It was a sunny afternoon and everybody at the City Hall seemed to be in a really good mood. It was my first time there and I was guided up the stairs by a smiling face and shown into the huge conference room where the draw for the U-19 Championships was to take place imminently. The City Hall is an impressive place...
Despite the pomp and ceremony the draw only lasted a few minutes, which wasn’t long enough for me to gather my lower jaw from the carpet at the sight of my boyhood hero Michel Platini in front of me. Afterwards was just a media free-for-all but I patiently waited my turn to see if I could accomplish the two tasks I had set out to do. The first was to shake the hand of Michel Platini, one of the greatest players the game has ever seen, the second was to shake the hand of Lawrie Sanchez (not quite in the same ‘hero status’ league, but nonetheless not bad for a Friday afternoon) and ask him a favour.
After watching him sign shirts and autograph books for groups of children, I managed to collar Lawrie and hand him a copy of HD1. He said ‘Oh! What’s this then?’ so I explained and added that it would be fabulous to arrange an interview with him for HD2 and for him to perhaps sign a few copies for a charity auction. Lawrie said he’d be glad to do both.
As a player, Sanchez will be remembered for scoring that goal that won Wimbledon the FA Cup in 1988 against Liverpool. Sanchez had first played for Reading between 1977 and 1984 before being transferred to the Dons for £30K.
During his time at Plough Lane he hit the headlines firstly by scoring the goal that secured Wimbledon’s promotion to the old first division against Huddersfield and secondly for describing his frosty relationship with John Fashanu as “We hate each other.”
Sanchez was picked out by Billy Bingham winning the first of his 3 caps against Turkey in Izmir in 1987, having being brought on as sub. Even though Lawrie is an archetypal London Boy his Ma was from Belfast.
His first bite at the managerial cherry was at Sligo Rovers. Sligo had just gained promotion to the Premier League of Ireland, but having won the Irish Cup against Derry City meant Lawrie had the honour of leading SRFC into the European Cup Winners’ Cup playing himself in a preliminary round victory against Florianna before eventually crashing out to FC Brugge.
Little over a year later Sanchez found himself at Selhurst Park, this time as Reserve Team Manager but the full-time post eluded him when John Gregory left to join Villa. Desperate to test his resolve in management Sanchez was appointed manager of Wycombe Wanderers in 1998/99 with his old team mate Terry Gibson as his assistant.
Lawrie will be fondly remembered at Wycombe not only for bringing the crowds back to Adams Park, but for taking Wycombe within a whisper of the FA Cup Final; this time Liverpool putting the smile on the other side of his face in a frenetic semi at Villa Park.
It was on the 21st of January 2004 that Lawrie Sanchez was appointed Head Coach by the IFA. This year Lawrie agreed to extend his contract by an extra two-and-a-half years and will now oversee the development of all our international football.
The task in hand is not an easy one at all. This certainly was not Brazil. Sanchez inherited a squad that had not scored a single goal in over 18 hours of football, so over confidence was not likely to be an issue. As well as this NI football seemed to be in the press for all the wrong reasons. The Neil Lennon issue was a difficult one and encouraged greater effort to rid ourselves of the scourge that had seen many not fulfil their potential.
Despite a recent dip in form NI are back on the footballing map again and happy to be sharing a World Cup Qualifying Group with both Wales and England. The excitement this alone has generated has seen many call for the return of the Home Internationals, a title that still belongs to us.
Sanchez has managed to bring back a sense of pride not seen for some time back to WP. We are selling-out every game and wearing our shirts with pride again. The atmosphere the fans created during our classic game in Cardiff will be talked about for years to come as will the match. Our football at Old Trafford will perhaps not be remembered in quite the same way, but the GAWA faithful were once again awesome.
Qualification for the World Cup Finals in Germany next year is now beyond our grasp. We still have some fantastic games to come over the next month or so and although we cannot be too over expectant we would hope (and love) to see some goals.
We caught up with Lawrie in Malta and he stuck to his word by answering some questions for Happy Days…
HD: Do you think things are progressing well with all things Northern Ireland?
LS: I’d like to think they are. In the World Cup games we’ve been close, but unfortunately not close enough. Generally I’m pleased, I’m getting used to the players, they’re getting used to me, it takes a bit of time but now we’re getting into a groove and hopefully we can finish the World Cup qualifiers well.
HD: What do you hope to achieve as an international boss and how would you like to be remembered?
LS: I’d like to take the Northern Ireland team to a major championships finals. Obviously the World Cup is now beyond us probably, but the European Championships which I’m contracted for, start next year, and I’d like to think that we can get an awful lot closer than we have in this group.
HD: How does managing at international level compare to club management?
LS: You don’t have the day to day involvement, which is the major one. One international manager said to me, you borrow your players. You deal with them in a slightly different way and there is a lot of down time which, depending on the way you use it, can be a bonus or a frustration. But I’m enjoying the international challenge. I was a club manager at Wycombe for five years and the daily grind can wear you down at times, and I’m now enjoying the challenge of international management.
HD: You’ve played different formations since taking over. Do you chose the formation depending on the opposition, or are you still deciding which line up suits us best?
LS: Ideally I’d like to play a 4-4-2 but because of the personnel that have been available to us and the injuries and such like. I’ve sometimes had to adapt and especially against the better opposition such as Germany and England away, we’ve tried to adapt our formation to stop them being as potent as they can be. It has been a slight frustration to me that I’ve had to keep changing the formations and, I’m sure, to the players. I have in my mind the ideal team, but unfortunately I don’t think I’ve ever had all 11 players available to me at the same time.
HD: Do you think a move away from the heart of Belfast to the proposed new stadium will increase the attendances?
LS: I think wherever in Northern Ireland a 35,000 seater stadium was, it certainly would have been full for the World Cup games. I would hope the fans think we are going in the right direction, certainly in my time we’ve had nothing but full houses at Windsor. I’m sure if we had a 35,000 seater stadium it would be as near capacity for those friendlies and full for the qualifiers. I think it would be a bonus for everyone and the fans would appreciate a new stadium.
HD: Do you get worried that your key players will get injured the week before they join you?
LS: The worst part of the international job is the weekend, the Saturday and Sunday in some cases now, waiting to hear the calls from players who have taken part in games. You have a game in your mind and you get a call from a player pulling out with an injury and all of a sudden you’re phoning around for other people who weren’t in your original plans. But that’s part of the international management scene. Working for Northern Ireland, a small country, we have a smaller pool of players so once we go beyond the first 15/16 players then we do start to struggle for players who are at the top level of football. It is a slight frustration, but possibly the only one.
HD: How do you inform the players that they’ve been selected/dropped from the squad? Do you contact their clubs, or the players direct?
LS: The players are contacted by David Currie (IFA Head of International Affairs) two weeks before via letter and the clubs, at the same time, get a copy of that letter. The players themselves know; stand-bys are also informed, so that way everyone knows two weeks before what is happening.
HD: How important is it to have a good relationship with the club and managers that your players are with?
LS: I don’t think it’s greatly important. At the end of the day when it’s international week I have the power to call those players into the squad and if the clubs don’t want to let them go I can invoke the four day rule, which I have done in the past. But obviously you don’t want to be in conflict with club managers. When I was a club manager I certainly never stood in the way of my players going to international football.
HD: What is your greatest achievement as a player?
LS: The obvious one in ’88, Cup Final, winning goal. My whole 17 year career has hung on that, but there were other great moments. To play for Northern Ireland was a great thrill, although it was only three caps, they’re on my mantelpiece at home; I played in the Charity Shield against Liverpool and captained the team, which was a great thrill for me; I got promoted three times as a player, once scoring the winning goal that got the team into the top division. So I have a few things, but obviously the FA Cup Final is the one that people latch on to.
HD: What is your Greatest achievement as a manager?
LS: That involved the FA Cup again, getting to the semi-finals with Wycombe. We were an average team playing in the Third Division of English football and we got to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, that was quite a phenomenal achievement. And we did that without any of our centre forwards being fit that season.
HD: Cheers for your time Lawrie and good luck with Northern Ireland.
LS: No problem, thanks very much. |
