Could I lapse for a minute into an uncharacteristic fit of
seriousness, and add my own small tribute to the departed Steve Davis? I can't help but
feel that he's got something of a raw deal; the praise that greets this Burnley great has
been a little mealy mouthed of late, if only temporarily. You see, people went off him
because he wanted to leave. Scandalously, this meant that he failed to win every
single player of the year award. They mostly went to Randall, who, looking good in about
one game in every four for the half season he played, did enjoy his best form so far. Yet
to deny Davis was nonsense. As if he wasn't our best player, as if he wasn't the only one
who looked like he could thrive in that division. Our own form of vote is more accurate;
coincidentally, it produced the most one sided landslide imaginable. The margin of Davis'
victory was so huge as to be embarrassing. Didn't we have anyone else? If we did, they
certainly didn't get picked.
It was always clear that Davis wanted to go. We could accept
that, realising that he probably could do better than Burnley. As ever, though, his
transfer doesn't seem to have been as simple as that. We were resigned to someone good
getting him, but Luton? What is there here that doesn't add up, when early last
season there had been talk of Chelsea or Leeds? I suppose the team's terrible form and the
number of goals we shipped would tend to put people off. Incidentally, I rather liked it
when the talk was of Chelsea. I wonder how long it would have taken Hoddle to spot
Davis' midfield potential, to install him in the centre of the pitch as precisely the sort
of box-to-box player we so desperately needed last season. Couldn't we have stuck any old
donkey at the back and got a midfield actually capable of taking pressure off the defence
and scoring goals? Does anyone think Warren Joyce is going to do this?
Davis, of course, started out in midfield at Burnley, when on
loan from Southampton. It's traditional when any player comes in to the club for the
manager to comment that he can play in a wide variety of positions. Steven Davis, as we
had to pretend he was called in deference to seniority, lived up to that need for
flexibility, adding substantial class to a midfield that still included Joe Jakub. For
eight of his nine games then, there were only two Steve Davises. But, as seemed to be the
case with impressive loan players then, we didn't sign him.
It's ironic now to think that, when the first and
inspirational Steve Davis left to lose three years of his career and most his hair at
Barnsley, the only thing that filled the hole and softened the blow of the ridiculously
inadequate transfer fee, was Casper's capture of Davis Two - the bigger and better sequel.
Branfoot, god bless him, didn't think he was good enough, although once, I remember, Jimmy
Case tipped this one time youth team contemporary of the great Le Tissier as the
Southampton player most likely to succeed. And so, with the recommendation of the same
chief scout who found Shearer, Davis joined us just before the start of that championship
season. It was about the last thing Casper got right, although by this time it was thought
that Mullen, who hadn't yet hit his own Casperesque decline, was signing the players
anyway.
In that first season, Davis was virtually perfect, hardly
ever putting a foot wrong, first at sweeper, then as a conventional centre half alongside
Pender at his peak. We all know what happened, and Davis had as big a part in it as anyone
else. But the season after the strangest thing occurred: he turned crap. After the glory
came complacency it seemed, and in that disappointing `consolidation' season, he struggled
to adjust. The nadir came in a usual defeat at Port Vale where, seemingly intent on
getting sent off, he argued and fouled until the referee obliged.
I felt then that if he couldn't get his attitude right, and
wanted to leave, it would be best to let him, but nobody came in for him that summer and
the next season found him back to his majestic best. Carrying the now fading Pender,
Davis, along with Eyres and that late, glorious dose of Tin Man, really made the
difference. He became the first man to win our player of the year award twice, and then,
of course, he became the first to win it a third time. Presumably, none of the other sets
of supporters wanted him to walk off with their trophies, but to have picked anyone else
is laughable. Yes, he was playing for himself, and in a couple of games, like at Notts
County and Southend, when he thought no-one was looking in the shop window, he didn't
bother. After Christmas his form got patchier, and it's noticeable that only one of his
seven goals came in the second half of the season. I think it was more a case of the team
getting worse and making life harder for Davis than Davis fading and causing the team to
struggle more. Whatever, it's a sad comment on the diminished motivational talents of
Mullen that a player playing for himself often appeared the only one really bothered by
Burnley's collapse, the only one trying to do something about it. Playing for himself he
still seemed to have a lot more at stake than others playing only for pride.
As often happens at Burnley these days, when a player leaves
there's supposed to be a story attached. So it was with Davis. People asked, why Luton?
and could come up with only one answer: because he couldn't wait to leave. It's been said
that relations between Mullen and his captain had got so bad that Davis simply caught the
first train out of town, and that happened to be going to Luton. Even if this story isn't
true, and like any rumour it gains credibility when you hear it from several different
sources, what it says about popular beliefs about the club is interesting. That we think
it could be true tells us a lot. That rumours continue to be spread also tells us much
about the club's appalling lack of a public relations policy.
It does, however, also leave a question mark over the man's
ambition. Can Luton be the height of it? Davis would probably find himself too
short of pace and too quick of temper for the Premier League. What struck many people is
that he joined a club renowned for producing talent cheaply and selling it on at a profit.
Or, to put it another way, a club famous for selling to survive has just bought our best
player in years, giving us the most money we've ever received. Where does that leave us on
the scale of things?
Now, for the first time in eight years, we don't have a
player called Steve Davis. It's going to be strange not seeing that name on programmes
this season, even if they didn't always manage to profile the right one. It's going to be
frustrating watching the centre of our defence crumbling even more alarmingly than before.
Sadly, we're also going to miss his goals. Could any of our midfielders score seven
this season? I suspect what we'll miss most in the long term is a decent replacement,
bearing in mind that the money, ungenerous and appearance-linked as it is, is likely to be
spent a little here, a little there, on no-one who makes a difference. Early last season
when Hoddle was watching, Mullen suggested two million was the least we could expect. By
the time of Luton's derisory offer, with the captain out of contract, much less would have
to do to make up for the relegation shortfall that might threaten the building of small
stands and new floodlights.
Most of all, it's going to be difficult this season voting
for our best player now that the default choice has gone. Steve Davis' most enduring
legacy for us may well turn out to be more arguments when Woody comes round with his book
on the train home.
Firmo
September 1995
Steve Davis
returns, 1998
'My Hero' menu
The 1991/1992 season menu
