The winter of 1976–77 saw the now-famous partnership of Best and Marsh at Fulham. The venture was captured at its peak by the ITV cameras as the duo produced the full array of party tricks to beat Hereford 4–1 in a game that was more like the Harlem Globetrotters than a scrap for a couple of Division Two points.
Best, in an echo of Marsh’s story, admits that his 1977 NASL season was set against increased drinking, gambling and relationship problems, although he still managed 11 goals and a record-tying 18 assists for a team that went to the Soccer Bowl semi-finals with a swashbuckling style of attacking play. But by 1978, Best was falling into his old United pattern. He missed training and was suspended by the club. Liverpool defender Tommy Smith, one of Best’s great adversaries, was the head coach in mid-season when Best and the Aztecs parted company. ‘He more or less sold himself because he wasn’t trying a leg,’ Smith wrote. ‘He never bothered his behind, he was that disillusioned.’
Best was traded to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in June and his debut was against the New York Cosmos. He scored with virtually his first touch, added a second later in the game and helped his new team to a 5–3 win. But there were not to be too many happy days during Best’s stay in Florida, where he ran headlong into a personality clash with Englishman Ron Newman, the former Dallas coach who had taken over at the Strikers in 1977. ‘Ron was a great recruiter of players,’ says one player, ‘but George would have had no respect for someone he thought was limited in his knowledge of the game.’
Best recounts in his book, Blessed, that he was taken off during overtime in a 1978 semi-final play-off game against Marsh’s Rowdies, claiming that Newman then expected him to participate in the shoot-out. Best says he had to remind Newman that only players on the field at the end of the game could take part in the sudden-death decider. ‘I was fuming that the coach apparently hadn’t fully understood the American rules of soccer,’ he says.
Newman, who by that time was in his 12th American summer, counters, ‘It was not George writing his book – it was Hans Christian Andersen. We had won the first play-off game at home and we lost the next game at Tampa, which meant we now had to play a mini-game followed by the shoot-out if we were still tied. I do remember pulling George off because he had become a nonentity and I did not want to play the mini-game with only ten men. It did go through my mind that it would have been useful to have George now that we had reached the shoot-out stage, but decided that the 35-yard run-up would be about 20 yards too much for him. If we had lost in the mini-game because I had left George on for the shoot-out, I would never have forgiven myself.’
Few of Newman’s memories of Best are complimentary. He says, ‘I realised what he was like – he could be a selfish son of a bitch. The promotion surrounding him was so huge that you had to say things you didn’t believe. There was a radio guy who did a lot for us who wanted an interview with George, but went to the office instead of the stadium by mistake. He called and said, “Is George still there?” I said that he was and went to get George and asked him if he could wait. George said OK. The guy was there in a moment and when I asked if he had seen George he said, “No. I can’t find him.” Someone said he had got in someone’s car and taken off. I thought, “You bastard, George Best. This is the kind of guy you are dealing with. He won’t help the team or the game.”
‘He was good in practice but not in games. I thought we were carrying him most of the time because he was good PR and the press needed him. One of our players, Tony Whelan, had been at United when George was there and I asked him, “How good was George when he was really good?” I was a big fan of Ray Hudson in our midfield and Wheels said, “He was probably about ten times better than Ray.”’
Strikers forward David Irving sticks up for Best, though. ‘I thought Bestie was wonderful. He was our leader. George was a character and it was wonderful to play on the same field as him. But he and Ron didn’t see eye to eye. As players you are aware of that situation but with the type of good professionals we had in that team we didn’t let it affect the rest of us.’
The problems continued the following season, the start of which was delayed for Best by a dispute with Fulham. The London club had persuaded FIFA to ban Best after he played for the Detroit Express on their European tour, contravening Fulham’s rights to Best anywhere outside the US. By the time the ban had been lifted, the 1979 NASL season had begun and Fort Lauderdale had signed legendary West German striker Gerd Müller and the Peruvian Teofilio Cubillas, who had almost single-handedly done for Scotland in the World Cup in Argentina.
David Chadwick, the former Dallas midfielder who was assistant coach under Newman at the Strikers, remembers Best being at his best when he joined up with his new teammates. ‘When George was out and we couldn’t play him, I was responsible for taking him for one-on-one training. We had to do extra work until we got the green light for him to play. Then Ron said he wanted to stage a full-scale practice match with George in the reserves to see if he was ready to play. At one point, the ball gets to George in midfield and he looks like he is going to hit it in the corner for Al Nijie, the winger. He must have seen the goalkeeper, Arnie Mausser, ten yards off his line. He just hit it and it went straight into the net from halfway. Then he got the ball on the left side a few minutes later. George never ran at you straight, always on an angle, and he goes past Ken Fogarty like he’s not there and then bananas it in from the edge of the box. Cubillas is standing there clapping and Ron says, “OK. Put him in the team.”’
Best’s return to the team lasted only 70 minutes. With the Strikers leading 1–0 against the New England Tea Men, Best was substituted, his replacement Nico Bodonczy adding a second goal. ‘He was tired because he had not played a full match,’ says Chadwick. ‘Ron says, “Chaddy, it’s 1–0, we’ll bring George out.”’
Newman adds, ‘When the second half started he was going red in the face. He was starting to kick young guys to stop them getting the ball off him. He gets a yellow card and I thought, “If he gets another he is out for several weeks. But he won’t be bothered. He can sit on the bench and have some more drinks.” Taking him out was the logical thing to do. He starts walking to the dressing room and then comes back towards the bench and starts pulling his shirt off. I am watching in my peripheral vision and he rolls it in a ball and throws it at me.’
Chadwick continues, ‘We used to do a lap of honour and at the end of the game Ron says, “You take the guys round the pitch and I will get George.” He grabs George by the arm and they run off together. Of course the press are all over it later, asking Ron if he is going to suspend George.’
Newman attempted to defuse the situation. ‘I told them, “Everyone wants a George Best shirt and now I have got one. I will take it home and hang it above the mantelpiece. And if he does it again he will be hanging there with it.”’
Newman’s dissatisfaction over Best’s attitude was matched by the player’s concerns about his coach’s tactical appreciation. Best remains fiercely critical of Newman for throwing away a 2–0 lead against the New York Cosmos a few weeks later when he took off experienced English players Hudson and Irving with 20 minutes to play and saw the Cosmos storm back to win 3–2. And there was to be another major run-in before the end of a disjointed season in which Best, suffering from a chronic knee injury, started only eleven games, appeared in eight more as a substitute and scored only two goals.
Newman claims, ‘We helped to keep him teetotal for a year and eventually he broke down and missed training. The press were all over it and when he turned up the next day we just told them George had not been well and we had given him the day off. The press called him and he said, “I am not sick, there is nothing wrong with me.” We made him an alibi and he didn’t use it. The next day his breath smelt awful of drink. He was already in the party to go to the game in Minnesota, although I was thinking, “Is this a one-shot deal or is he back on the drink?” We were sat around the table having the pre-game dinner and I decided he couldn’t do what h
e had done and expect to play. I pulled him out and said, “George, it’s not fair to the players if I play you.” He said, “That’s OK,” and afterwards I thought, “You bugger! He wants to be sat down because he thinks we are going to get beat, so we will get stories saying that we can’t win without Best.” I played Clive Walker instead and he had a great game and we won 4–1.’
Not surprisingly, Best was not back in Fort Lauderdale in 1980, returning to California to play for the San Jose Earthquakes. With the condition of his right knee getting steadily worse, Best scored eight goals and assisted on eleven for an unsuccessful team.
In former Everton and Southampton rival Jimmy Gabriel, who joined Best at the club in 1981, he was about to find a coach who has nothing but good things to say about him. ‘George was great, a super guy. He played some great soccer, but we didn’t have enough good guys around him.’
Best’s second season at San Jose was to be his final year in the NASL. With a new son – Calum Milan, the second name after Earthquakes owner Milan Mandaric, who had become a close and supportive friend – 35-year-old Best was attempting to beat the drink and prove he could still play the game that had brought him so much, both good and bad. Former West Brom defender Alan Merrick, a San Jose teammate, remembers, ‘George was in the best of health with regard to his drinking habits. He was as sober as he could be and he was brilliant. I played against players like Cruyff and Beckenbauer but I regard George as the finest player I ever saw. I saw him do things on the training field you wouldn’t believe, and then I saw him do them in matches. Wow! I was fortunate to see all of his good characteristics. The fact he had a bad knee that had to be drained before every game made his performance that year even more impressive.’
Irving, who played alongside Best once again in San Jose, adds, ‘How he played at all that year was a miracle. His leg was like a question mark – he just couldn’t straighten it.’
San Jose’s American goalkeeper, Tim Hanley, recalls one of Best’s tricks during training. ‘Derek Evans, an American defender, made a little wager with George. Derek had been injured and had not had the chance to train with Bestie and felt George was a bit pampered. Derek claims he can strip George of the ball within a few seconds. George tells him he’ll have a minute for $100 and sections off a 12-by-12-ft area. To this day I can remember the smirk on Derek’s face. With Bestie holding the $100 bill in his hand, he proceeds to dribble the lights out. Derek pushed, kicked, grabbed and chased to no avail, and with ten seconds remaining – we were all counting down – George kicks Derek the ball, throws him the money and says, “There you go, son.”’
San Jose may have been rooted to the foot of the division table again, but Best led the team with 13 goals and 10 assists, including what he considers the best goal of his career, scored, in the best theatrical tradition, against his former Fort Lauderdale team. Best began the move in the centre circle and received a return ball 25 yards out. With an impossible series of twists, turns and drag-backs, he made his way to within eight yards of goal, sending bewildered defenders this way and that – some of them making two or three attempts to halt his progress – before he lashed the ball left-footed past the goalkeeper.
Gabriel recalls, ‘It was a fantastic goal and an amazing situation. George had lost his temper at the referee and Fort Lauderdale had just gone 2–0 up after what George considered was a foul for us. As he was arguing they took the free-kick and scored. After we kicked off, the ball was knocked to George and he stood back like he was going to whack it at the ref and I stood up and shouted, “George! No!” He could have been sent off if he had hit it at the ref, but he didn’t. Instead, he ended up beating five men and stuck it away. The other team must have thought, “Oh no. We’ve ignited him and now we are going to see the best of him.” He scored another and in overtime he beat three men and hit the foot of the post and one of our guys knocked in the rebound to win.’
Best’s form was even rewarded with a brief recall to Billy Bingham’s Northern Ireland squad, although he was taken out a week later because the Irish manager felt he lacked the necessary fitness. Best played his last NASL game in the Earthquakes’ season finale against Vancouver, a low-key defeat. It was to be the end of Best’s serious football career, although Bournemouth and a couple of Australian teams would benefit from his services for a few games.
San Jose’s goal in Best’s final game was scored by English midfielder Mark Lindsay, who played alongside both Marsh and Best during his NASL career. ‘George was completely different to Rodney,’ he says. ‘Rodney would go out looking for the newspaper article and the TV camera. George came here to play football and at the end of the day he would say, “See you tomorrow,” and go home. Jimmy Gabriel’s attitude was just, “Get out there and play” and for anything to do with tactics, free-kicks and corners, it was, “Ask George.” That suited George. He’d say, “Throw it to me and let me take all the free-kicks.” And he could still go by people even with a bum knee. I used to go out and play darts with Bestie. He was a very soft-spoken, nice guy. He was always smiling and I think he always looks at life in a positive way. And he threw great darts!’
10. Playing for Kicks
The NASL’s 1976 season kicked off with 58,128 fans attending the opening game at Seattle’s new indoor stadium, the Kingdome, where Pelé and the New York Cosmos were the visitors. Six years after lining up against him in the heat of World Cup battle in Guadalajara, England striker Geoff Hurst found himself renewing rivalry with the great Brazilian.
Hurst’s journey from West Ham, where he had scored 180 Football League goals and earned 49 England caps, had gone via Stoke City, where he spent three seasons, and a handful of games for West Brom. Now pulling on the white and blue of Seattle, Hurst gave Sounders coach John Best immediate evidence that he had made a wise choice of player, even though he would record only a modest return of eight goals during the season. ‘Geoff did reasonably well in terms of scoring goals, but the reason I specifically went after him was for his brains. Because of the World Cup hat-trick a lot of people tend to think only of his goal-scoring skills, but I was more interested in the wonderful timing of his runs and the positions he took on the field. Martin Peters used to score a bunch of goals because Geoff created space and opportunities for him to fill in. I felt in Seattle that we could get players to time their runs off Geoff.
‘For that first game in the Kingdome, we’d only had the team in town for a week or so, whereas the Cosmos were coming off a world tour. There was no way we were as prepared as we would have liked and the players had not had long to get used to playing with Geoff in the team. I decided to put Jimmy Gabriel in to play alongside Geoff up front and within five minutes Geoff had made a near-post run and Jimmy had timed his run to fill in behind. Geoff had taken the defence with him and Jim got on the end of the cross to score. That helped me show the other people what the opportunities were. Geoff was a great professional. He worked hard to improve his fitness and be very competitive.’
Meanwhile, Bobby Moore, Hurst’s former Hammers and England captain, was donning the flashy, patriotic red, white and blue uniform of the San Antonio Thunder, where former Arsenal and England left-back Bob McNab, ex-Coventry and Nottingham Forest centre-forward Neil Martin, Aberdeen midfielder Eddie Thomson and Harry Hood, the former Celtic forward, were among his teammates.
Also in San Antonio was Aberdeen goalkeeper Bobby Clark, back for his second American summer after his club’s 1967 journey to represent the Washington Whips. Clark recalls, ‘Bobby Moore was obviously getting old and slow, but he was never fast anyway. He had such an accurate long pass. Sometimes he would tell me to just put it down at a goal-kick and he would knock a 40- or 50-yard pass right on to somebody’s shoe. The other thing that struck me was that I thought he would do well as a coach because he took a lot of the coaching for Don Batie. Don had been a college coach and now he was handling all the pros and he gave Bobby a lot of responsibility. Bobby had a nice way and a nice manner and was very ca
lm. I thought he would have done well as a coach. Those are my lasting images of Bobby.’
Since 1967, Clark had made his Scotland debut against Wales the following year and won the last of his 13 caps in 1973, although he was a member of Scotland’s 1974 World Cup squad in Germany and would travel to the finals in Argentina in 1978. ‘I’d just had knee surgery and I thought it would be the ideal way to get fit,’ he remembers. ‘Aberdeen had got themselves into relegation trouble. I remember going into the last game and, even if we had drawn, we could have gone down. I had come back into the team after my operation and they wouldn’t let me go out to the US until they were clear, so I didn’t get out until after the first few games and missed playing against Pelé. I remember finishing that last game against Hibernian, which we won, and getting on a train to Glasgow to get a flight with my family to New York.’
San Antonio’s record of 12 wins and 12 losses would only be good enough for fourth place in the Southern Division of the NASL’s Pacific Conference, Hood top scoring with 10 goals. McNab, who arrived in San Antonio after an injury-hit spell at Wolverhampton, struggled to accept Batie’s coaching methods. A student of Don Howe, mastermind of Arsenal’s Double-winning team of 1971, McNab admits, ‘It is not one of my greatest abilities to bite my tongue if I don’t agree with something. Bobby Moore didn’t mind so much. He told me to forget it and just enjoy myself.
‘I remember coming back after one road trip and I asked if the players who had not played were going to train. The players who hadn’t played had not trained hard for six days. He said, “I don’t know about you, I’m going home to my wife.” I went and trained. At Vancouver in later years we started having a half-hour workout after every game, which became standard practice throughout the league. You would wait for the crowd to leave the stadium and the players who hadn’t played a full game would have a hard workout. At San Antonio I saw players coming into the team or being given a chance from the subs’ bench and they could not last 15 minutes because they were not fit.’
Playing for Uncle Sam Page 12
