Jason McAteer - Blood, Sweat and McAteer: A Footballers Story

Jason McAteer played Premier League football for Bolton Wanderers, Liverpool FC, Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland AFC and, finally, Tranmere Rovers as player/coach. His international career began with a call for the Republic of Ireland and he went on to win over fifty caps. His goal against Holland, helping Ireland to a play-off which ultimately resulted in their qualification for the 2002 World Cup, has gone down as one of the most memorable moments in Irish footballing history.

Copyright 2016 Jason McAteer

The right of Jason McAteer to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Ireland in 2016 by

HACHETTE BOOKS IRELAND

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 without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781473636064

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For my two boys, Harry and Logan

I ts the first thing that comes to mind for most people I suspect. Jason McAteer and Holland, Lansdowne Road back in 2001 and the goal that defined a career the goal that almost brought the old East Stand crumbling to the ground.

Of course, that goal will always be the defining moment of Jason McAteers career, if not his life. Its the most natural thing in the world to remember him for that goal, and why not?

We will all be remembered for something in our lives, wont we? So wow, what a memory if that defines your professional football career or even just your time with Ireland.

As a player, I will be remembered by some as the one who committed the most fouls at the 1990 World Cup finals. As a manager, I might be remembered for other things connected with 2002.

But for me, personally, that goal against Holland was a defining moment because it meant so much for all of us in our bid to get to the World Cup finals having missed out on the previous European Championships when we should have been there.

I saw Jasons goal again when I was researching my Paddy Power blog ahead of the recent European Championships and I enjoyed every minute of the YouTube video, not least because my good mate Bob Gibbs was caught celebrating by the cameras.

What struck me all these years later was the commentator making the point that picking Jason was a big call, the only big decision to be made ahead of the game. When I heard that, I remembered that there was a bit of a movement in the press to get Jason out of the team, a bit of anti-Jason feeling.

He would have hated that because he was such a loved character within the Irish game going back to the 1994 World Cup in the States.

Everybody in Ireland instantly fell in love with his larger-than-life character so for his place in the team to be questioned would have hurt him.

Me? I paid no attention to it. He had always done well for me as Ireland manager and there was reason in the world for me to leave him out that day. Boy did he repay me in spades. Not that I was surprised.

The first thing I was asked to do for this book was to describe Jason in one sentence. Thats something that requires some thought, quite a tribute to the man in itself.

To sum him up though, Id say that Jason McAteer is a lovely, open, refreshingly honest person and a really good character. Its been a pleasure to know him and a pleasure to work with him down through the years, both with Ireland and with Sunderland.

I may have met Jason briefly before the 1994 World Cup finals in America but that was the first time I really got to meet him and I liked him. He was the new kid in the Ireland squad alongside Gary Kelly and Phil Babb and I was out in America working with Dublins 98FM and enjoying the World Cup in a new role as a pundit.

I was only thirty-five at the time but when I saw the Three Amigos buzzing with energy on the training ground and around the team hotel, I really felt like Old Father Time himself. They were chirping and cheeping about the place and I had an instant liking for Jason.

I only spent a couple of days around the team on that trip I remember the hotel was bonkers in Orlando with everyone in it but I did take up Jack Charltons invite to go to one of the training sessions and thats where I properly met Jason, Gary and Phil.

They were full of beans and a breath of fresh air when the Ireland scene needed some youth.

I didnt come into the International game until I was in my mid-twenties when Eoin Hand picked me and even under Jack in the early days, Niall Quinn was the closest thing we had to a youth policy.

America in 94 was the start of the changing of the guard and Jason was one of the players at the heart of all that. He was all action, full of energy and I loved the way he played and the way he trained.

Id go so far as to say he was the perfect right-sided player in a 4-4-2 formation and when he played right wing-back for Liverpool, he was a different class as well.

A couple of years after that World Cup, I got to work with Jason as his Ireland manager and that was an absolute pleasure. He is a real touchy, feely kind of guy and while a lot of people will find this hard to believe, strangely enough, so am I. You always got a hug off Jason and I like that in people.

He responded to that sort of relationship, he responded to being liked and to being trusted and to being thought well of, which we all do. Some people can cope without that but Jason needed it, he needed that reassurance.

He was a player who liked to have a good relationship with his manager and wasnt afraid to have one. He loved to have a chat with his manager and he was never embarrassed to talk to his boss.

Not all players are like that. Some steer clear of the boss, some dont want to let anybody see them talking to the manager. Not Jason.

I doubt he coped well at clubs where he didnt have that relationship. Of course he wanted to please, we all do, and there is no harm in that. He wanted you to like him and to show him that you liked him and I liked that quality in him. The players did as well. He was good fun to be around and from my view of him, the lads loved having him around the place.

We did have our moments mind. He got injured in that Izumo friendly against Hiroshima right before the opening game at the World Cup finals in 2002 and I knew from looking at him in training that his knee wasnt good.

He wasnt anywhere near right for the Cameroon game and he only lasted forty-five minutes of it before I took him off at half-time and put Steve Finnan at right-back. Gary Kelly went onto the right side of the midfield where Jason had been and Gary did so well for the rest of the tournament that he was my outstanding player in that World Cup.

Jason didnt take his demotion too well. He threw a bit of a strop and threatened to go home which would have been the most stupid decision of his career. We talked him round and he got another ten minutes in the third group game against Saudi Arabia as Garys replacement but he just wasnt fit enough.

We had words again in my second season at Sunderland, at Gatwick Airport after I had taken him off at half-time in the first leg of the promotion play-off against Crystal Palace. Jason wasnt happy with the decision and he was even less pleased when I made it clear that I wanted to start with the on-loan Carl Robinson for the return leg at home.