I enjoyed mixing more and more with the first-team guys and it was great to be involved with them. They made me feel a part of it and never patronised me. It was another part of my education to see the working functions of a dressing room, from the nerves and excitement five minutes before kick-off to the tactical instructions at half-time and the rollickings or smiles at full-time.
One incident will never leave me, from one of my first games with the first team when I was just seventeen. Our central defender big Brian ‘Buff’ Martin had an absolute nightmare first half in a game. The strikers tore him to pieces. Big Eck went off his head at half-time. Buff was having none of it and, with a serious voice and straight face, he told the Boss, ‘It’s not my fault. Listen, I’ve told you before it takes me half an hour to get going in a game because my calves are so big.’ Big Eck was speechless.
I made my European debut away to MYPA 47 in August 1995. I was seventeen. It was amazing. All my pals got tickets for the MYPA game. They were from Finland and we were expected to beat them, but they beat us 3–1 at Fir Park in the first leg. We had an uphill task but there was belief we could do it. We scored two goals through Alex Burns and Dougie Arnott to make it 3–3 but we still needed another goal. I came on for the last twelve minutes. Paul Lambert played me in and I struck a shot from twenty yards and it hit off a post. The BBC radio commentary claimed the ball had gone in. Now, the game wasn’t on telly and BBC Radio Scotland was the only way of keeping tabs on our game. My dad was tuned in back home, listening to the game in my bedroom. When the commentator said I’d scored he jumped up and down on my bed in celebration – so much so, he broke my bed! But it was all for nothing. We went out on the away goals rule and we were devastated. MYPA were managed by Harri Kampman, who would later succeed Big Eck as Motherwell manager.
Dougie Arnott said to me after the MYPA game that I was unlucky not to score but told me to stick in. I played a few reserve games with Dougie and he pulled me aside after a few games and told me to go in and see the gaffer and tell him I was ready to play in the first team. I shit myself and didn’t have the confidence to chap Big Eck’s door. Looking back, I see where Dougie was coming from.
I continued to chip away at the first team and my big break came on 31 January 1998. I came off the bench with twelve minutes to go and scored two goals in a 6–2 win over Hibs at Fir Park. We were 2–0 down early doors but goals from Arnott, Mickey Weir and Eric Garcin got us 3–2 up at the interval. I then came on and within three minutes made it 4–2 when I received a pass from Tommy Coyne, dribbled past Shaun Dennis and then shot past Chris Reid. Tommy Coyne made it 5–2 and in the last minute I got our final goal of the afternoon when I headed home a Kevin Christie cross. The pitch was a bit damp and the ball was gleaming. It was dark, under the floodlights and I loved the nice, clean glaze on the grass at the time of year. My big brother Gregor and his wife Joanne were there and I waved up to them after my goals. Naturally, they were delighted for me. I felt amazing.
After the game Andy Watson told me the press wanted to interview me. Back then you were thrown into a room and told to get on with it. There was no media training, no advice on how to answer an awkward question without saying too much but talking a lot. I had no idea what was involved and what I was walking into. I was really nervous. I sat in the dressing room sweating. I was preparing a script in my head and decided I was going to go into the press room and not take any questions. All I was going to say was, ‘Every dog has its day and today was my day’ – and then bolt out. Thankfully, I never said it. I’d have got ripped apart.
It was actually just a one-to-one interview I had to do instead of being put in front of a few journalists. I was to be interviewed by Thomas Jordan of the Evening Times. Stevie Woods had told me that Thomas was a good guy and that I should not have been worried. Stevie was right. In fact, I don’t know who was more nervous – me or young Jordan! But I was very shy. It was my first ever interview.
Later that night the game was shown on Sportscene. I was delighted. Some guys my age – such as Barry Ferguson at Rangers – were still playing reserve football and here was I on the telly and scoring goals. I felt it totally vindicated my decision to join Motherwell. If I’d gone to St Johnstone I might have struggled to make it because I doubt the players and manager there would have been as good as what I’d had at Fir Park.
But I was dealt a blow a few weeks later when Big Eck resigned to take over at Hibs. Two days after we defeated Hibs 6–2, the Easter Road side sacked their manager, Jim Duffy. They were bottom of the league and heading towards relegation. They looked to Big Eck and that was not surprising. Hibs are a massive club and Big Eck had carved out an excellent reputation for himself at Fir Park, taking the club to second place in the league behind Rangers in his first full season. I knew I was going to miss him and wondered if my career would hit the skids. Big Eck was an amazing guy and a perfect boss for me.
He was replaced by Harri Kampman. Things wouldn’t be the same again.
4
FROM YTS TO WIGAN
I WAS disappointed when Alex McLeish left. He had faith in me and helped my progression from YTS player to the Motherwell first team in the SPL. But Alex had moved on to bigger and better things and I’m led to believe he had turned down offers in the past, one being to be part of Wim Jansen’s backroom staff at Celtic when he took over there in the summer of 1997. So, I did not grudge Alex his move to Hibs. I wished him well.
Harri Kampman was appointed on 25 February 1998 as McLeish’s replacement. In his first couple of meetings with the players Harri made it absolutely clear that he felt Scottish football wasn’t technical enough and that our players had too many bad habits and were set in our ways. He wanted to get rid of several of the players and bring his own men in. He also left the young players in no doubt that we wouldn’t be getting a sniff of first-team action. We’d have been as well packing up there and then and going on our summer holidays. Senior players’ noses were also put out of joint very quickly by Kampman. From very early on, I did not have any good vibes and felt it was all going to end in tears for him and the club.
He didn’t speak to me. I wasn’t in the first-team squad. That’s why I didn’t like him. He wasn’t willing to give me a fair crack of the whip.
Motherwell is a family club and is all about rearing its own. He wasn’t interested in that. He wanted to flood the place with foreign footballers, with a few of his targets being from his homeland in Finland.
One of the first things he changed was the eating habits of the players. He made immediate alterations to the dining room. He had all the salt and pepper shakers removed from the tables as he believed such things were not good for our diet. He said that all the players ate like animals and it was disgusting. He also said we ate ‘monster’ food. It was just one negative after another. The boys turned on him very quickly.
John Chapman and Bill Dickie ran the club at that time. They appointed Kampman and I suppose at that time it was fashionable to appoint a foreigner. All of a sudden Scotsmen weren’t good enough. Kampman had also been in charge of the MYPA 47 team that had knocked us out of the UEFA Cup a couple of years earlier. But his appointment was a huge error of judgement. He was not a good man-manager. He never spoke to me and did not enhance my career one little bit. If anything, I went back the way and my confidence was knocked for six. He never took me aside to teach me anything about the game. No pointers whatsoever. The young players kept getting pushed further and further away by him. It seemed as though we were non-existent.
Some of the senior players – led by John Philliben, Jim Griffin and Billy Davies – held a few meetings to try and keep the place calm, basically to stop there being a full-scale dressing-room revolt against Kampman. The senior guys were not impressed with the way the younger players such as myself were being treated by Kampman and they kept a close eye on things. On a couple of occasions they would pull one or two of us aside and tell us to be patient and not to do anything silly. They t
old us Kampman’s time would be coming to an end sooner rather than later. We just had to tough it out.
So, we had to bite our tongues and suffer his bull. Every meeting he had with the players he would mention Jari Litmanen and the fact he helped carve out that particular player’s career from his teenage years. There was no doubting Litmanen was a special talent and had a golden spell at Ajax, but Kampman seemed to live off of this. It became boring to listen to that chat after about the first fifty mentions. Indeed, after a few weeks the boys used to run a wee betting book to guess how many times he would mention Litmanen’s name during a meeting.
At the end of his first season he released some good players and strong characters such as Philliben, Tommy Coyne, Willie Falconer, Dougie Arnott, Shaun McSkimming and Brian Martin. My good pal Gary Gow was also released. It was sad to see those kind of guys depart and, in many ways, the heart and soul was ripped out of the club. Personally, it was a case of keeping my head down and trying to stay positive. I could easily have let it all get to me – and many times it very nearly did – but I was also determined that this guy was not going to ruin my good work from the previous three years and force me out and onto the scrapheap. One thing I kept reminding myself of was the little pep talk Alex McLeish had with me when I signed professional about being the guy on the telly and not the guy shouting at the telly. Alex would always say that football was a game full of opinions and that the world is full of people that talk about how they could have made the grade and excelled in the professional game but luck wasn’t on their side. Alex told me on several occasions to make my own luck by working hard. Although he was no longer my manager, Alex still had a real positive effect on me during the trying times under Kampman.
A bright light then appeared in the form of Brian McClair. He was one of the players brought in during the summer of 1998. Brian arrived from Manchester United. He’d had a magnificent career with Motherwell, Celtic and United. It was a real coup to get him back to Fir Park. Kampman also signed three Dutchmen – Michel Doesburg, Jan Michels and Rob Matthaei. Scottish players Greg Miller, Jered Stirling and James McGowan joined, as did veteran English defender Shaun Teale. Two of Kampman’s fellow countrymen arrived in the form of keeper Mikko Kavén and striker Kai Nyyssönen. On paper the wheeling and dealing might have looked good and whetted the fans’ appetite. Truth be told, there had been no improvement, not because of the players though. Pre-season results suggested that to be the case. We went to Finland and performances and results weren’t impressive. That was down to the manager.
I still wasn’t being given a fair crack at it. I was being given five minutes here and there – at best – off the bench. I was starting to think I wasn’t going to make the grade. I thought I was going to be driven out of the game by Kampman. At night I would sit and ponder what alternative employment was out there for me. Well, at least the sweetie shop was still operating! I was genuinely worried. I hadn’t made a good enough name for myself for teams to come in for me if it was made known I was available. At best, I thought I might get a decent part-time side, even then I only thought that would transpire if I went on trial first to prove myself. It all left me depressed, no doubt about it. It was a horrible feeling to have day-in and day-out. I used to enjoy going to my work but Kampman totally changed that. I hated my job and it screwed with my mind.
When I got really down – and it was often – I would try to console myself and lift myself by remembering the pep talk from Alex: ‘Be the guy on the telly, not the guy shouting at the telly.’ I would say that over and over again. It became my own little personal catchphrase. Billy Davies was also a great source of comfort to me. He told me to keep my head up. He was like that with everyone. He would go to all the lads in the dressing room in a bid to keep morale as positive as possible. Jim Griffin was always asking me how I was and he helped me through it all.
But I was finding it increasingly difficult to contain my anger towards Kampman. Sometimes I would be standing at the dressing-room door, close to the long corridor to the left-hand side. You could hear the footsteps walking along the corridor from the dressing room. So, whenever Kampman was making his way along, away from the direction of the dressing-room door, I would pop my head out and shout, ‘Ya fat bastard.’ He had no idea who was shouting at him. It was totally infantile behaviour on my part, but it was a tremendous source of comfort to me at the time!
We were bought over by John Boyle in August 1998. He arrived in spectacular style and promised to make the club great again. He had been involved in the holiday business for a number of years and, according to the media, had built up a personal fortune of tens and tens of millions of pounds. John struck me as being quite flamboyant and fond of the spotlight and media glare. He talked a great game but also delivered. For instance, he made the pricing more enticing for fans and cut the entry fee to £5 for a few games at Fir Park. It worked a treat. Almost 10,000 turned up for a home game against Dunfermline and then more than 11,000 came through the turnstiles for a game against Dundee United. Considering that game was also live on television, that was a truly remarkable attendance. Results were decent to start with but then we hit a bad spell for a few weeks. We lost 2–0 at home to Ayr United in the League Cup. Then we lost games to Hearts and Dundee. The fans weren’t happy and felt there wasn’t enough attacking football on display under Kampman.
Brian McClair must have been scratching his head at what was going on under Kampman. After coming from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, it may well have crossed his mind why on earth he had left Old Trafford. Brian was also good to me. He would pull me aside now and again after training and tell me to keep my head up and that I had the ability to do well in the game. I was grateful then for that and still am now. He also offered me sound and solid advice when the club wanted to give me a new contract.
McClair was brilliant. I recall one time sitting next to him on the plane on the way back from pre-season in Finland to Glasgow. He read a book for most of the journey and didn’t say a word to me. He was dry and gave the impression of being introverted, although, I have to stress, I did not think he was being ignorant. It was just his way. I was staring at him, in awe, really. He put his book down and as we made our approach to land he eventually looked at me. I said, ‘You okay?’ half sarcastically. He started to laugh. We then spoke for a few minutes and he must have regretted it. I must have rattled a hundred questions at him, from what were David Beckham and Eric Cantona like as footballers and people to how many sugars Sir Alex Ferguson took in his tea. I also thought he was a multi-millionaire many times over and asked him if he owned a boat and a private jet. His ears must have been nipping by the end of it, but he opened up and I sat with my jaw wide open listening to his insight into life at Manchester United. He must have taken a bit of a shine to me because I used to take him home after training and he also got me a signed Beckham shirt, which I still have to this day. I also had a copy of Brian’s book and he signed it for me.
A bit later, he left to go back to Manchester United as their reserve team manager. I caught up with him a couple of times down there when I played for Wigan. It was great to be in his company again. Brian was good for my career. He played in the middle of the park for Motherwell and was good at keeping the game flowing, using his head while letting others use their legs.
There was excellent news on 15 October 1998 when Kampman was sacked by John Boyle. He won just five out of his twenty-one games in charge. It was the right decision to dismiss him. Most of the lads were delighted when Kampman was shown the door. Good riddance.
The word in the dressing room after Kampman was sacked was that Boyle offered the job to McClair, but McClair had rejected it because he didn’t want to be a manager at first-team level. He was close to Billy Davies and there was a suggestion that McClair recommended that the job be given to Billy. And right enough, next thing Billy was made manager. It was the appointment of Billy Davies that took my career on to a new level. After the dark days unde
r Kampman, I felt refreshed and optimistic when Billy was put in charge. I knew he liked me as a person and seemed to think I had the ability to make a worthwhile contribution to Motherwell Football Club. So, it was up to me to get my head right again and make my mark.
Very early in his tenure Billy pulled me aside for a one-to-one to say he knew I had the ability to play as a central midfielder, the way I had under Alex, but he thought that my future in the game was at centre-forward. He told me he liked the way I held the ball up and used my physique. Derek Adams was already at the club and played as a striker. Billy planned to bring in a few strikers to help me out and bring me on. He signed his brother-in-law John ‘Spenny’ Spencer from Everton for a club record fee of £500,000. Spenny was a striker of quality. Billy also added the experienced Don Goodman to the team. It was an indication that Boyle was willing to spend money and was going to give it his very best shot to make Motherwell a force in the Scottish game. The ultimate dream was to challenge the Old Firm, a tall order, but one Boyle felt was not totally unrealistic.
Spenny was a big influence on me. He’d been with Rangers, Chelsea and Everton and knew his stuff on and off the park. He gave me little pointers, pieces of education that were priceless. He told me about my diet, what I should be eating and avoiding, and warned me against going to restaurants as I would have no idea the ingredients a chef would use in his dishes. It was about making my own food and trusting my own judgement. Well, I couldn’t cook and wasn’t about to start, so I passed all the information on to my mum!
As soon as Billy was appointed he made a few changes. The alterations were all good and welcomed by the players – and they had a purpose; it wasn’t change for the sake of it. He was only thirty-four but he made an instant impression. He was firm but fair and told us that we’d all be given a chance. The slate was wiped clean and the Kampman regime was well and truly over. We finished the 1998-99 season in seventh place in the SPL. I made thirty-two appearances which I was happy about.
Simp-Lee the Best Page 5
