INTERVIEW: Speaking to Lawrie McMenemy - (as well as Hugh Fisher, Nick Holmes and Paul Bennett)

If you've looked at Koeman's Korner in the last 18 hours or so, you'll know that today I was invited to interview Lawrie McMenemy and a handful of the '76 FA Cup winning team, at a Mayoral reception at the Southampton Guildhall to mark the run up to the 40th anniversary of that famous day.

Here's my one-on-one interview with Lawrie McMenemy. There's a second part, but I'll type that up as we got interrupted by Mike Osman and Nick Holmes!




When I get a chance, I'll type up and post the interview with Hugh, Nick and Paul as well.


Hope you find this interesting.


DTLW

 

Aagh, sentence starting with "so" alert.

Looking forward to reading it. I knew Hugh a bit, great chap and , of course, he scored the last minute equalising goal in the FA Cup 3rd round.

 

Tell you what, I'll take the 'so' out - just for you.

 

Here's the transcript! (Well, the first one, anyway!)

 

Legends

 

Good stuff. Have you got yourself a new agent recently DTLW??

 

What makes you think that...?

 

Here's a transcript of Part One with Lawrie, for anyone interested...

(I'm planning to release Part Two at the start of next week, with an interview a day for the website who provided me with the access to the event - http://stmarysmusings.sbnation.com)

I'll post them up here as and when, provided people still want them! Hugh Fisher, Jim Steele, Paul Bennett and Nick Holmes' exclusive interviews will be up next week!


---

Obviously approaching the 40th anniversary now, since the cup win - what are your fondest memories from that day?

Well obviously the final whistle! The nerves for the last seven minutes, Bobby Stokes got the goal, bless him - but it was the seven longest minutes of my life, really. From then on in I can remember clearly everything that happened. Back to the hotel, we were always going to go out that night. We had booked to stay the night [in London] that night.

The journey back, the bus journey - everything. Some fantastic memories. The fact that there were so few players compared to now. You’ve got squads now of 25, this cup squad was 14 - in fact, one of them moved after the first round! That would never happen nowadays, because they played 42 league games as well, before FA Cup and League Cup games. I think that is what makes it so special.

The evidence of two lads has gone already. It’s sad. They were very, very popular. Little Bobby scoring the winning goal, and Ossie was a legend anyway. Tommy Docherty is a great friend of many years, he’s coming down I think, to re-enact bits of it.

I was with [Roberto] Martinez when we were at the ‘Hall of Fame’ for the LMA. I was stood next to him and I said ‘You look a bit down, come on, get your head up’. He said he’d just been relegated, but I said ‘Yeah, but you won the FA Cup. Look, in twenty to thirty years time, everybody in Wigan will remember you winning the cup - they'll forget you being relegated.’

It was the best season the club’s ever had in its history. We were second top in 83-84, after 42 games. But the man in the street doesn't remember that, but they all remember us winning the cup.


Do you think winning the cup proved the catalyst to going into the First Division and that great run that Saints had in the 80s?

Well, in my first season we got relegated in 73-74. We were third bottom, and it was the first time anyone third bottom had gone down - and we went down with more points than we’d stayed up with in some of the previous seasons! These days, I would’ve been out of the door. The board stood by me and I repaid their loyalty with the cup in ’76, the Charity Shield which was a bonus and the League Cup Final in ’79. But the one target was always getting back in the top flight and we did that.

Then, the task was to keep in there and then climb up as high as we could. You need time for that, and they don't give managers that time these days. Some managers don't want that time. I was here, altogether, for 12 years. It was a terrific period and I also established what is now the academy.

We didn't have any money, compared to some. But the board allowed me to appoint people up in Newcastle, London and in the West Country. We had three centres. We brought school kids in and had professionals coaching them in each area. The best ones came down in the school holidays. The result of that was, from the north-east - Alan Shearer, Ian Maddison and Tommy Widdrington. From London, the three Wallace brothers. Steve Williams, Austin Hayes, Matt Le Tissier came in a different way, but I signed him as a schoolboy. And eventually, Gareth Bale and Jason Dodd. So, my idea was young legs with senior players at the end of their careers. I couldn't have afforded them normally. So it was old heads and young legs together - and it worked. We played good football and the youngsters learned every minute. In particular, Alan Ball.

I met little Steve Moran, on a Sunday morning in the Tyro League while I was watching my own kids play. He was up at Hull and he asked me to come and meet some people. I asked if he’d told them about all the goals he’d scored. He was smiling, and I said ‘did he tell you he had Keegan on one side, Channon on the other and Alan Ball behind him?’


You spoke about Martinez and the people of Wigan and what it means to them. Does it mean a lot to you that the people of Southampton still show an interest 40 years on?

Oh, totally!

I can go into Romsey, which is my area, and I can go around the post office or the bank or get a cup of coffee and there'll be at least one person that will stop me and remember where they were on the day after, on the route around [the parade]. Old ladies who’ve never been to the ground! But, they can all tell you where they were.


We were just talking a moment ago about winning it in ’76, but just how far away do you think Ronald Koeman and his team are now?

Well, that’s the magic. If you were to say to me, how far off do you think [of finishing 2nd in 1984], I would say nigh on impossible with the way the money situation is in the game. The bigger grounds, the bigger clubs with bigger budgets have got more chance. But the cup, the magic of it is that anybody can win it. It’s been proved, in recent years, that somebody in the Second Division can get to the final, as we did. We were in the second level. That’s the magic of it.

Southampton are not just second level now. They've proved that they can beat anybody in the country. I would love them to win it next year. That’d be fantastic, to win it in the year of the 40th anniversary celebrations.

 

Did you tell him it's "Neil" Maddison, not Ian.

 

Ah, memories! I can tell you where I was that day.....at Wembley, being passed back up to my brother after disappearing in the surge when Bobby scored!

Coming back on the supporters' train and being greeted at every level crossing and bridge by a cacophony of hooting cars and scarves. Jeez, 39 years ago; I feel old!

 

Sorry about that, its just one of my things, up there with ending a sentence on an up-note.

Anyway, good read. Lawrie can never mention Bobby Stokes without saying, "bless him".

I can't believe it was 40 years ago. I could write my own book of memories from that day alone. But I'll save them as I'm sure we'll be discussing this a lot next year.

 

When you think back to the Lawrie years we were truly spoilt as Saints fans to have players brought into the rank like Keegan, Channon, Bally, Shilton, Golac, Mills, Watson, Boyer, Big Ron, Ozzie, Armstrong, Rodrigues, Charlie George etc. etc. etc. etc.

 

Clubs weren't stockpiling players then, so there was a greater chance of getting good players who just wanted to play. And, although there would have been difference in wages, I doubt it is as great as now.

 

And as Lawrie said, they played the entire cup run, and 42 league games as well, with a squad of 14 men. Unbelievable in the context of the modern game.

 

Part two with Lawrie - talking Saints, Schneiderlin and summer transfer window - going live on the website at 17:00.

Lawrie also tells us which current Saints player he'd have liked to manage - any guesses?

 

I'll take a guess at Schneiderlin then, seeing as how you've mentioned him. If it's anyone other than Morgan, I'll go for Pelle.

 

He was talking Schneiderlin purely due to injury/speculation!

 

El capitan - Fonte

 

I'll go for Sadio.

 

Pelle's my guess then.