Chapter Two

As a small boy, I dreamed of being a top professional footballer. In my classes at school, in English, I would be writing out fixtures. In Maths, I’d be calculating league tables. The only thing that mattered to me was football. Consequently, I left school with little qualifications, however, I was offered apprentice professional terms at Fulham Football Club, and so began the realisation of my football dreams.

In English, we were studying the classic Wuthering Heights. I quite liked the teacher so for this lesson I paid attention and got into the story. I really liked the character of Heathcliff and his love for the tempestuous Cathy. As I got further into the book, I too began to fall in love with Cathy. Oh, to be Heathcliff! I dreamed of finding a girl like her in real life.

One day I gatecrashed a party with a friend of mine. It was in the garage of a large house in Camberley. I was there for literally two minutes when the girl whose house it was approached me across the garage floor. I didn’t know it was her house at the time. As she came nearer, we looked into each others‘ eyes, smiled and with no introductions she sat on my knee and we began kissing. After a few minutes, we stopped and I asked her “what’s your name?” I was stunned when she replied “It’s Cathy,” for as she approached me, she was my image of Cathy from Wuthering Heights and this was really her name. I thought to myself, this is my destiny. I’m going to marry this girl.

Now, my dad had drilled into me Never Let Women Interfere With Your Football. Cathy asked to see me on the following Saturday instead of playing football and I had a decision to make. Do I choose the football dream or this dream of Cathy. What do you think I chose? Yes. The football dream. A few months later, I signed apprentice professional forms with Fulham as I said. The football dream was on the road and Cathy became just a memory.

***

March 1978.

Over the airwaves was the most incredible voice singing “It’s me, Cathy, come home now.” Kate Bush with her song ‘Wuthering Heights’ has just reached No. 1 in the pop charts. I watched the video and said to myself “There’s my Cathy!” I immediately checked myself and said “don’t be stupid, she’s a really famous woman, you are nobody, it’s never going to happen.” Continuing this conversation with myself, I added, “hang on a minute, if I make it in football, I’ll move in the right kind of circles and I’ll meet her.” So I got my head down and went for it with football.