While England are starting their new era for 80,000 fans, a legendary player from their past tries his own reboot for 100 gamblers.
The location is the Freemasonzaal room in the small cumbrian city of Aspatria, about 300 miles and a world away from Wembley.
While photos of the king and late queen adorn the walls here, it is not less than arranged space where you would expect to find football royalties. But such a setting is as good as it is nowadays for Peter Beardsley, the fallen prince of St James' Park.
It is now six years since one of the largest players in Newcastle had ended his contract by the club after a 14 -month investigation into accusations of racism and bullying while he was their boss under 23.
The Geordie was subsequently suspended by the FA 32 weeks after three accusations of the use of racist language by a panel for 32 weeks by all football -related activities.
He denies the claims, but football has since turned his back on Beardsley, which is why Mail Sport came to Cumbria on Friday evening to listen to what the canceled coach has to say.
Tickets for 'an Even with Peter Beardsley' have been sold for £ 20, with proceeds divided between three worthy goals – Aspatria Junior Football Club, the Alzheimer's Society and James Rennie School, who specializes in training children with learning problems.
It is clear that Beardsley is in the building, even before you reach the doors of the Masonic Hall, a building of two center where Freemasons come together. The giveaway action is the private registration plate on the Black Audi parked against a wall outside, which describes its nickname 'Pedro'.
After gamblers have picked up their complementary cake and peas supple from the bar, they are encouraged to take a seat on one of the 12 long tables next to the door. With its wallpaper and wooden paneling with flower pattern, the large function room is apparently not decorated since tonight's guest speaker made his professional debut for Carlisle-20 miles east of where we are in 1979.
It is 8.15 pm when Beardsley is presented on stage with a black and white checkered jacket, perhaps a nod to his boys' club, who ended their 56-year-old trophy-dried five days earlier.
The 64-year-old reveals that he donated £ 200 of his talk question to the fundraising spot, and for the following hour he describes his journey from radical factory floors in Tyneside to playing in two world cups for England.
An appreciative audience is attached to every word, because Beardsley reminds them that his first big break came in Carlisle before he started playing for, among others clubs, Vancouver WhiteCaps, Newcastle, Liverpool and Everton in a glittering 20-year career.
It is not surprising that Beardsley completely misses the second half of his football life. However, it is clear that he is still bitter about how his coaching career was demolished, clearly still believing that he said nothing wrong to the young players who submitted complaints to him.
“Banter was allowed in those days, but it is not allowed now,” he says after a story about the stick he once received from his colleagues after a failed test in Cambridge.
“It's a different world now,” he adds later. “People swear now and it's a crime. It's just strange how the world went a different way. '
Beardsley is shamelessly not repentant, but he does his best to prevent him from adding fuel to the fire during his 60 -minute address. Every story that is even at a distance risqué comes with the clarification that he is 'not filthy' or that he does not 'mean terrible'.
His overdoeting is sometimes meticulous. But Beardsley's speech serves to remind the crowd of the player he once was – a winner of two league titles, one FA Cup and 59 England caps. Not to mention one of the most exciting, skilled and creative attackers that the country has ever produced.
Beardsley reveals that he is still in contact with three of the most famous names of English football – Gary Lineker, Paul Gascoigne and Kevin Keegan. He jokes how Lineker still thanks him every day for the assists he provided him during their strike partner with England. Gazza, he informs, shares a birthday with his 36-year-old son Drew and calls him every year on 27 May.
Special praise, however, is reserved for his former teammate of Newcastle and Manager, Keegan. “KK was great for me, is still great for me,” says Beardsley, who has been seen in the audience in recent months at some Van Keegan's own speaking assignments.
“He is God in my world. I still speak to him every week. I am now 64, but he still treats me like a son. He is the best football person I have ever met. '
Just like Keegan, Beardsley still has a lasting attraction for a generation of fans. That is clear in the charity auction that follows his speech, with two signed replica England 1990 World Cup shirts, with its name and number, sold for a combined £ 530.
After the auction, Beardsley returns to the stage for a Q&A, with cardholders asked to write and submit their questions in advance, he is apparently not overwhelmed.
Beardsley is more free at this stage of the evening and reacts angry to the question of a Liverpool fan about the 'Blue Sh ** e', while describing his former English manager Graham Taylor as 'F *** ING hopeless'.
However, the most relevant question of the night is the last: does he want to get back to football? The anecdotal evidence is that he is desperate to do that exactly.
Two years after he received his FA suspension, in October 2021, Beardsley organized a football school with half a term for children from six to 14 years in Kingston Park, the home of Rugby Union Side Newcastle Falcons.
In April he reportedly became a competition to become the boss of South Tyneside Team Heburn Town. More recently, he was noticed in the crowd that looks at the Northern Premier League outfit Workington – confirming in the Q&A that he once spoke with someone about the work of their manager.
And yet Beardsley is still not employed since his bitter departure from St James' Park. Instead, those who have seen him in the vicinity of his house in Darras Hall – the exclusive estate in Pondeland, Northumberland, where various stars live in Newcastle – that he cuts a lost and lonely figure.
He still plays five-a-side football twice a week with a group of local teachers. “I have the best time,” he says the Aspatria audience. “I rarely touch the ball, but the amount of F *** ING Dummies I do is incredible.”
But the work is not as easy to find as a kickabout, even if it is open to all offers, including cutting the ribbon at the opening of the trader of a builders in Carlisle, as he did in April 2023. In the absence of slightly more permanent, then they are in provincial places that are his savior.
'Coach again? Yes. Manager? Never, “says Beardsley, who answers that last question. 'I am not interested in being a manager, because you trust people who are honest every day, they can do every day, and it doesn't always happen.
'But even now, you can't shout against them, you can't criticize them.
'I talk a lot with people about this – would I play now or would I play? I would certainly play. I would not exchange what I had, good or bad.
“Hopefully I won't be away for a while, but I'll still come back when me.”
Love him or hates him, there is only one Peter Beardsley.
Comments