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The Sun
21-05-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Europa League final: Ruben Amorim hoping to follow Man Utd icons' blueprint for Premier League domination
MANCHESTER UNITED will be hoping that winning a European trophy can be the springboard to long-term success — just as it was for them 34 years ago. It may only have been the Cup Winners' Cup but the players who beat Barcelona on a famous night in Rotterdam in 1991 earned their place in club folklore. 6 6 6 6 And it was an important step towards creating the glittering era which followed for two decades under Sir Alex Ferguson. They backed that success up with two more pots the following season and then, in 1993, ended their 26-year wait to be crowned top-flight champions. With United now searching for another piece of Uefa silverware in the Europa League final against Tottenham on Wednesday night, nostalgia has been in the air around Old Trafford. The club recently produced a replica of the iconic white kit worn on that rainy night in the Feyenoord Stadium. They even got two of their final heroes — Bryan Robson and Mark Hughes — to model it alongside current stars Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Leny Yoro and Manuel Ugarte. MUTV made a documentary called Rotterdam Revisited to remember that special night, too. Long-serving defender Denis Irwin, 59, told the show: 'We were growing as a team but that trophy played a huge part. 'As a team and a club we were moving in the right direction. 'The following year we won the League Cup and Super Cup and the year after that, we finally won the Premier League.' Legendary ex-skipper Robbo, 68, added: 'For me, the only thing that bettered that Cup Winners' Cup success was 1992-93 when we won the league title. 'Of course it was the biggest game I played in. Right from 1990, winning the FA Cup, we were growing all the time and the confidence was there and by 1993-94 we did the Double.' Fast forward almost 3½ decades and Ruben Amorim's men hope to follow in their footsteps. Like Sparky and Co, they can build on winning the FA Cup last season with another trophy. Even the most ardent United fan would struggle to believe the current crop will match up by winning the Prem title in the next couple of years. But Europa glory would be a vital step forward — earning a lucrative place in next season's Champions League, as well as a third trophy in three seasons. Yet should they fail, there will be no European football next season — and that would be tough for United fans to swallow. One thing that made the 1991 triumph so special was they had spent five years out of Uefa competition, due to a ban on English clubs after the Heysel disaster. Fergie's men breezed past Hungarians Pecsi Munkas in the first round, then eased through against Wrexham. They drew the first leg of their quarter-final against Montpellier 1-1 before Clayton Blackmore's free-kick helped them win 2-0 in France. A 3-1 victory at Legia Warsaw made the semi-final second leg something of a formality and ensured they booked a place in the final against Barcelona. Even back then, the Catalan giants had an aura about them but Fergie's preparations had been sketchy to say the least. Virtually the only thing he said to his players was they had to stop Ronald Koeman — and he deployed Brian McClair to keep tabs on the Dutchman. Irwin said: 'The prep work back then was totally different. You wouldn't know much about the opposition before you went out and played against them.' Robson recalled: 'The only thing the boss really said about them was 'Koeman'. Because he starts everything off and the keeper passes to him.' The tactics worked as the first half was largely forgettable. Midway through the second half, Robson's free-kick was nodded goalwards by Steve Bruce but Hughes nipped in to tap over the line and take the glory. 6 The United skipper, 64, said: 'It was going right in the corner — but then an inch outside of the line, Sparky scored it.' Bruce, United's top scorer that season, added: 'Everyone leapt on me and not Sparky, so you know who scored it. It would have been my 20th of the season — as a centre-half!' There was no doubt who got the second a few minutes later as Hughes latched on to a Robson pass, went round the keeper and thumped in from a narrow angle. It was a sweet moment for Sparky — who had been shown the door by Barca a couple of years earlier. Johan Cruyff's men pulled a goal back through Koeman and came within a whisker of taking it to extra-time. But United held on to claim a precious first European trophy in 23 years. Jubilant supporters were singing in the rain long into the night, belting out the James classic Sit Down, as well as Monty Python's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. It has been hard to see any kind of bright side at times this season at Old Trafford. But on Wednesday night United face fellow Prem strugglers Spurs in Bilbao. So, they can still end a troubled campaign with a big prize — and that could be the start of something much bigger. Just ask the Class of 91.
The Star
20-05-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Red Devils legend Robbo to be in town for match against Asean All-Stars
PETALING JAYA: Manchester United fans in Malaysia will be getting another treat when the Red Devils head to Kuala Lumpur for the Asean All-Stars at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil. Former United legend Bryan Robson will also be in town for the exciting match taking place in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday (May 28). Another United legend, Ryan Giggs, was in the city recently to promote the fixture, and was at the Do Arena in Lalaport for a special football clinic for youngsters on Sunday (May 18). The eagerly-anticipated match in Bukit Jalil is part of the team's pre-season tour, and will also travel to Hong Kong and play against the Hong Kong national team on May 30. The last time United played in Malaysia was during the 2009 pre-season tour, defeating the Malaysia XI twice, 3-2 and 2-0, respectively on July 18 and 20 at the National Stadium.
Irish Daily Mirror
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Man Utd legend Gary Pallister reacts to dire season as Europa League final looms
Gary Pallister is calling on Manchester United's leaders to step up in Bilbao and rescue something from their sorry season. But whatever unfolds in Wednesday's Europa League final, he hopes a squad overhaul this summer will result in a team 'willing to show up in every game, not just in some'. Pallister knows nothing should deflect from United's Premier League horror show, having lost 18 of their 37 games to date. Going into Sunday's final round of league games, United are 16th in the table with tomorrow's European opponents Tottenham one spot below them, after losing 21 times. But while Pallister is hugely frustrated by their dire domestic struggles, he feels a European trophy and a route back into the Champions League cannot be sniffed at. Speaking to Mirror Sport, Pallister said: 'It would be huge to get into the Champions League as it attracts players and gives us a bigger war chest for the summer. It's a huge fillip for the fans if we can do that, even if there's a touch of apprehension about playing in the Champions League next year. 'Winning the Europa League doesn't really save the season because we've hit depths that we've not seen since my first season at Manchester United. That was in 1989/90 and we were saved by the FA Cup in the end. It was great to get a trophy as we knew it could lead onto better things. But in the cold light of day we weren't good enough in the league (United finished 13th) and that's where you judge your team.' Pallister - a William Hill Vegas ambassador - reckons United are capable of not showing up in Wednesday's decider in Spain - and that's why he says the onus is on the team's leaders to show the way. Ruben Amorim's squad have been widely panned by everyone this season - including the manager himself. Pallister, 59, said: 'The league never lies and we're in this position because we simply haven't been good enough. We can't hide away from that fact. Any player who has played at Manchester United will talk about it being a different sort of pressure. 'Along with Real Madrid, they are the two biggest clubs in the world and the expectation can take your breath away a little when you get to a club like this. It did to me, and the players who were there would talk to me about how to deal with the expectations. Sir Alex was great with it as well. 'I had Bryan Robson, Mark Hughes, Steve Bruce, Viv Anderson in the dressing room - great senior pros at that time to have a chat with. That was invaluable to me. Whether we have those kinds of characters at Man United right now, I don't know, but it's been a big change to the game of football as a whole.' Pallister, who made 317 league appearances for United, said: 'You're looking for people like Tony Adams, John Terry, Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane, Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Dennis Wise. These guys who wear their heart on their sleeve and give everything on a pitch and don't suffer fools in a football team and will be in your ear if you're not performing. 'I don't see many characters like that in the game and maybe Manchester United needs a few more like that. Whatever is wrong in that team and that dressing room, it needs to be rooted out and we need to find a team that is willing to show up in every game, not just in some.' United boss Amorim - only appointed in November - caused a stir last week when he said he will have to go if United carry their woeful league form into next season. And regardless of whether the Red Devils win the Europa League, the Portuguese will be under ferocious pressure if his team have a nightmare start next season. But Pallister, the former United, Middlesbrough and England centre-back, wants the club to back Amorim in the summer transfer market. 'The manager is very honest in what he says and how he feels,' said Pallister. 'What he's saying is that we're all in it together - it's not just the players, it's him too. 'He's picking the team and coaching the side. He's been there five or six months and is disappointed in himself and with the team and is reflecting that. But I don't mind it. It may sound negative to some people but I think he's being brutally honest as he expected more from the players and himself. It's a job he didn't want to take until the end of the season anyway so we have to give him that time to change things around.' And asked what's required in the summer window, Pallister said: 'It's going to be hugely important, but how many times have we said that since Sir Alex left? He has to get time. He's had one transfer window, and the winter one is always difficult to make huge changes in. "Managers live and die by who they bring in and we're probably expecting a massive turnaround in players this summer. There are good players in that squad but for whatever reason it doesn't gel and he's not finding any real answers to the league form. Hopefully he gets it right. But this week I'm hoping we put our disastrous league form behind us, win a trophy and get back into the Champions League."
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
‘If it had been a film, we'd have won': former Palace finalists share Cup memories
Palace 3-3 Manchester United (aet); replay: Palace 0-1 United Being captain of that side was a special time. We had been thrashed 9-0 by Liverpool earlier in the season so after getting past them in the semi-final when Alan Pardew scored the winner at Villa Park, it felt like we had nothing to fear. You get to this stage of the season and a lot of teams will be tapering off because they don't have much to play for. What Steve [Coppell, the manager] and Alan [Smith, the assistant] did straight after the semi-final was really kick on – it was like a pre-season again. We'd play a game on the Saturday and have Sunday off and then straight into a long run on the Monday. We were really confident in our physical side of the game. As soon as we came off the pitch after winning the semi-final, we found out what the FA Cup final is all about. Eric Hall became our agent and had us doing all sorts of things. Some of the guys were on Blue Peter but I missed that because I was at the pre-Cup final dinner with the Duke of Edinburgh and the United captain, Bryan Robson. Please don't ask me about our appearance on Sky to sing our version of Glad All Over – I remember John Salako and Gary O'Reilly giving it some! It was quite embarrassing having to sing in front of a live TV audience … Looking back at the final, the frustrating thing is that we were seven minutes away from lifting the Cup after Ian Wright scored in extra time. If it had been a film, we would have won the game and it would have been one of the greatest achievements in sport. We'd been beaten 9-0 by the team that we had then beaten in the semi-final … That's the sad thing – history is made by certain moments and Mark Hughes came up with that moment. Bryan Robson says we kicked them off the park in the replay but I remember them being just as physical. I think it was Brian McClair who brought me down in the box and the referee gave a free-kick but you could see the divot inside the area. I'll never forget that. I'm from Manchester and was brought up as a Blue; every time we played against City it was a bit special. All my family would be in the Kippax at the old Maine Road and I used to love playing against them. But as a footballer Crystal Palace are my club. Ever since I joined in 1987 right up to today I feel a part of it. The support of the club when I was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2003 is something I'll never forget. I can see the same enjoyment among the players today that we had under Steve all those years ago. We loved going out there and beating bigger teams. Unfortunately Crystal Palace weren't a big enough club to keep players like Ian Wright and Mark Bright and our team was disbanded. But hopefully times are changing and Palace will be able to build on their progress under Oliver Glasner. I hope it's third time lucky for them on Saturday. Like us in 1990 they've got nothing to fear. City have got quality but so have Palace. I just hope that it's a day that history is made. When I arrived in 1984, Palace had nothing. Steve Coppell has to take a lot of credit for everything that team achieved. Steve was a bit of a fitness fanatic so we spent a lot of time working on that. There's a place called Farleigh Downs, which was the hill we used to run up, and the lads had to get up it eight times. It was some run. But because they were so willing to do anything that Steve told them they did it. He had that much respect among the players. We also must have been one of the first to do any sort of video analysis. We had this guy called Vince Craven who came in who used to be at Wimbledon and helped them win the 1988 FA Cup final against Liverpool. He was way ahead of his time. Vince would break up the clips with bits of comedy, otherwise the players would start losing interest. He was a natural and it really helped with our attacking set plays. Eric Hall sorted everything out for the players like the suits and a deal with Ray-Ban sunglasses. The sad thing about that was that it pissed with rain about an hour before kick-off so they couldn't wear them. Eric still managed to find 20 umbrellas from somewhere though! United were under a lot of pressure because Alex Ferguson knew he had to win that game – if he hadn't then who knows what might have happened? To have beaten Liverpool in the semis and scored four goals without Ian Wright, who had been out with a broken leg, was some achievement. But he was our talisman: we won some games when we shouldn't have done when he would pull a goal out of the blue like Eberechi Eze does now. In the final, Steve could have put him on earlier and kept on saying: 'Shall we, shall we?' When he came on he was like a coiled spring, a bundle of combustion that burst on to the pitch. In many ways by scoring two goals it was his Cup final. Of course, it wasn't to be because Hughes equalised and they won the replay. But his performance made other clubs interested in him. We finished third the next season before Ian left to join Arsenal. We didn't get into Europe and I think that hit Steve hard. He had done so much work since joining the club in 1984 and by that time we were finding it much more difficult to hold on to our players. Some of them thought: 'What more can we do at Palace?' I'll be sitting next to Steve at Wembley on Saturday and Palace have a genuine chance. You can't help but think this is the third time they've been there and they are coming into form at the right time again … Palace 1-2 Manchester United We were like a proper family in the dressing room. You felt everyone in the community wanted Palace to go to the top level. I remember being so excited when we reached the final by beating Watford in the semi-finals – we had special suits made for the day and it was very exciting. Everyone remembers Alan Pardew's dance when Jason Puncheon scored after coming off the bench. It came from a corner – we had worked on that move in training and he said before: 'That's how we're going to score.' The manager was always telling us about the goal he scored in the semi-final against Liverpool in 1990 so it was his way of celebrating. It showed how close we all were to him. Alan was always around the players making jokes and he gave us a lot of confidence. When you went on the pitch you wanted to do everything for him. He would often ask after my family and check how I was settling in. And he helped me with my English – the reason I speak it now is partly because of him. I thought we were going to do it when Punch scored. But it's football; sometimes you just have to accept it. We were so close and hopefully now they will finally win it against City. That would make me very happy. A few months after the final, I was in a car crash that forced me to miss almost two years of football. I was very lucky to get back on my feet and playing games again. I'm still in touch with the chairman [Steve Parish] and he gives me some advice. I'm really close to people who are still there and I feel like the support of the fans helped me to get back from injury much quicker. I really appreciate that. I was the first player from Senegal to play for Palace and that makes me proud. When I go back home you see a lot of Palace shirts everywhere.
Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
When Gazza met Gaddafi
It was the hopeful first spring of a new millennium, and yet an almighty stench from the previous one lingered. That May, in a court near Utrecht, the trial of two Libyans had begun so that a deadly riddle might be solved – the savage bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. With the trial three weeks old, across the North Sea, Jimmy 'Five Bellies' Gardner raced through Tyneside. He was on a quest to transport Paul Gascoigne's forgotten passport to Newcastle Airport. Then, the ageing maestro would visit the alleged terrorists' homeland. This, though, was no chicken-and-fishing-rod sympathy escapade. Gazza had a match to play and a Gaddafi waiting to man-mark him. On the Sunday, Gazza's solid Middlesbrough had finished their Premier League season with a 2-0 victory at Goodison Park. Three days later, they would be special guests at the opening of Tripoli's Great Man-Made River Stadium – witnesses to the ribbon cutting for Colonel Gaddafi 's new concrete toy. 'We're taking a strong squad,' said manager Bryan Robson, 'and treating the visit seriously. We are ambassadors for this country, after all.' Members of that squad were far from enthused by their coming adventure. ''It was a strange thing for us to do,' says midfielder Neil Maddison now. 'It was a trip I don't think any of us wanted to go on. Libya was involved with the Pan Am disaster, that was the theory. I think as players we felt uneasy about going there.' Then as now, however, those players were slaves to the schedule put in place for them, unquestioning pawns of the sport's rhythms. 'You're in that routine,' says team-mate Robbie Mustoe. 'You're just a group of young men who follow orders… I would've appreciated a little bit more understanding from the club, maybe to sit us down as players and say, 'OK, this is a trip we're contemplating, and here's a little history'. I can't recall that happening.' Pleas for Gazza to be allowed to fly without passport It did not help that a footballer's prerogative after a season's slog was to recline on a beach in Ibiza or Crete rather than venture into the dusty unknown. At Newcastle Airport, the situation worsened when Middlesbrough 's players encountered another track-suited mob in a nearby check-in queue. 'The Newcastle squad were there,' recalls Chris Barnes, then the club's head of sports science. 'They were making a lot of jokes about it, them going to the Caribbean and us to Libya. It was the last thing we needed.' Remarkably, Middlesbrough allowed a film crew to shadow their every move. Leeds-based production company Chameleon TV had won a commission from Channel 5. 'The documentary name itself, Gazza v Gaddafi, probably helped get it made,' supposes Chameleon sound man Chris Gibbions from a quarter-century's distance. 'There was this obvious pull of the two big names.' Gibbions also recalls the moment Gazza – palpably close to discharging a batch of trademark tears – realised he had left his passport at home, and made a panicked call to Five Bellies for its conveyance. The crew then captured club commercial manager Graham Fordy – the chief organiser of this Libyan jaunt, who had been trying to make it happen for four years – requesting that a document-free Gascoigne be permitted to fly. 'It isn't as if nobody knows who he is,' Fordy pleaded with airport staff. With Five Bellies' task accomplished, however, Gazza boarded among 28 members of the Middlesbrough party on flight BA2898 to Tripoli. Discontent was not the preserve of the players alone. Among supporters and in the media, there had been fierce objections to the tour coinciding with the Lockerbie trial and the club's apparent engagement with a tyrannical regime. Fordy acknowledged these grievances but insisted that the trip was about 'the building of relationships for the future, rather than looking in the past'. He may have had in mind the nearby economy Middlesbrough existed within. Teesside companies had in recent years won Libyan construction contracts and in the local press it was claimed that 'Middlesbrough's invitation came about through the North East's strong links with the Libyan Interest Office'. Some, meanwhile, accused Middlesbrough of greed, suggesting that the club were to be paid a fee of £1 million by the Libyans. This claim was dismissed as 'grossly exaggerated' by a spokesman. Offering further confusion as to club motivations, The Times reported that Middlesbrough's invitation had been sent by the Libyan Olympic Committee. Robson offered a defence for this acutely unpopular endeavour, stating that: 'The Home Office wanted us to take this trip. Britain and America are trying to get reconciliation pacts going with Libya.' The notion that a mid-table football team from a post-industrial town could help smooth future relations with an ostracised dictatorship does, of course, require a considerable leap of faith. Yet the concept of Gazza et al as peace envoys contains a smidgeon of credence. Certainly, Middlesbrough's Tripoli jaunt was approved of, and even encouraged by, UK government figures. Rapprochement with oil-rich Libya was well underway, and Tony Blair's handshake with Colonel Gaddafi only four years in the future. Over in Libya, meanwhile, Al-Saadi Gaddafi – a footballer son of the Colonel – claimed that he alone had brokered the deal that summoned Middlesbrough, due to his friendship with Gascoigne. The two had met while players in Italy. 'I've known him since he played for Lazio,' said Al-Saadi. 'He's been a very good friend of mine since then.' Whatever the truth behind Middlesbrough's excursion, Gazza versus Gaddafi was on. Gazza joked about Gaddafi's son 'downing cocktails' Mustoe has never forgotten the drive through town on a coach designated 'Meddlesbrough' by a sign fixed on a side panel, just beneath the obligatory portrait of Colonel Gaddafi. 'Tripoli was so rough, and so broken and so crumbled,' he says, 'it was shocking to see little kids walking around that looked like they had no home, and wild dogs running about.' Steve Vickers, his room-mate on this and more mundane away trips, recalls 'so many abandoned vehicles because of the embargo the Americans had put on them at the time. There were no spare parts for vehicles, so when they broke down they just left them. It was like taking a step back in time. Donkeys pulling carts and that type of thing.' Beyond giant room keys 'like something from an old castle' and 'rotten, minging food', at their hotel, Vickers, a neat centre-half, remembers 'a guy sat outside our room wearing a suit with a submachine gun strapped across his chest. He just nodded as we passed and we thought, 'My God, what's going on'.' Armed guards would follow the players and film crew everywhere. Only the spartan poolside offered respite. Gibbions, who found Libya an 'interesting, incredibly friendly place', fondly recollects a poolside soaking by Gazza. Caught on camera, the incident transports seasoned Gazza-watchers a decade backwards to sunny hotels at Italia '90, ahead of so many wrong turns and dangerous corners. On the first night, the Middlesbrough squad was treated to a reception at the British Embassy, where the players met a UK trade delegation. En route, however, the Meddlesbrough bus became lost in the crumbling maze of Tripoli's streets. As a jazz band played, discomfort afflicted Barnes. 'It was right in the middle of Tripoli,' he explains, 'this opulent mansion with marble and fountains, and a champagne reception, but all surrounded by poverty, all these tall apartments looking over us. You felt bad seeing that.' There followed a meal at Colonel Gaddafi's favourite restaurant. The next morning, May 17, Middlesbrough's squad took their bus to training. In one of the documentary film's most memorable quotes, to uproarious laughter from team-mates, midfielder Phil Stamp described the trip thus far: 'Libya? It's the s--ts. We all wanna go home. The food's s--- and we're getting no money for coming.' On a dreadful, bone-hard plastic surface moulded onto concrete, the players knocked a ball around with local children. Soon Gazza, clearly the main draw for the Libyans, was removed for an assembly with another Gaddafi son, Muhammad, and other regime figures. A joke about remembering Al-Saadi 'downing the cocktails' when the two had met in Italy did not land. Fans whipped if they did not make noise That evening, with the day's pulsating heat now dropping to 26C, in a quick-fire round-robin tournament they would play two 45-minute games against a Libyan XI and then Italian side Bari. A bagpipe band's offerings pierced the air and then roars erupted as an Iman officially opened the stadium. The atmosphere felt raucous, urgent. Sports scientist Barnes offers a shocking explanation: 'There were 15,000 men in there and you've heard the phrase 'whipping up the atmosphere'. Well, that was literally happening – there were soldiers with whips hitting any fans that didn't make noise.' From his berth on the pitch, Vickers saw similar wickedness. 'The crowd was controlled by soldiers who had whips and big sticks,' he confirms. 'Any time they tried to get down to the front they were whipping them and hitting them.' It hardly mattered, but on the pitch Middlesbrough's blend of young and old players suffered a significant handicap. Regular goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer had refused to travel and stand-in Ben Roberts was taken ill on arrival in Libya. That phenomenon beloved of fans everywhere, an outfield player in goal, would have to be enacted. It fell to Stamp to undertake kick-saves and improvised dives in jogging bottoms and a shirt far too baggy for him. Against a Libyan outfit that Maddison remembers as 'a decent side, quite nippy', Middlesbrough were defeated 1-0 by virtue of a goal which wreaked of offside. Everything, though, was about Gazza versus Gaddafi, and the crowd did their boisterous duty when Al-Saadi was brought on as a substitute and began immediately marking the Geordie. 'We didn't really get close to Gaddafi,' says Mustoe, a fine midfielder for over a decade with the club, 'because it wouldn't be a good idea if you fouled him.' With Stamp remaining in goal, Middlesbrough then lost 2-0 against Bari. Thoroughly bored and frequently bemused, Middlesbrough's footballers set out for Tripoli Airport the next day dreaming of home. Then, 'All of a sudden,' remembers Maddison, 'there were motorbikes and trucks alongside the team coach, ushering us into this long drive.' Barnes continues: 'We pulled up outside this big, bombed-out house. A man with a rifle got on the bus and told us to get off.' The building, it transpired, was a former Gaddafi mansion, maintained as a ruin to highlight an American bombing raid which had killed the dictator's daughter in 1986. Sheepishly, the players filed around the rubble and among the family portraits of this macabre relic. They were shown a hole in the ceiling through which it was said the offending bomb had fallen. 'They'd shot down an American plane and put the pilot's overalls on a dummy and there were two American helmets,' says Vickers. Then, in an act of brazen propagandising, Robson and Gascoigne were forced to sign a book of condolence and filmed while doing so. Finally, the shell-shocked players reached the airport. Their plane home climbed into the air and two air hosts lit cigarettes. Middlesbrough's season had finally concluded. Fordy saluted the Libyan supporters' 'passion for the game' and 'the PR for the club'. Robson offered that it had been a 'worthwhile trip as far as we're concerned'. Twenty-five years on, the engaging and articulate Mustoe is less convinced. 'I look back on it as a mature adult and it is a bit disturbing really,' he reflects. 'As players we are so naive, so ignorant to what's going on around us and what the bigger meaning behind this possibly was. You look back and you understand the history. The whole idea of the trip, the story of forwarding relations between the British and Libyan governments, I think to open up trade – we were kind of used really. I'm not thrilled when I look back at it. At least it gave us some stories to tell, I suppose.'
