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EARLY DAYS

Johnny Giles was born to Dicky and Kate Giles in 1940 and was raised in the inner-city area of north Dublin, growing up in 7A Ormond Square. It’s testament to the impact that he had in the world of football that in July 2006 a plaque was unveiled outside the old family home in homage to him and his inner-city roots.

Football was in Johnny’s blood from an early age. His father was a footballer, who, as well as playing for Bohemians, also managed Drumcondra. Johnny’s own football journey began with famed youth clubs Stella Maris and Home Farm, but it wasn’t long before his talent was spotted and in 1956 he signed for Manchester United. Johnny was still learning his trade as a footballer in England when the 1958 Munich air disaster occurred. The disaster, which sadly saw eight members of the United team die, led to Giles making his debut for the Reds in 1959, a lot earlier than he would have expected, at the tender age of eighteen. His debut turned out to be a 5–1 defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, but Johnny quickly put the poor start behind him and became a permanent fixture in the side. He earned his first winner’s medal in England, when he was part of the United side which won the 1963 FA Cup, playing alongside another Irishman, Noel Cantwell. That summer, however, Johnny made the difficult decision to leave Old
Trafford and moved to join Leeds United who at that time were in the Second Division. The Leeds United manager Don Revie was assembling a side strong enough to win promotion and with Giles in the team the title was secured and with it promotion to the big time.

On their first season back in the First Division, Leeds made an instant impression and they only just missed out on winning the League, finishing as runners-up to Johnny’s old club, United. That season saw also saw Johnny miss out on another FA Cup medal when Leeds lost to Liverpool.

The following season, 1967–1968, saw Johnny help Leeds to continue their upward march as they beat Arsenal 1–0 to win the League Cup and also experience European glory as they beat Ferencváros of Hungary in the Fairs Cup final.

By this stage Giles was coming into his peak as a player and, with twenty-six Irish caps under his belt, had progressed to become a key player for both club and country. Revie built his team around Giles and his midfield partner Billy Bremner, although it was often hard to distinguish whose role was what, with Giles equally adept at winning the ball in the tackle as well as creating chances for the team. The same could be said of Bremner and it was this adaptability in the middle that was the key to Leeds’ success. The following season Johnny finally got his hands on a League Championship winner’s medal as Leeds won the division title, losing only two games in the process.

The 1969–1970 season saw Johnny make his debut in the European Cup and he was an integral part of a three-pronged trophy assault as Leeds went for the League, FA Cup and European Cup. They ended up with nothing, however, finishing the season as runners-up in both the League and the FA Cup
to Chelsea. Celtic emerged victorious from the European Cup battle of Britain, beating Leeds in the semi-final. Over the following two seasons, Giles’ medal collection increased as he added yet another Fairs Cup winning medal (1971) and an FA Cup winner’s medal (1972). In 1973 Leeds once again experienced the agony of finishing runners-up, only missing out on the title with a last day defeat by Wolves. Once again the club and Giles had finished a promising campaign empty-handed.

The 1973–74 season saw the inspirational Jack Charlton leave the club. This left Johnny as the most senior member of the side, and despite the loss of the World Cup winning centre-half, a twenty-nine-game unbeaten run ensured that Leeds did not feel his loss too much, and Giles finished the season with his second League Championship medal.

FULL INTERNATIONAL

Johnny Giles is one of the greatest-ever players to don a green shirt and it is a shame that, like many great Irish footballers before and after him, he never achieved his ambition of playing in a major international final. Every generation has players that deserve more from their international careers, and just as Ryan Giggs has never made it to an international tournament, neither did Giles. While his international career for the Republic of Ireland had some notable highs, it never scaled the heights of his club career.

His international career started in November 1959, when after just two first-team appearances for Manchester United a
then nineteen-year-old Giles made the starting line-up for a match against a Swedish team that had lost the World Cup final to Brazil a year earlier. Four days before the game against Ireland, the Swedes had beaten England. They took the confidence this gave them into the Irish match and quickly established a 2–0 lead at Dalymount Park after only twelve minutes. However, Johnny helped reduce the deficit after sixteen minutes with his first international goal and then went on to help the Ireland team to a 3–2 victory.

In total Giles made fifty-nine appearances in an Ireland shirt, scoring five goals. His international career lasted almost twenty years, and for six of those he was player-manager of the team. He was without doubt one of the most influential players of his era.

THE MANAGER’S JOB

Johnny Giles’ impact on the Ireland team as a player was renowned, and it was no surprise that the FAI approached him to become the player-manager of the Republic of Ireland team. Giles was the Ireland manager from 1973 to 1980 and set about instilling in the team the tactical know-how and professionalism that he had learned under Matt Busby and Don Revie, two of the greatest managers the game had ever seen. ‘I learned more under Johnny Giles than I did from any Christian Brothers school,’ says Alan Campbell, who played under Giles at Shamrock Rovers. ‘It was not just football with Johnny. It was the way he approached life. He was very educational, more of a teacher than a coach, and you would listen to what he had to say.’

Paddy Mulligan thinks Giles was appointed because the team needed a big name to take them to another level and move things forward: ‘I think after Liam and Seán Thomas, Johnny was the big name that the team and the FAI needed. He took the role on and set about taking Ireland up another step on the international ladder. He was so professional and a legend of the game. For example, rather than speaking to the players about qualifying for tournaments, he wanted us to look to the next level and think about getting out of the group when at a tournament. He was very forward-thinking and ambitious. More than anyone he wanted Ireland to do well, and there were some great players coming through at that time, especially Liam Brady, as well as some wonderful players already in the team. We managed to beat the USSR in one of Johnny’s first matches in charge. They were a powerhouse at the time, but Don Givens scored three that day and we beat them 3–0. Actually, Liam Brady made his debut that day.

‘Similar to the Charlton era, which would follow Giles’ some six years later, Johnny set about instilling belief in the players and getting them to play his way. Johnny promoted a passing game, one that began with the keepers and involved patient build-up and maintaining control of the ball. The simple philosophy was that the opposition can’t score if they don’t have the ball.

‘Johnny was meticulous in his planning. I remember we played a Poland team that had qualified for the 1974 World Cup in West Germany and had just beaten England on the Wednesday before, but we beat them 1–0. He had us organised. The dressing-room was very calm, and we all knew what we had to do to win. He would analyse the game for us, and he
definitely brought us forward. I suppose, a bit like Liam, he was unlucky in not getting us to a tournament, but we were robbed, especially in Bulgaria, where we lost 2–1 but had a perfectly good goal disallowed.

‘It was the same story in Paris, where we lost 2–0 to a fantastic French team that was one of the most talented at the 1978 World Cup, but it could have been a very different story, because we had a goal disallowed before they scored. I think it was Gerry Daly who was deemed offside, but he was nowhere near offside. It was very frustrating, but we had no standing in international football at that time. At the end of the day it was the away results that let us down.’

Jimmy Holmes recalls that Giles was a terrific motivator of players: ‘He had a small squad, but he got us to give 100 per cent every time. Injuries had a real impact on our squad, but no matter what team we had out we always played well. Unfortunately, we just never seemed to get there. The highlight for me was the game against Brazil that we played at the Maracanã [Rio de Janeiro] in 1974. It felt like there were about 150,000 people in the stadium that day. It was an amazing part of our South American tour, and we only lost the game 2–1.

‘They had Jairzinho, Rivelino and Pelé in their line-up. I was playing left-back and was up against Jairzinho. In the first minute he skimmed past me and got a lovely cross in that almost led to a goal. I turned to Paddy Mulligan and said, “He is even quicker than on TV. I am going to need your help.” Paddy shouted back, “Sorry, I can’t help you. I have to mark Pelé.”’

A bad-luck theme runs through the history of the Ireland team right up to the 1980s. The football might have been
improving, the organisation getting better, the professionalism gathering pace, but the one thing that Ireland could not change, it seemed, was the bad luck that continually hampered their progress. When a team is not getting the rub of the green they feel they deserve, then the simplest decision is analysed and broken down, and over time it becomes a focal point for any perceived failures. However, the team was definitely on the up under Giles, and while the country failed to qualify for any major finals, the common perception was that Giles was ahead of his time. He wanted to change not only the way Ireland played but also the whole set-up of the team.

Gerry Peyton thought Giles was in a league of his own: ‘Looking back, I would have been in my early twenties then, Giles was definitely ahead of his time. He wanted to keep the ball on the ground, starting with the goalkeepers. He wanted us to throw the ball short to a defender or midfielder and build from there. John was player-manager at that time, and he would come deep from midfield to get the ball and then try and play it around. If I’m honest, I’m not sure people were ready for the football he wanted to play.

‘The pitch was against us, too. Lansdowne Road was also a rugby pitch, as it is today, and the grass was always too long and the ball would bounce unpredictably. If you compare Dalymount and Lansdowne Road to say the current Arsenal pitch, the latter is like a bowling green. In fact, all of the top clubs today have pitches like bowling greens. Ireland did not have that.

‘John had high standards, as he had played under Don Revie at Leeds. Jack Charlton, Terry Yorath and Billy Bremner all became managers, while Gordon McQueen and Eddie Gray were coaches. These guys had all learned from Revie.

‘The Leeds team of that generation were a tough unit, but they played attractive football and were winners. John tried to take that with him to Ireland. He wanted to play the beautiful game, and we had the players to do it. There was Liam Brady, Frank Stapleton, David O’Leary, Mick Martin, Jimmy Holmes and Steve Heighway – all good players.

‘I think if he had stayed on a bit longer and waited for the improvement in pitches, he would have got the best out of the squad. Liam Brady used to talk to him a lot. He moulded Liam into one of the best midfielders in the world. Liam was very keen to hear what John had to say. After all, he was a legend of the game, not just to Liam, but to us all.

‘John gave me my debut in 1977 against Spain as a second-half substitute for Mick Kearns. I will never forget the reception I got. It was fantastic. I was born in Birmingham, but my father and mother were Irish, from Mayo and Galway. I had actually been selected to play for England, but Johnny gave me a call after hearing my parents were Irish and asked me if I wanted to play for Ireland. I had a talk about it with my mum and dad and decided to go for it, and I never looked back. I played thirty-three times for Ireland in sixteen years and managed to keep thirteen clean sheets in that time.

‘I really enjoyed my time in the Ireland set-up, and I know my parents were very proud of me. I have a young son now, and he can play for England or Ireland. If the time comes, I will sit with him and help him make the best decision for him.

‘I think the fact that I chose Ireland over England helped me get a good reception from the fans. I had been selected for England at a time when they had Peter Shilton, Ray Clemence, Phil Parkes – the most expensive keeper of the day – Jimmy
Rimmer, Joe Corrigan and a young Paul Bradshaw at Wolves, so it was quite an honour to be considered for England. But once Johnny Giles called that was it. He was so charismatic you wanted to please him. Not only was he a big name, he had a great knowledge of the game, and, of course, he had a good record with West Bromwich Albion, which he got promoted.’

Dave Langan started his Ireland career when Johnny was in charge: ‘He actually gave me my debut in a testimonial match against Leeds. The match was for Paul Madeley, who was a Leeds legend. Johnny then told me I would be in the squad for a home match against Turkey. I was a young player then at Derby, and Johnny was player-manager. He pulled me aside the day before the game and had a little chat with me, telling me what he expected of me. Johnny never missed a trick. He had a knowledge of the game I have never seen before or since. He really balanced being a player and the manager of the team.

‘We would train the morning before a game and then have lunch. Afterwards Johnny would give his team talk, focusing on us and what he expected from us. He included everybody and asked them for their thoughts. He was never too worried about the opposition. He was one of the lads, but at the same time he would tell you off if he had to. He could switch into manager mode quite easily, but you always knew he was right. He knew the game inside out, and everyone in the squad had so much respect for him.