Tony Waddington

John Leonard

Description

Waddington, Director of a Working Man's Ballet is a biography of the former Stoke City manager, Tony Waddington, one of the most underrated figures in 60s and 70s football. It charts how a man with the appearance of an urbane bank manager belied the stereotype of the hard-nosed football manager as he turned around the fortunes of an ailing club on the brink of going out of business. Instead, Waddington led the Potters to promotion, secured the club's first major trophy and challenged for a league title in a season bedevilled by bad luck, before a financial calamity led to his departure. An advocate of free-flowing football, yet fielding some of the most uncompromising defensive players of his era, he reinvigorated old pros, inspired young players and won the adulation of a generation of fans. Tony Waddington, or 'Waddo' as he was affectionately known to fans and players alike, achieved all this as the director of what he fondly termed 'a working man's ballet'.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 juillet 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785314599
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2018
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
John Leonard, 2018
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-423-0
eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-459-9
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Contents
Introduction
1. Firing up the Potters
2. Waddington s Wall
3. An Old Man from the Sea
4. Winning Promotion
5. Centennial Celebrations
6. Banks of England
7. Team Spirit
8. Outgunned in the Cup
9. History Makers
10. The Man in a White Coat
11. The Crash
12. A Footballing Bromance
13. Title Challengers
14. The Roof Caves In
15. Taxi for Waddo
16. Legendary Status
Select Bibliography
Introduction
A MAN with the appearance and manner of an urbane 1950s bank manager may hardly fit the stereotype of a hard-nosed football manager. Unlikely to be automatically viewed as the candidate most likely to reinvigorate chiselled old professional players, inspire aspiring footballers to fulfil their dreams, and receive the adulation of generations of fans. Yet Tony Waddington, or Waddo as he was affectionately known to fans and players alike at Stoke City Football Club, was such a man; the director of what he termed a working man s ballet .
In looking back on the work of this director of a working man s ballet , I chart how Waddington revived and transformed the fortunes of an ailing football club. On joining Stoke City in the 1950s, the club was yo-yoing in the nether regions of the Football League s Second Division, one bemoaning its luck after coming close to winning major honours just after the Second World War.
Stoke City was going nowhere as a football club, apart from further down the Football League pyramid and possibly even out of business. Waddington, through patience and footballing guile and the help of one or two friendly directors, changed its fortunes, returning to the top tier of English football, winning a major trophy and ultimately challenging, though failing, to win the league title.
To do so, he needed allies, like-minded people, both among those with the purse strings sitting in the directors box and those recruited to go out on to the football pitch. Here s the story of how he sought out hardened old professional players, conjuring up among them an old wizard to work his magic.
This particular sorcerer was, of course, Stanley Matthews, a legend of the game who controversially walked out of Stoke City in the 1940s just six weeks before a title-challenging season ended in bitter failure. How and why Matthews was brought back to the club as the fans messiah with all forgiven is a mark of the genius of Waddington. Theoretically, it made no sense bringing back a player in his dotage. Yet for Waddo this was the coup of the century, making to him not just football sense but in what was possibly something of a gamble an absolute public relations masterstroke. Stoke City s current chairman, Peter Coates, describes the signing of Stanley Matthews as inspirational .
Waddington always had an eye for public relations stunts in gradually rebuilding his football club. Stoke City and its fans had a manager publicly lacking the gruff and combative nature of the great Scottish managerial duo of Liverpool s Bill Shankly and Manchester United s Matt Busby, nor their resources. He did not have the flamboyance of his provincial rival Brian Clough, nor his eccentricities.
But Waddington, as many of his peers would come to recognise, possessed a quiet steely determination to succeed, not just for himself and the football club, but just as importantly for its fans and for all the people of the Potteries.
As Stoke s current chairman insists, In an old industrial area football means such a lot to people. Waddington instinctively recognised this to be the case. For him it was almost a mission; a revival in a working-class district with the population craving for footballing success, looking to celebrate its place on the national and, indeed, the international stage. Tony Waddington ensured his working man s ballet would be playing to packed houses at a ground once left near deserted by Potteries football fans.
How did he coin his favourite term, a working man s ballet ? It was born out of evangelical zeal. He wanted to sell his love of the game of association football to an American audience, so Waddington used the phrase on a mid-1960s tour of the United States. He thought it helpful to write a booklet explaining the laws of the game for sceptical US sports fans and reasoned the description would appeal to the aesthetic tastes of the American public . As a noble and visionary move it failed. We found it difficult to educate spectators on the niceties of our game, when they had been brought up on a diet of scoring points or making home runs in their national sports, Waddington grumbled. He may have been disappointed with the reaction of American sports fans but back home in the UK his mantra of a working man s ballet stuck.
As an evangelist for the game, he had few equals. On the more basic matter of being a tactician, critics questioned whether he was on a par with his vaunted managerial peers. Yet even some of those naysayers recognised in Waddington s case this hardly seemed to matter. He just simply had enough confidence in his chosen players to give them the freedom to go out and perform. In selecting those players most of his peers knew no better judge of who might or might not make a good footballer. Here was a man, among the first to talk about playing football the right way , pure uninhibited football, a joy for his performers to play and easy on the eye for fans.
Yet in moulding his teams there was something of a contradiction. Waddo had a philosophy of pure football but it was based, first, on stopping the opposition team from playing so his own team, at least his flair players, were able to perform with freedom. For all the neat moves his midfielders and forwards might weave together it came from being delivered the ball by uncompromising defenders, euphemistically termed Waddington s Wall .
At first he relied on chiselled professionals in defence, recruiting the likes of Wolverhampton Wanderers legendary Eddie Clamp and Eddie Stuart. His wall was then provided by a quartet of young local lads, John March, Denis Smith, Alan Bloor and Mike Pejic. They provided Waddington with his percussion as he directed his working man s ballet.
After taking over Stoke City while still in his early 30s, he essentially built three teams. The first was to get them out of the Second Division and into the First Division, what now would be termed the Premier League. The next consolidated the club s position at the top table of English football and eventually challenged for trophies, winning the League Cup in 1972. It wasn t enough for Waddo , who finally began building a team to challenge for, and ultimately agonisingly lose out on winning, the Football League title. If anything only financial misfortune prevented him from doing so at Stoke City.
Once a gale had wrecked one of the wooden stands at Stoke s Victoria Ground, the board of directors decided the only way to pay for the damage was to sell Waddington s best players. His captain, Jimmy Greenhoff, went to Manchester United. His midfield playmaker, Alan Hudson, returned to London to play for Arsenal. Once local recruit Mike Pejic was sold to Everton, Waddington contemplated overseeing the humility of a relegation season. Instead, he quit.
One or two of his players felt he was forced to go. If so, why didn t the Stoke directors keep faith in him and his players? Why did they no longer believe playing success may no longer end in trophies and riches for the club? All of this will be explored.
Waddo was a manager loved by his players, adored by his fans. Some ex-players believed the people of the Potteries underestimated what Tony Waddington had done for them and their football club, especially those chanting Waddington out! as the club headed for relegation in the late 1970s. Actually, those questioning the level of appreciation of the work of this director of a working man s ballet were wrong.
Stoke fans, even those airing their frustrations as the club struggled and hurling abuse from the terraces, always admired Waddington. They hold him in the greatest esteem. They recognise he rebuilt their football club, turned it into a recognisable sporting institution, one temporarily wrecked by a gale one 70s winter s night. Indeed the club itself, now owned by lifelong fans the Coates family, certainly recognise his achievements. As an example, Tony Waddington Place leads as a roadway to Stoke City s bet365 stadium, a ground complete with the Waddington Suite in its main stand.
Angela Smith, chair of the Stoke Supporters Council told me, To many people of a youthful age, football only started with the advent of the Premier League. Had Tony Waddington managed in this time, his success, given the focus on the game with 24 hours sports broadcasting and social media,, would be the subject of discussion on a regular basis.
She added, I often wonder how a Waddo team, the team of the 70 s or the team that won promotion back to the old First Division would fare in the modern day league. One thing is certain, they would not lack class, because