The Ralph Coates Interview
January 2000
How did you come to be signed by Burnley?
I'd just left school in County Durham, and I joined my local junior club. At the time I was a centre-forward, believe it or not! I must have been the smallest centre-forward going, but I was managing to get a lot of goals, mainly because of my speed, my quickness off the mark. And after a game against a local junior side, coming off after scoring two goals - we drew 2-2 - I was approached by a Burnley scout called Jack Hixon, who lived in Newcastle at the time. He'd seen this 'R Coates' scoring regularly, and so he came along to have a look at the product, and he invited me for a two-week trial at Burnley - which I accepted with both hands. I came down - it was my first time out of Hetton-le-Hole, my village in County Durham - a bit nerve-racking at the time. Quite enjoyable now when I think about it, but it was daunting at the time.
What year was that?
Well, I was sixteen at the time, so it would have been the early sixties. I came down to Burnley with great aspirations, great hopes - just like everybody else who came to Burnley for that trial. And they came from all walks of life, and there were quite a number of boys like myself. But I ended up successful - I think there were about 100 boys who came down, and only six of us were asked to join the Burnley ground staff.
Did any of those other five make it?
Not really; out of those six, I was the only one who really made it into the Burnley first team. But out of those six I think there were two Scottish schoolboy internationals, one Irish international and a couple of Welsh schoolboy internationals. Out of the six I was the only non-schoolboy international, so maybe I had to work a bit harder, but I was so blinkered and so dedicated at the time that all I wanted to be was a professional footballer. At the time I wanted to play for Sunderland, coming up from that area, but it didn't take long for me to fall in love with Burnley and the club itself. I was in digs with a lad called Len Kinsella, who played for Scotland schoolboys, and I had a very enjoyable time. But it was only a start, "the bottom rung of the ladder," as the manager said when I joined the ground staff. At the time I had a lot of hard work to do to make the grade.
Were Burnley the League Champions when you joined?
They weren't the Champions at the time, but they'd won the League a few years before and they were one of the top three clubs at the time with some great players. And I was in awe of all the first team players - I was even in awe of the reserve team players of the time, I had great respect for them too. The whole club was buzzing - it was a small town but a very large club with very large ambitions.
Around the North East at the time you were spotted, how well were Burnley known for their scouting?
I was told that they had a lot of North Eastern-born players on their staff at the time, but I didn't realise how many until I actually got there. In my first week as a member of the ground staff I was called to do a photograph for the local newspaper, and there were 26 players in a group. And this went from me as the youngest, having just joined that week, to the older players - Jimmy Adamson, who was club captain, John Angus, Jimmy Robson, Ray Pointer - and we were all from the North East, which was a tremendous number for one club.
And did you settle into the 'family club' atmosphere?
Yes, I was made very, very welcome from the start and I felt so important it wasn't true. And they made me feel important, the way they looked after me. And going back to the Geordies - I felt more at home because they spoke my lingo! I understood what they were saying, and they understood what I was saying.
Jimmy Mac told the story of one of his first games for Burnley when he asked Reg Attwell, "Should I take the throw-in?" and Reg couldn't understand him. He asked again, and Reg said, "I don't know what you're saying, but take the throw-in, Jimmy!"
A memorable thing for me is when I go back to Burnley and Jimmy and I have a good banter about when he played - and obviously he's seen me play - though I was unfortunate never to see Jimmy play. But I've heard from the older supporters that he was a great player, and I've got the greatest respect for him because of what other people have told me. I only wish I'd have seen him play myself.
People come up to me and talk about the greatest player to play for Burnley, and it's honourable just to be classed with players like Jimmy. I tell them that I never saw Jimmy play. But really we played in different times, and I really don't think you should or could judge Jimmy's time with when I played. And even now, football's changed from my day. There's more emphasis on coaching defensively. When I played you just attacked, and may the best attacking side win. But I never saw Jimmy play - I wish I had have - but I've only ever seen clips of video. He was just finishing when I was there; in fact I'd only been there a short while when he stopped playing. I saw Jimmy Adamson play. He was club captain and subsequently became manager after Harry Potts.
You obviously made great progress at Turf Moor. How long did it take you to graduate from trainee to first team player?
I started out with Len Kinsella in the Burnley 'B' team in the Lancashire League and played quite well there, you know, everything going OK. And then we progressed into the Lancashire League 'A' side. Then come August time - players are coming, going, leaving; you know, the club is saying 'sorry, you're not quite good enough for what we want, we'll try to get you another club' - and this was happening around us, but still Len and I were progressing. A few of the young lads left, and also a couple of the other lads who'd joined the ground staff at the same time as me had left the club, so there was, at the time, only about four of us left.
When you got to seventeen, the club had to decide whether you turned professional, and on your seventeenth birthday they either offered you a contract to go on as a full professional or you had to leave. And they were very good, Burnley, because they did try to get players who they thought weren't quite good enough contracts with other clubs, whether it be - no disrespect to them, but - clubs like Bury or Rochdale. And they did really do their best to sort the young players out with other clubs. Len Kinsella was a month older than me, and at the time he was doing the first team room and I was doing the reserve team room - sweeping the dressing rooms, cleaning the boots, cleaning the stands, doing the mundane jobs and then training in the evenings. But at seventeen, if you progress, you're full-time and you don't do those jobs, you just train solely with the purpose of becoming a successful football player.
So I can remember the day as if it was yesterday. The youth team manager, Joe Brown, came in and said, "Len, the boss wants to see you." Len was very nervous at the time and I tried to comfort him, saying, "You'll be all right, you'll be playing." And it sticks in my memory, and it was a good lesson for me, because half an hour later Len came into the dressing room which I was sweeping out, grabbed his jacket, and he was crying. The club had said to him that he wasn't what they wanted and they'd try to get him another club. I was absolutely gutted seeing this lad, who had great ambitions, great strength, reduced to tears, you know? He went off back to the digs, and I just couldn't accept it. So I followed him back and said to Mrs Cooney, the landlady, "Where's Len?" and she said, "He's gone straight to his room."
And seeing a lad crying because of disappointment, I said to myself, you know, you've got to learn from this. And then a month later it was my turn, and I was just as nervous. I knocked on the door and went in to see Harry Potts. "Afternoon, boss," I said to him, and he said, "Right, I'll put you out of your misery. You're doing well, we like the way you're progressing and we'd like to offer you a contract." It was as if I'd won the lottery! It was tremendous, absolutely tremendous. But I was straight back down to earth when he said, "Don't think you've made it. You've still got a lot of hard work to do." Which I knew myself at the time, but at least I was still on the right road.
And then subsequently I progressed from the 'A' team to the reserves. Again, you had to have a certain standard of performance for the reserves, and I loved being coached. I didn't have to clean anybody's boots or sweep the stands or put the kit in the washing machine - that had all gone. I was doing well in the reserves, scoring goals - still must have been the smallest centre-forward in the land! But I was so quick, that was my asset. And then the big day came when a couple of the first-team lads got injured in the game prior to the Saturday, and the manager said to me, "I want you to play." It was against Sheffield United at Turf Moor. And I can remember cleaning my boots every day that week thinking, "If they don't pass their fitness tests, I'm in with a chance." On the Friday morning, the boss said, "You're definitely in tomorrow," so I trained with the first team, did their free kicks with them. I was very, very nervous, and on the Friday night there was a heavy frost. On the Saturday morning it was freezing, the pitch was rock solid and I had to play not in the boots which I'd cleaned, but in a pair of flats - a pair of trainers that I'd never used before in my life! So I made my debut for Burnley in trainers, and we won 3-1.
Were you playing centre-forward that day?
I was playing up front. Willie Irvine was centre-forward, and I was playing up front with him. He was a terrific asset, great in the air. I had a chance to score - it was a half-chance, but I missed it. I didn't do anything wrong, but I didn't set the world alight in my first game, if I was to be perfectly honest, you know. But I was just glad not to let the side down, and obviously the victory hides a lot of sins. I have great respect for the lads I played with - Alex Elder, Willie Irvine and the rest of the lads in the team that day - because they protected me and it was a really enjoyable experience.
Then I went back into the reserves - because the lads who were injured at the time recovered - until the game against Leicester City. We went to Leicester and I scored a goal and really played well, really contributed to the game. Everything went well for me that day and I thought I'd keep my place, but didn't. The boss left me out. Gordon Harris, who was club captain at the time, he came back from injury, and I'd taken his place. But I gradually got my chance, and I had a run of three games and eventually kept my place.
I went on the wing. Ian Towers and John Connelly were both injured at the time, and Jimmy Adamson came up to me and said, "I'd like you to play on the wing, to use your speed." I said, "I've never played on the wing!" Well, he must have been a better judge than I was because I took to it tremendously. I loved it on the wing - they'd give me the ball and I'd use my pace. Just kicked it past the defender and beat him to it - I wasn't very clever at beating the fella, I just got it kicked it past him and ran past him! But I found out that I was a good crosser of the ball, and I also found out that I didn't mind which wing I played on, I was good with both feet. It was a shock to me really, because I'd never realised, but I enjoyed that time as a winger. I stayed as a winger until one game, when Arthur Bellamy was injured. I got the instruction from Jimmy Adamson to move inside; there was only twenty minutes of the game remaining. I moved inside, scored a goal and made another. Jimmy said, "Right, you're staying there!" At the time we had some wingers like Stevie Kindon, who was just coming through at the time, and so I played midfield, became captain and developed that midfield general role.
But when I learned that I was going to make my debut, I tried not to think about Sheffield United. It was very difficult, but I wanted to think about my own game and what I was going to do for the team. My main concern was not letting the side down. It went well - I didn't do anything wrong - I kept it simple and I enjoyed it. I was very nervous beforehand, but once the whistle went I got into the game and the nerves disappeared. And the lads in the team helped me greatly, encouraged me, clapped me when I did something good. But I soon got brought down to earth - back in the reserves - but even then the experience taught me a lot. I said to myself, "I want more of this, this is great!" The big crowd as well, it was what I'd dreamt about, and I thought how great it would be to experience that every week.
And eventually it came. You've got to be patient, you've got to wait for your chance and then you've got to take your chance. Going back to when I first started on the ground staff, some of the lads who didn't make it were much more skilful than me. I mean, juggling the ball - I could only keep it up about three times, but some of the lads could catch it on their necks and so on. Very skilful, but I used my assets - my strength and speed - to great effect.
So I wasn't the most skilful, but I used my assets to the maximum. And I've always been a good crosser of the ball, and I could run all day. I've got a very slow heartbeat and could keep running for ninety minutes plus. Even when we played extra time, I could always keep running, I never used to get tired. Great attributes to have, really. Didn't think about it at the time. Although I was aware of my strong points, I just got on and used them. But when you retire and you sit back and analyse your game - which I've done many a time - you begin to appreciate what you had. You think, "you know, I never got tired, I could kick a ball past a chap and beat him for speed, could cross the ball," and I think, "I wish they had a player like that now." That would be a great asset to a team today.
And I was well aware of my lack of skill, because I played with Willie Morgan, he was on the right wing and I was on the left. When I used to see Willie jink and trick like Stanley Matthews - who used to be my idol - I used to think, "God, I wish I had the confidence to do that!" And yet Jimmy Adamson said to me, "You're just
as effective when you kick it and get that ball across." And I used to make goals. We always had a chance of scoring because we had two great lads up front, Andy Lochhead and Willie Irvine, and if you could get that ball in the six-yard box you were in with more than an even chance of scoring a goal. The number of times they used to come up after scoring: "Cheers, Ralph!" They were good times.
You made your debut in 1964 when they had begun to dismantle the Championship-winning team. How heavy did that team hang over Turf Moor? How heavy was the expectation that you should have been equalling their achievements?
It's very difficult, impossible sometimes, to fill the void left by great players of Championship-winning sides. To be Champions you have to be a great side, but they don't last forever. To fill the gap left by players like Ray Pointer, Jimmy McIlroy, Tommy Cummings, Jimmy Adamson, Adam Blacklaw, you just use the best players you've got. But the players who replace them have got to keep that standard. To refer again to me and Jimmy McIlroy - we were two different types of player. He had his style, and I had mine. But we both had a role to play within our respective sides given our skills, standards and attributes. The difficult thing was that the supporters, having just had a Championship side, had been - with no disrespect to them - a bit spoiled, and the expectations were very great. They'd had a feel of winning the League, and they wanted to experience it again.
It was a great responsibility for the players taking the shirts of these great players. I was aware that the supporters felt that we had a responsibility - which we did, they were quite right - and the expectations to keep up that standard gave us a goal, a target to aim at. That Burnley Football Club had reached this standard and it was tremendous at the time, you know, for a town like Burnley to attain to that standard. And we all knew that we had to keep that standard up, but unfortunately times change. You can't pinpoint what goes wrong, you can't pinpoint why you don't win matches, because there are thousands of factors that you have to take into account. I don't think at Burnley you can say any one factor was to blame.
I was so lucky to get in the side at a young age with half the Championship team still there. We came third in the League, which put us into the Inter Cities Fairs Cup, now the UEFA Cup. I went to Germany, Switzerland, Italy - which was a game in itself. But at the time, to play in Europe with a side like that was tremendous. I went to a reunion of ex-Clarets a couple of years ago, and they were all there: Alex Elder, Adam Blacklaw, Brian Miller of that era, and Andy Lochhead, Willie Irvine, Steve Kindon, Ray Ternent, Les Latcham of the next generation. And I was the only one with a foot in both camps, because I'd played with the likes of Andy, Willie Irvine, Alex Elder and Adam Blacklaw, who all at one stage or another had left the club. But then I'd also played with the likes of Dave Thomas, Steve Kindon, Colin Waldron and Martin Dobson, who all came into the side.
How did things at the club change when Harry Potts stood down for Jimmy Adamson?
I can only speak for myself. To analyse the situation after so many years is difficult. Harry Potts had the greatest success with the club, and he was established at the club and a lot of great players played at the club under Harry. I was in my infancy as a professional footballer under Harry and he helped me a lot. They were different characters. Harry shouted from the sidelines all the time, whereas Jimmy was a bit more relaxed about things, but they both got similar results.
I don't know what happened behind the scenes. Rumours came to my ears about what happened, but they were only rumours and I'm not prepared to repeat. But both managers did well for me. As a younger player, Harry protected me and gave me good advice for which I will always be grateful. Jimmy took over at a later stage in my career, and he helped me along from there. The difference was that Harry's departure drew a final line under the era of the Championship side - that together with the fact that a lot of those players had gone also. Jimmy and Joe Brown had worked with the younger players, and I think it was just a natural progression. But I owe both of them a great deal.
For me personally, it was a fairly smooth progression. It was still a bit of a shock when Harry went, because you were used to him being in the hot seat, and he used to say to me, "Come and see me any time you've got a problem."
By the time you left the club, was the legacy of the 1960 side less predominant?
Yes, very much so. The ambition was still there, but the collective squad wasn't as strong, and this is no disrespect to any of the players there, myself included. They were very good individual players, but the actual strength of the squad wasn't enough. But still great players - the likes of Dave Thomas, Steve Kindon, Martin Dobson, Leighton James - terrific players. And it gives me the greatest pride to read those names, because I love shouting the name of Burnley Football Club; and the youngsters, the progression of the lads who were there during my time. It was a shame that it didn't work out.
At one stage, during the seventies, when we had a winning run of six or seven games, we ended up beating Leeds 5-1 at Turf Moor, and they'd had a run of forty-odd games without defeat. The team played exceptionally well, and after that game I thought, "Not bad! We might have a chance." But results started to go against us, and it's a long old run, the League - it's not over five or six games. So the Leeds game was a great experience, but then we started to lose 1-0 against teams that I thought we should have beaten. So we didn't produce the goods enough over the long term.
Tell us a bit more about the European campaign of 1966. What was it like playing in all those countries?
Unbelievable. Something I'd always dreamed about. I was always ambitious, and when we qualified for Europe at the end of the 1965-66 season, all I could think about was playing in Europe against foreign teams - pitting my skills against foreign opposition. It was a dream come true. I loved playing against the foreign sides; it was a different atmosphere, different experience. And we did quite well.
The Naples game was an experience in itself, though for all the wrong reasons. I think that was the quickest I've ever moved after the final whistle, running to get to the tunnel, because the fans were climbing over the fencing. They lit the cushions and they were being thrown onto the pitch because we'd knocked their 'super' team out of the Fairs Cup. Harry Thompson was tremendous in Naples - he kept us in it. But all I can remember after the final whistle was Adam Blacklaw in a fracas. I thought he'd got clear, but someone caught up with him! And it sounds funny now, but at the time it was quite serious.
Should you have won the Frankfurt tie?
Yes, I think we could have won. We played better teams in the earlier rounds, but we didn't produce our best in that tie. We didn't play badly, but if we'd played to our full potential we could have beaten them. But if you accept the glory and the adulation that comes with success, you've also got to learn to take the disappointments. Although it was a big disappointment to go out, and I've had two or three other big disappointments in my career, the success and the enjoyment far outweigh the disappointments.
Had European football changed when you won the UEFA Cup with Spurs?
Yes, it had got even more technical and tactical, but again that was a great experience. We played against Tbilisi in Russia - that was a battle, well, they were all battles, but that one more than the others. The lads played well but we had a good team with vast experience - we nearly had a full side of international players. I attained more England caps then, they chose me for the Home Internationals, and I played against Wales and Ireland - a tremendous experience.
Yourself and Martin Dobson are the last Burnley players to be picked for England - tell us about that.
I'd played in the Under-23's. I was playing in the first team and had established myself, and I was happy with my performances. My first Under-23 cap came during this time - and that's another memory. I played about eight or nine times for the Under-23's; I played five times for the Football League - we used to have the Football League versus the Scottish League and the Irish League - they were going on at the time, and that was an honour in itself too. So you get the Football League, you get the England Under-23's - what's your next target? Dare I think about it? It's got to be an England Cap!
And you've got the manager, Jimmy Adamson, saying, "You know Ralph, if you keep these performances going, you'll get your chance with England, I'm sure of it." And I'd say, "Yeah, all right, Jim," but he'd go "I'm telling you!" So you keep your standards going, and all of a sudden I got this envelope with three lions on the back. I opened it up and it said you've been selected for the squad for the Home International versus Wales at Wembley Stadium. Please attend such-and-such a hotel. I showed it Jimmy and he said, "Well, you deserve it," and that was it! I kept looking at it, you know! But it didn't say I was playing, and it wasn't until Alf Ramsey named the squad that I knew I was in.
And it was brilliant, because all of a sudden I'm in a squad with players like Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, Gordon Banks, Alan Mullery, Martin Peters. I thought, "These are the idols of English football - and I'm in the same squad!" And then when I was picked to play, well, it was unbelievable - my first England cap. Again, one of my dreams when I was ten or eleven was to walk out at Wembley Stadium with an England shirt on and listen to the crowd. There I was in the tunnel at Wembley with an England shirt on and - I can remember this as if it was yesterday - my memory went straight back to when I was eleven, and I thought, "I dreamt about this!" I was a bag of nerves waiting. I could see the Welsh lads, and then walking out and the crowd erupting, well, it was tremendous, something I'll never forget.
Tell us about the 1970 World Cup, because you went to Mexico as a squad member, didn't you?
Yes, we had a good season where I'd played well, and the squad hadn't been finalised. Again, Jimmy Adamson had been saying, "You've got a chance here, Ralph." Three or four times during the season, he came up after the game and said, "Well done, Ralph - you played well. Alf Ramsey was watching today." And just prior to the time when the squad would have to be named, we played Chelsea, and I had quite a good game, and again Jimmy Adamson said that Alf Ramsey had been watching and that I hadn't done myself any harm with my performance. And about a week before the squad was announced, Jimmy Adamson called me into his office and he had a letter, and again I saw the three lions on the envelope on his desk, and he said, "You've been chosen for the World Cup squad to go to Mexico, and you deserve it." He shook my hand and that was it. Going to Mexico for the World Cup!
And again I thought of my ambitions as a kid - to play in Europe, to play for England at Wembley, to play in the World Cup - and all of a sudden there I was in the squad. It was such an honour. It didn't work out the way I wanted it to, of course. I went out to Mexico, and again my idols were there - Bobby Moore, Bobby and Jack Charlton, Gordon Banks - and I had a great time leading up to it. And I was training with them and playing practice matches and playing quite well. We took a squad of twenty-eight out there, and Alf had to put a squad of twenty-two to the Embassy, from which the team would be chosen. Unfortunately, he felt that I wasn't the right type of player to slot into the World Cup final squad, so I was one of the six players to be left out.
I mentioned earlier that you get the highs of being chosen, then you get the lows of not making the final squad, and it's how you accept your disappointments that matters. You've got to learn to accept them in an honourable manner. And I was so disappointed because I felt that I was training and playing at my best. Still, it was no disrespect to be left out. And at the time I was married and Lisa, my daughter, was only a few months old. Alf said to the six of us that he'd like us to stay on and be part of the squad during the Finals, but Lisa was my first child and the pull of the family back home was the greatest. So I said to Alf, "If you don't mind, I'd like to go home to the family," and he was fine with it. He said, "Yes, I fully understand that, but I'd be quite happy for you to stay." So I came back and my thoughts were still with the lads, but unfortunately they got knocked out in the quarter finals.
Were you there at the Bobby Moore incident in the Bogota hotel?
I was, yes. Again, an incident I'll never forget. Myself, Alan Mullery and Brian Kidd were in the hotel foyer and we were chatting away. Some of the lads had gone into a little jeweller's shop - I think it was Bobby Charlton, Alan Ball and Bobby Moore had gone into the shop - and the next thing you know, all these armed police came running in. Apparently one of the assistants in the shop had said that there was a bracelet missing from one of the cabinets and accused Bobby Moore of taking it. Bobby was taken into custody and as a result missed most of the run-up to the tournament.
Do you think it was a set-up?
I really don't know, I can't answer that. The only information that came our way the day after was that two weeks previous there had been an international tennis player, a Yugoslavian, who was accused of doing a similar thing. So I don't know whether they did this in order to disrupt things, I wouldn't know.
The account of your transfer to Spurs in The Glory Game sounds like a plot from an espionage thriller. Was it really like that?
It's laughable, actually. The 1970-71 season had finished and I was due to meet up with the England squad, so I carried on training at the local park in Padiham. There was a fortnight to go before the squad met up. So every morning I got up and did some jogging and running in the local park. One day, Jimmy Adamson rang me up and said, "Ralph, what are you doing tomorrow? Are you keeping training?" I said, "Yes, I'm doing some training, boss." And he said, "Well, why don't you come down to the club and train tomorrow?" I said, "No, I'm alright, I've got the park next door." "No, come down, because you can have a bath after you've trained."
And I thought, "That's funny," and I said, "Jim, I've got a bath at home!" It was comical, and I still never twigged what was going on. He said, "No, it'll be nice to see you. I haven't seen you for a week," and I said, "Well, I'm not trying to knock you, Jim, but I've seen you all season and I've had enough of you!" This was the jokey patter, but he wouldn't take no for an answer, and he said again, "No, I'd like to see you and we can have a chat." And I still didn't realise what was going on, and I said, "All right, I'll come down to the club and train." He went, "Brilliant! I'll run the bath for you!"
And there's your family club for you - he was my manager, but you could see the rapport Jim had, not only with me, but with all of the players. We were all friends together and we were all in it together through thick and thin. I got up the next morning and I thought, "Oh sod it, I can't be bothered driving down to the club. I'll just go to the local park again." I didn't realise that Tottenham and Burnley had agreed a fee for me. Burnley had decided that in financial terms, they couldn't refuse the money and that it would benefit the club. I went training and then I decided to go down town to do a bit of shopping.
The club were like, "Where is he? He said he'd come to training and he hasn't turned up!" They were ringing the house, but I wasn't there. So they got the chief scout to come up to my house, but my wife at the time, Sandra, was working and I was still in the town. I came back to the house in the late afternoon and I decided to cut the grass. So I was out in the garden cutting the grass when the chief scout, Dave Blakey, popped his head over the fence and he went, "Where've you been?" I said, "What you're doing? What's going on?" He said, "We've been trying to get you all day, you were supposed to come to the club."
I asked him what was going on, and it was then that he said that the club had agreed a fee for my transfer. I was absolutely stunned - shocked. I went to say "What club?" but I just coughed. I swallowed three times and managed to say, "Right, tell me what's happening." He said, "Well, the club has agreed a transfer fee with Tottenham." I said, "Right, OK. Where does that leave me?" He said, "Well, I've got to take you down to Stone in Staffordshire, because Spurs are playing Stoke, and you've got to meet Bill Nicholson and Sidney Whale, the Chairman, to sort things out."
I asked Dave what the fee was, and he said, "£190,000," which at the time set a record as the highest British transfer fee ever paid. I said, "£190,000? No player's worth £190,000!" That seems stupid now, you know, but at that time it was a tremendous amount of money. Dave said, "Well, that's what they've offered, and the club's accepted it." So I said, "OK, what happens now?" He said, "Where's your wife?" So I had to ring Sandra; she came home from work, got ready, and Dave drove us down the M6 to Staffordshire.
We met Bill Nicholson and Sidney Whale at the Moat House hotel; Jimmy Adamson and Bob Lord were also there. They had tried to keep it quiet, but the place was packed and everyone was looking. The faces were so recognisable that it was obvious something was going on. They'd picked a hotel that was fully booked due to a convention, so there were no rooms where we could go to talk. So Jimmy Adamson turned to Bill Nicholson and said, "Why don't you use my car, go with Ralph and have a chat about things?" He agreed to this, but Jimmy said, "Before you go, I want a word with Ralph." Jimmy Adamson took me outside to the car park; we had a walk round the car park, and he put his arm round me. We were both crying - it was very emotional at the time. He said, "I don't want you to go, but with the finances the Chairman says you've got to go. They've got to balance the books." And I understood, I really did understand, although I didn't want to go, I realised why they were doing it.
I said, "Well, what do I do now?" He said, "Well, its just up to you whether you can agree terms with Bill Nicholson." Bill and I sat down in Jimmy's car and he said, "Right, we'd like you to join the club. We've agreed the fee. What terms are you looking for?" I told him what I'd like, what I thought I was worth at the time - I wasn't extortionate, I didn't go for the sky, it was what I felt was a fair price for a fair product. So he was happy with that, and it was all over in five minutes. One of the contributing factors was that Spurs were in Europe. Once I knew Burnley were willing to let me go, I said OK, and I knew that the money would be a real benefit to Burnley Football Club; and with Spurs in the UEFA Cup being an added bonus, I shook hands on it and that was it.
That season just finished had seen Burnley go down, and looking at their record they had had a terrible season. But they still had some great players - do you think you should have avoided the drop?
It's easy now to say it, but I felt that we were good enough to stay up. But at the time you've got to win matches, and we weren't winning enough matches. We lost a lot of matches by the odd goal, and perhaps we were unlucky, although we just weren't consistent enough. I think we had the players, but we didn't put it together when it mattered. There were a lot of injuries, and you can hide behind excuses, but perhaps nine out of ten relegated clubs can point to injury problems during the season.
I do feel as well that you've got to have a balance in the team. No matter how good the young players coming into the team are, you can't replace experience. You can have the best youngster in the world, but you can't substitute for experience. And we had a number of youngsters in the squad at that time with real ability but not with any experience. And with a struggling side that's so young, it's very, very difficult to cope with the responsibility put on them - not only from the club, but from the supporters as well. It's a tremendous burden to have as a youngster, because there's enough responsibility to perform well every week.
Within a struggling side such as ours that year, the youngsters were looking for help, but alongside them they had people their own age with the same inexperience. In a relegation dogfight, you need experienced players - they know the game, they've been there and done it. And I think Burnley - if you were to put me on the spot to give my opinion, and it might not be the right one, by the way - had too many youngsters with limited experience to take on that situation.
When you used to mix with the big city club players during England gatherings, and also when you moved to London after joining Spurs, were you asked why you were 'only' with Burnley and why you spent so long at the Turf?
Not in that hostile way. They did ask me why I spent so long at Burnley Football Club, and they used to say that I could have gone anywhere. But they didn't realise the family atmosphere and the loyalty around Burnley - they obviously hadn't experienced what I had at Burnley. So I felt sorry for them, actually, because they'd missed out on that. But they all made me feel welcome, though they did ask me why I'd spent so long at Burnley. And I didn't really bother explaining to them, because I felt they'd missed out, being in London at a big club, and I wouldn't have missed the experience I went through at Burnley for anything. Some players go to a big club from a very young age and so they're born, as a player, into that environment, and they don't know anything else. I was so fortunate to join a smaller club - not in ambition, but a smaller family club. And I felt that they had missed out, not me. In fact, I had the best of both worlds, and still do. And I'm the first with the banner of Burnley Football Club, wherever I go, because I owe them so much.
Did you ever go back to Turf Moor to play with either Spurs or Orient?
Yes, I went back to Burnley with Spurs and Orient - I played for two seasons as player-coach at Orient in the late seventies. It was great to go back and I got a fantastic reception both times. All through, my rapport with the supporters has been second to none. When I went back recently to draw the raffle, I was thinking about the reception I'd get, because I knew that none of the younger members of the crowd would remember me playing. But I know there is a certain loyalty between us because of the mail I still get from the Burnley fans. I don't know what the capacity was when I was playing, but the ground was very compact and if you can imagine a capacity crowd chanting, "Ralphy, Ralphy, Ralphy Coates" non-stop, you know, if you don't play well with them behind you then you never will. They gave you such a lift. When the ball used to go out on the Longside, I'd go and get the ball for the throw, the noise that used to cascade down from the terraces, you know, you'd think "We've got to win for them."
I'm working in Chelmsford at the moment, and one day our receptionist said, "Ralph? There's a bloke in the reception, says he's a Burnley Football Club supporter." So I went to the reception and this chap - a Burnley fanatic who lived in Chelmsford - had heard I was working there and had come up for a chat. We were reminiscing about the good times and the bad times. He mentioned the time we beat Leeds 5-1 when they were top of the League. I think once you're involved with Burnley and Burnley Football Club, you're there for life.
Phil Whalley
July 2000
Originally appeared in The Clarets Archive
Ralph Coates joins the London Clarets
