Liverpool FC Forum

by **66-1112520797** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:18 am

Yeah I remember him. Good player he scored a cracker against us while he was at Sheffield Wednesday.

BTW I dont consider myself old.

by **66-1112520797** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:20 am

destro wrote:Who was the other Villa player, black guy with little dreads, fast as ?

Tony Daley.

by **112-1077774096** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:22 am

who was the balck player who went to spain and got killed in a car crash? i think he played for villa

by **66-1112520797** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:24 am

and robinson was always a bit chunky

Do you not think that might have something to do with the tight kits they wore back then.

by **66-1112520797** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:26 am

peewee wrote:who was the balck player who went to spain and got killed in a car crash? i think he played for villa

Laurie Cunningham

by **112-1077774096** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:57 am

yeah cunningham, it came back to me after i asked the question, cheers mate.

and robinsons shorts, i never looked at them as closely as you obvioulsy did

by **66-1112520797** » Tue May 22, 2007 7:13 am

peewee wrote:yeah cunningham, it came back to me after i asked the question, cheers mate.

and robinsons shorts, i never looked at them as closely as you obvioulsy did

I was on about his shirt if you must know.

by **CardinalRed** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:15 pm

Interesting read about Laurie Cunningham

Laurie Cunningham (8 March 1956 - 15 July 1989) was an England international association footballer, and was the first black player to represent England in a competitive match.

Born in St. Mary's Archway, London, Cunningham joined Leyton Orient after a start in schoolboy football. He joined West Bromwich Albion in 1977, where, under manager Johnny Giles, he teamed up with another black player, Cyrille Regis, and the following year (under Ron Atkinson) with Brendon Batson. This was the first time an English team simultaneously fielded three black players, and Cunningham, Batson and Regis became known as the Three Degrees.

West Bromwich Albion became one of the most attractive and exciting English sides in the late 1970s and Cunningham soon attracted attention. He became the first black player to wear an England shirt at any level[1]in England under-21s' friendly against Scotland at Bramall Lane on April 27, 1977, scoring on his debut. He subsequently earned six full England caps, making his debut against Wales in a Home International on 23 May 1979. Although Viv Anderson had made his England debut in a friendly six months previously and thus was the first black player to play for the senior England team, Cunningham was the first black player to play in a competitive England match.

In 1979, he made a historic move as the first British player to transfer to Real Madrid for £995,000 Though he never recaptured his early brilliance he was adored by the fans being labeled 'Black Flash'. His later career saw him increasingly distracted by off-field interests and, after leaving Real Madrid in 1983, he was loaned to Manchester United as well as having permanent spells with Sporting de Gijón of Spain, Olympique Marseille of France, England's Leicester City and Charleroi of Belgium. He returned to the English game with Wimbledon at the start of the 1987-88 season. Although he had limited first team chances, he made a substitute appearance in the famous 1988 FA Cup final win over Liverpool. Soon after that he was transferred to Rayo Vallecano in Spain.

On the morning of 15 July 1989, Laurie Cunningham was killed in a car crash in Madrid at the age of 33.

by **CardinalRed** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:17 pm

And one about Dalian Atkinson

Dalian Atkinson (born 21 March 1968 in Shrewsbury, England) is an English former footballer who played at centre-forward.

Atkinson is probably most famous for scoring a memorable solo run and superb finish against Wimbledon which won a BBC Match of the Day Goal of the Season competition. He is also famous with Aston Villa fans for scoring in the 1994 League Cup final against Manchester United. He has also played for Fenerbahçe, Real Sociedad, Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday.

Atkinson was one half of the D-men striker partnership at Aston Villa from 1992 to 1995 - the other half was Dean Saunders. The partnership was broken up that summer when both players were sold to Turkish clubs - Dean to Galatasaray and Atkinson to Fenerbahçe SK. But Atkinson failed to settle in Turkey and had loan spells with FC Metz and later Manchester City before leaving in 1997.

Atkinson was a frustrating player. With the strength of a bull, electric pace, good close control and an ability to improvise to spectacular effect, he should've enjoyed a more successful career and perhaps even an international one. However, an alledged lack of application on the training ground and a tendency to drift out of games meant that he never really fulfilled his rich potential.

In 1996, Shoot magazine jokingly claimed that Atkinson had been linked with Wanda Dalian in China before joining Fenerbahçe. This may have been true, but Shoot even said that Dalian had chosen their name after seeing Atkinson's score the goal of the 1992-93 season. They jokingly claimed that Dalian had considered changing their name to Matt after seeing a wonder goal by Matthew Le Tissier for Southampton during the 1994-95 season!

by **Sabre** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:21 pm

Cunningham was the pioneer of British football in my country, if I recall correctly. He was one of the first english men coming to Spain. He was not succesful.

The first succesful player I remember in Spain coming from the islands was Gary Lineker, which I guess is not very popular for you but was a hell of striker. Mark Hugues though, failed blatantly in Spain.

Aldo was succesful, Atkinson wasn't due to not being constant, but had an offer from Atletico Madrid. Kevin Richardson just was unimpressive. But I rated the player.

I agree those who say Robinson was a bit chunky and not good enough for Liverpool, but he was definitely good enough for Osasuna. Sammy Lee did a good work in Osasuna aswell.

Since then, english players are not that rare, or Irish for that matter, and players like Samways in Las Palmas, Harte in Levante, and many others play in first and second divisions.

David Beckham, and Owen were succesful due to their quality, and Mcmanaman, a not skilled player, was succesful at some extent due to hard work.

English players have the reputation of being good professionals.

by **account deleted by request** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:47 pm

Mcmanaman, a not skilled player, was succesful at some extent due to hard work.

You obviously never saw him before his bad injury. He was one of the best carriers of the ball in England, tore Sunderland apart in the first half of "Souness's" FA cup final, then did the same again to Bolton in the League cup final. At his peak he was as good as Giggs, a great passer who hardly ever lost the ball. Fowler acknowledges that a huge proportion of his goals were directly attributed to McManaman. Lacking only a decent shot or cross he could cut inside and create goals for others with his great vision and skill. In the FA cup final against the Mancs Ferguson paid him the compliment of assigning Roy Keane to man mark him.

He also scored this goal away to Celtic goal v celtic

more McManaman

A truly great player who tarnished his rep by leaving on a bosman.

by **Sabre** » Tue May 22, 2007 6:12 pm

s@int wrote:
Mcmanaman, a not skilled player, was succesful at some extent due to hard work.

You obviously never saw him before his bad injury. He was one of the best carriers of the ball in England, tore Sunderland apart in the first half of "Souness's" FA cup final, then did the same again to Bolton in the League cup final. At his peak he was as good as Giggs, a great passer who hardly ever lost the ball. Fowler acknowledges that a huge proportion of his goals were directly attributed to McManaman. Lacking only a decent shot or cross he could cut inside and create goals for others with his great vision and skill. In the FA cup final against the Mancs Ferguson paid him the compliment of assigning Roy Keane to man mark him.

He also scored this goal away to Celtic goal v celtic

more McManaman

A truly great player who tarnished his rep by leaving on a bosman.

Of course I saw him playing, while I didn't know Atkinson and those players because they came from Villa, I did know McManaman.

But there are attributes that once you get them, like dribling, and ball control, they hardly change, and in this sense, sorry, McManaman was a not skillful player. Not in liverpool, not in madrid. Pace? yes. Hardly lost a ball? true -- he was very aware in the games and was a great professional.

Great vision and skill? definitely not. Not at least for the Spanish standards. But did I like the player? of course I did, a lot!

A great player? of course, otherwise he wouldn't have had a place in Real Madrid and convince their coachs to have minutes in a squad full of galacticos. I'm saying only he had not the quality of other english players like Beckham and Owen

by **account deleted by request** » Tue May 22, 2007 6:19 pm

I don't want to get in another argument, I don't agree lets leave it at that.

by **Sabre** » Tue May 22, 2007 6:25 pm

Yes, the best thing you can do.

It's normal to disagree about how we see players, S@int, not only because we come from different countries, and different ways to see football, it happens aswell between supporters of the same club that sits together in Anfield. For you Morientes is probably not good enough, for me is class. That's different views, that's all, and there's no point in arguing too much about tastes.

Some will appreciate more some players than others. I appreciated Steve McManaman a lot, and I clapped him in my ground cos he was a red, and defended him against my friends who said he was a poor player. But I just don't appreciate him because of his vision or overall skill.

P.S. Nice videos, it was a while since I didn't watch those goals. Very good player.

by **account deleted by request** » Tue May 22, 2007 6:28 pm

Macca made his Liverpool bow on the 15th December '90 in the 2-0 league win over Sheffield United at Anfield and scored his first ever professional goal the following season on the 21st August 1991 in the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City at Maine Road, McManaman's 75th minute turned out to be just a consolation as team-mate Dean Saunders failed to gain a draw with an 82nd minute penalty miss.

In his first full season as a professional, McManaman partnered both Saunders and Ian Rush during the 1991-92 season, scoring several crucial goals as Liverpool made their way to the 1992 FA Cup Final, in which he created the opening goal for Michael Thomas with a typical mazy dribble at Wembley Stadium. McManaman solidified his reputation in the next few years as one half of the English game's two best young wingers— along with Manchester United's Ryan Giggs. In 1995, McManaman gave a virtuoso performance as he scored both goals in a man of the match display in the 2-1 Coca-Cola League Cup Final victory over Bolton Wanderers.

By 1997, as one of the most exciting prospects in the game, McManaman was linked to many top rival clubs including FC Barcelona and Juventus F.C.. The former even made an official bid of £12.5m. Liverpool accepted citing the risk of McManaman allowing his contract to expire and leaving on a Bosman ruling transfer for nothing, but the deal fell through and the player's excessive wage demands were blamed for the collapse. At this time he was considered one of the top ten midfielders in European Football and had become the playmaker of the Liverpool team, causing some rival Premiership sides to come up with tactics exclusively to curtail his influence, with Middlesbrough coach at the time, Bryan Robson, saying that "everyone in the Premiership knows that if you stop McManaman, you stop Liverpool".

However, what started out as positive affirmation of their talents turned into derogatorily labelling for McManaman and his teammates. A combination of fame and notorious lad culture excesses emerged, and fused with underachievement on the pitch, set critics pouncing. Liverpool were beaten by Alex Ferguson's Man Utd in the 1996 FA Cup Final, in a game where the team arrived to inspect the pitch in cream coloured Armani suits during the Pre-Cup Final reception. McManaman, Jamie Redknapp, David James, Jason McAteer, Stan Collymore and Robbie Fowler were reported to have cashed in on their new found fame, fashionable shaggy hair (Macca's nickname being 'Shaggy'), and good looks as stars of the nascent FA Premier League, exploiting their fame with modelling contracts and deals with fashion labels like Top Man, Hugo Boss and Armani, culminating in their collective nickname: 'The Spice Boys'.

Labels aside, McManaman was also criticised for scoring too few goals, although he did more than make up for it with his incredible rate of assists that included a bountiful supply line for the likes of Robbie Fowler and later, Michael Owen. Moreover, the few goals McManaman did score tended to be spectacular or memorable - most notably an injury time solo dribble past Celtic F.C. in the UEFA Cup, Macca picked the ball up deep inside his own half, headed down the right leaving defenders in his wake, he then started to cut inside and drove towards the Bhoys goal, he then, after a 75 yard run, slotted home with aplomb just inside the Celtic penalty area, a truly outstanding goal.

Although clearly talented, McManaman and the Liverpool team failed to replace their bitter rivals, Man Utd as England's No.1 club of the 1990s. That failure meant inevitable changes at the club, and in November 1998, Liverpool appointed Gérard Houllier as the new manager. McManaman seized the opportunity to "pursue a desire to test himself abroad", after he admitted receiving advice from Paul Gascoigne, Paul Ince and Chris Waddle, who in his words in an interview on ESPN in 2004, "spoke very highly of it". It still baffles many Liverpool fans why the player priced himself out of a move to Barcelona to simply leave on a Bosman two years later. Many saw it as a sign of his arrogance and self belief that he was bigger than the club, as the club had tried hard over the last two years of his contract to persuade him to stay, and some fans felt he had betrayed the club, labelling him a "Judas" character . Twelve months later Gerard Houllier turned down the opportunity to re-sign the player. It is widely accepted amongst Liverpool fans that McManaman's departure was one of the major reasons he was never as widely admired in latter years, nor accorded Liverpool legend status, with McManaman becoming a victim of his own foresight.

On 5th September 2006, Steve McManaman was named #22 in Liverpoolfc.tv's "100 Players Who Shook The Kop" list.

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