by Trevor Keane
‘The one thing Jack could do, and I have never met a manager that could do this so well since, he could have a drink and be one of the lads and then just like that he could switch into manager mode. It was an amazing ability to have.’
When Jack first took the job as Ireland manager the mood in the Ireland camp was very sombre. The team was at their lowest ebb after the final years of the Hand regime. As Kevin Sheedy, the scorer of Ireland’s first-ever goal at a World Cup final tournament, recalls, ‘After Eoin Hand, Ireland needed to take a new direction, and with Jack you had someone who did things his way. He was very straight with people, and all the players knew what was required. If a player was suspended or injured, then the player coming in knew what had to be done. As a coach now myself, if I could take away anything from that time, it would be his honesty, his straightforwardness – you knew what you were getting.
‘Another thing about that team was that Jack brought players into the squad who were late entrants to international football. I myself had been there from the youth levels. I had played in the Under-21s and had then made the step up to the senior side. However, other players did not go down that route. Before Jack there had been some dark days in Irish football. I remember being 5–0 down to Denmark with thirty minutes to go in a game, so the change in fortune under Jack was great.’
The players seemed to respond to the approach of the new management team, and so it was that Big Jack and his motley crew of Irish players set off in search of qualification for their first-ever major competition. First up was a Euro ’88 qualifying group that included Belgium, Scotland, Bulgaria and Luxembourg. Ireland started off the campaign by earning a creditable draw in Brussels, but they were also held to a draw by Scotland in Dublin. In February 1987, however, they enjoyed a fine 1–0 win in Glasgow. Gerry Peyton, who played under four Ireland managers in all, the last of whom was Big Jack, says, ‘The first thing Jack did was set about getting some belief into the team. The Scotland game in Glasgow was one of the major turning points for us. Mark Lawrenson scored after a smart dribble. Following that win the belief and confidence started to come. The players started to believe in the system, and everyone was beginning to understand their role. History will tell you that it was a Scotland victory over a near impenetrable Bulgaria at home that got us there, but the group matches were very tight, and I suppose in a twist of irony Bulgaria became the Ireland of previous qualifying campaigns, as they hit the post in that game and came close on a number of occasions.’
Ireland qualified for the 1988 European Championship in Germany, and the team were drawn against England in a group of death that also contained the USSR and eventual winners Holland. In preparing for the finals, Ireland won all four of their friendly matches, against Israel, Romania, Yugoslavia and Poland. Peyton says, ‘I think once we qualified for the European Championship in Germany, a noticeable change came over the squad. The victory over Scotland was a case in point. Confidence was flowing through the squad, and that’s what Jack brought to the Irish team.
‘In Germany, the media wrote us off and were claiming that we were only there to make up the numbers and would get thrashed. I remember the morning of the first game, against England. We were having breakfast and were all very nervous. Paul McGrath in particular looked very nervous. There would normally be a bit of banter and a joke, but that morning it was all very serious. Next thing Jack came into the dining area, and it was obvious he could sense that the lads were nervous. He went over to the first table and said, “You lot had better not do something stupid today and score a goal. I’m going fishing tomorrow.” Those couple of lines really helped lift the tension and relaxed the boys.’
In their opening match of the Championships, the World Cup winner found himself plotting England’s downfall, and he delivered. Ireland met England at Stuttgart and heroically won the match 1–0, with the goal coming from Ray Houghton. It also proved to be a great day for Packie Bonner, who made a string of fine saves.
Gerry explains how the players felt after that famous game: ‘The emotions after the England match were very strong. Packie had made a couple of fantastic saves, and, of course, Ray’s goal had won it, but the team had really performed that day. I remember Liam Brady, who had missed out on the tournament due to injury, was visibly upset, and I think everyone saw the passion that the team had.’
For Charlton, however, it was just another match: ‘When Ireland played against England at Euro ’88 and Italia ’90 I was not overcome with mixed emotions. I was employed by the FAI to manage Ireland no matter who we were playing. I wanted to get a result, and I always sent the team out to get one.’
Ireland met the Soviet Union in their next match, the game ending 1–1, with Ronnie Whelan scoring an incredible goal. Ireland needed only a draw to qualify for the semi-finals. However, they lost their final match, going down 1–0 to the future European champions Holland, but as Sheedy says, ‘You have to remember that we were just six minutes away from the semi-finals, which was an amazing achievement.’ This is backed up by Peyton, who adds, ‘If it had not been for a fluke spin of the ball against Holland, we could have gone further still.’ For his part Charlton was rewarded with the runners-up prize in the World Soccer Manager of the Year awards in 1988.
The key to Charlton’s success was not only the brand of football he promoted, but also the relationship he enjoyed with his players: ‘I like to think that you must treat players as friends. You need the players to understand what you want to do and what you are trying to achieve. With Ireland we had a way of playing. Each player had a part to play. You’ll be familiar with the phrase “put them under pressure”. Well, that was what we wanted to do. Players had to get back behind the ball and pressure the opposition from all parts of the pitch.’
Sheedy agrees: ‘Jack treated all the players as grown-ups, and you could enjoy a pint of Guinness when the time was right, as long as you didn’t abuse the privilege. It helped build a good team spirit. We would head off to the races together, and travelling with the Ireland team was the same as it was with Everton. Everyone got on, and the spirit was good.
‘The thing about Jack, though, was that sometimes you couldn’t tell if he was being clever or if that was just his way. I remember we were playing a game against Wales, and he had written the team on the back of a box of cigarettes, with all the names of the players wrong. I was wondering, “Is he being clever here and telling us it doesn’t matter who these guys are, or is there something else going on?” In my opinion Jack was a very simple and wise man. He knew what he had, and he knew the system he wanted to play. It was a case of the players understanding and fitting in to that system. Lansdowne Road was a fortress during his time in charge, visiting teams found it very difficult to go there and get a result.’
Following on from their success in Germany, Ireland successfully qualified for Italia ’90. The team prepared for the trip to Italy with a two-week training camp in Malta. Bernie Slaven was a late joiner to the squad ahead of the competition, and he remembers the experience, not all of it good: ‘I was very lucky to play international football. I was twenty-nine when I made my debut against Wales, and thankfully I scored. Jack had said to me that if I played in two games, I might make the World Cup squad, so there was a big incentive there. I missed the next Ireland game, though, as Middlesbrough had a game against Ipswich and Colin Todd pulled me out of the squad. I had a stinker that night as my mind was on Ireland, thinking that I had blown my chance.
‘Thankfully, Jack gave me another forty-five minutes before he named his squad, and I was lucky to get in. I think the fact that Jack was based in Newcastle might have helped me, as it was only forty-five minutes down the road from him, and he could easily come and see me play.
‘I roomed with Gary Waddock, and in the build-up to the World Cup we played a game against Turkey. I only played forty minutes and Gary played the full ninety. We were back at the hotel later, and Gary was lying on the bed. He said to me, “I think I’m going home
. You know, I just have a feeling.”
‘When we landed in Malta for the preparation camp I was talking to Niall Quinn, and I saw Jack having a word with Gary. I then saw Gary’s head drop. Back at the hotel Gary told me that he was not part of the final squad and that he was going home. He was upset and rang his wife. Jack came in to see if Gary was all right and turned to me and said, “It could have been you.” Although that showed that Jack could make hard decisions, there was another side to him too, a softer side almost, and he did offer to allow Gary to travel with the squad. After the game against Holland, Mick McCarthy got Ruud Gullit’s jersey and had it signed and gave it to Gary.
‘What people often don’t realise is that while going to a World Cup is an amazing experience, it can be hard too, especially if you don’t play. You are away for a couple of weeks from family and friends, and at the end of the day you are training hard, probably harder than the others, as you want to make an impression, but you still don’t get on the pitch. The players who did not get a game called ourselves the muppets. It was a joke at our own expense. From my own point of view, I guess I had played no role in getting Ireland there, so Jack was always going to stick with the guys who had led him there.
‘Boredom is the hardest thing at a World Cup, whether you are Ireland, England, Germany or Brazil. You can’t go out and sunbathe, as Jack did not want us doing that, even if we were not playing, so you have to stay in your room a lot. It can be hard. There is no room for letting your hair down.’
The performances in Italy were not so easy on the eye, but the results were impressive, and after draws with England, Egypt and Holland, Ireland eventually went out to the hosts Italy in the quarter-finals by a single goal.
The draw with England once again saw Charlton up against his country of birth. It must have been even harder for Jack to prepare the team for a World Cup match against England, but Kevin Sheedy recalls that Jack didn’t need to say too much to the team: ‘Personally, I think there was a lot of pressure on the players and Jack ahead of the game against England. Our main objective, though, was not to lose the first game. We could not afford that. In some respects it was not just an international World Cup match; it was a bit more than that. It was more like a local derby, an Everton versus Liverpool match or a Manchester City versus Manchester United game. The pressure was building, especially in the papers, and I suppose you could feel it, but we were pumped up for the game. As I said, it was like a derby, so everyone wanted to play. Going a goal down so early in the game [Gary Lineker opened the scoring after eight minutes] was hard, but we dug in, and then I scored after seventy-two minutes. It was a great experience.’
It was a tremendous achievement for a team with no previous World Cup experience. As Charlton explains, ‘I remember when we came home from Italia ’90 the airport was mobbed. It took us sixty minutes to get out of the airport, then another two and a half hours to get into O’Connell Street. There were kids climbing up poles. We were getting a bit worried about them. There were people throwing things up to the bus, and then when they were falling back down people were jumping out to catch them. We had to get the police to go in front of the bus to keep an eye on people.’
Gerry Peyton continues, ‘When we came back from the European Championship in 1988 about 500,000 people welcomed us home. By the time we arrived home from Italy there were 1.5 million people there to welcome us. Jack’s team had become a phenomenon. Everyone wanted to be a Packie Bonner, a Paul McGrath or a Ray Houghton, and Jack helped these guys become household names.’
Modern-day players such as Shay Given would have looked up to Packie and the others and wanted to emulate them. Successful countries breed successful players. Just as the England heroes of 1966 would have inspired a host of youngsters to take up the game and try to copy the saves of Banks or the shots of Hurst, likewise youngsters all over Ireland were now diving to their right to save penalties and heading the ball into the England net.
One of the most memorable experiences of Italia ’90 was a meeting that Jack Charlton and his squad had with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. Gerry Peyton says, ‘This for me was definitely one of the highlights of my time with Ireland. Italia ’90 was an amazing experience. The results themselves were fantastic, but the whole trip was organised to a tee. On a personal note, the audience with the pope will forever rank high in my life. I remember I was standing next to Packie, and we saw the pope talking to a number of players at the top of the group. He then made a beeline down to me and Packie. He shook Packie’s hand, and then he reached over to me and told me about how responsible the position of goalkeeper was and that he himself had been a keeper in his day.’
Monsignor Boyle was a supporter who got closer to the team than he could ever have imagined when he made his way to Italy to support Ireland in pursuit of their World Cup dream. As it turned out he had a massive role to play in the team’s audience with the pope: ‘I was initially in Italy as a supporter watching the Ireland team. I just happened to be staying in the same hotel as the FAI officials on Sardinia. I was saying Mass in the hotel, and the FAI approached me and asked me if I would say Mass for the team, who were staying at another hotel, the following night, which was a Saturday. I agreed, but they couldn’t make the Mass in the end. Instead, we did the Mass on the Sunday, which was the day before the England game.
‘I went up to the team hotel. There was a lot of security around the hotel. People were nervous because of the England and Ireland meeting, but there was no need to be. There was no trouble. I said the Mass, and it was just me and the team for it.
‘Jack Charlton then invited me to have lunch, and he asked me, as long as I was around, would I mind saying Mass for the team for the rest of tournament. Naturally, I agreed. Once we had made it out of the group stages we were paired with Romania, with the match to be played in Genoa. Before the game Jack said to me, “If we win, we will go to Rome, and if that happens, a couple of members of the panel want to have an audience with the pope. Will you be able to arrange that for them?”
‘I contacted the director of the Irish college in Rome, Monsignor Brady, who is now Cardinal Brady. I explained the situation to him; however, we had to keep it hushed, as the game had not been played yet.’
Ireland won the game and then had to make their way down to Rome, where they were to face Italy. Monsignor Boyle continues, ‘Audiences with the pope are held on a Wednesday, and the players only arrived down on the Tuesday, so there was not a lot of time to make arrangements. However, they had their audience with the pope, and the Vatican was very pleased. Ireland were the only team that arranged for an audience with the pope during the tournament.’
Craig Johnston had retired from football when he met up with Jack again, at Italia ’90: ‘Ireland had just beaten Romania on penalties. I was in the crowd that day, and Jack saw me amidst the mayhem and chaos. He had the presence of mind to come over to me and to ask me how I was and what I was doing with a big film camera on my shoulder. I told him I was filming a documentary for UNICEF, and I really needed a lift back to the team hotel. Much to my surprise, he pulled me up out of the crowd and put me on the team bus. It was amazing, really.
‘After Ireland lost to Italy in Rome the players were with their wives, having a singsong like only the Irish can have. The lads were all in good spirits, as they had dramatically over-delivered on their World Cup promise. They were all very proud of their achievements. It was going to be a long night at the end of a long but successful campaign.
‘It dawned on me as I was sitting there watching and listening to the singsong what Jack had just achieved with his players. Sometimes it takes an outsider to tell a ragbag army of blokes how good they can all be. Sometimes it can’t come from within the ranks. I thought it was a bit like Bill Shankly with Liverpool and how a Scot had somehow made the Scousers believe they were the best in the world and then they became the best club in the world. This was the same. Here was Jack Charlton, the big proud Englishman, and he had just hel
ped Ireland to their best World Cup position ever. In their presence he was like the messiah.
‘It was a fantastic evening. Everybody was having a good time. I remember Chris de Burgh took it upon himself to sing a song in tribute to the gaffer to the tune of “Hey Jude”. He sang a whole parody, starting off with the words “Hey Jack”. One by one all the players sang a song. Liam Brady was there, and he sang “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town”, while Andy Townsend chipped in with “I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane” and Ronnie Whelan sang a traditional Irish song. It was a privilege to be there, and I escaped largely unnoticed until Ronnie Whelan made me get up and sing a rendition of ‘I Still Call Australia Home’. Mick McCarthy, another big gruff Englishman, then picked me up and threw me into a fountain, camera and all. At the end of the night, or the start of the morning or whatever, it must have been about 5.30 a.m., all the lads were still singing, although their throats were now red raw. When Big Jack got up to move all the players in unison called for one last song from the gaffer. Without missing a beat the big man launched into a stirring rendition of “The Blaydon Races”. It brought the house down.
‘Jack then grabbed his wife’s hand and led her off to bed. The lads weren’t going to let him have the last word, though, and they turned into a schoolboy choir and started singing “We know where you’re going, we know what you’re doing!” If everybody thought that was the end of it, it wasn’t. Just as the laughter had died down, the shutters of the master suite on the third floor balcony were flung open. Big Jack appeared before us all, semi-naked, with a towel covering his bits and pieces. He made a series of very lavish and generous hand gestures, which received a rapturous round of applause from his congregation. The night had finally ended, and it was now time to put a very funny and memorable night in Irish football history to bed.
