So farewell Teddy Sheringham – top player, top bloke. After a week in which Manchester United reached the Champions League final, evoking memories of his greatest hour, it is perhaps appropriate that one of the finest footballers of his generation is excused this afternoon and spared making one last appearance for relegated Colchester at Scunthorpe when the bottom two in the Championship meet.

A funereal Glanford Park would have been some valediction for the man who will forever be remembered for the dramatic denouement he produced at the Nou Camp on that sensational summer night in 1999. A month past his 42nd birthday, “Steady Teddy” is finally hanging up those well-travelled boots. He intends, sooner or later, to try his luck in management, and if schooling, nous and strength of purpose are requirements of the trade, he is well-equipped to succeed all over again.

Sheringham has played for some of the very best, including Brian Clough, who insisted on calling him Edward, Terry Venables, for whom he was always the first name on the teamsheet, and Sir Alex Ferguson, and what he hasn’t learnt in nearly 25 years as a professional probably isn’t worth knowing.

His passing marks the end of an era. Contemporaries with whom he played, such as Tony Cascarino, Des Walker, Jurgen Klinsmann and Roy Keane, are all long gone. Sheringham is probably the last of the breed who predate the infernal time when every Wayne, Jermain and Carlos in the Premier League became a superstar, at least in his own mind. When Sheringham first came to prominence, most teams, both club and national, flew on the same planes and stayed in the same hotels as the media and some trusted fans, and would happily shoot the breeze over a post-match beer in the bar.

On one England trip to Norway, in Graham Taylor’s time, Sheringham was about to give a pre-match press conference when he noticed this correspondent and one other looking the worse for wear after a late night. He refused to take the first question until he’d had a full report on the venue and its suitability for a players’ excursion.

Such behaviour is unthinkable today, when planes are chartered for a team’s exclusive use, whole floors, or even entire hotels, are reserved as exclusion zones and anybody who wants to speak to a player is routinely referred to his agent.

Sheringham was Good Old Ted, never Billy Big Time, and was always amenable. Maybe this was because he was brought up in a feet-on-the-ground environment, where players drove Ford Escorts, not Lamborghinis, and frequented the local greasy spoon, rather than San Lorenzo.

His personality and playing style were developed at the school of hard knocks that was Millwall in the 1980s, alongside real hard men such as Terry Hurlock and Les Briley. Those were his roots and he has never turned his back on them. On the contrary, I remember catching the same plane from Manchester to Heathrow in his United days, when he was surreptitiously attending a Millwall players’ reunion. Lock up your daughters, these are fairly frequent, and Sheringham is always first on parade.

Of the old denizens of The Den, Cascarino and goalkeeper Brian Horne are among his best friends. He has other sorts of acquaintances, too, and has little time for Andy Cole, less for Danny Mills and thought Howard Wilkinson was “barking” when he managed England on a caretaker basis.

Old School Sheringham may be, old-fashioned never. His football has always been as up to date as his fashion sense, and he was playing off the main striker, dropping into the hole, years before Dennis Bergkamp brought the role into vogue. At Millwall he was outscored by Cascarino, whom some rated the better player. That was never the case. The former Republic of Ireland striker was a good player, but Sheringham was always a class act who created as many goals for his partner as he scored himself.

When he was in his pomp, throughout the 1990s, nobody was better at holding up the ball and bringing others into play, be it with his back to goal, facing goal or on the half-turn. For what he lacked in pace, there was more than ample compensation in his speed of thought, uncanny awareness and vision and clever deftness of touch. He also scored cracking goals (he was the top division’s leading scorer in 1992-93 with 22) with a powerful shot and productive forehead.

He was at his peak in 1996, when, in company with Alan Shearer, he unhinged Holland’s defence in a 4-1 win at Wembley that was the highlight of England’s run to the semi-finals of the European Championship. If Euro 96 was as good as it got in 51 international appearances, the apogee at club level had to be the 1999 Champions League final in Barcelona. Sheringham, on as substitute for Jesper Blomqvist and with Bayern Munich leading 1-0, scored in stoppage time and still found time to set up Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s winner. Sheringham made many other notable contributions for England, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham (in two spells), United, Portsmouth and West Ham, but it was that night at the Nou Camp that assured him of his place in the pantheon.

Thanks for the memories.

Teddy’s CV

2007-08 Colchester 20 games, four goals
2004-07 West Ham 87 games, 30 goals
2003-04 Portsmouth 38 games, 10 goals
2001-03 Tottenham 80 games, 26 goals
1997-2001 Man Utd 156 games, 47 goals
1992-1997 Tottenham 197 games, 99 goals
1991-92 Nottingham Forest 62 games, 23 goals
1984-91 Millwall 262 games, 111 goals

England 51 caps, 11 goals

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