Bubbly sure beat cleaning boots and hiding in a car park for months on end. Bubbly sure beat cleaning boots and hiding in a car park for months on end.
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So Charlton moved on and you played 70 games for Middlesbrough and established yourself there.

After Jack left I started to play really well. We got a new manager, John Neill, who became a father figure, and encouraged me. When I did make the first team the quote from Jack Charlton was, “I always knew the Kangaroo was going to make it.” I was thinking, “You son of a gun … ”

Then Liverpool picked you up for three-quarters-of-a-million pounds, making you the most expensive player in Britain. Were you shy meeting Kenny Dalglish, such a legend of Liverpool football? And then to play with him?

Mate, I’m still shy meeting Kenny. He came and stayed with us for ten days last year (in Isleworth, Florida) to play golf – he’s a mad golfer, he and Alan Hansen. I’m still shy. He’s still King Kenny. I still pinch myself. The thing is that I also helped Kenny to look good because I was the opposite to him. He knew that I’d run off him and it would confuse defenders. The lovely thing is that he knows that without people running off him, he wouldn’t look so good. It’s good that way, football. The true stars recognise that’s what’s happening.

Those Liverpool sides of the ‘80s seemed particularly close …

When you were a Liverpool player, when you got the ball, three people were running off you, so you had three options, which gave you more time and made you look good. Because the players liked each other. You knew it was going to be hard work, but there was no issue because you liked the bloke. So the defenders are confused and your mate has more options. Watch the television. If there’s a team where a couple of players don’t like each other because of ego issues, they don’t run for each other. It was a Liverpool secret: the classic champion team, not a team of champions. Back then we didn’t know about real scientific athleticism, so we had a saying: “Win or lose, hit the booze.” So after games we’d have crates of beer being loaded onto buses by the coaches. They called it “liquid team spirit”. I don’t think the world has seen team spirit and camaraderie like it. And every one of those guys was an absolute gentleman and a bright guy.  History has proven that every one of those guys has gone on and done something substantial, be it broadcasting or whatever. There was never any scandal, disrespect for women, drug abuse. And it’s testament to the professionalism back then. Each player was a good bloke who you’d run your heart out for. And if there were egos, they soon got lost in the quest for the greater cause

You were heavily involved in the FA Cup win in ‘86, scoring the goal to put Liverpool ahead, after almost claiming Ian Rush’s first one. Is that the standalone career highlight?

Well, there was a European Cup, the FA Cup. But really, I’m still a fan of the game. Pulling on a Liverpool jersey, a Middlesbrough jersey, they were highlights. Winning the FA Cup and the double … only three teams that century had ever done it … and it was particularly entrenched that year because Everton could’ve won the double also. So the two best teams in Europe were in the same city, one red, one blue. It was extremely intense. Most of the season Everton were winning the League, so the last ten games were like being in a war-zone. We had to win every one to win the double and we did. When I scored the goal it was like time slowed down. Players talk about being in a zone, but when that ball came across it was like someone slowed the video down. I thought, “Hang on, this is Wembley Stadium, it can’t be this easy. There’s the ball coming over, the goalkeeper’s already dived, there’s the clear, white posts, the cross bar.” It was a lovely, sunny day and there were 45,000 red scarves in the background. And then I put it in and the world erupted. Players were all over me and I remember saying, “I’ve done it! I’ve done it!” But I didn’t mean that I’ve scored a goal. I meant that I’ve come from the quadrangle of Booragul High School and I was now one of those blokes I used to watch on television. Then I was hoping beyond hope that Everton didn’t score and thank goodness Rushy scored another one. It was a good night.