The Class of 92 Page #3

it would be over in 20 seconds, 15 seconds.

They would just do something stupid,

you'd get a round of, "That was brilliant",

you get a round of applause,

right, you don't have to do anything again.

There would be the odd player

who wouldn't do it,

or didn't want to do it,

or would do it rubbish,

and then you would be on 'em.

There's one time they put Scholesy

in the dryer and...

I don't know whether they turned it on,

but they shut the door and they might've

just turned it on and off like that, quick.

I think he had a panic attack.

But it was a big old

industrial dryer, as well.

I think that's what brought his asthma on.

The nightclub scene was the best.

You had to chat someone up.

I had to do that with you once.

- Chat them up?

- Yeah.

It wasn't my greatest skill

when I was a young kid, chatting girls up.

I had to perform sexual actions

to Clayton Blackmore's calendar.

No!

- On the bed?

- Yeah, on the bed.

Yeah, that was my worst one.

Boot polish, as well, on the...

I had a boot-polish number

put on the back of my...

- The bongs on your back?

- What about the spoon in your mouth?

What, did they draw the kit on you?

I'm not sure about that.

I'm not sure who did it, but...

Giggsy used to draw the kit on him.

- Do you not think...

- it was you!

- It was part of his initiation.

- Don't even know why you're here.

Right, and look how you turned out.

- No, I didn't enjoy it.

- You're welcome.

(LAUGHING)

- You was horrible, Giggsy.

- BUTT:
I hated him.

It made you solid, it made you hard,

it made you tough.

It made you not be soared

of looking a fool in front of your friends.

Not be scared of, you know, saying things

out loud in front of older players.

So, although it probably,

nowadays, could be classed as bullying,

it was a massive part

of becoming a player at the club.

Because if you're a 20-year-old lad

and something's wrong on the pitch,

if you've not got the bollocks

and go and say it to the older players,

then you've got no chance of making it

at Man United.

Even though I hated it,

and it used to make me ill,

I still think there's part of that old-school

values and that toughening-up process

that the kids nowadays miss out on.

I'm happy that us lot came through

at that time,

because when we came

into being reserve-team players,

we were the players that stopped it.

We were the players that kind of knew it

wasn't right to do these kinds of things.

And it stopped.

Having coaches like Nobby

that had done what he'd done in football,

and then moving up

to having someone like Eric,

and having the manager around us

all the time,

playing at The Cliff like we played,

and then having players like Bryan Robson

come in to the A team

and playing games like that,

I don't think there's

many teams that do that.

For me, that's my best moment at The Cliff.

Having Bryan Robson play in an A-team game

with me, next to me.

That's great, when they come, Bryan Robson

and all that, come and watch your team play,

or watch the teams practise

and all that business,

what a confidence boost!

We probably learnt how

we need to look to look after our players.

He was the one who taught us that.

And I always remember,

I think we were playing Oldham, I think,

one day...

I remember Ben Thornley,

the left winger,

got absolutely battered

off the Oldham right back.

And I can still see it now,

and it sickens me now.

Ben got a cross in

and the lad just went like that with his

boot, with his studs and all that business,

and he's straight down.

Robbo, who was playing in that game,

went up to the guy who did it,

just put his finger up like that,

I remember him waving his finger like that,

and the lad told him two words,

and the last one was "off".

And I thought, "You're dead."

And Robbo just went over

and absolutely steamrolled him.

Not illegally, but hitting him really hard.

Just a typical Bryan Robson tackle.

Oh, aye.

I'm sure... The Enforcer.

But Robbo was a fantastic person

for them too, you know.

He had a wonderful way with the young

players. They all idolised him.

I think we all looked around at each other

and we all smiled,

because, you know, being looked after

by someone like Bryan Robson...

it doesn't get much better than that.

That was the beauty of

The Cliff, wasn't it?

We were all, what... Sparky, Robbo, lncey,

these were your heroes growing up.

- There was already winners in the team...

- Yeah.

Then, like, the success we had as a youth

team and the A team, like you say,

brought that in as well, so it's a habit.

A lot of football's up here.

You know, people talk about skill,

obviously it's important, and technical

ability and understanding and tactics,

but also the mental strength to know

that basically those opponents

you're playing against,

they know they're in for

a massive fight here to win this match.

All the lads that came through the ranks

under Eric Harrison and Nobby Stiles...

You know, Nobby Stiles would say,

"Just get wired into everybody.

You know, just get stuck in."

And that was the message that was

given to us as 14, 15, 16-year-olds,

you know, "Pass the ball,

"but make sure you don't lose

any battles out there.

"You win that fight."

GARY:
Got to remember that

in the, sort of, '60s, '70s and '80s,

that Liverpool had an incredible time,

you know, in music, football,

and I suppose in some ways,

this last 20 years

has been Manchester's time.

The Stone Roses, Oasis.

United winning the league.

But the two cities

have got a lot of similarities.

The spirit and fight, the honesty,

the integrity of the people.

There's tribalness to it.

Why shouldn't there be?

GARY:
When was your first goal here?

BECKHAM:
Galatasaray.

GARY:
Was it?

BECKHAM:
Oh, yeah.

- Was it that scuff into the corner?

- Yeah.

Proper scuff.

- When was yours, Scholesy?

- Trying to think.

Do you remember you used to play at all?

Have you just completely forgotten already?

In the A-team games we used to come up

against, you know, all the teams

around the country,

but obviously when we played

against Liverpool,

those were the big games.

I was about 16 when we played against

Liverpool at The Cliff,

and their team with...

Alan Hanson was playing,

coming back from injury,

Sammy Lee played.

We sure knew that we was

good enough then, I think.

They had a really good side out,

and, I mean, Liverpool don't like getting beat

by Man United, even at tiddlywinks, do they?

They beat them 6-1 at The Cliff, you know...

I think Scholesy scored a hat trick.

Probably did beat Liverpool a few times,

4 or 5-nil, which was nice.

I think the frustrating thing

growing up as well,

is Liverpool were such a great team.

They were a great team.

They had great players,

and that just made it worse.

I just hated them because

they were so good.

They played brilliant football,

they played the right way,

they had great players,

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