Gaffers (6 page)

In those days, the coaching of the kids at West Ham was the responsibility of one or two of the senior players, most notably Noel and Malcolm Allison. In fact, the pair were instrumental in the development of a young Bobby Moore, encouraging the manager Ted Fenton to introduce him to the first team. Those early years allowed Cantwell to develop the skills that he would later hone at Coventry, where he helped to shape a squad of talented players.

When training had finished for the day, Cantwell, Allison, Sexton and Bond would spend hours after training at a local
café talking football and tactics, using the condiments of the café to work out their strategies. O’Farrell would also join them on their coffee trips, and he remembers this time as laying the foundations for their managerial careers: ‘I remember after training each day we would go to Casatori’s Italian café near the ground and talk football. This was around the time that the famous Hungarian national football team came to England and surprised everyone with their skills and tactical ability. Malcolm Allison was the main organiser of the get-togethers. He had done some national service with the English army and had seen the difference in the footballing skills between the footballers of Eastern Europe (where he was based) and their English counterparts. Dave Sexton, John Bond, Noel Cantwell and I would move spoons and salt cellars around and argue over tactics.

‘Ted Fenton, the manager of West Ham at the time, was very open-minded, and he would allow us to practise some of the tactics we came up with in training. In those days Noel was a very forthright character with a lot to say. He knew how to get his point of view across, too.

‘The conversations that took place between us were to inspire a golden period of entertaining football, with Allison the first to put his money where his mouth was when he inspired Manchester City to the League title, the FA Cup, the Cup-Winners’ Cup and the League Cup in a spell-binding burst of success between 1968 and 1970. Noel didn’t enjoy the same success as a manager. However, there was no doubting that he would get involved in management. In fact, the only surprise was that it was not with United, where he had ended his playing career.’

Over the years, many observers of the game have speculated
as to why Cantwell never took the reigns at Old Trafford, and while in many respects Busby and Cantwell were very similar – both were men of integrity and natural leaders, they liked and respected each other, they were obsessed with football, and they liked to analyse and study the game – they were also very different. They both had their own ideas on how the game should be played. The bottom line for both was exciting and attacking football, but Busby believed in natural instincts, adventure and richly talented players, while Noel was more philosophical and from a more theoretical school, believing passionately in the benefits of careful coaching.

This difference of opinion was apparent from their early days at Old Trafford. Soon after his arrival at Old Trafford, Cantwell, who would have been familiar with Carey’s languid style from his days with Ireland and would have expected a more tactical and strategy-based management system in England, told friends that he was taken aback by Busby’s pre-match talks, which apparently involved little more than wishing the players all the best and telling them to enjoy themselves. This also formed the basis of Johnny Carey’s style of management, especially with Ireland, and this laid-back attitude must have been difficult to accept by a thinker of the game. Used to the tutelage of Ted Fenton and his café meetings with his West Ham teammates, Cantwell would have been looking forward to receiving complicated tactical insights from Busby. These insights were not forthcoming, however, and Cantwell was appalled to discover Busby believed that if he had to tell his footballers how to play, he wouldn’t have signed them in the first place. Indeed, later in life Noel went on to describe the Matt Busby approach as being ‘so simple it was frightening’. However, while Johnny
Carey held little power within the Irish set-up, Busby held all of the power at United and to challenge his way would have been detrimental to Cantwell’s United career.

Shortly after retiring from international football, Cantwell was approached by the FAI to become the manager of the Ireland team. He agreed and indicated to the FAI that Sir Matt Busby would release him as required. Prior to his appointment, both Charlie Hurley and Cantwell had already looked after team affairs for a double match with Czechoslovakia; however, with the team requiring stability and a manager, Cantwell, who had also managed the Ireland Under-23 team for a match against France, was the FAI’s first choice and was appointed Ireland manager. Despite his appointment to the Ireland side, Cantwell was also being sought to manage clubs in England.

In fact, a move into club management was imminent, but instead of assuming United’s reins, Cantwell took over from Jimmy Hill at newly promoted Coventry City, guiding them clear of relegation during their first term in Division One. This proved to be disastrous for the Republic of Ireland team, however, as he had to resign from his role as Ireland manager due to his commitments with Coventry and was only in charge for one game, a 2–2 draw with Poland.

Over the next four years, he impressed at Coventry, leading the Sky Blues to sixth place in 1970, ensuring qualification for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. That first European campaign saw them perform admirably before they bowed out at the hands of the mighty Bayern Munich.

There were more relegation battles for Cantwell and his Coventry team, but despite the pressures he was intent on building for the long term, launching a successful youth policy. Unfortunately, Cantwell would not be around to see his plans come to the fore, because he was sacked in March 1972 – as the chairman rather eloquently put it at the time, ‘results have not come up to expectation’ and ‘we want jam today, not tomorrow’.

Of this first experience of being fired, Cantwell later reflected, ‘The sack came as quite a shock. I had no idea what to do for a living. For seven months I was kicking my heels.’

After his stint at Highfield Road, the then home of Coventry, Cantwell took a job in the USA with the New England Tea Men. However, the move did not last long, and after seven months he was back in the UK.

Surprisingly, despite his name in the game, the only other English club he managed was Peterborough United, in two separate spells. During his first stint as manager at London Road, he took over a team that was struggling at the foot of the Fourth Division and managed to turn their fortunes around and lead them to promotion some eighteen months later, in 1974. At the time of his appointment, Peterborough were not only struggling at the bottom of the table, but their gate receipts had also dropped, and it was a brave move.

Cantwell began the task at hand by giving twelve players a free transfer, leaving him with a playing staff of only ten. Then, foregoing a summer holiday, he went about buying new players with a budget of just over £30,000. As with any club struggling at the bottom, Cantwell needed experienced performers, men he knew would be suited to life in the Fourth Division. He was now his own man again, and the only way was up, but he wanted to do it with the team playing the stylish football he believed in.

Peterborough won the title in his first full season in charge
and in doing so entertained the fans with flowing football. The supporters had taken their Irish manager to heart and had nicknamed him ‘the Messiah’.

With his reputation restored, Cantwell was back in demand and the lure of another club proved too much, so in 1977 he left Peterborough for a second stint in America, again coaching the New England Tea Men. At the time, he was reported to be one of the highest-paid managers outside the English First Division. In a five-year spell in the USA, Cantwell managed the franchises of New England and Jacksonville, winning the Eastern Division Championship of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1978 with the New England Tea Men. The Tea Men franchise then moved from New England to Jacksonville, and Cantwell moved with them, managing them for one year in 1981.

Dennis Wit was a part of the Tea Men squad under Cantwell in 1978, and he remembers the team well: ‘We actually won our division that season and were the only team to beat the New York Cosmos, who were the team of the time, twice during the season. There were no real superstars on the side. Gerry Daly, an Ireland international, was in the team, and there was Mick Flanagan, who had been at Charlton. He was a big success for the Tea Men and was voted the most valuable player in 1978.

‘I was one of only three Americans in the team. You see, in those days the NASL teams were pretty much made up of foreign players from England, Ireland and Scotland. The NASL, in an effort to increase the popularity of the sport in the USA and get Americans to play, made a rule that stated each franchise had to have three home-grown players in the first team. In general, one of the positions that would be filled by an American was that of
goalkeeper – the USA has always had a tradition of producing good goalkeepers.

‘I got involved with the Tea Men through my relationship with the assistant coach Dennis Viollet. I was a Baltimore lad, and he had played and captained the Baltimore Bays. I later played for Baltimore before moving on to San Diego and then the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who were a popular team at the time, with Rodney Marsh in their line-up. When the New England Tea Men franchise started up, I got traded there. The Tea Men name came about due to Lipton Tea owning the club.’

Arthur Smith was the personnel director of the Tea Men and was in a three-man partnership with Cantwell and Viollet. Arthur recalls the fateful day he set off on an adventure that would change his life: ‘I had known Noel a long time. I was a childhood friend of John Barnwell, the former chief executive of the League Managers Association, and he had been assistant to Noel at Peterborough, so we all knew each other well. Phil Woosnam, a former teammate of Noel at West Ham who was then the commissioner of the NASL, had got in touch with Noel and asked him if he would be interested in coming to the USA to coach. Noel told him he would think about it. He would have been a big coup for the NASL. He rang me and asked me if I was doing anything and would I like to come down to his house for some dinner. I went down, and he asked me if I would go to America with him because he needed some help. I initially said no, but then had a think about it, and as I had such good time working for Noel I said I would.

‘Dennis Viollet had been in America for a number of years with the Baltimore Bays. He was currently out of work, though, so we asked him to get involved as assistant manager. Dennis
knew the American college players, and I knew players from England and Europe. I had previously been chairman at Halifax Town, so I had good contacts in football.

‘In the end we only had six weeks to put a team together in time for the start of the season. We wanted players with ability and character, and we got them. We had an arrangement with Charlton and got Laurie Abraham and Mick Flanagan, who would become the League’s most valuable player, and we also signed Peter Simpson, who had played for almost fifteen years with Arsenal. Even though we had a short space of time to get organised, we ended up winning the Eastern Division.

‘The players all had great respect for Noel. They all knew what he had done in football, so we were very fortunate in that sense. After games, however, Noel was more like one of the boys and had a great rapport with them. He was a footballing purist and wanted the game played on the ground. I would often be in the dugout beside him and would shout, “Take him down!” and Noel would turn and look at me and give out to me.

‘The training and coaching were very different from the English set-up. Noel had a canny knack of knowing if a player was dehydrated or carrying a knock, often before the player himself. If someone needed a break, he would see it and would say to me, “Make sure and have some water at the ready.” He could see the little things that affected players.

‘One of Noel’s funnier attributes was that when he spoke, he would often get his facts mixed up. One time he was over talking to Chris Turner about the next game and how the opposition had this attacking midfielder who he would be marking, a Yugoslavian. I think his name was Mitic. Noel was telling Chris in great detail how this midfielder was physical and good in the
air, and although he had two good feet, he always went to the left. He was emphasising to Chris this point when all of a sudden he said, “Not that any of this matters. He injured his leg last week and isn’t playing.”

‘Another time he was naming the team and he called out twelve players. We had a young American keeper as understudy to Kevin Keelan. His name was Kirk Pearson, and his nickname was “the Kitten”, as Kevin was “the Cat”. Well, Kirk started laughing, and Noel asked him what was so funny. Kirk told him he had named twelve players, and Noel just turned and said, “And you’re still not one of them.” He had a quick wit about him.

‘That said, he was very competitive and did not like to lose. He would get angry, but he never singled anyone out. Noel was a natural sportsman, and you can add golf to the list of sports he excelled at. He loved it around Jacksonville with all the golf courses. He was a terrific fellow. It’s very hard to say a bad word about him. He was also very modest. His favourite saying was, “It’s not a rehearsal, it’s your one shot”, and that was the way he lived his life. He was generous not just in terms of money but with his time and knowledge.

‘He had a lovely charm about him. One time we were headed to New York for the Soccer Bowl, which was the equivalent of the FA Cup in America, and Noel and I flew to New York to meet Dennis, who had to drive from Boston with his wife Helen. Alan Ball was playing for the Whitecaps, and his father, Alan Ball senior, had come over. I had actually been Alan Ball senior’s chairman at Halifax, so we all knew each other well. We had a cracking night catching up, and in the morning Dennis and Helen wanted to head back to see their kids. Dennis had agreed to drive us back, but we were to meet for breakfast first. I eventually got up but left Noel in bed. I only had a cup of tea, as I did not want to delay them any further, but there was still no sign of Noel. An hour passed and still nothing. He eventually turned up, by which stage Helen was exasperated. She wanted to go, but Noel said we might as well have some lunch. So, we had our lunch, and then Dennis went and got the car. We got 100 yards before being stopped at a light. Noel and I were in the back, and Noel says to me, “Should we go back and stay the night with Bally?” I said we’d better head home. The light turned green, we moved another 100 yards and hit another traffic light. Noel said the same thing again. Finally, by the third set of lights, he said to Dennis, “Stop the car. We’re staying.” We left our bags and everything. But the way he went about it, it was so hard to be annoyed with him. He was a great friend, and I miss him dearly, even now.’