Big Jack

The grim reaper came for another of England’s famous 1966 World Cup winning side On Friday as Jack Charlton bowed out at the age of 85. In Ireland the focus was on his managerial achievements with our national soccer team but of course Jack had an illustrious career as a player with the great Leeds United team of the sixties and seventies as well as with England. It’s probably fair to say that this Leeds team has over the years provoked as much psychological analysis as football analysis because of their dominance on the one hand and their ultimate failure on the other. The complexity began with the manager Don Revie who was the Arsene Wenger of his day bringing an attention to detail previously unseen in English football. To give his team the winning feeling he changed the club colour to all white the same as the aristocrats of European football Real Madrid. As Leeds progressed some of their football did indeed emulate Madrid but they also earned a reputation for toughness not to say brutality for their ‘take no prisoners ‘approach. But their dominance never achieved its promise as between 1965 and 1975 they lost three FA cup finals and two European finals. League titles arrived in the seasons of 69 and 74 And it’s fair to say that Leeds were denied the European cup in 75 by a refereeing decision even the opposition couldn’t justify. ‘Big Jack’ as he was known was centre half in these glory years for the club and on his retirement announced that he had always kept a ‘little black book’ containing the names of players who had crossed him. When midfield maestro Johnny Giles was asked if he knew anything about this book years later he burst out laughing and said jack wouldn’t hurt a fly! Giles of course (a genuine assassin) would know. Along with Norman ‘bites your legs’ Hunter, Billy Bremner And Paul Reaney these were the players who delivered justice Leeds United style to the opposition. On retirement jack went into management and eventually landed the job as Ireland boss. Though the Irish had come close they had never actually qualified for the finals of the World Cup or European cup. This would soon change and oddly enough it came about on a night when neither Ireland nor big jack was involved. For Ireland to qualify for the 1988 euros would require the unlikely result of Scotland winning away in Bulgaria. That at long last Ireland had a manager on whom the football gods smiled was revealed as Gary McKay stuck the ball in the Bulgarian net to give Scotland an astonishing win and Ireland a ticket to the euro finals. Once there big jack cemented his place in Irish hearts forever by trouncing England one goal to nil. Further glory would arrive in 1990 as jack got us to the World Cup finals in Italy where the hosts knocked us out in the quarter finals. As the games played out the country went increasingly mad as football frenzy took over and people flocked onto the streets after every match. Such were the celebrations in Ireland that one sports reporter said he’d missed ‘Italia 90’ as he was at the World Cup in Italy! Spoiled by success some football pundits began taking issue with jacks style of play. His well articulated philosophy of ‘inflicting our game on the opposition’ brought the charge that our football was too agricultural and could never bring ultimate success. It was further alleged that jacks style sold our players short as the midfield was too often bypassed by a long ball strategy which more sophisticated teams had no trouble with. We had ‘world class players’ in our ranks and should consider ourselves ‘contenders’. These arguments polarised opinion of course. In one camp was the ‘you’ve never had it so good’ side and it’s fair to say the other side was a minority but well argued view. At all events Ireland failed to qualify for euro 92 and our next success was the 94 World Cup campaign which sent us on our way to the USA. By this time Ireland’s travelling support was as famous as its players and won hearts and minds all over the world with their good behaviour and cheerfulness. In Orlando with time to kill one group of supporters visited Disneyland to taste the delights of the magic kingdom, Mickey Mouse and the rest of it and even had their own guide inevitably named Wanda. It didn’t take long for the lads now thousands of miles from their cultural comfort zone to put their own spin on the various rides Wanda extolled and when she boasted of Florida Disney having the biggest unsupported ‘Mickey’ in the world some of them were so doubled over that the mystified Wanda thought she’d have to send for an ambulance. Anyway the laughter stopped as Mexico went on to beat us fair and square in a stadium called the ‘citrus bowl’ where the temperature was like the surface of the sun. A few days later the Dutch finished us off at the same hellhole. This was as good as it got with Ireland for Big Jack but the outpouring of sympathy and nostalgia here at his death is a testament to the gratitude the nation has for him and the way he made us believe we could take our place and hold our own among the greatest footballing nations on earth.