Gary Mac - Elder Statesman

Photo by Arnie Copyright LFChistory.net

Gary McAllister can look back on a distinguised playing career with Leicester City, Leeds United, Coventry City and Liverpool. Many were shocked when the Scottish maestro was brought to Liverpool at 35 years of age. The free transfer proved to be a masterstroke by Gérard Houllier and the key to the amazing 2000/01 treble season. "This is fairy tale stuff for someone at my stage of life," McAllister told the media on 26 May 2000 as news broke out of his signing. He had scored an impressive tally of 13 in the Premier League for 14th-placed Coventry City while Liverpool had improved considerably under Houllier in his first full season and finished fourth in the table. LFChistory.net was very fortunate to spend some time with Gary McAllister to refresh our memories of one of the greatest free signings in our history.

When I heard Liverpool were interested, I made it pretty clear to my agent that it wouldn’t be difficult to negotiate. I was coming to the end of my contract at Coventry. Gordon Strachan was the manager, my ex-teammate at Leeds United. Coventry were stalling a little bit after Liverpool’s interest. It was a difficult conversation with Gordon because Coventry wanted to extend. There was late interest from John Gregory and Aston Villa. Getting to Liverpool always in my head represented a bit of chance of winning something. They hadn’t won for a while, but it was still a great opportunity to get to a club I admired ever since I was young. I was free, but still Houllier was taking a big chance, making a statement. I could feel for the fans. Why are we signing somebody at 35-36? I had to repay him. 

I have got the same agent as Steven Gerrard, Emile Heskey, Jamie Carragher so my agent (Struan Marshall) knew Gérard very well and had his ear. Gérard was looking for someone to help this younger group of players to negotiate Monday to Friday. He was looking for an elder statesman to lead by example on how to prepare for a game. I was brought there to help the young English players. As soon as I arrived there, the reverse happened. I got inspired by seeing so many good, young players. I allied to the foreign players we had in the team; Hyypia, Henchoz, Babbel, Hamann, Berger, Smicer. The foreign players were not so young. I felt I was amongst a group of players, maybe not so much jumping up to win the league, but surely capable of winning a cup. What happened was just like a dream. It just kept getting better and better. We never lost a cup tie the entire season. 

McAllister had already made Liverpool aware of his goalscoring prowess in the 2-2 draw at Elland Road on 29 August 1992

McAllister revealed talking to the media in 2000 that one of his objectives at Liverpool was to develop the career of one Steven Gerrard: "Young Gerrard is already one of the best midfield players around, and there's nothing he can't achieve in the game if he wants it. He's already a very special player. Obviously I'm there to help him, but he can help me too. Playing alongside him I will be able to bounce off him as much as he can bounce off me."

Steven Gerrard confessed in his autobiography published 2007 that he had his doubts of Liverpool's capture of McAllister: "When another wise head, Gary McAllister, joined Liverpool, I was not alone in the dressing room in wondering what the hell Gérard was doing,” Gerrard said. "He seemed an odd buy. Okay, he was once a terrific midfielder for Leeds United and Scotland, but McAllister was now 35, his best days were surely behind him. His arrival was of particular concern to me. Would he limit my appearances? 'It's a bit of a strange signing,' I remarked to the lads when Gerard wasn't around. 'Isn't McAllister over the hill? I've seen him play for Coventry recently and, yeah, he's he's good, but why've we signed him?' No-one came up with an answer."

"The word from above was that McAllister had been brought in as cover. I rang my agent, Struan Marshall, who knew McAllister well. “'Stru, what's all this about?' I asked. 'Don't worry, Stevie,' replied Struan. 'Gary Mac will be brilliant for Liverpool, and for you as well. Listen to him. Learn from him.' F**k off, Stru,' I said. 'McAllister can f*****g well learn off me!' “How wrong I was. Meeting this intelligent Scot was an important moment in my career. As a midfielder and a man, Gary Mac was special. He strolled into the dressing room at Melwood and immediately went around all the players introducing himself. That was class. We knew who Gary bloody McAllister was, but that gesture showed his modesty. We liked that. He also had the medals, the caps and poise that trigger instant respect. It felt like football royalty breezing into Melwood. Should I bow? 

"Gary was never destined for the ressies. No chance. Almost immediately, he was a fixture in the first team, directing operations like a general at a battle, turning the game Liverpool's way with his vision and touch. What a player. And what a teacher. On away trips, I timed my run to the bus so I could sit next to McAllister, absorbing advice. It felt like being on the school bus with the best master next to me. Every journey was like a lesson, with me as the awestruck pupil... His opinion was valued by everyone. Macca was one of those players who could stop a training session and suggest something and everyone listened, even the coaches. Just watching Gary in training improved me. He was a masterclass on legs.”

McAllister was enamoured by Liverpool's exploits in the past but also the Scottish tradition at Liverpool that started with the Team of Macs at the start of Liverpool's history in 1892.

I had played for Leeds United where this is a massive Scottish connection, Gray, Lorimer, McQueen, Bremner. Liverpool were similar. The three I admired watching for the national team were Souness, Hansen and Dalglish. They never really won the hearts of the Scottish supporters which was strange. Kenny was everybody’s favourite. Hansen was way before his time. You can see Alan Hansen playing in today’s football. They say it’s the Makelele position, the number six, Souness was doing it twenty years before.

 Photo by Arnie - Copyright LFChistory.net

Gary Mac stayed at the same hotel at the start of his Liverpool career as Everton's new recruit, Paul Gascoigne.

I had just moved clubs and my family wasn't in Liverpool with me at the time. Gazza helped me settle in. What a man. Great to be around. He still could compete. He was an infectious man who had an aura around him.

McAllister didn't have the best of starts as he was sent off in his second game for Liverpool, in a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal after a late challenge on Patrick Vieira. McAllister didn't return until two months later in a 4-0 victory over Derby County but soon impressed the Liverpool's management enough to earn an extension to his one-year contract after 4-5 months at the club. McAllister was on the substitute's bench when Liverpool faced Birmingham City in the League Cup final on 25 February 2001, having started two games in the previous week in the fourth round of the UEFA Cup against Roma.

For most managers at the start of the season the League Cup is on the bottom of their list of trophies to win. Most of the managers of the top five or six in the league picked weaker teams so they played with reserve players and youngsters. But Gérard set his stall out very early in the tournament that we were trying to win. He picked his strongest eleven. I felt that that night at Cardiff when Wembley was getting renovated against Birmingham was a massive catalyst to win the next two finals, the FA Cup and the old UEFA Cup which is now the Europa Cup.

The best part of your Liverpool career is easily up there with the most impressive month for a player in the club’s history. Ten games in just over 30 days. You scored in five successive games, starting at Goodison Park on 16 April 2001. Can you describe what went through your head against Everton? Was there a bit of cheekiness after Liverpool was awarded the late free kick and you possibly moved the ball forward a bit when the ref turned his back?

The referee turned away and I spun it. The Everton fans noticed that more than Liverpool fans. Two minutes before we had a free kick in the exact same spot. I was telling everybody I was going to bring it to the back post for Hyypia, Heskey, and Babbel. Sami Hyypia gets a great header and it just misses the post by inches. When we get the free kick two minutes later, the last kick of the game, I'm sort of telling them that I'm going to play the same free kick, to put it up at their back post and they're going to attack it.

I would always keep my head down and see where the keeper's feet were, if I could see them shuffling, trying to anticipate which side I would go for. It was just a technique I used over the years, obviously from closer range. I could see the keeper was edging. Just as I take my run-up, Carragher comes in my earshot and he says: 'Fuckin' hell, Macca lad. Don't you dare.' He could see what I was thinking. Carragher's biggest skill was his reading of situations. As soon as I took the run-up, the keeper most definitely made a big move. He made a big step to his left. He couldn't get near it. The pitch was quite fast. There had been a little drizzle of rain so when the ball hit the ground it skidded in.

As I was celebrating, I got to the halfway line to the dug out. Phil Thompson and Sammy Lee were on the pitch. The smiles on their faces. You want to win that game for the local guys who are from Liverpool. The build-up for the Merseyside derbies are like nothing else. You could feel it in the streets. You could nearly touch it, the atmosphere. Wherever you walk, you stop for a coffee. You know who are the Blues and who are the Reds. I still have Everton fans coming up to me. They remember where they were. It's a moment in their life that stuck. They were at their gran's or at their brother's, in a bar somewhere. Liverpool fans were with mates. Mané scored not that long ago to win a league game [19 December 2016]. I can remember being in the boardroom at Goodison after that game with Kenny, Ian Rush and Bill Kenwright, who was the chairman of Everton. Kenwright said while pointing at each one of us: 'Mané has just done it, you have done it, you have done it and you have done it. You are just like... the devil people.' 

A UEFA Cup semi-final against Barcelona followed in which Gary Mac scored the winner from the penalty spot at Anfield.

The game over there was a 0-0 draw. When the Barca people are not happy they wave their white handkerchiefs. We got the handkerchief treatment at the end of the game. I could remember picking up a paper in Spain and asking someone to translate what the headline was. It was: "Houllier, murderer of football." We went there to kill the game. We were so disciplined. Low blocks and protecting. We were impregnable. Two really strong lines of five and five. All those names with imagination, players with skill and ability couldn't break us. We beat Porto, Roma and Barcelona en route to the UEFA Cup final. You don't associate them with the UEFA Cup. They are Champions League teams. Our UEFA Cup win doesn't get the credit it deserves. 

Another penalty scored against Spurs and then two successive free kicks versus Coventry and Bradford. Five goals in a row, not bad for a free! An FA Cup final on the horizon.

We were playing Arsenal on the Saturday at the Millennium and then on the Wednesday night we were at the Westfalen Stadion in Dortmund against Alaves. As a young Scotsman I used to watch the FA Cup final south of the border and marvel at the pictures from the TV from the games at Wembley. If you had asked me prior to the UEFA Cup final or the FA Cup final, which one I would like to play in, I would have chosen the one that Gérard didn't choose. I was in a good run and wanted to start in the FA Cup final against Arsenal, but I didn't. I was told the morning of the game I wouldn't be starting. It was really tough to take. I couldn't show my disappointment in front of the young squad. 

It was roasting as well. There was nearly a 100 degrees inside the Millennium that day. Michael scored two amazing goals. During the celebrations after we beat Arsenal, Gérard Houllier tapped me on the shoulder and told me to get ready for Westfalen Stadion. Houllier thought that somebody of my age couldn't play in two cup finals and in the last game against Charlton to gain Champions League. He was thinking way ahead and weighed up Vieira and the physical aspect of playing against Arsenal and the European cup-tie against the Spanish side which would suit my game better. He could use my experience in a European final rather than a domestic final. 

Two assists, penalty and the pass for the own goal that decided the Alaves game... not a bad day at the Westfalen.

The Yellow Wall was Alaves fans but Liverpool had three quarters of the rest of stadium. When I arrived I couldn't believe how many Liverpool fans were there. I was just blown away. It brought back a lot of memories of being a youngster and watching Liverpool in Paris and Rome. The banners and the songs. You could feel it in that ground that evening. We were massive favourites against Alaves. When we had gone 2-0 up, my feeling was we could beat them 5-0. I thought they would collapse. The manager of Alaves was very brave. He went, 'fuck it, if we are going to lose, we are going to lose trying to win the game.' So he put forwards on. It was like a basketball game. Gérard wanted to kill the game at 2-0, but 5-4, that's Liverpool.  

When anybody asks me about the UEFA Cup final, I scored a goal, got man of the match from Johan Cruyff, but that is not my biggest memory of that evening. I'm taking a corner in the Liverpool end of the ground where our fans were. I've got a very short run for corners. My target was the near post where Emile Heskey would try to flick it on. Robbie Fowler was coming on as a substitute as Alaves had just introduced two forwards. Fowler is next to me stretching before he comes on the pitch. I stepped back to take the corner when something from the Liverpool end whacks my ear and winds up on the pitch just in front of Robbie. Fowler looks at it and goes: 'Is that what I think it is? I went: 'Uh, yeah...' It was the biggest double dildo I had ever seen. Robbie steps on the pitch, flicks it with his right foot and volleys it back with his left.

The Gary Macca song based on your exploits that treble season is so popular with Liverpool fans.

The derby goal, the Barca pen, it's brilliant. They still sing it. If you get a song, it makes it very special. 'He's got no hair, we don't care.' I like that one as well.

You didn't feature as much in your second season. 

I had a job brief and I'd come in and done my job. Even though it was disappointing I had to accept it. I was 36-37 and during that last season I was approached by Coventry to be player-manager. In hindsight I shouldn't have done that, to go straight from playing into player-management. It was nearly impossible. It was too much. I was doing my coaching badges whilst I was still playing.  

Your working relationship with Gérard Houllier didn't end there.

We had very similar beliefs. He was an amazing guy. We got very close. He had coaches and people who he could confide in, but as a player I had that relationship with him. We chatted a lot during the period I was there as a player. Gérard was offered the Villa job and he asked me to become his assistant. I think Phil Thompson wasn't too sure about moving into the Midlands. I jumped at the opportunity. It was so sad when he passed.

What did you make of your return to Liverpool in 2015. Why fire the backroom staff and let Brendan stay?

Was I Brendan's choice? What I quickly learnt that Brendan on the grass was fantastic. His ability to manage and coach, his meticulous preparation. It didn't last long enough. I couldn't get close enough in that time that we had together. When Brendan was fired, the whole staff was fired as well. I met Ian Ayre the day that he sacked everybody. 'We don't want to sack you,' he told me. 'Jürgen Klopp is coming in and he wants to bring in his own staff, so there is no position. We don't know. We'll get back to you.' They put me in an ambassador role and that worked really well. After three years of that, Steven Gerrard approached me to go to Rangers. I'm starting to do little bits with Liverpool again. It's really cool. I did the pre-season in Singapore. They just invited me to go to America in July.

Interview by Arnie Baldursson ([email protected]) Copyright - LFChistory.net