Pioneer

Gordon Jago

Description

Few people have made such an impact on so many areas of football, in so many parts of the world, as Gordon Jago. Jago - a tall, thoughtful centre-half with Charlton Athletic - made his biggest impression as a manager. In England, he created the foundation for the greatest Queens Park Rangers side in history - leading to speculation linking him with the national job - before transforming the identity of one of the country's most notorious clubs, Millwall. Jago resigned from the Den out of principle after a controversial episode of BBC TV's Panorama and moved to the US. He spent time in Florida before settling in Texas. From there, he was engaged in the political side of the North American game and was involved in discussions for America's hosting of the 1994 World Cup and the creation of the MLS. After retiring from coaching, Jago remained heavily involved with the Dallas Cup - a key part of the cultural heritage of the North American game - and was rewarded for his services to youth football with an MBE in 2006.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785319761
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Gordon Jago, with Wayne Barton, 2021
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785318573
eBook ISBN 9781785319761
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CONTENTS
Introduction: Enjoyment of Profession
1. War Child
2. Down in the Valley
3. Coach Jago
4. Go West, Young Man
5. Arriving at Loftus Road
6. The Most Important Football Match of My Life
7. They Need a Number Ten in the Wormwood Scrubs Prison Team?
8. Mixing with the Big Boys
9. The Saddest Day of My Soccer Life
10. Plans of Mice and Men in the Lions Den
11. All Smiles at Millwall FC, and the Biggest Mistake of My Life
12. The Darkest Days
13. Getting Rowdy
14. Changes
15. No Enjoyment of Profession
16. Cometh the Hour
17. Commissioner Gordon
18. The MLS
19. US Youth Soccer is in a Mess - If I Were Coaching a Youth Team, I Would Wish to Have 11 Orphans in the Team
20. A New Life at Age 70
21. The Sleeping Giant
22. Reminiscing
23. Honours
24. A Life Fulfilled
Photos
INTRODUCTION
ENJOYMENT OF PROFESSION
If you wish to have a large house, with a big swimming pool, a Mercedes in the garage, an Armani suit and money in the bank, then go for it.
THESE WERE THE first words of advice that I gave to the Texas A M University Sports Marketing graduating students when asked to address the group on their graduation out into the wide world of earning a living. In attendance were 27 young men and four young women, all between the ages of 22 and 25. There was a smile on many of the faces at my opening comment - evidence of their possible thinking.
My second piece of advice to them was that from my long experience they should give much thought to what type of environment and the type of work that they would do once they departed from the warm friendly atmosphere of the university that they had experienced for the past four to five years. To me an enjoyment of your profession is an absolute priority. The mentality that one has when going to work each day is so important.
I told these youngsters the story of my father, an engineer, who had spent 50 years with one engineering company. He had grown up during the First World War, experienced the Depression of the late 1930s and had been exempt from military services during the Second World War due to his job manufacturing brass, which was of course needed to produce shells and bullets for the armed services. From the age of 15 until 65, he worked there. His 50-year present from the company was a gold watch and then he entered retirement. He hadn t looked forward to going to work each day and couldn t wait until Friday evening, knowing that he would have two days at home with his family.
He lived until the age of 79, enjoying those last 14 years when he didn t have to get up each morning at 6am to go to work. He could please himself what he did each day and he took the opportunity, along with my mother, with the financial aid of my sister and myself, to enjoy both international and UK travel. Fourteen years of enjoyment against 50 years of unhappiness, toil and perhaps - I never could really tell - disappointment. To me, this is a terrible ratio of the years he experienced during his life.
So, why did he not change his job when he was younger? He married at a young age, had a family when my sister and I came along, a house and a mortgage. Jobs were hard to find during those years of the depression, and perhaps he realised how fortunate he was to have one. Perhaps that sense stayed with him for the rest of his days. The story was at that time that there was always a line outside the factory gates of men looking for work. It s easy to say take the risk and find another job, it s another to take such action.
How many of you are married? was my next question to these young men and women. Three hands went up.
As the vast majority were single, my advice was that if their first job didn t give them the enjoyment of going to work each day, finding their role interesting, perhaps even challenging and a certain satisfaction in what they were achieving, then they should look for another position. They only had themselves to be considered, no responsibilities so try something new.
If the second selection wasn t right, then move again, but if you continue not to find satisfaction then you must look to yourself.
What were you looking for? Perhaps too much or for something beyond your abilities? Be honest with yourself, but again don t lose that desire to make every effort to find enjoyment in your job. Some risks are worth taking if you do so at a time when you can afford to.
I consider myself very fortunate. I had obtained an engineering degree from college and I had worked as a telecommunications engineer but the opportunity to become a professional footballer/soccer player gave me the life that I desired. It was a risk to give up a settled position not knowing whether I would make the grade as a First Division player, but I was single, I had no major responsibilities. If I failed then I could move on.
I ve been so fortunate as a consequence. I ve enjoyed a wonderful life. I ve travelled the world at someone else s expense, met royalty, presidents, sports and entertainment celebrities and many other good people, but most importantly I ve had so much joy in my chosen profession.
I wished the students well and I hoped that they would make the right decisions for themselves in the years ahead. My life has been an incredible journey, and, more importantly, one of enjoyment of profession.
1
WAR CHILD
MY EARLIEST memories are of standing in a bomb shelter at the end of our garden, watching bombs from German planes rain down on the capital.
I was born in Poplar, East London, but was raised on a council estate in Dagenham. In spite of the Blitz, because of Dad s job, we had to move in to London, so we moved to Plaistow, which is near West Ham - being near the Boleyn Ground seemed exciting for me at the time, having been raised a Hammers fan. Dad would take me with five or six of his workmates and their children to their matches.
Our home wasn t far from the London Docks. One evening, the Germans dropped what seemed like millions of incendiary bombs over the city. London was set alight and, standing at the edge of the garden, Dad held me as we observed the strange red glow that illuminated the landscape as far as we could see. Though we had a house, we really lived in the shelter. They were fairly comfortable - we had some electricity, some heat. Maybe because I was so young it made it easier - these things that were beyond comprehension were, in actual fact, much too difficult for a child as young as I was to comprehend, so in the main there was an obliviousness that I have to be thankful for. The searchlights, the gunfire, the explosions, the sound of the German planes I can t say that it was fun, of course I knew that it wasn t, but I was too young for these memories to plague me as the traumatic experiences that they undoubtedly naturally became for others.
The pressure of war wasn t on the kids, it was on the parents, but you only understand this properly when you re older. I didn t realise it was a matter of life and death. If you saw a German plane being hit, then you would hear everyone in the bomb shelters down your row start to cheer, and you, of course, would join in. When a British plane was hit, there was a silence, an eerie silence. It was a pause to see if you could see the parachute, and if you knew the pilot had made it out then another cheer went up. The memories are still tremendously vivid but the impact of them weren t as strong as they might have been, mercifully.
Going to school was a difficult experience, however; the part of our life where the reality really did hit. Our school was three storeys high, with a bomb shelter underneath in case of raids through the day. There were plenty of daylight raids at the beginning of the war.
Each kid was given a little red Oxo gravy box, which we put our name on, containing a pack of raisins, biscuits, and some Cadbury s chocolate. The idea was that if we were bombed, then we had some food if we were trapped, and at a time when food was rationed, we never saw chocolate. There was a scene in the 1987 film Hope and Glory , which was about the Blitz, and I can t help but feel that somebody involved in telling that story must have gone to the same school as I did - one morning, when we went to school, we discovered that it had been hit and destroyed.
Rubble, everywhere. So, as young children, what s our immediate thought? The chocolate! There were four or five of us, right into the rubble, scavenging for the boxes, regardless of whose name was on it. No sooner had we got in there than we heard loud police whistles and then the sound of the police telling us to get out. Of course, we were a danger to ourselves. What was remaining of the school could easily have collapsed on us and we could have got trapped under the rubble ourselves.
After that, we had to go to school in a church. Because there was obviously not