Watching Gary McAllister: Leicester City vs Manchester United, November '85
Gary McAllister always has time, to get the ball, to rotate with it under control, to always pass forward. Football feels like only a matter of time to McAllister, but in the months and years ahead, time will slow down for him.
When was Gary McAllister ever young? He was hardly old when he joined Leeds United in summer 1990, but like Sid James, the crinkling of his expanding forehead always seemed to belie his youth.
He was nearly 26 when he moved to Elland Road from Leicester, regarded as the best midfielder in the Second Division, an unused squad member with Scotland at Italia '90, wanted by Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest and, despite almost spoiling their promotion to the First Division, worth a million quid to Leeds. He seemed to have spent a long time coming through, and it had already been forgotten that, before becoming the hottest prospect outside it, McAllister had played in the First Division before.
Five years before, in fact, when he was not quite 21. Along with his close pal Ali Mauchlen, who later joined Leeds on loan as cover for the 1992 title race, McAllister moved from Motherwell to Leicester for a combined £250,000 in the summer of 1985. The Foxes had just sold Gary Lineker to Everton and were hoping Mark Bright could fill his boots as partner for Alan Smith; that wasn't working out so well, so in November Bright made way for former West Brom, Real Madrid and England star Laurie Cunningham, on loan from Marseille.
Cunningham's debut was to be against the team he'd last represented in the First Division, Manchester United, in an earlier loan attempt to reinvigorate his career. They were not the opponent he might have wished for a gentle return to the Canon League, or McAllister as he found his feet in English football, where he'd come, he said in his autobiography, to find out if he was good enough. Ron Atkinson's side were top of the table after winning their first ten and going unbeaten in their first fifteen.
Leicester only had three wins to their name, but those games gave them reason for optimism. Their first was on the opening day, a 3-1 home win over champions Everton, Gary Lineker and all; Smith scored one of their goals and Bright the others, while Derek Mountfield got Everton's consolation. Ipswich were beaten 1-0 before a stirring 3-1 win at Tottenham; there was a narrow 1-0 defeat at Liverpool to reflect on too. But a 5-0 defeat to Oxford, a 4-4 draw in the return match, and 3-0 defeats to Forest, West Ham and Coventry suggested the more ordinary the opposition, the worse Leicester played. Against the champions elect, though, perhaps Leicester had a chance.
Manchester's own form had been slipping on their way to Filbert Street. They'd been playing with the momentum of beating Liverpool in the semi and Everton in the final to win the FA Cup, but the first obstacles came after Gordon Strachan dislocated his shoulder by colliding with one of West Brom's goalposts and injuries began to disrupt them.
Strachan wrote in his autobiography that he loved playing for Ron Atkinson in this team, who he thought would be happy to lose every game 6-4 as long as his side scored the most beautiful goal. But they couldn't cope with the new wave of power and pressing represented by Howard Wilkinson's Sheffield Wednesday, who were challenging for the title themselves and inflicted their first defeat of the season. With former Leeds player Paul Hart in the middle, future Leeds full-backs Mel Sterland and Glynn Snodin attacked down the wings, helping force sixteen corners. From one of them, in the 83rd minute, Lee Chapman flicked a header past Gary Bailey to clinch the 1-0 win.