Alan Gilzean remains a mystery, and that's just the way he wants it

Published on Sunday 19 September 2010 20:21

The idea that Alan Gilzean is somehow associated with a lost legacy might seem a preposterous notion to some. Indeed, 90 per cent of those people gathered in a cinema in Dundee on Saturday morning for the launch of the first book about the former Dundee and Spurs striker would scoff at the suggestion that he is forgotten.

• Alan Gilzean was one of the best headers of a ball during his career in the sixties and seventies. Picture: Getty Images

But even back in the 1960s and 70s, when Gilzean was a scourge of defences on both sides of the Border, news of his potency didn't always travel well. Pat Liney, the goalkeeper who played for the Dundee title-winning team in which Gilzean starred, helped promote the book, written by James Morgan, at the Dundee Contemporary Arts centre this weekend. He recounted a good story which saw him upbraided by the author - "you didn't tell me that one", Morgan complains - which tells of the time Liney's Bradford City were drawn to play Spurs in the FA Cup. The manager, Jimmy Wheeler, is going through the various players who his side will have to pick up at set-pieces. But, to Liney's utter astonishment, he does not so much as mention Gilzean. When the goalkeeper asks who'll be marking Gilzean, Wheeler replies: 'What, can he head a ball?'

This was a player who, even before he arrived in London from Dundee, had scored nine goals in the run to a European Cup semi-final, one leg of which was won against even eventual champions AC Milan thanks to a Gilzean winner - scored, of course, with his head. Then there was the hat-trick against Sporting Lisbon, and another three scored in an eye-catching 8-1 win over Cologne. But there were countless other examples, including a winner, a flying header over Gordon Banks, against England in 1964. As Miljan Miljanic, the manager of Red Star Belgrade, once said of Gilzean, following a scouting mission to London ahead of a Uefa Cup tie: "If ever a Football University is founded Alan Gilzean should be appointed as the first professor to lecture on how to use one's head and to play with one's head."

Ignorance of Gilzean is as much of a crime in this day and age as it was then. Drive now through Coupar Angus, the Perthshire market town where he was brought up, and signs of rebirth are apparent. The long-time dilapidated Royal Hotel has been spruced up. As the Undiscovered Scotland website notes, "there are green shoots of regeneration" after years of decline. The memory of Gilzean, who started his career at Coupar Angus juniors, has been re-awoken too. Morgan is rightly aghast that there is no plaque honouring Gilzean, or a street named after him. He likens it to his own hometown, Belfast, failing to mention that George Best happened to be a native. But Best, unlike Gilzean, is no longer with us.

The question of Gilzean's whereabouts is one that cannot be avoided on the day that a book about him is launched.He had a gentle level of input, but made it clear to the author that he was not interested in co-operating in the way so many of his peers from the past have done. Ian Ure, who is present at the launch and contributes to a question and answer session afterwards, once did his own book, entitled, perhaps predictably, Ure's Truly. It was one way to make up for the short-fall in earnings. Ure, when he moved from Arsenal to Manchester United, was one of the top ten best paid players in Britain. But, over a cup of coffee later, he did some quick calculations and figured out he had earned just 65,000 in his entire career, half the sum John Terry and his like pick up in a single week.

Ure also tells me that he barely saw Gilzean after leaving Dundee, despite the fact that they ended up playing for clubs based so near each other in north London. Even given the rivalry between Spurs and Arsenal, it seems strange that two old friends from Dundee days had not managed to meet up for so much as a beer. Just as baffling is Jimmy Greaves' contention that he has not seen Gilzean since they played their last game together for Spurs, over 40 years ago.

"You might think it odd that me and Gilly (sic] have not seen each other for so long," he wrote in his column in the People yesterday. "Yet to me that's life. You do a job of work with a person, you get on well, then one of you moves on and, more often than not, you lose touch." But, he added, "Gilly was possibly the best footballer I ever played with."

It's intriguing to see glimpses of Gilzean in the film shown on Saturday, slightly haunting too. The camera pans in on a team group photograph to reveal the player in detail; high-cheekboned, dark of features and, despite the high-to- disappearing hairline, undeniably handsome. There was something different, almost dandyish about Gilzean. Even now, Morgan notes when they finally meet towards the end of a fascinating book, his shoes are made of the finest Italian leather. Gilzean, who turns 72 next month, can still cut a dash. He is far from the down-and-out imagined by one rumour, which built up during the years of misinformation encouraged by his withdrawal from the public eye.

It would be possible for someone who had taken a wrong turning into the cinema hosting Saturday's event to deduce, from the tone, that it was being staged in tribute to a late footballer, rather than just a bashful one who, as Liney notes, did not go in for self- promotion.

One couldn't help but wonder what Gilzean was doing as we sat and heard stories venerating him. Walking along the sea-front at Weston-super-Mare, where he lives now? Perhaps he was as close-by as Carnoustie, where son Ian, who also played for Spurs and Dundee, is based. Passers-by often bump into him there.

This is where the author finally caught up with Gilzean.The meeting is convivial, rightly so given the time Morgan has put into the book and the level of adoration he clearly feels for the subject. But Gillie, who informs him that only seven people in the country have his phone number, stands firm: "I wouldn't like to go into a book store and look up at the shelves and see a book about me," he tells him. Yet he appears touched by Morgan's intention to honour him.

In the street outside the cinema where the book was launched there is a poster advertising a new film, Joaquin Phoenix's I'm Still Here. Gilzean is still here too, thankfully. He deserves to be remembered, and Morgan's efforts have gone a long way towards ensuring that he gains recognition again.

lIn Search of Alan Gilzean - the lost legacy of a Dundee and Spurs legend (BackPage Press, 9.99].