 at the time of the miners strike some of the so-called superstars in the Liverpool team we’re having a go at the miners but even though I was just a kid I got involved and defended them. Them players had forgotten where they’d come from and I told them that. It’s just the way I am. If I feel strongly about something I have to say it.
When I look back on my time with Liverpool, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this, every single day was a pleasure. I couldn’t wait to go training. There used to be this oak panelling on the wall as you went through the door of the players’ entrance at Anfield and I can still smell it now. It was great. Just playing at Anfield was something I'll never forget and scoring a goal in front of the Kop, even though there was no-one in it, although that feeling did eventually wear off though because naturally you soon want to be doing it in front of a packed crowd.
It was my decision to leave. I remember having to go and see Peter Robinson to sign a form at Anfield on a Saturday morning then driving out of the car park, looking back and thinking ‘I’m never going to come back here for work again’. It was heartbreaking and really hit home to me what I was doing. It was a sad day for me but I had to move on to further my football career.
I’m not really into all the sentimental stuff that surrounds an ex-player returning to his former club but I must admit that but coming back to Anfield always means a great deal to me. One of the nicest things that has ever happened to me occurred when I returned with Bradford in 1999. My son was mascot and the Kop sang 'Paul Jewell is a Kopite'. They were right and that will always be the case.
There is no-one anywhere in the world at any stage who is any bigger or any better than this football club.
Kenny Dalglish 1/2/2011
REST IN PEACE PHIL, YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.