Rick Holden - Football its a Minging Life: Rick Holden the Autobiography

Football
Its a Minging Life!

First published in Great Britain in 2010 by The Derby Books Publishing Company Limited, 3 The Parker Centre, Derby, DE21 4SZ.

Rick Holden, 2010

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the copyright holders, nor be otherwise circulated in any form or binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

ISBN 978-1-85983-887-7

Contents

Acknowledgements

This book has had the backing of several organizations and people, and I wish to thank the Derby Books Publishing Company Ltd. for undertaking this venture and the Oldham Evening Chronicle, the Watford Observer, the Manchester Evening News and especially the Halifax Evening Courier for their cooperation in the use of many of the photographs and for their help in promoting the book. Thanks also to Oldham Athletic FC, Manchester City FC, Watford FC and Halifax Town FC.
I am indebted to all the managers who employed me and believed in me, particularly Billy Ayre and Joe Royle. I have dedicated this book to Joe as, were it not for him, I wouldnt have had the times in football that I ultimately did.
Thanks also to Chris Quarfeegle Kelly, who dealt with the IT side of the operations because Im a computer moron, and to Stephen Melt Elliott and Jon Captain Hallworth for their memory banks, putting me right on dates and events (I dont know how they remembered it all). Thanks to Andy Ritchie and Andy Kershaw for their kind comments and for taking time to read this tome. I am grateful to my family, who have put up with me, but I have pointed out to my dad, Rodge, that I was all right before 1964 and, therefore, I blame him for everything. Grandpa George needs a special mention for inspiring me in my sports from the early days, and I am truly grateful for that.
Thanks to The Whitehouse Hotel and the Creek Inn, both in Peel, for their support in the launch of this book. If I have missed anyone I am sorry as I cant mention you all, but I have to say that I am lucky in that there are only a couple of people who hate me (and thats their problem). I have some magnificent mates and colleagues. Most of all I wish to thank Dave Moore, my agent and editor, and Oldham Athletic fanatic, without whom this book would have still been in the corner of my study collecting dust.

Dedication

There are many people who influenced me before and during my career, and many people who put me down too. To all those who put me down - up yours!
The two biggest influences on my life, and by that I mean what I became as a person through football, are my grandfather, who gave me the early encouragement, and Joe Royle, who gave me the liberation to let my character determine my play.

Thanks chaps.

Rick Holden

Introduction

It was beginning to dawn on me that I was leaving this alternative world and slowly entering the real world, but at the same time I was making a move from the real world and entering the alternative world. Not many people do that, do they? What do I mean by that? The world of professional football is not the real world but an alternative world removed from reality, more so these days. Professional footballers live in a protective vista shrouded by money from the reality of the everyday struggle afforded everyone else. Its no wonder that when the shackles are burned and the player is cut loose, like a broken angel, he falls, often to hell. There are examples which are too painful and evidently stark today. Look at George Best and Paul Gascoigne, two of Britains best two players over the last 50 years, for instance. All the media did, and still does in Pauls case, was slaughter and despair of them. All their former clubs did was keep silent. All these two did was the inevitable. This was an option for me and is for all professional sportsmen and women who come to the end of their careers. We dont have the option of redefined roles like musicians and actors do. We have to become managers, coaches or physios, but it is second best. No limelight anymore, backstage we go. You either cope with your new real world or you remain in an intoxicated, catch-the-past alternative world, grasping, sinking, haunted by memories with nothing tangible.
I had a choice. The best way I could think of coping was to move to a place that was not the real world, but a mirrored alternative world. The Isle of Man is the place. It is unique in the world. Nobody gets it. Nobody understands it. It does not have an identity outside its own (The United Nations do not recognise it as a democracy but it has its own parliament, yet its boys and girls fight in the British Army). The UK hates it. The Labour government withdrew the VAT agreement and the reciprocal health agreement for the Isle of Man residents, yet left the latter in place for residents of Kazakhstan. It does not have an evacuation policy for Manx residents in case of disaster. Yet the Island has fish and chips, real ale, football, secondary schools, in fact everything that the UK has, only, in my opinion, better. Clearly it was a place worth living in. I decided to move out of England because of the way that life was going, and it would give me a chance to recover while I got over the change. Then it dawned on me that it might help me cope to write it down, shriving myself of my past, if you like. I started writing in 1996 and continued until 2009. I never thought it would get published but more thought of it as a document at best read by my sons, Will and Alex, and my daughter, Dolly until Dave Moore contacted me for help with his books. I slowly realised that my story might be worth telling. Yes, I wanted to show every young person that you can make it no matter where you are from and despite all those who tell you that you cant. And to all those fellow players I see toiling like I did, I wanted to say, Hey boys, you can survive the move from the alternative world to the real world. You can make it. I had to keep it together, going into the game as a player from nowhere and recovering when left broken. I did recover. Then I went into it as a physio and as an assistant manager and then was broken again (even after success), but I came through it. So this is not the story about football life as much as life and football. Its not your typical footy autobiography. I dont want that shit, it hides what really happens. The deeper message is that you can laugh and you're allowed to cry but ultimately you must live. Death is no good to anyone, especially those who care.

Forewords

I spent many a Friday night watching Mick Joness young Halifax Town team at the Shay with Oldham chief scout Jim Cassell, and when I needed a winger to replace Tommy Wright, my first and only thought was Rick Holden. Rick had moved on to Watford, where things hadnt quite worked out for him, but I had always admired his willingness to work and run at players with the ball. When Rick came to sign, I asked him what he thought he would bring to the team. He responded with a smile and said, lots of crosses and extravagant celebrations when I score. The confirmation of both came very quickly! Football fans everywhere love a winger and Rick was quite simply the best crosser of a ball that I have seen. He soon became the hub of the dressing room, and helped bring a team spirit to the players that I am proud to have managed. Rick, the head prankster, had a sophisticated nickname for some and a wicked one for others, and he was never afraid to hatch a plot or resort to schoolboy humour it worked! Everyone laughed and trained to their optimum. Saturday afternoons were a joy, and Rick made sure that Saturday evenings werent bad either. Good luck to Rick, my friend. I await my copy of the book with gentle trepidation. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay Rick is that I would have loved to have shared a dressing room with him and to have played alongside him.