The UEFA Cup. A European Super Cup. Four Charity Shields. Three League Cups. Six-time champion of England. And three European Cups.
It’s a trophy haul that dwarfs many entire football clubs, let alone one that an individual player would be proud of. Then again, there is nothing diminutive about Terry McDermott; his presence lights up a room just like he would a football pitch and when he talks, it’s always worth listening too.
This is what he had to say.
KTTK: Firstly, how’s life with Birmingham City?
Terry Mac: Yeah, very good. Could be better I suppose but it’s been a difficult season for everybody. I feel like up until a week ago, ten days ago we had a chance of getting into the playoffs. You never say never but it’ll be very difficult to get there.
So what we’re trying to do is get as high up in the league as we can. Because there’s been a lot of changing over the last year and we just want to finish off with a little bit of a bang. We’ve got four games left; two away, two at home. If we can get maximum points from there you never know where it leads too. People say it’s mission impossible to get into the playoffs – it probably is – but you never give up hope and we just want to finish as high as we can which is hopefully round about the seventh/eigth/ninth, if we can finish around there we’ve had a great season.
KTTK: What did it feel like to sign for Liverpool and to play for someone like Bob Paisley?
Bob only took the job in – I think it was the – June, or July. He took the job when Bill Shankly retired. Though I didn’t know too much about Bob Paisley; I knew who he was obviously because I was a Liverpool supporter as a kid.
It was a big job for him to do, to take over from Bill Shankly. We played them in the FA Cup final in May and I played alright and I’ve sinced found out that they had me watched a few times during the next season. I think it was about the October that I got a phone call of Phil Thompson saying “how do you fancy coming to Liverpool?”
I thought he was winding me up. He wasn’t.
Before I know it I’m in a car, driving down there by meself with an envelope that they had sealed so I couldn’t look at it. The intrigue was “shall I open the letter” as I’m driving down the A1. Shall I open it or shall I not?, because it was sat on my passenger seat.
I thought bollocks, I’m gonna open it, I wanna know what it’s about. It was a fee. I didn’t know nothing about it [prior], I just had to go to Liverpool. It was £166,000. So I got down there, went straight down to my mother and father’s, who lived in Kirkby, and me dad came and met me.
I just remember going there, didn’t even ask about wages. Like there is now, negotiating all the time, sometimes it takes a day or two to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and it took me about thirty seconds to sign.
They just give us it “there’s your contract” and it was 55 – whatever it was I can’t remember now – 55/100 quid a week. “Thank you… that’s it. Finished! Thanks very much I’ll see you tomorrow.” So it was done that quick, we just done a few photos. It was never about money, there was never any negotiating, there was never an agent.
I never ever had an agent, there wasn’t really such things as agents only Kevin Keegan had one when I was at Liverpool. So there was no negotiating it was “that’s your contract, do you want to come?” I’m not gonna say no, am I? So I just signed. It took me two years to get into the team.
KTTK: Which brings us neatly onto the next question. It took you a while to become a regular fixture in the Liverpool first team, do you have sympathy for players who don’t hit the ground running (like Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson, Lucas etc.)?
No, I don’t have sympathy for them. I wish I was them, I wish I was in their shoes now. Playing for Liverpool in front of them fans. I don’t feel sorry for them at all but I think they’ve – and I’m sure they do – I remember talking to Henderson at a Bonfire night party.
I remember talking to him and saying “just dig in” because he was going through a bit of a rough time. I actually said to him what I had to do for two years. Two and a bit years when I wasn’t in the team, in and out the team, more out than in. He was going through that similar thing and I said “just keep going, it’ll turn because you’re a good player” and he is a good player. It’ll turn and he’s playing a lot of games now but it’s took him the best part of a season.
KTTK: With there being very little patience in the game these days, how much harder do you think it is now for someone to break through after they have been written off?
I think it depends on the character of the player. I mean when you’ve got the abilities like he [Henderson] has, you should never doubt them because you’ve had a bad game or two, three or you’re not in the team. You know that you’re a good player so you’ve just got to persevere. You can’t just say I’ve had two bad games and I’ve been left out for six weeks.
That’s what happens.
It takes time to blend in the way he wants you to play, that the club – Liverpool – wants to play. I thought I’d probably made it when I played for Newcastle before I went to for Liverpool. I was a big fish in a big sea but when I went to Liverpool I was a little fish in a big sea. You have to come to terms with that.
I got to realise what football’s really all about. When I was at Newcastle, it was fantastic for me. I was playing every week, loved living there. Loved being round the place but when Liverpool come I didn’t really know what football was really all about and what you have to do in terms of the way you play.
I could probably play two or three bad games at Newcastle and probably still play whereas at Liverpool if I had a bad game I knew I was in trouble or that I might be out of the team. I quickly… I say quickly, it took me two years to realise it.. but then I did. Even when I was player of the year, even then I never felt I was secure in my place. That’s ridiculous to say but that’s how it was at the time. I knew that you’re only a game or two from being left out again.
I realised then that you’ve got to do it every single game whereas maybe at the other clubs I’d been at – Bury and Newcastle – I could have two good games and three bad games or something like that and still play but at Liverpool I had one bad game and I might not be in the team for two or three months, so I realised you’ve got to really do it every single game. You’re not going to play well every single game but you’ve got to put the effort in every single game and that’s what my game was based on; giving one hundred percent, every game.
KTTK: The goal you scored against Tottenham in 1978 at Anfield…
Don’t know what I was doing there.
Don’t know what I was doing on the post for their corner. I was leaning against it because we were 6-0 up and then I don’t know what possessed me to do it. That’s what happens in football. I’ve gone from their corner – from being on the post – to heading the ball ten yards from their goal.
I just kept running. Why? No idea. I just done it.
The build up to it was just, well… Bob Paisley said at the time it’s the best goal he’s ever seen at Anfield. Now I don’t think it’s the best goal in terms of me because I finished it off, I think in terms of the build up to it. Where it come from, from their corner. From going out to Kenny gave it to Dave Johnson, he gave it to Steve Heighway, all more or less one and two touch. Heighway’s was certainly one touch. I don’t know what possessed him to cross it. I mean he was so far wide and there was acres of space for him to run into but he crossed it straight away. At the time I didn’t know it but having watched it since on television I couldn’t help but think “why did he cross it the way he did; so far out?” It was still an unbelivable ball. I just had to put my head on it.
KTTK: If that’s not your favourite goal for Liverpool, what is?
It’s got to be up there because if Bob Paisley says it’s one of the best goals for Liverpool, you’ve got to listen to him. Over the years I was very lucky to score a few top goals. Spurs away in the FA Cup, that was an unbelievable goal. I scored a goal against Aberdeen in the European Cup, away, we won 1-0. I chipped the goalie from the byline. That was special.
KTTK: chipped Everton…
I’ve scored a few goals haven’t I? Don’t know how but I did it. Yeah, Everton obviously because of the importance of the game; semi final of the FA Cup.
I’ve been very very lucky, I’ve scored a lot of good goals. I remember scoring a goal, I think we were playing Mönchengladbach in a friendly. It’s never been shown since, there might not even have been cameras there. The ball come over me shoulder from a long distance and as it’s coming down and I’m running onto it and just volleyed it and it flew into the top corner. I remember that one but because no-ones ever seen it… I’d probably rate that one as one of me better goals than the ones that are on television.
Because it was a team goal, probably the one against Spurs at Anfield.
KTTK: Is there a goal you’ve witnessed that you’d rate as on par with it?
I don’t know why but I always remember a goal that Alan Mullery scored. I think he was playing for Fulham at the time. It was a volley, the ball was coming across – he was outside the box – it came across him rather than at him. It absolutely flew into the net. Probably one of the best goals I’ve ever seen. That one was on televison a few times and I have seen it. That one sticks out but I don’t know why.
KTTK: You’ve been a coach now for some time, how has the game changed?
Funnily enough, I was asking [Birmingham manager] Lee Clark about this the other day. He’s only finished playing about five/six years and I asked him if he thinks the game is faster than it was six years ago. Because when I’m out there it watching them and they’re flying past, I’m thinking “did we used to run that fast?”
He said it’s not much different than when he was playing but that’s like six years ago and obviously mine’s 26 years ago. It seems quicker and it probably is slightly quicker but they’re more protected now; players. In our day anything went, they’d snap you in half soon as look at you and that was the more difficult part of it.
Now they’re so protected, it’s certainly a lot easier being a striker. We had people coming through the back of you and they wouldn’t get booked – they wouldn’t even get a telling off. You’d probably get away with three of them and get a warning.
Now an eyelash falls on the floor and they get booked.
It’s crazy, they’ve just took the art of tackling out of the game. I mean I was never a tackler so it probably would have suited me but the people make a living of winning balls and making tackles, they’re gonna be extinct because they’re just gonna stop them. A lot of the players who are playing now, it takes away from most of their game. Their game is winning the ball, tackling and giving the ball to the more skillful players but they can’t do that now because they’re frightened to death of getting sent off.
KTTK: As someone with European pedigree, bearing in mind that Champions League football is out of the picture for next season, should Liverpool be looking for a Europa League spot this season or would it actually benefit them to have a clean slate next year?
Garbage. Absolute garbage. If they don’t think playing in Europe is high on their agenda there’s a problem because Liverpool traditionally…like Newcastle now, we see it against Benfica the other day… the fans just love being in Europe, it’s a big thing for them. For anyone to say that it’s not a priority to be in Europe… they’ve got enough players to do what other teams do, not play the players every week…rest them or whatever, to say that they don’t want to be in Europe…I find that astounding really and I’m sure that Liverpool fans will as well.
I heard Phil Thompson on Sky Sports the other day saying exactly same thing and he’s right. They wanna be in Europe. As a player you want to play every game, you want to better yourself, to pit your wits against European opposition. That’s what it has been at Liverpool for donkey’s years. For someone to come out and say that they’ll have a better go at the league next year if they didn’t have to play in Europe, I don’t buy into that.
Of course they want to be in the top four, we all want them to be in the top four; I’d love Newcastle to be in the top four. It is very, very difficult but it’s doable because they’ve got enough good players to do it. There’s no reason why they can’t get in the top four.
Even if he has to or if he wants to rest one or two of them, there’s fringe players who are not playing every week that would love to do it. Chop their bloody finger off to play in the Europa League every Thursday, so I don’t buy into that at all. I think players, fans definitely want to be in Europe.
Maybe the sports science people don’t.
KTTK: Lastly, do you have any advice for Brendan Rodgers?
No.
No advice whatsoever because he’s a lot more of a manager than I’ll ever be. But what I will say is that he’s bought well. I think he’s got a few good players there. They still need strengthening and I think they’ll have a real, real go next year to get into that top four.
It’s been a tough season, they’ve done well in a lot of games but obviously like with Kenny they couldn’t get results at home – lost a lot of points at home – Kenny was exactly the same. If they can put that right well there’s no reason why not. It will be difficult. No reason why they can’t be in the top four, they’ve got enough good players to do it. They’ve proved that when they play against the likes of Chelsea and Man Uniteds and Arsenals. They’ve proved that they’re a match for them, they’ve just got to get that consistency.
