Gaffers (3 page)

During the period 1946 to 1949, Carey played nine times for the IFA’s Ireland team, helping them to finish runners-up in the British Home Championship of 1947. There were seven players from the Irish Free State and four from Northern Ireland making up the team. A 0–0 draw with Scotland secured the runners-up spot.

CAREY THE COACH

Following his retirement in 1953, Carey accepted the role of Blackburn Rovers manager and, after narrowly missing promotion four times, he took them to the top division in his fifth year in charge. Mick McGrath, who played twenty-two times for Ireland and was signed for Blackburn by Carey, recalls: ‘I first came across Johnny Carey when I was living in Dublin and playing for Home Farm at the age of eighteen. Johnny was in the stand, he would have been manager of Blackburn at the time and he was over scouting for players. The match he was watching was the All-Ireland Under-18 final played in
Dalymount Park and I was in the Home Farm team that day and we were playing against Tower Rovers from Cork. I must have made an impression on him as a few days later he signed me and three others from that match.

‘We travelled over to Blackburn, and Johnny took us into a room, told us we would earn £9 a week and gave us a list of rules and regulations. He told us to respect people. That was a big thing with him.

‘When Carey took over at Blackburn Rovers, he set about changing what was an old team. He brought in Brian Douglas, who was eighteen when he came into the first team, and he also promoted Ronnie Clayton, who would go on to become a club legend. Clayton had made his debut in 1950 but was still a young player when Carey took over. He also made some shrewd signings, bringing in experienced players such as Frank Mooney and Bobby Langton. Carey managed to draw performances from us that we did not know we could achieve. We became known as “Carey’s Chicks”. The average age of the team was twenty to twenty-one.

‘I know people talk up the team that won the Premier League in 1995, but if you speak to older generations of fans, they will tell you that the team that Johnny Carey built was one of the best ever.’

Despite steering Blackburn to promotion, Johnny did not hang around to help them in Division One, as he accepted a role with Everton, who at the time were among the also-rans of the League and a mid-table side. The move did not last long, however, for despite leading the club to their highest post-war position of fifth place in 1961, Carey was sacked at the end of the season. The chairman of the club was the Pools magnate John Moores, who had backed the club financially in the transfer
market and expected more from the team and manager than a fifth place finish. The actual sacking of Carey took place in the back of a taxi. His replacement at Everton was Harry Catterick, who led Everton to the title two years later.

Carey continued his development as a coach with Leyton Orient, whom he led to promotion to the First Division in 1962, to this date their only season in the top tier of English football. But his greatest success as a manager came with Nottingham Forest, whom he guided to the runners-up spot in the First Division, finishing behind his beloved Manchester United. That season he also led Forest to the FA Cup semi-final where they lost to Tottenham Hotspur.

During this time, Carey was also the manager of the Republic of Ireland’s national team. He served as the boss of the national side from 1955 to 1967. However, as was the case with his predecessors, Carey was not responsible for the picking of the side during this period. His reign started with a 2–2 draw at home to Spain in November 1955, and in his second game in charge Ireland travelled to Rotterdam to beat Holland 4–1. Good times, it seemed, were on the way. In fact, Carey enjoyed three wins and a draw in his first eighteen months in charge, but he and the team came crashing down to earth with a 5–1 loss to England in May 1957 in a qualifying game for the 1958 World Cup.

Mick McGrath remembers that ‘from about 1955 onwards, Johnny managed both the Ireland team and the Blackburn team. However, when we were at Blackburn, there was no mention of Ireland. A couple of weeks before a game, the FAI would contact Blackburn and give them the details of Ireland’s game and a list of where we were to go and meet. Even though Johnny was the manager, the squad was picked by a committee.

‘In those days, Ireland games were played on a Sunday, so you would play your club match on a Saturday at 3.00 p.m. – there were no Sunday or Monday games – and when the game finished, you made your way to Liverpool to catch the mail boat over to the North Wall. The conditions at that time meant you could hardly sleep on the boat, and you arrived in Dublin at 7.30 a.m., where you then made your way to the Four Courts Hotel down by the Liffey. That was where we stayed back then. You would then grab a couple of hours’ sleep before you met up with the team at 12 noon in the Gresham Hotel, which was a major hotel in those days. There you would meet up with the League of Ireland lads – some of them you would have never met before.

‘There was no chance for training or practice. We would have a light meal – some lads would have steaks or a poached egg with toast, but I generally had toast and tea – then we would head up to a room and discuss the game. Johnny would generally start by saying he did not know much about the opposition. That was the way it was then. We had to focus on what we had. He would tell us to work hard and to support each other. He would have his pipe in his mouth and he would be puffing away. He would then go to each individual and tell them what their job was.

‘I got my first call for an Ireland squad for a match against Poland, but I didn’t get on that day, and, in fact, I got my first cap against Austria. I was very nervous before the game but was still looking forward to it. We lost 2–0, but I got some decent press.’

That campaign saw Ireland finish runners-up to England. Denmark were the cannon fodder in the group, with Ireland managing to beat them twice. Dermot Curtis was the star of the Irish campaign, with three goals.

A highlight of Carey’s career was presiding over the Republic
of Ireland team during a historic era for football. The game was going through a period of evolution, and with the game growing, the European Championships were created for the cream of Europe. Ireland were drawn against Czechoslovakia in a qualifying round for the first tournament in 1960, which was referred to in those days as the Nations Cup. Ireland won the first leg at Dalymount Park 2–0, with goals from two future Ireland managers: Liam Tuohy, scorer of the first ever goal in the history of the European Championships, and Manchester United’s Noel Cantwell.

Despite conceding an early penalty in the away leg, the Irish performed well and retained the advantage until a twenty-three-minute spell in the second half when they conceded three goals, eventually losing out 4–2 on aggregate. Czechoslovakia went on to qualify for the finals, finishing in third place after being beaten by the ultimate 1960 European Nations Cup winners, the Soviet Union, in the semi-final.

The year 1962 saw the Irish team reach a low point when they suffered a humiliating 7–1 loss to Czechoslovakia in a World Cup qualifying match. This result remains Ireland’s biggest competitive defeat. The team managed to put that disastrous result behind them, but in the European qualifiers of 1964, Ireland lost out to eventual winners Spain.

Tony O’Connell was with Dundalk when he was called into the Ireland squad under Carey: ‘I remember we met at the Gresham Hotel, as was the norm for the time, and he did not say one word to me. I had caught his eye in a League of Ireland XI that had been beaten 4–2 by Scotland. Joe Haverty had called off for the game against Spain, and I was drafted in. There was no discussion before the game, and I remember just
giving it my all. The game finished 0–0. I would not get another cap till four years later.’

Paddy Mulligan looks back at the era and remembers what it was like to be part of the Ireland squad at that time: ‘I was first called into the Ireland squad in 1966 when the team was under the management of Johnny Carey, although Noel [Cantwell] and Charlie [Hurley] were big influences, even in those days. I travelled with the team to Austria and Belgium for a doubleheader. It was amazing. I was surrounded by players I grew up idolising. There was Alan Kelly, Mick McGrath, Tony Dunne and Johnny Giles, all amazing players, not to mention the two managers – I mean Charlie Hurley, who was at Sunderland, and Noel, who was at West Ham and then Manchester United – so to be involved was a great honour. They all had a presence about them. I was in awe, but they all were great and welcomed me into the squad with open arms.

‘I remember we played Austria on the Sunday and lost 1–0. We were very unlucky, too, but that was the way it was for Irish football in those days. A short pass from Mick McGrath back to Alan Kelly led to the winner for Austria, although I remember that Mick Meagan twice had to clear the ball off the line.

‘Then, a few days later, we played Belgium and got a great result, winning 3–2. Noel Cantwell scored twice that day. I did not get on the pitch in either game, but to be involved was just fantastic. I had played for a League of Ireland selection XI, which was made up of players that only played in the League of Ireland, against Scotland and England, but to be in the Ireland team was altogether different.’

Carey’s final game in charge came in February 1967, when
Ireland lost to Turkey 2–1. In all he was Ireland manager for forty-six matches. Many people thought that he was too relaxed to be a manager and often left the players to decide the tactics. He never challenged the status quo of the era and was happy to go along with the decisions of the FAI. According to Mick McGrath, ‘Carey was a very quiet man. He spoke to you like you were his equal, but you definitely knew he was the boss. He was very shrewd. You have to remember that Johnny was trained in the school of Sir Matt Busby from his time at Manchester United, and he was of a similar footballing mind. He would tell us that even if we were losing, we should still play good football.’

Eric Barber recalls the early days in his career when he was in a couple of squads under Johnny Carey: ‘I remember that it was Noel who would speak to us. He would tell people to pull their weight and to watch certain opposition players. The first time I was in the squad, I was sitting in the hotel and Johnny Carey looked at me and asked, “Who’s that?” Someone told him I was Eric Barber. Another time we were in Milltown, training before a game and a civilian, dressed up in all the gear, came out and trained with us. The players knew, of course, but Johnny Carey did not know who he was.’

Carey’s hands were tied a lot of the time. Despite being a big name in the world of football, many people thought he was too laid-back to use his name and the power associated with it to make changes within the Irish game. According to Mick McGrath: ‘The players wanted change, though. I remember we travelled to Poland for a game, and there were fifteen players in the squad on the flight but twenty FAI officials. It was mad really. We would often have a midweek game, and I would head
out to Shamrock Rovers’ pitch to train, but there would be no one there. Then, ten minutes later, someone else would come along. There was no organisation to it. Everyone went by their own tune, it needed someone to step up and arrange things better.’

Frank O’Farrell says Johnny Carey was a player whom everyone within the set-up had great respect for: ‘He was a wartime player, and we all knew that to play under him was a big honour. That said, he did very little in terms of team preparation. He would give the pre-match and half-time talk. Things were not as thorough as they are today. The system in those days was very strange.

‘Looking back at my own time in the green shirt, I only got nine caps for Ireland over the course of seven years. After playing for West Ham, I transferred to Preston North End in a swap for ‘Busby Babe’ Eddie Lewis and was probably playing the best football of my life, yet I wasn’t called into the squad. It was very strange. Still, it was a great honour to play for my country.

‘I made my debut for Ireland against Austria in a 6–0 defeat, although we won the return fixture 4–0, and I scored. In those days you could be called into one squad, then left out of the next and then called in again – there was no consistency. Johnny had no involvement in the squad and team selection. It was not like it is today, where the squad is named and then on the day of the game the team is named; in those days the selectors announced the team straight away, with only one or two subs named on the bench.

‘Johnny was a good manager to the younger players, though. He gave us good advice and told us to mind our money, not that we had a lot. Not only that but he pushed us to challenge for a place, and I would not have played at the level I did if it were
not for him. You see, I was in the youth team and reserve team at Blackburn, and there was a lad in the first team who played wing-half who broke his leg, so Johnny said to me there was a spot if I wanted it and was hungry enough to be a regular in the team, which I was.

‘Football then was not what it is like now. Money has, to an extent, changed the game. On the pitch the basics remain the same. But off the field there are more distractions. I laugh now when I think back to a meeting we had with Johnny. He was trying to keep us level-headed. There was one lad in the team at that time and he had twenty-six shirts. Johnny said to him, “What do you want with twenty-six shirts?” He did not understand it, and I don’t think he would understand the footballers of today.

‘I still keep in touch with people from Blackburn Rovers, and I hear stories of sixteen- and seventeen-year-old players earning as much as £4,000 a week. It’s crazy money, especially when you think about what we were getting.