Old Baggies - WBA Former Players

HIS NAME IS CYRILLE REGIS – AND HE’S BETTER THAN ANDY GRAY!

The chant that rang around The Hawthorns 30 years ago. Thirty years, dear God. Are you sure? Wasn’t it just last month? Somebody got me a calendar….

But it was 30 years. And he was better than Andy Gray. And Paul Mariner. And Tony Woodcock. And Gary Birtles. And any number of other strikers who got England caps before he did.

For Albion fans though, what mattered was that Cyrille wore the navy blue and white stripes – when we could get a shirt to fit him. A giant of a man, powerful, muscular, the kind who didn’t come out of the dressing room but got changed in a phone box, threw his cape over his shoulder, and flew onto the field, Supercyrille, ready to save the world. Or at least the Albion, which is probably more important when you come to think about it.

Cyrille is one of those very special footballers who makes you proud to be a supporter of this football club, in the line of players such as the great Ray Barlow, Ronnie Allen, Tony Brown, Jeff Astle, Bobby Hope, Willie Johnston, rare talents, entertainers who lit up the Black Country sky. Legends. Real legends. All-time legends. Legends don’t grow old, not when you think of them, their deeds, their magical feet, the laughs, the smiles, the joy that they brought.

And know this about Cyrille Regis above any of his deeds on the football field. Cyrille is a great human being first and foremost, as man of dignity, integrity and, these days, of serenity. Never mind the football, he’s the kind of man you’re proud to know, genuinely privileged. I lost my dad four years ago, and I was in pieces, most of which are still missing. It was down to me to write the eulogy, delivered by the Rev Ken, with Bomber in attendance along with the media lads from the club, incredible gestures that will never be forgotten.

As I wrote it, it became clearer and clearer that one of the biggest things that had bonded us together was this football club, coming to these games. And as Ken said for me at the service, I realised that one of the things my dad was proudest of was the fact that I could call Tony Brown and Cyrille Regis my friends. Those of the kind of men they are, good, straight people that make your life better for knowing them. That’s why it’s worth celebrating Cyrille Regis.

“Time flies by. I think when I got to 40, it was never something I thought about, I’d only just finished playing, it didn’t seem to be any kind of a milestone. But I think it’s true what they say. Fifty is the new 40, that feels right. It’s a time of reflection far more than it was when I was 40, a time to look at what you’ve achieved, what you’ve done, your goals, your mistakes, the disappointments.

“I packed in playing at 38, at Chester, after 19 years. I wanted to do the round 20 years, I told the manager and the chairman there that that was my goal, they gave me another year but I got an injury before I could get that season going and I had to pack it in. But 19 years, that’s not bad is it!?”

Thirty one years and a world away ago, Cyrille Regis stepped out of the world of work and onto the field of play, from a nobody to a God inside six months. It’s a transition that could have destroyed some. But Cyrille knew where he’d come from, and that humility is an asset that served him well then, just as it does now.

“The way I came into the game was good for me. I’m not knocking Academies, I think they do a lot of very god things and they help lads become better players in the vast majority of cases. It’s not football’s fault, not the clubs’ fault, I think society has changed a lot in 30 years. Kids don’t play in the streets and in the parks any more. It’s formulated, organised football now and once you show any talent, you’re sucked into a football club. And life has become so quick that everybody wants it now, there’s no time to wait, you need to have success, money, cars, whatever it is, you have to have it now.

“I think that growing up the way I did, going out to work for a living, working as an electrician, getting up at six in the morning to go to work, there was a deeper appreciation of what I got from football, because I’d seen the other side of life, when you don’t play football. I know what real work is really like. You really realise that you’re doing something you love to do instead of something you have to do, and you’re getting paid for it. Maybe it comes too easy now.

“You ask anybody who has come through from non-league and they’ll tell you the same thing. You have that great contrast and that is really valuable. I’m sure that coaches, managers, parents, teachers are telling the 16 year olds, “Listen, you’ve really got to work at this or you’ll end up having to go out and get a real job!” But at that age I don’t think you can really understand what they mean. I remember at Coventry, Bobby Gould taking players down to the factories at Ryton, to just show them what the real world is about. But you know you’re only there for an hour or two and you’re back off to the training ground.”

After hanging up his boots, Cyrille returned home as a coach, before heading off into the world of the football agent. Given their shadowy image, I can’t imagine anybody less likely to be an agent that Cyrille Regis, but as always, there are at least two side to every story.

“I think as an agent, you get a bad rap. The image and the reputation is totally biased, and if I could go out there and tell people what it is that clubs get up to, you’d have a very different attitude to it. Agents don’t have the best reputation in the world, but that’s because we’re in the middle and it’s always easier for us to take the flak than a player or a club, because once a deal is done, we disappear into the background again where the club and the player has to get on with things.

“We tend to keep our mouths shut, but without a doubt, there is a need for agents. The only time you ever hear of agents is if a player is “demanding” a lot of money, you get the headlines, the agent gets accused of being a parasite. But nobody sees the work that we do when a club lets a 16 year old or an 18 year old go. After they’ve been in an Academy for ten years, all of a sudden it’s “Goodnight Irene, goodbye” and they’re just left to fend for themselves. Some clubs are better at dealing with it than others, but that’s something we do a lot of work on, and it is the hardest part of the job.

“You have a player, you represent him, often a young man who would otherwise be dealing with hard nosed businessmen who know the score and have handled thousands of negotiations in the past. You do a deal for him, you get 5%, which in reality, in other industry such as acting, writing, boxer, it would be 15%, 20%, nobody argues about it. But for a footballer, it’s 5%. The sums involved are big because at the top end, the transfer fees are big and the wages are big, but it’s still a 5% slice. If it’s a young lad who’s signing a contract at 18 for £200, it’s still 5%. But football is big news, it’s glamorous, it’s in the headlines and agents are seen as being an evil.

“Now don’t get me wrong, every industry has somebody who is bad in it, who does the wrong things, who is exploitative. And for the rest of us who are above board and playing by the rules, we all want to see the authorities step in and stamp that out. But to have a blanket condemnation that all agents are duckers and divers, just there for the money, ripping off club and players, it’s a long way from the truth.”

As Cyrille said at the top, when you reach 50, it is a time for reflection, and in that vein, you cannot separate him from the journey that black footballers have made in his lifetime.

“Looking back, I’m very proud of what we achieved as that generation of black players. When you’re going through it, you’re not focusing on that, you’re focusing on staying in the side and playing well. That’s hard enough without thinking you’ve got the whole weight of black football and race relations resting on you! It’s only history that’s put that weight on it. But in fairness, there was a whole generation before us, 10 or 15 years of black players who couldn’t get in, who couldn’t open the door, who faced serious racism, barriers, myths about black players. They chipped away at the wall and myself, Laurie, Brendon, Viv Anderson, we benefited from that and set it all off. From that point of view, it’s great to have been a part of it.

“Personally, my biggest regret is something I couldn’t do much about in the end, the fact that I didn’t go to the World Cup in 1982. I had a great season, scored lots of goals, Ronnie Allen got the best out of me even though we had a terrible year, could have gone down. I pulled a hamstring against Leeds late in the season, and just couldn’t get it right to go to the World Cup.

“That was probably the summer when I should have left the Albion, because things were just starting to fall away. Laurie Cunningham had gone a couple of years before, Bryan Robson and Remi Moses had gone and we were starting to slide. That’s where I wish I’d have had an agent! Somebody to look at it from the other side and say, “You know what, you’ve maxxed out, now leave on a high.” I left on a low, playing badly for two years and all of a sudden, you can’t move to the same calibre of club. I made the wrong decision and carried on here which was bad for me and bad for the Albion as it turned out.

“Albion is my first love, without a shadow of a doubt. They gave me my break, I played with some fantastic players in a great team, welcomed by the fans, and still am. Whatever else I did elsewhere – and I was lucky the way other clubs accepted me as well – this is my club, it’s very special to me.

“Looking back, I’ve got some great memories, worked with some great players, some terrific clubs, played in some incredible games, made some great friends, enjoyed great rapport, great relationships with the fans. But if you analyse it, if you really look hard, I think like a lot of people, I have to say that I could have achieved more.

“We all feel that as we get older because you learn so much that you just wish you could go back and apply it – a bit more dedication, a bit more practice, should have made then, shouldn’t have gone there, those things. But as I look back now, it’s been a great journey so far.”