An Interview With Kenny Sansom

At an early age, Kenny Sansom knew he would be a professional footballer.

By the time he was in his teens he had joined Crystal Palace, who were in the old First Division, which of course, today’s Premiership.

Terry Venables was the manager, and his side became known, no doubt down to his effervescent management, as the “team of the 80s”.

“By 13th December in the 1979-80 season we were top of the old First Division, ahead of Arsenal, Liverpool; all the big sides," he tells me.  “Then it went a bit pear-shaped.”

“We were a smaller club and it was a great time, Terry Venables was class; he was fresh.  He comes from the East End of London, and so he put everything over so well, in language we could understand.  I think of his way of coaching as simplicity with brains.”

“His set-pieces were amazing - I can still remember a couple of them to this day.  His secret of coaching is that he would not complicate things and then talk on for five minutes, like a lot of coaches do.  He would merely say to you ‘that is your job, that is what I want you to do’”.

At the end of that season Crystal Palace finished in the top half of the table.  A couple of years later, left-back Kenny was signed by Arsenal.  Terry Neill was then the manager, and his coach was Don Howe.

“Terry Neill was very, very chatty.  Don Howe trained you so that you came off the training ground completely knackered.  His sessions were very, very, hard.  But Terry Neill did not have the edge that Terry Venables had, who had something special.  I think it was coming from the East End that did it."

"He would not tell you how to cheat, but if you were marking, say, a tall winger he would tell you exactly how to play him - how to put him off and how to win the tackle,” says Sansom.

He admits that when he first went to Arsenal he felt nervous at joining such a large club with stars like Frank Stapleton  David O’Leary, Brian Talbot and above all their goalkeeper Pat Jennings.

“Pat was simply the best.  He was very, very, quiet - he knew how good he was.!

“He would make a great save and just carry on, not like many keepers today who make you know that they have made a save.  He wasn’t a shouter like Peter Schmeichel, but you always knew where he was as a defender."

“If a goalie is noisy all the time it puts you off as a defender. I played with Peter Shilton for England and he was very noisy."

“Most of them do have one thing in common; at the end of every training session you usually have a five-a-side for fun and a wind down to the morning’s training, and all goalkeepers want to go up front and play as a striker!”

As a man who appeared no less than 36 times at the old Wembley Stadium, Sansom feels strongly that only the FA Cup final should be played there and not, as this past season, the two semi-finals as well.

“Good luck to Cardiff!  I am not putting them down - but they probably will never appear there again, so good luck to them!  I do think Wembley should be kept for the final.  It’s an honour to play there, something special, even when you have been there as many times as I have.”

When he left Arsenal he kept on the move, appearing for many clubs and in his book To Cap It All: My Story, he is very honest about how this affected his family's life when he would suddenly up sticks and go.

This affects the children’s education, parts them from their friends, and is not a recipe for a stable family life.

He got involved with gambling and drinking, and spoke about times when he was drinking between six and seven bottles of wine a day.

Luckily it was the work of an old Arsenal colleague Tony Adams, who had also become involved with excessive alcohol abuse, who saved him.

Adams started the Sporting Chance clinic to help footballers and other sportspeople with problems.

“I was there three weeks and it taught me a lot about myself – I’m able to have a drink now, but sensibly.  We were taught to be honest with ourself, and not to be afraid to ask someone for help.  We had all day there with no TV until 6pm so we had to chat to each other. "

“Portsmouth’s manager Harry Redknapp has just said the truth when he told his young players that if they drink to excess they can leave.  You’re a professional athlete and it damages your body."

“At least today, unlike my days, the clubs have people to guide you in what to eat and everything else. So there is no excuse for young players”.

By Michael Wale

You can purchase To Cap It All. My Story, by Kenny Sansom, published by John Blake, from all good bookshops for £18.99.  Alternatively you can purchase it from Amazon for £8.99.

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