HE WAS labelled a Little Lord Fauntelroy of Scottish football but Ian Redford
overcame more obstacles than anyone cared to imagine in the unforgiving
environment of the dressing-room. In any case, his privileged upbringing was
exaggerated. The jibes, some of them playful and others not so, suggested a
silver spoon in the mouth of someone who grew up on a farm in rural Perthshire.
In comparison with the inner-city backgrounds of many of his peers, these
circumstances might have been different. But Redford displayed a level of grit
and determination which challenges the assertion he was born lucky. Fortunate is
not what he felt when he accepted a second loser's medal in five days at
Tannadice Park 20 years ago, after a UEFA Cup final defeat against IFK
Gothenburg - 2-1 on aggregate - had followed a savage 1-0 reversal to St Mirren
in the Scottish Cup final. But these blows were easily placed in perspective,
as, too, was the knee injury sustained in the second leg of that European final
- the first game in Sweden that ended in a 1-0 defeat was 20 years ago tomorrow
- which robbed him of a one and only Scotland cap against Brazil.
Redford's father, also Ian, had died suddenly two years earlier, and so did
not live to see his son score in the extraordinary 2-0 semi-final win away to
Borussia Moenengladbach, or set-up John Clark's fabled equaliser in the Nou Camp
against Barcelona in the previous round, a match United went on to win 2-1.
Redford had already been exposed to devastating loss. He was just 12 when
leukaemia took the life of a younger brother, Douglas. It rendered talk of
gilded childhoods harder to accept, as did something else which makes a mockery
of claims he was somehow advantaged.
In actual fact Redford overcame what amounted to a handicap. Left deaf in an
ear after a childhood illness, he struggled with the banter which echoed around
the dressing room. Derek Johnstone, his old Rangers team-mate, labelled him
"Chicken George" - a reference to the poultry business his father had started
from scratch in the Carse of Gowrie. It wasn't always so playful. For a
midfielder who at times operated in the central area, his affected hearing also
presented an altogether more drastic problem. He acknowledges that no-one knew
the true extent of the damage, including his managers. Not even, he admits, Jim
McLean, a hard taskmaster at the best of times and someone not given to making
allowances.
That Redford flourished in the often harsh climate at Tannadice to become an
integral member of, perhaps, the last great native Scottish club side is a mark
of the man.
"I had some major hurdles to overcome," says Redford now. "I don't think my
battling qualities can be in question." They were, however, once queried. McLean
confessed to having doubts about signing Redford from Rangers, for whom he had
scored a winning goal against United in the 2-1 League Cup final of 1981. He
wondered about the level of desire burning in someone presumed already to have
financial stability. On the face of it, he epitomised what McLean once observed
was a typical east-coaster. He hadn't been hardened by the coarse properties of
life in the mean streets. In fact it was worse, given his family's supposed
wealth. In his tabloid column McLean once admitted that given a choice between a
player from the east coast and one of equal quality from the west coast he would
always plump for the latter. This, McLean argued, guaranteed the acquisition of
a winner.
But Redford proved himself. He graduated from Errol Rovers, a team which
played on one of his father's fields, to Dundee. From Dens he moved to Rangers,
and then, when McLean had been convinced of his mettle, to United.
"I arrived at Tannadice just after my father died," recalls Redford, now
based amid loamy fields outside Abernethy. "I was feeling pretty down about
things. I didn't feel fit. I went to McLean and said: 'Look, you tell me what I
need to get fit. You are the manager. I'll do whatever it takes'. I think he saw
then that this guy wanted to get on, that he wasn't content to sit on his
backside. That was a crucial conversation."
"I think there was a bit of what I perceived as jealousy," continues Redford,
recalling how isolated he sometimes felt in the dressing-room. "Footballers, at
that time, did not earn a lot of money, and because my father was a farmer it
was all blown out of proportion. He did OK for himself, but he wasn't
particularly wealthy. He started from nothing, with just a litter of pigs. I did
have to put up with quite a bit [of mickey-taking]. Often of it was
good-natured, but there was definitely an under-current of something more from
some."
This, though, was easier to handle than when the banter got more personal. "I
used to get stick about being deaf too," he says. "That was more difficult,
because I was deaf. I don't think people realised just how deaf I was, otherwise
they wouldn't have said what they said. That was quite an anxiety in my career.
On a football park you need to be aware of what is going on around you. If
someone was calling for the ball it was all about instinct for me, because I
didn't know where the noise was coming from.
"I used to try and cover it up. I didn't want people to know, because I
didn't want people to think I was stupid. [Rangers manager] Jock Wallace, for
example, used to call me a deaf so-and-so, but there was no malice. I just don't
think he realised how bad it was. I think I coped with it quite well. Now my
good ear has gone. I can only hear with a hearing aid. Without it, I am
completely deaf."
Redford was present at the dinner celebrating the tenth anniversary of
United's UEFA Cup march, but, apart from a stint as a players' agent, has
drifted away from the game. His son, also Ian, is a more-than promising golfer.
It continues a trend for Tannadice old boys to sire golf prodigies. Kevin
McAlpine, the son of the revered former goalkeeper Hamish, is a Walker Cup squad
member. More links Redford with his old team-mate. While both are based in the
area surrounding Dundee, neither he nor McAlpine are drawn now to Tannadice.
Redford prefers to watch fee-flowing Arsenal on television, but his eyes can't
help but light up at the memory of a UEFA Cup run which saw United play some
attractive football of their own.
Indeed, the very fact they were denied the chance to play with their usual
style in the first leg of the UEFA Cup final - a Bruce Springsteen concert had
rutted the Ullevi stadium pitch - hampered their bid to lift the trophy. "It was
a bit of an anti-climax, to be honest," recalls Redford. "The major
disappointment was the state of the park. We couldn't play our normal game, and
Gothenburg were a big, physical side."
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