The
Sunday Times, October 15, 2006
'Book of the
week'
FRANK WORRALL
Alan Mullery: The
Autobiography - Headline, £18.99
Towards the end of this entertaining footballer's take on the big bad
world, two revelations catch you unawares. The first is that Alan
Mullery is a devout Christian, the other that he and his wife June came
close to committing suicide when they found themselves deep in debt.
Make that last fact a third shocker - that Mullery, former skipper of a
great Spurs side and disciplined midfield enforcer in that marvellous
England team at the 1970 World Cup, could get himself in such a muddle
that even now, at the age of 64, 'the mortgage won't be paid off until
I'm 72'.
He spends a large chunk of his book raging. He was an angry young man
and a bitter middle-aged man. To his credit, he tells it as it was,
without looking back and trying to revise his grudges from a Christian
viewpoint, saying how he would not act or think in that way now.
His resentment at what he perceives as bad treatment fairly boils off
the pages. Bill Nicholson, his mentor at White Hart Lane, comes across
as a sullen, rude, callous control freak. Once, when Mullery was
injured, Nicholson belittled him thus: 'You're not the man Dave Mackay
was. You're dropping out when I need you.' Alec Stock at Fulham was 'the
biggest bullshitter I'd ever met'. Former QPR supremo Jim Gregory's
influence meant that Mullery's tenure as manager at Loftus Road ended
briefly and was 'the worst job I ever had in football'. Brighton
chairman Mike Bamber's egocentric traits wrecked a dream time.
The list goes on. Even Sir Alf Ramsey left him 'crushed inside' after
omitting him from England's European Championship clash with West
Germany in April 1972. That would lead Mullery to call time on his
international career. True, England lost 3-1 that day, even with Colin
Bell as his replacement, but there can't be much doubt that Bell was the
better player.
Mullery still feels deep shame about becoming the first England
player to be sent off, in the 1-0 loss to Yugoslavia at the 1968
European Championship, for kicking an opponent. Sir Alf eased the pain
by telling him: 'I'm glad somebody decided to give those bastards a
taste of their own medicine.' Good times? Winning the FA Cup and League
Cup at Spurs and leading them to the Uefa Cup in 1972 and scoring a
vital goal in the 3-2 aggregate triumph over Wolves that secured the
trophy.
In 1976 he became boss at Brighton, taking them from the Third
Division to the First Division and keeping them there with a series of
shrewd buys.
There is a happy ending. Mullery realised that the only person those
long-held grudges were hurting was the man in the mirror. He made his
peace with Bill Nick, sorted out his readies, and now loves being a TV
pundit. His autobiography ain't bad
either.