Debut: 4-1 win vs Arsenal (scored once), August 19th 1989
League Record: 70 games (+5 as sub), 8 goals
Sold to: Nottingham Forest (£800,000), November 1992
There’s a firm memory in my head of the morning after the opening day of the 1989/90 season. United had just smashed the previous season’s champions Arsenal 4-1 and, reading the match report in the Sunday paper at my granddad’s house, I marvelled at what seemed a new dawn with our all-star midfield duo of Webb and Robson.
Ah, youthful naivety. Webb would become one of the most reviled United players of his time but it’s worth remembering just how good he was: he was a top player at Forest and the fee we paid didn’t seem that much given the quality he was know to have. After serving time at both Reading and Portsmouth, it was Clough who took him to the top level and it wasn’t long before he became the 1000th player to be capped for England.
By the summer of 1989, he was on the verge of being fully established alongside Robbo for England where he was expected to star in the following year’s World Cup. We stumped up the cash, and on his debut he smashed in a brilliant goal. As debuts go, it didn’t get much better and the crowd must have been buzzing.
Only a matter of weeks later, a tackle caused serious damage to his cruciate ligament. He was out of action for most of the season and though he was back for the FA Cup final and set up the winning goal, he was never the same player again. Always a tad chunky, the injury robbed him of the speed to compensate. Though he still somehow made the World Cup squad, he only got match time in the very sedate third/fourth place play-off game.
In 1990/91, he played plenty of games but the performances weren’t up to his previous standards and there was also plenty of competition for places - his lack of form might be reflected in his scoring record seen above, compared to 47 goals in 146 games for Forest. Though he played in our unsuccessful League Cup final team, he was left out for the Cup Winners Cup final months later. Matters reached a nadir a year later in a game against his old team: with United losing and needing a win to try to get a league challenge back on track, he was subbed. Rather than race off to get the fresh legs on the pitch, he trudged off at a pace that suggested he didn’t give a toss. He wouldn’t be forgiven, and though he somehow made it to the European Championship fiasco in Sweden that summer, his United career was essentially finished.
Somehow, we managed to flog him off back to Forest for a decent fee, perhaps one of the many signs Brian Clough was seriously beginning to lose it. He was perhaps at his level helping Forest gain promotion back to the top flight in 1993/94, and subsequently saw out his playing days with Grimsby Town and Aldershot. (In)Famously, he later worked as a postman, for which he was the target of an unfair amount of ridicule but has since found employment as a pundit and coach.
Whatever happened to his wife ? Haven't seen her on telly for donkey's years.
ReplyDeleteI gather she took him for a fair whack in the divorce. Can't remember her doing anything but "Standing Room Only", which even as a youth, I remember being not very good.
ReplyDeleteYour memory is correct - come to think of it Simon O' Brien seems to have fallen off a cliff too. I remember him doing 606 once and he played a record every couple of minutes to try and disguise his inadequacies as a talk show host.
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