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McAllister aims to uphold great Scot tradition

Phil Shaw
Saturday 19 August 2000 00:00 BST
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At one of Gary McAllister's previous clubs, a senior professional would arrive for training on a winter's day and delegate an apprentice to warm a toilet seat for him.

At one of Gary McAllister's previous clubs, a senior professional would arrive for training on a winter's day and delegate an apprentice to warm a toilet seat for him.

Pulling together rather than pulling rank is the modus operandi at Liverpool, who recruited McAllister from Coventry on a Bosman free transfer during the summer. Were it the other way around then the Scottish midfielder, who hits 36 on Christmas Day, might have been able to insist on taking the No 10 shirt he has worn most of his career.

McAllister used to have a "fixation" about the number because it was synonymous with his early role models, notably Glenn Hoddle and Michel Platini. At Anfield, however, it had already been claimed. "Some young kid has bagged it," the new No 21 grins, pretending the name momentarily escapes him. "Michael somebody... Michael Owen."

If, moreover, the all-for-one-and-one-for-all mentality did not prevail at Liverpool, and McAllister was the type who jealously protects his position, he might have expected Gérard Houllier to hand him the skipper's armband. He did, after all, captain his country and each of his former clubs.

In fact, he was content when the manager bestowed that distinction first upon another relative tryo, Robbie Fowler, and then, when he was injured, on Sami Hyypia. "To be honest, it's a wee bit of weight off my shoulders," reasons McAllister, who played with the zest of a teenager and scored a sumptuous goal as Liverpool's pre-season schedule peaked with a 5-0 pummelling of Parma on Sunday.

Where he draws the line is on being characterised as a squad player, a bit-part performer who, because of his age, might hold the fort for Jamie Redknapp while he recovers from knee surgery, or fill in for Steven Gerrard if his precocious talent betrays signs of strain. McAllister has not come to Liverpool to keep the seat warm, so to speak, for anybody.

"We've got a big squad here but I was ever-present for Coventry last season and I don't have any problem playing every few days," he says, mindful that Liverpool's quest to recapture the championship they last won a decade ago is likely to be interspersed with regular Uefa Cup games.

Remarkably, just three Premiership players saw more action during 1999-2000 than McAllister, who missed a mere 56 minutes. Statistics show that only Roy Keane completed more passes than his 1,820, while 13 goals represented his best return since Leicester signed him from Motherwell 15 years ago.

"Wee Gordon (Strachan) signed some quality players," McAllister states magnanimously. "I've always said that the better the guys around you, the better you'll do. Carlton (Palmer) arrived to anchor midfield, Robbie (Keane) came in up front and we had the two Moroccans out wide. That's a lot of good allies."

Yet the Sky Blues were slow to offer a fresh deal ahead of the end of his contract, alerting several managers. "I actually feel they thought that none of the clubs I'd have loved to go to would come in for me. My wife is pregnant so it could probably only have been Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool who could have persuaded me to uproot.

"As soon as I was linked with Liverpool I fancied it. Before Coventry, I had six fantastic years at Leeds United. They're a big club; people in Yorkshire think there's none bigger. But when you talk about the top clubs in the world, Liverpool are right up among them."

McAllister is stimulated by the prospect of following in the Liverpudlian footsteps of some "legendary Jocks", as he puts it, namechecking Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen, Ian St John and Bill Shankly. "I'm not saying I'm going to emulate them, but they are the people whose standards you must aspire to, just as I looked to [Billy] Bremner and [Johnny] Giles at Leeds."

He has been around long enough, too, to have been on the receiving end of some of the finest football played in these islands, when Liverpool were in their Double-winning pomp. "The name conjures up European Cups and relentless championships. Between 1985 and '90 I played for Leicester against Liverpool's last really great side. I've been to Anfield and hardly got a kick of the ball.

"I remember Leicester's manager bringing their team-sheet in, saying: 'I can't see where they're going to get a goal from'. It had names like Rush, Beardsley, Aldridge and Barnes, and we got absolutely hammered. When I was at Leeds they beat us 5-4 at Elland Road after being four up at half-time - one of the best games I've ever played in."

He became a title-winner with Leeds and could have repeated the feat with Blackburn, for whom Dalglish tried to buy him in 1993. McAllister rejected the move - David Batty went instead 24 hours later - though whether the same manager ever attempted to take him to Liverpool remains unclear. Still, as the veteran playmaker says, better late than never.

"I'm loving it," he declares, having realised how much he had been missing the atmosphere and aura of a truly big club; little things, like hordes of fans waiting an hour after a match for autographs. "The buzz was there, even in mid-summer. You could sense the anticipation at the training ground. And when you see the roll of honours at the stadium, the list of Liverpool's internationals and the photos that line the corridors, you can feel the history and tradition."

The problem is that, having seen Old Trafford build the kind of dynasty Anfield thought was under copyright, Liverpool have been playing an expensive game of catch-up for an unacceptably long time. McAllister believes Houllier is going the right way about redressing the balance. "He's impressive. There wasn't a great deal of negotiating when we met. We just talked football. He's incredibly passionate about the game and the club - he wants to get things cracking again here."

The breakthrough looked imminent when Liverpool held third place entering the final week of last season. But their form was faltering, the goals had dried up and a closing defeat by today's visitors, Bradford City, put the last Champions' League berth back in Leeds' grasp.

"Liverpool should have qualified," asserts McAllister. "Perhaps that's one thing the manager wanted to sort out. When the heat came on at the end, they didn't have many people who had been through the nitty-gritty, scrapping for results. Maybe I can deflect the pressure from the younger guys.

"A lot has been made of my being signed to help bring them on. But I like to think I'm worth a place in my own right, and anyway, young players decide instinctively who they want to be like and copy them, like I did with Hoddle, [Ray] Wilkins and Souness. I'm not going to say: 'Watch how I kick the ball or where I run'. It doesn't work like that.

"If they pick up anything positive from how I play or train, great, but I won't be holding coaching classes. I just want to influence the season in some way."

What Liverpool's prodigies should all be eager to learn is why McAllister is gearing up for his biggest challenge when most contemporaries are winding down or retired. He attributes his "fitness fetish" to his Leeds days under Howard Wilkinson and to the influence of his friend Strachan, who played into his 40th year. "Gordon told me that the older you get, the more people tell you to do less to protect yourself. His response, and mine, was to do more."

Since he was in his first year at Motherwell when Gerrard was born, it is only natural that there are moments when the dressing-room banter makes him feel his age. "You look at the dates of birth and it's scary. But I'm no fuddy-duddy. People talk about my experience rubbing off on them but their enthusiasm is refreshing."

The gap on McAllister's mind is not generational but the one which Manchester United have opened on Liverpool. "Our goal has to be the Champions' League but I also feel it's the duty of this club, Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds to mount a better challenge to United," he says. "For them to win it by 18 points can't be right."

High time, in other words, that the hot seat had new occupants.

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