| Reflections of a legend England's most capped footballer has been lost to the game since his retirement in 1997 – but he is not lost for wordsDiego Maradona is on the line. He wants Peter Shilton to come on his chat show in Argentina. "Hand of God" victim and perpetrator have not been in the same room since the Mexico World Cup of 1986, and here is a chance for reconciliation. But Maradona wants it the easy way.Shilton says: "He invited me to go on with Gary Lineker when Gary went over to do that [BBC] documentary but I just said: 'Look, you're a great player, but the first thing you do is say: "I'm sorry, I should have apologised, I did cheat." But he wasn't prepared to do that, so I said: 'Well, I'm not doing it.'"To understand this stance you need to have been on the wrong end of a fisted goal in a World Cup quarter-final: one that placed you indelibly as the fall guy in one of sport's biggest scandals. In that frame, Shilton is the goalkeeping legend out-punched by the springy Maradona, who displayed his B-side in the same game with probably the greatest World Cup goal, which not only Shilton but the whole England defence were powerless to stop.But if England's record caps holder (125) sounds bitter, he acknowledges that his part in the swindle beefed up his after-dinner speaking routine no end. "As I've got older it's worked in my favour because it's a moment people remember," he says. "At the time, I just felt let down by the referee and linesman. I had to put up with people saying: 'How can you let a little fella outjump you?'"Maradona was the greatest player I played against, and he lost a lot in terms of long-term respect. He didn't show the good side, the sportsmanship, the humility to own up to cheating. But as time goes by it's good for the after-dinners. With goalkeeping, things get remembered. I don't like to be associated with it, because I had a 30-year career, and I like to think I did one or two other things."Now that the 1966 generation are off nostalgia's carousel for a while it is the turn of other England icons to have their say on the World Cup debacle and how the side may recover. Tuesday brings the latest Euro 2012 qualifier, against Montenegro, with Fabio Capello's men back in the groove of knifing smaller nations.To get his take on England's collapse in South Africa, it seems a smart idea to run a theory past him. The idea is that when Robert Green bungled a shot from the USA's Clint Dempsey into his own net in Rustenburg, fatalism gripped the England side. Fear and trepidation set in. Shilton looks bemused, then says, with excellent disdain: "That's just an excuse, as far as I'm concerned."Brian Clough's European Cup-winning keeper at Nottingham Forest looks equally perplexed at the suggestion that he disappeared after the last of his 1,005 league appearances in 1997. In his autobiography he confessed to a gambling problem that is now conquered. He is from that generation who have been given a second chance to farm their fame. For people of a certain vintage, to look at him now is to see half of one's youth.Shilton's expertise and fastidiousness was lost to the game once he felt the need to escape the austerity of his trade, and Ray Clemence stepped in to become the Football Association's main authority. "I did a bit at Middlesbrough with Bryan Robson a couple of days a week, but I steered away from it because I'd done it for 30 years and I didn't want to do the same thing for a job," he says."After Italia 90 Graham Taylor took me on as goalkeeping coach. Seven months in I realised it was a bit too early for me. I'd finished as England goalkeeper with Dave Beasant, David Seaman and Chris Woods as natural successors, and two months later I'm in there coaching them in the England squad. So there was no time break when I could freshen up. It was probably a risky thing to do, but I said: 'I don't think it's the right time for me.' Then Ray got in there and has stuck at it."These days Shilton, 61, is a full-time after-dinner speaker and has become a favourite of football sponsors and advertisers. "I'm doing more media, I've got better at that because I'm more mature," he says. His part in the current series of Strictly Come Dancing will introduce today's generation to the last great England goalkeeper.Leading players from his era are noticeably less needy than today's household names, hence his impatience with talk of emotional syndromes. The idea that public and media pressure are a modern creation offends them. Shilton is among those who lived through a vicious newspaper circulation war, in a time when the memory of 1966 was sufficiently fresh to sustain expectations just as onerous as the "golden generation" myth."If you make a mistake for England you're always going to get slaughtered. I remember playing in a game just before Italia 90 when my age was brought into it, against Uruguay, the last game before we went out. We lost 2-1 at home. They scored from a free-kick over the wall. I managed to get across to it but palmed it into the goal. It was right in the corner and I was at full stretch. The next morning I picked up a paper to see the headline 'Sack Shilton'. I couldn't remember the last time I'd made a mistake for England. Suddenly I was too old."Nowadays players are treated like superstars every minute of the day. We would report on a Sunday night at Cockfosters and go down the local White Hart for a few pints. Just for a bit of team spirit, a bit of bonding. You could do that because you didn't have the mobile phones. If you stepped out of line you were in the papers, but it wasn't as intense."Sir Bobby Robson's Italia 90 semi-finalists were the most successful England side since 1966, with Shilton in goal for the penalty shoot-out against West Germany, but he prefers an earlier crop. "The best England team I played in potentially was the one that got knocked out in 1973 [in World Cup qualifying] against Poland. I thought that team had everything. On the night we should have won by five against a team that finished third in the World Cup. And everyone said Poland were rubbish."We had Roy McFarland at centre-half and players like Tony Currie and Allan Clarke, who was one of the greatest finishers I ever played with. It was full of character and flair."In Shilton's head is an encyclopaedia of goalkeeping knowhow, so it pays to listen to him on Joe Hart, who may have solved England's long drought. "It's been a meteoric, dramatic rise from being out of the team at Man City. But I like people who take the chance given to them, and Joe's done that."You feel comfortable watching him play for England because you feel he's in charge of his box and he's dominating. He's a young lad, this is the test, it starts from here. He's got a couple of technical aspects he needs to improve on, but that's just me looking at it as a keeper and it's usual for a youngster, so it's not a criticism."When he makes a mistake, it's how he recovers. He hasn't got to do what Robert Green, David James and Scott Carson have done – that scenario where it's one mistake every three games, because you can't afford to do that. People start losing confidence in you. Defenders look as though they have confidence in Joe. We still have to see. I'm glad to see Rob Green back in there, by the way."Every grandstand general knows a reliable goalkeeper fortifies the defence, psychologically, and that the reverse is true: a shaky custodian engenders insecurity. "Paramount," Shilton says. "Any successful manager – [Alf] Ramsey, Brian Clough – will say sticking it in the net is the hardest thing, but having a good goalkeeper is the second vital element to having a successful team. That last line of defence, that confidence at the back, that authority. A bit of leadership in a way, because you're in charge of everything in front of you, you can see everything."My first line of defence was my mouth, and my communication. Towards the end of my career I probably shouted a bit too much, because the pressure was building. People would say to me: 'You didn't have much to do today,' but I knew I'd played a great game with my mouth, getting the best out of the players. Building their confidence up. 'Great head, son', or 'What a tackle that was'."That's so important. And yet I see so many goalkeepers these days stand there and just react to everything. They don't try to stop things before they happen. A lot of that has gone out of the game, along with the technique training. It's all about agility. Don't get me started ..."This, you learn, This, you learn, was a keeper so dependable that Clough and Peter Taylor, his sidekick, ran out of things to say to him. "They used to criticise me for not throwing the ball out well enough. Peter Taylor told me later: 'It's the only thing we could think of. We had to find something to criticise you for just to keep you on your toes.'"At a team meeting on a Friday, Clough would keep us waiting for an hour and a half. We'd get so annoyed because we were winning every game, and then he'd throw the team-sheet down and say: 'See you tomorrow.' The point was: you're not too big to wait around, just because you're top of the league."Sometimes you wonder how so much wisdom, so much knowledge, drains away in football when great players retire, in England, where Shilton is still waiting for Maradona's apology.EnglandPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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Notts County sack Short after five months • Short leaves Meadow Lane following defeat to Colchester• Notts Country struggling in 16th place in League OneCraig Short has been sacked as manager of Notts County less than five months after taking charge at Meadow Lane.The 42-year-old former Magpies defender took over at the start of June but has paid the price for a less than convincing start at the ambitious club, who are 16th in League One following yesterday's 2-1 defeat at Colchester. His assistant, Dave Kevan, has also been relieved of his duties.Short was appointed as successor to Steve Cotterill, who parted ways to take charge at Portsmouth having led County to promotion back in May.A statement on County's official website read: "Following a board meeting convened this morning, the board decided to review the current status of the first team. Following this review it was decided to make changes to the first-team management."Consequently, first-team manager Craig Short and assistant manager Dave Kevan have been relieved of their duties with immediate effect. The board wishes to thank them both for all of their endeavours while at Notts County and wish them well for the future."Short's only previous management position was in charge of the Hungarian side Ferencvaros, whom he led between November 2009 and May 2010.Notts CountyLeague Oneguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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