Less than half a mile from the stadium where he was adored by supporters of
Manchester United, Norman Whiteside would shuffle into North Trafford
College with his physics homework. The rest of the class was made up of
pimply teenagers. He was a grown man who had played in two World Cups and
scored in an FA Cup Final, but he still had to recite Archimedes’ principle.
Going back to school to take his GCSEs was, Whiteside says, the most
frightening thing he has done; more terrifying even than facing a crimson
Sir Alex Ferguson after yet another bender.
But he did it, which is one of the reasons why his forthcoming autobiography
is called Determined rather than “Always Look on the Whiteside” or
“Belfast Boy”. “I chose Determined because I’ve always
been like that, whether it’s becoming a footballer or going back to school,”
he said. “I decided not to swear when I was 11 and I haven’t since. I’m like
that when I set my mind to something.”
From sharing a bed with two brothers in a terrace house off the Shankill Road
in Belfast, Whiteside’s single-mindedness brought him 272 appearances for
Manchester United and 38 for Northern Ireland before a battered knee cut his
career brutally short at 26. He likes to look back with a laugh rather than
regrets and he likes to do so with a drink in his hand. His determination on
the day we meet is to break records for Rioja consumption.
The longest of lunches follows an unexpected reunion with Paul McGrath, his
former United teammate. Great friends, their stories have been entwined in
the public mind since Ferguson turfed them out of Old Trafford in a 24-hour
purge of the unruly drinkers. As he summons another bottle of red,
Whiteside, now a jowly and jolly 42, is not about to deny that he likes
either the taste or the warming glow of alcohol, but he is adamant that
injury rather than booze brought about his premature exit from Old Trafford.
As his first manager, “Big” Ron Atkinson, might have said, Whiteside can
drink for fun. McGrath would drink to oblivion.
“Paul might have a different answer, but I always felt in control,” Whiteside
said. “If you’re 18, 19, playing for the best club in the world, getting
reasonably well paid, you are entitled to go and have a few beers. I never
thought it was harming my football.
“I have admitted my part of it [the drinking culture], but Bryan Robson could
and would drink more than me. But he was the best player in the country and
he didn’t have a dodgy knee.”
Whiteside had a serious operation even before his record-breaking appearance
for Northern Ireland in the 1982 World Cup finals. At 17 years and 41 days,
he was nearly six months younger than Pelé had been in 1958. Sharing a plane
with the great Brazilian one day, Whiteside took childish delight in
mouthing “only the second-youngest” behind Pelé’s back for the entire
journey.
He had played only 102 minutes for United before his World Cup debut, making
Sven-Göran Eriksson’s choice of Theo Walcott at last year’s World Cup finals
seem almost conservative. But while he was youthful in age, the Shankill
Skinhead might have been born with stubble.
A heavy tackler as well as a heavy drinker, Whiteside is best loved among
hardcore United fans not for his FA Cup-winning curler against Everton in
1985 but for one memorably violent appearance off the bench at Anfield.
United were trailing 3-1 but came back to draw 3-3 thanks to Whiteside
poleaxing John Barnes with an elbow and catching Steve McMahon somewhere
below the neck. “I kicked lumps out of them,” Whiteside recalled, proudly.
The combination of brute force, deft touch and vision on the ball would lead
Ferguson to describe Whiteside as “close to the genius category”. But his
time was always going to be limited; he was only 21 when a United
physiotherapist drove him home after yet another operation and predicted
bleakly that “you’ll only have another five years”. The forecast was
accurate.
While he gets on well with Ferguson these days - it is hard to imagine
Whiteside falling out with anyone - he disputes his former manager’s
assertion that his drinking showed a “contempt for his career”. But
Ferguson’s word was law and the end came shortly after McGrath and Whiteside
made a sozzled appearance on a Granada television show, giggling like
naughty schoolboys. “I was driving, so I know I wasn’t off my head,”
Whiteside said, but McGrath had downed a skinful for Dutch courage.
Asked if he should have done more to help his old friend, whose battles with
alcoholism were painfully recounted in his own autobiography last year,
Whiteside’s joviality slips for a second.
“I did help Big Paul,” he said. “When he was banned from driving, I picked his
kids up and took them to school. Robbo was banned at the same time
[Whiteside would be later] and I ran their families around and then took
them to training.
“Listen, I was as shocked as anyone reading Paul’s book. I certainly had a few
tears. He had never mentioned half that stuff to me.”
So what did they talk about last week? “We just sat and giggled, talked about
how good we were,” Whiteside said. “We were looking at the happy side.”
What relevance has Whiteside’s story today? Well, plenty for the United
supporters who roared him out at Wembley in May, when he joined a parade of
renowned FA Cup finalists. There would be collective embarrassment on the
Stretford End when reminded that only 7,434 turned up for his testimonial in
May 1992. The fans did not have the stomach for another match after narrowly
missing out on the title to Leeds United, but that was no consolation for
Whiteside, who could have done with the money.
Just as football’s drinking culture has changed in time to spare Wayne Rooney
from guzzling in Cheshire pubs, so salaries spiralled only after Whiteside’s
retirement in 1991, in the wake of two injury-ravaged years with Everton.
He needed a job and having spent so much time in the physiotherapist’s room,
he decided to become a podiatrist. He spent five years gathering the
qualifications and was taken on by the Professional Footballers’ Association
before, shortsightedly, the funding was cut.
He still has a room in a clinic in central Manchester, but examining people’s
feet is a part-time job along with summer coaching courses, after-dinner
speaking and match-day hospitality at Old Trafford.
“But I’m glad I did it,” he said. “It wasn’t easy going back to school. You’ve
got kids gawping at me, but I’m head down, leave me alone. Eventually the
teacher got me up the front of the class to talk about playing for Man
United. And I could see some of these teenagers thinking, ‘Did he really
play in the Cup Final?’ ”
He did and, what’s more, he can still recite Archimedes’ principle, even after
a couple of bottles of wine.
Norman’s bright side
Born May 7, 1965
Place of birth Belfast
Position Midfield player/forward
Height 6ft 2in
Clubs Manchester United, Everton Made United debut on April 24, 1982,
in 1-0 win away to Brighton & Hove Albion Made Northern Ireland debut
during 1982 World Cup in Spain, in goalless draw against Yugoslavia United
record (1982-89)
Appearances (sub) Goals
League 193 (13) 47
FA Cup 24 10
League Cup 26 (3) 9
Europe 11 (2) 1
Other Games 2 0
Total 256 (18) 67
- Honours with United: won the FA Cup in 1983 and 1985
- Northern Ireland record (1982-89): 38 appearances, nine goals
- Started all five matches in World Cup finals in 1982, including 1-0 victory
over Spain
- Moved to Everton in 1989 for £600,000, but made only 29 appearances
- Retired in 1990, aged 26, because of persistent knee injury
What they said
“The only thing I have in common with George Best is that we come from the
same place, play for the same club and were discovered by the same man” - Norman
Whiteside
“If Norman had a yard more pace, he would have been one of the greatest
players ever produced in British football” - Sir Alex Ferguson
“I have the greatest admiration for him . . . but I believe he sought refuge
in a lifestyle which naturally created conflict with my concept of a United
player” - Ferguson
On Monday Read the first exclusive extracts from Norman Whiteside’s
autobiography, only in TheGame. For a copy of the book (£16.99 p&p
free; RRP £18.99) phone 0870 160 80 80 or go to timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst
