Alan Hansen: Player and Pundit

ALAN HANSEN, ECHOING: 'Indecision is final...

'Terrible defending...

'No pace and passion...

'Diabolical...

'Woeful...

'Shocking...

'Abysmal...

'Time and time again...

'Effort, attitude, commitment...

'You can't win anything with kids.'

HE WHISTLES

Last time, this walk.

-Your last time, Alan?

-Last time, this walk.

Do you want to go to the top?

Final day of the season. One of the best seasons ever.

Great time for me to go.

Alan Hansen -

football pundit,

football player.

He's a wee boy from Sauchie that made good.

And here's Hansen...

He made very good. Exceptionally good.

A special one.

He was a great player.

He just oozed class. He was a fantastic player.

Absolutely top, top drawer.

And Hansen moving up again.

He's been menacing in that role so far.

He was just so different to what was around at that time.

And he's through, and he checked and he scored.

His reading of the game...

He always seemed to have great composure and time on the ball.

He's fearless.

Never afraid to criticise even his best friends.

Only the best players in the world can do that.

He'd just say, "Al, you're rubbish."

That's what he used to say. "Al, you're rubbish."

Let me tell you, I had plenty ammunition.

THEY LAUGH

Never rubbish, but never quite what you expect either.

He will now score!

People think he's super-confident,

but he's actually really shy and insecure.

Came on the show, nervous as a cat.

-He froze.

-Absolutely. I froze.

It was worse than that.

And who and what does he truly love?

He'd rather watch the golf!

She's sweet and she's lovely, and he's horrible and he's miserable.

On the TV, he's quite a serious, hard man,

whereas he is the total opposite at home.

He was there on football's darkest days.

Two guys came on the pitch,

and you could tell from the sadness in his eyes...

He wasn't making it up. He says, "Al, there's people dying in there."

And he reinvented himself under the bright lights

and became king of the pundits.

-Too right.

-He was the original, wasn't he?

-He's so good.

If he's saying something on Match of the Day,

then people take his word.

Not all his words.

You can't win anything with kids.

He almost ruined my life that night, watching Match of the Day.

It acted as kind of a motivational theme throughout the season, really.

It was a line that made me!

PHONE RINGS

That's my phone!

THEY LAUGH Turn it off.

Almost an institution as far as Match of the Day's concerned,

so I'm sure there'll be lots of us that are sorry to see him go.

He's worked with the best.

THEY CHEER WILDLY

Any of you boys scored coming on as a substitute this season?

-Not this season, no.

-No. No?

-No.

Any of you boys scored at all this season?

LAUGHTER

-No.

-No.

-Well, that's fair enough.

-He has been the best.

-What are you talking about?

'Can you get me Alan Hansen's autograph?'

LAUGHTER

-'I suppose so.'

-Brilliant!

And now, Alan Hansen,

my friend Alan Hansen, is calling it a day.

What was the young Alan Hansen like?

I was born in this mining village called Sauchie that...

There were two choices, you either played football or played football.

There was nothing else.

John's the eldest, I'm the middle, and Alan was the baby.

He's always been my wee brother, and always looked out for him.

He was a very easy-going child.

I think the way often third children are, everyone was fond of him.

He winds me up constantly,

but I know that there is this deep affection between both of us

and my sister as well.

When I got to secondary school at age 11, Jim Cousin,

who was a history teacher,

who had also been a professional footballer...

his encouragement was total.

Come on!

He was the one that was taking me to the Scotland schoolboy trials

and telling me, basically, that I was a great player,

and I would have a tremendous future in the game,

and I never, ever believed him, really.

This way!

I used to watch him playing and I was amazed at

how proficient he was at the game.

He was outstanding.

He was absolutely tremendous in controlling a ball.

It never bounced away from him.

He always had it under perfect control, and he either went on

an amazing dribble or he would put lovely passes on to other players.

But he loved golf.

Sometimes in the morning, I think he went out

and had a game before he even went into football in the morning.

We played three rounds every day, and we were relatively young,

and he was always following me to the golf and I was...

HE SCOFFS

because I would be playing with big boys, and he'd chase me,

and he wanted to play with me, and I threw him into a bunker,

and a man came over and started shouting at me, and I said,

"It's OK, he's my wee brother."

As though that made it OK to throw him in the bunker!

Golf's always been my first love.

I stopped playing football at 15 and 17 to concentrate on golf.

Right? My brother was playing football at the time,

and he thought I was crazy.

He just wanted to play golf. That's all he wanted to do.

He played football as a side thing, but he was a golfer.

Much to the dismay of my father,

who always wanted me to be a footballer.

Just to placate him, I went on trial at Hibs

when I was 17, and it was a week before I was playing in

the Scottish Boys' Stroke Play at Montrose, and Eddie Turnbull,

after five days, brought me into his office, he was the manager,

brings me in the office, and says,

"Right, we want to sign you on professional forms."

And I said, "Well, I'm just playing.

"I'm going to Montrose to play in the Scottish Boys' Stroke Play.

"I'm never playing football again." He says, "What? You're an idiot!

I said, "No, no, I'm a golfer."

I said, "I came here just to placate my father."

He said, "Well, you've got a real chance here."

I said, "Well, I don't care.

"I'm going to play golf," and off I went.

I was surprised when he switched from golf to football,

because he desperately wanted to be a golfer.

I'm pretty sure the time it changed it for him,

we played Celtic in the League Cup final.

'Partick Thistle, very much the outsiders.

'Celtic in the home shirts.'

Commentator, Archie Macpherson.

Up comes Hansen for this...

We were underdogs, Celtic were...

They had won the league title ten years in a row.

And it's there! It's a goal!

They'd won the European Cup six or seven...

What a goal!

We had just been promoted from the league below us.

And it's almost there...

It's a goal! It's number three for Thistle.

Almost unbelievably!

But we won 4-1.

A good ball in there. It is a goal!

The final score for Partick Thistle, 4-1,

the first time they've ever won the Scottish League Cup.

And believe it or not,

there were people who gave them no chance at all.

CHEERING

When we came off the park at the end, I looked up to the stand

and I saw Alan sitting in the front row, and I've never, ever

seen him so animated, and I think that was his time he realised.

"I think I'm going to want to be a footballer here."

Seeing the adulation, I think, for the players and the success,

and how it was possible for dreams to come true,

I can imagine that that would have had a huge impact on Alan.

I was meant to be going to Aberdeen University to study history.

I was a historian.

Somebody then says, you're better becoming a PE teacher,

because I played four different sports.

Never got into the PE college.

What am I going to do? Partick came and said, "Right, well,

"we'll give you this to sign on, we'll give you this a week,"

and I took it. And the rest is history.

-Football, in many ways, was just a last resort.

-Well, it was.

It was great for us being at Sauchie,

because they kept our feet on the ground,

and it was great going to Partick,

because it was just a fantastic team.

The Hansen brothers together at Partick.

The Jags.

Nobody at Firhill got above himself, either.

I had four great years at Partick, you know.

If you think a crowd in England are cynical, in Scotland,

multiply it by 100,000.

And at Partick, they'd be shouting, "Hansen, you're a waste of time.

"Hansen, you're this..." And I was one of the favourites!

-They were right!

-They were right as well!

They were spot on.

# Here I am stuck in the middle with you... #

It was very difficult playing with him.

Because he was really skilful and I was a really fast runner.

He always assumed that you could do what he could do.

And obviously, we couldn't.

Was the young Alan Hansen cocky, know-it-all?

-Mmm...I was very, very shy and introvert.

-Really?

I really was. I mean, I went to Liverpool at 21,

totally inadequate. You know, I felt right out of my depth,

and I was so nervous going there, I just didn't want to be there.

I didn't want to leave Scotland.

I think it probably surprised people

when you say "I was a nervous individual."

-Are you still nervous to this day?

-Well, I'm...

I mean, I've seen you on shows...

I'm more nervous than ever.

People think he's super-confident, but he's actually really shy

and insecure and...

Even after all these years on Match of the Day,

he's still really nervous.

The more experienced I got at Liverpool, I'm thinking,

"The nerves'll disappear." But they never. They got worse.

The nervous 21-year-old was signed by Liverpool in 1977.

Anfield, the Kop, tests of anyone's nerves.

CROWD SING

I used to sit in the Liverpool dressing room in '77.

They thought I was the coolest character ever,

because I never warmed up, I'd sit there with a programme

singing the Billy Joel song Don't Go Changing.

# Don't go changing... #

And, like, they'd look at me and go...

"That's unreal, for a kid."

I mean, but underneath it, I am, like, churning.

-What was the feeling?

-The feeling was just...sickness.

-Were you scared? Of failure?

-Yes, just scared.

Ten minutes to go, the bell goes to go out onto the pitch.

So I'd been stretching off and doing whatever, I said, "Alan.

"Are you not going to get warmed up?"

"Oh," he says, "Yeah." Just stands up.

Gives it one of them and goes back in.

"All right. Let's go."

HE LAUGHS

And he walks out onto the pitch!

But as soon as I touched the sign, got down the tunnel,

-not a nerve in my body.

-How did you play in your first game?

I played very well. It was the second game I didn't play so well.

And then we had a bad run.

I think we had three defeats on the trot,

and Bob Paisley went in the papers and said,

"The only person playing well in the Liverpool back four is Alan Hansen."

On the Saturday, reads the team sheet out,

and I'm the only one not playing.

I then go and see him on the Monday and say,

"How can you say in the papers that I'm the only one playing well

"and you leave me out on the Saturday?"

He says, "Listen, son, the longer you play this game,

"you'll realise that experience is everything."

And he was spot on.

But for the first year, I was tremendously homesick.

Souness.

And there's Dalglish through.

And is that going in? Yes, it is!

I went home in the summer and after winning the European Cup,

didn't want to come back to Liverpool.

We were worried he wasn't going to settle,

and there was lots of stories in papers

about players going to big clubs and getting led astray and...

But the best thing, I have said often,

the best thing that ever happened to him was he met Jan, and Jan...

You know, he's besotted with her.

Even now, he's still besotted with her.

They couldn't have met at a better time.

But what about those nerves?

Would he fluff his opening lines?

'We met in a club in Liverpool.'

I didn't follow football,

so I didn't know what he did, and actually,

when we did start chatting, he said he worked in insurance.

Do you think you settled in better into Liverpool when you met Janet?

Oh, she was...I mean, my whole family says she saved me.

I wouldn't go that far.

He is bone idle. He is bone idle.

He will play golf, he will go on holiday,

he will try to do as little as possible.

The only thing that is going to prevent him doing that is Jan.

She's sweet and she's lovely, and he's horrible and miserable,

so you just don't really put them together.

'We got married in 1980.

'In the June, and then we had Adam a year later,

'next June, and Lucy three years after that.'

They make a very good couple.

I think Mum's probably the only person

who Dad would ever concede he's wrong to.

He's totally himself when he's at home.

On the TV, he's quite a serious, hard man,

whereas he is the total opposite at home.

He has a very soft side,

which I think he would be at pains to hide from people,

and when the chips are down, you can count on Alan,

you know, for support, for love.

'You'll never, ever see him at fancy parties, showbiz parties.

'You'll never, ever see him

'on Strictly Come Dancing or anything like that.'

He just wants to be home with his wife and kids.

We go everywhere as a family. The kids have been great.

-They're not kids any more.

-No, they're not, they're 32 and 29.

The potential for them to grow up to be brats

in that environment was immense,

but you couldn't meet two nicer kids,

and that's down to him and Jan,

and that's, for me, that's his biggest achievement.

Which is saying something.

On the football field, Liverpool were flying.

In seven seasons from 1978 they won the European Cup three times.

The league five times.

Four league cups.

There would be more when he was captain.

But this was the age of pure joy.

In your playing career, so much success, highlight?

-So many, I suppose.

-European Cup final '78.

-Double winning captain, '86.

-'86.

-'86, great year, that.

'84 in Rome. Amazing in Rome.

We are in the tunnel and we've got three guys that play

for Middlesbrough, Graeme Souness, Dave Hodgson and Craig Johnson.

They start singing this Chris Rea song,

I Don't Know What It Is But I Love It.

And so everyone started singing it. The Roma players,

they looked at us like we were off our head, and we were!

Bruce Grobbelaar has a chat.

Francisco Graziani against Bruce Grobbelaar. Graziani! Over the top.

It was such a great night.

Alan Kennedy has won the European Cup for Liverpool.

To go in there and win a penalty shoot-out was fantastic.

Liverpool have won it for the fourth time.

And the cup is lifted and it glitters silver.

Who is the best player you played with?

Kenny was the best player. And then Graeme was next.

I go to Liverpool as a 21-year-old, first Scotsman and then

I get followed by a couple of lesser known Scots, Dalglish and Souness.

Hansen at the back, Souness in midfield. Dalglish upfront.

And that is absolutely outstanding finishing.

They can still knock a ball around. Sort of.

We're not in Florida, you know.

Don't want to show the dandruff!

Only the best players in the world can do that.

He just said to me it's 30 years ago

since we played in the European Cup final.

He remembers a ball he passed to me and I mis-controlled it.

He did that quite a bit, to be fair.

He used to come and try and take the ball off me and I would say,

"What are you coming back here for? I am a better passer than you are."

THEY LAUGH

Shite!

Kenny and I live really close to each other but Graeme lives

in Poole somewhere.

Graeme Souness is the type of person, you don't see him five years

and you can pick up like that.

At the start, when you came, I was the first Scot in that era.

They didn't know what to expect.

How long did it take you to become a bully?

You two were 10 times worse than I ever was.

Just because we tried to betray the Jocks as a master race.

And that wasn't very difficult, because the average IQ was -6.

It was... It wasn't difficult!

The higher up you go in football, the dressing room banter is more severe.

The humour is more severe.

-You can't wait to get there because of the banter.

-The mickey-taking.

That's why it was so successful and good, because of the dressing room.

We were one of the best professionals, trained properly

but enjoyed a night out and maybe drank too much alcohol.

-Speak for yourself.

-Didn't eat the right food.

And we were playing against teams like the Germans, Italians

and still beat them easily.

The longer the game went,

the more tired they got and the stronger we got.

-Comes down to desire.

-It's a combination of everything.

People used to turn up to watch us train with a notepad.

From the first tier, right down.

Walked a perimeter, jogged a perimeter, five-a-sides,

sprints, five-a-sides, sprints, finish.

Second day, they write down, The third day, there was no writing.

The notepad was sitting next to them.

These guys would say to me, "Do you come back in the afternoon

-"and do tactical stuff?"

-No. Do you come back in the afternoon?!

I would go to Kenny's for Christmas Day and Kenny says,

"Graeme's coming."

So, you come through and the usual... What happens?

The champagne comes out and this is the day before the game,

and Kenny says we will have one glass and we go on the bus

and I thought to myself, "We've had a bit too much

"the day before the match, blah, blah, blah..."

and we beat them 3-0.

-We beat them 3-0!

-And we all played really well.

Remember when we used to win things. Win a trophy.

There was a Jock picture, why did you never join in?

Because I was always the outside. When it hit the papers...

I got in the middle, but you'll love this,

the best one is in the bar at Cameron House,

there's 50 great Scotsman, the good thing is you're not in it.

Anyway, Janet comes back to me and says, "50 great Scots,

"you're in the picture." I'm like, "Am I?"

So anyway I go to the bar

and I'm looking everywhere thinking to myself, I'm not in it.

And then eventually see a picture of him,

European cup final in Rome

and my right ear is in it.

You can tell it's my ear, just my ear.

50 great Scots and Al's ear.

That ear-a!

To have played with two of the great players was fantastic,

but they were all great players.

Every one of them that played on that team was exceptional.

# Walk on

# Walk on... #

It's strange how this one worked out. Two of that great team who

played together and both walked on into punditry.

Still talking a great game.

-It makes you feel invincible.

-Every single time?

And then down and out.

You can hear the noise. Crescendo noise greeting you.

Come on then. I've heard so much about this goal that never was.

You say it was.

Man United are top of the table,

a point in front of Liverpool. Liverpool have a game in hand.

It's 0-0, 21 minutes, 8 seconds into the match and I play it

-to Souness. Graeme gets it.

-No opposition?

Everyone's moving, the whole thing has opened up and I get to here

and I kept going and Ray Kennedy is edge of the box.

I played it into his feet, Ray Kennedy has played it back

-to about 22 yards.

-22 exactly?

-22 yards, three inches.

And I've just put my foot back, hit through it

and pinged it into the bottom corner.

Did you look where Gary Bailey was?

No, I just hit it on the right-hand side.

A centreback has played 2-1-2s and run 65 yards

and buried it in the corner and not one camera in the ground.

-Not one camera.

-You would love to see the analysis on this.

Nobody has ever seen that goal. But the big thing there is...

Nobody ever believes me when I tell that story.

I'm finding it difficult, I must admit.

Honestly, one of the greatest goals ever scored here. Allegedly.

Dalglish is in here. Yes!

1986. Alan is now Liverpool captain and Merseyside rules.

Liverpool and Everton going toe to toe in the league and in the cup

-all the way to Wembley.

-Is this three? It is!

1986, Kenny was the manager.

-Great memories for you, of course.

-Obviously not.

I was at Everton at that stage and three times we played you

-and I scored in all three games.

-What did you win that season?

-Precisely nothing.

-Good.

It was also a minor miracle because you were completely outplayed for most of it!

-Well, I make a mistake in that game.

-No, I outfoxed you.

Lineker through the centre. Lineker for Everton. Saved by Grobbelaar.

Lineker! 1-0 to Everton.

And who else but Gary Lineker?

For the first time in my life, I'm like that...

If my head had been right that day,

if you had been Usain Bolt you wouldn't have scored.

But everything is about the results, as you well know.

It was a great day just seeing the sea of blue and red together.

It was fantastic going to Wembley and the Evertonians mixing with the Liverpudlians.

It was a great example to the world, I thought, about how

a city could come together.

Never before have they won the league and cup double

and now the moment is here.

What a consolation for Alan Hansen in the week

he was left out of the Scotland World Cup party.

Four in the area. Lineker!

For me, the '86 World Cup would work out OK.

But for Alan, it was an immense disappointment.

He was left out of the Scotland squad by a certain Alex Ferguson.

It never entered my head that there was a possibility

I was going to be left out.

So, we played on the Sunday

and Alec Ferguson was the manager of the home Scots.

And he never said a word to me.

I thought, that's unusual, because Alec always comes

and talk to everybody

and I thought, there's something strange here but still couldn't

believe there was any remote possibility I would be left out.

And then the dreaded phone call came on the Wednesday.

But even then, when he told me, it never really sunk in.

It was only when the reports started to come back from

the training pitch at Santa Fe

and onto Mexico that I felt really dejected.

People keep saying, why do I hate Manchester United so much?

And I would say, Alex Ferguson,

because he didn't pick Alan for the World Cup.

And it's harboured with us all these years

because he was at the peak of his form, peak of his career

and he took the two Aberdeen players because he had been manager at Aberdeen.

Al never said too much but he was gutted.

I just said, "I have to accept your decision.

"You pick the team and the squad of players and you're the manager."

And I just said I wish you all the best.

Liverpool have won the double.

If you had said to me, "Do you want to be a double-winning captain

"or go to the World Cup?" you would probably say double-winning

captain, so it more than made up for the lack of Scottish caps but what

I achieved at Liverpool.

So, I've no regrets about that in the slightest.

You had lots of great times, lots of success on the field,

you also lived through two enormous disasters, famously, Heysel in '85.

I am afraid the news is very bad from Brussels.

Hooliganism has struck again and I'm afraid

the scenes are as bad as anything we have seen for a long, long time.

An evening in late May 1985.

39 people were about to die in the old Heysel Stadium in Brussels.

My father had gone to the three previous European Cup finals.

Wembley was fine. Paris, if you are a mile away from the ground and didn't have a ticket,

they were hitting you on the head - Rome was the same.

Heysel, every man and their dog was getting in there.

My dad went in with a ticket.

There was nobody at the turnstiles.

We got on the pitch at 5:50pm to go to the Liverpool fans,

there's a kids' game on the pitch. We had to go on the pitch to go

to them because they had thrown missiles at us,

the Juventus supporters, so I picked one up

and I remember saying to Alan Kennedy, "Nobody brings

"that into the stadium" and he says, "That IS the stadium."

It was crumbling about them. We are in the dressing room, we're ready to go,

they come and say, "There's a major problem," um...

"And the game has been put back."

And it was the pressure of movement down towards the running track which

resulted in the wall giving way

and people being pinned underneath it.

Do you think it should have been played?

The reason they played the game was they thought there would be

more trouble if they didn't play the game. I go on the pitch and...

I don't know how many were dead at the time, you only focus on one

-thing, that's the game.

-Still.

Even that. You are only focused on one thing. It's the game.

You focus on the game, playing the game and then you

come into the dressing room afterwards and it is horrific.

And it's like so sad,

but we come home the next day.

And then when you're home, you are removed from it.

The Liverpool squad arrived home after the most disastrous

European tie in history to more media attention than had

they won the cup for keeps in front of peaceful crowds.

Flags were flying at half-mast out of respect for the dead,

and it seemed in shame as well.

Could football ever go more tragically wrong then this?

In very different circumstances, it could.

Hillsborough was totally different,

because we were still right in the middle.

Four years later, FA Cup semifinal day.

Liverpool against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough in Sheffield.

A huge crowd. Everyone looking forward to the match.

Everybody bar one.

I played one reserve game in nine months.

Erm... There was a virus the night before.

Kenny pulls me, he says, "You have to play."

I say, "I don't want to play."

I said, "I ain't ready. I've only played..."

He said, "You're playing."

How do you argue with Dalglish? Anyway, I go on the pitch...

Again, you focus on the game. You can't see the crowd...

-Could you tell there was something happening at all?

-No.

The first inclination I got was two guys come on the pitch

and I go to them right away, "You'll get us in trouble here."

And the guy looks at me and says...

You could tell the sadness in his eyes that...

he wasn't make it up. He said, "Al, there's people dying in there."

-We got off the pitch...

-The game was stopped.

The game was stopped and then somebody comes in and says,

"18 dead." And then it was 32 and then the numbers went up.

It's a sense of shock.

And then you go upstairs and you see the girls...

and they're crying their eyes out. They're watching...

coverage of the events unfolding.

But you still never really knew the enormity of what had happened.

It's been a black day for football.

On a sunny afternoon at Hillsborough, Sheffield,

no fewer than 93 football supporters died.

On a day of such momentous tragedy,

our sympathies go to the families of those concerned.

It wasn't until the next day we went to Anfield and we see,

on the Kop, flowers like you'll never believe,

and it just suddenly hits you. That...

this is much, much bigger...

Much a bigger disaster than you ever thought.

What was it like being part of the club at that time and under...?

It was harrowing. It was harrowing.

I mean, the next day, we go to the hospital.

There is a mother, who has a son that's on a life support machine

and they're going to turn it off.

She wants you to come and speak to the boy.

HE SCOFFS

Well, I get up there and the kid's... Adam's eight at the time.

And I look at the mother and the mother is like...

She was really strong for the son. And...

You say a few words...

They had me in the corner in bits.

I mean, I'm crying my eyes out in the corner. Erm...

And then-then we get back and Janet says to me, "What about the mother?

"You're crying your eyes out, but you're all right?

"What about the mother?" You lose track of...

You're maybe thinking about yourself and then you suddenly think,

"What about the families?" For the rest of their lives...

Erm... The emptiness is going to be there.

Don't tell me you can understand what they're feeling

because you haven't been...

There's not a chance that you can understand how they're feeling,

and they've been feeling it for 25 years. Erm...

And then, you know, Kenny and Marina were phenomenal.

They set up this thing in the players' lounge.

We were going in there...and we'd be coming out in tears every time.

-You went to a lot of the funerals...

-Well, I went to about 12 and...

I remember saying to Janet after the first one, "This will get better."

It never. It got worse.

Has it always lived with you?

It's... When it's brought up, you will think about it and it's like...

It is distressing.

I mean, just the grief. The grief and the emptiness,

and just the sadness.

The sadness. It's a football match. 96 people at a football match.

You never know if you're doing the right thing,

like, talking about it on television.

Are you doing the right thing? Do they want you to speak about it?

Did they want you to play on?

I mean, I don't think you could ever get a consensus of...

Of what they wanted.

You can't get a consensus of what's right and what's wrong.

You just do what you think...is for the best.

# You'll never walk... #

25 years on, Hillsborough is still with us,

still resolving the questions about what happened

at a football match a quarter of a century ago.

18 months or so after that,

Kenny Dalglish quit as manager of Liverpool.

Do you think Hillsborough was anything to do with it?

-Hillsborough took its toll on Kenny.

-Did he confide in you?

He confided in me in virtually everything football-wise.

He told me in '85, in the February,

that he was becoming the new manager of Liverpool.

But this time he didn't.

He just came into the dressing room and said, "I'm leaving."

I went, "What?"

I just felt that...

I've gone far enough and I didn't think I could delay it any longer.

-NEWS PRESENTER:

-Having played over 500 games for Liverpool,

and with a record eight Championship medals,

Alan Hansen is strongly tipped to now join the management team

and take his place in the famous boot room,

and maybe in the top job.

I came back to the training ground, I'm 64 on to get the job.

So I then go to the chief executive Peter Robinson, I said,

"Am I in the frame for the job?" He said, "Very much so."

I said, "Well, I don't want it."

He's a Liverpool legend and I think he thought

if he did a bad job at management he could lose all that.

Am I right in saying that you might have kidded the Liverpool

players on that you did get the job?

What happened was Liverpool had been beaten at Luton on the Saturday,

and they had been beaten again by Everton.

So I went to Ronnie, who was acting manager, I said,

"Look, they've always taken the mickey in the dressing room.

"Why don't I go in?" And I gave them the biggest spiel of all time.

He said, "I've got some news. I'm taking over from Kenny."

I said, "Whoa! This is amazing." We never saw him as a manager.

He said, "There'll be a lot of changes."

He said, "Steve Nichol, there will be no more going to the pub.

"No more going to the Albert. Those days are over.

"John Barnes, you, I know you're partial to a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

"There'll be no more of that." And he went round the whole team,

and they were all looking at him, thinking,

"What's he doing? I can't believe it."

And then, at the end, the best bit is,

"What we're going to do, we're going to video the game on Saturday,

"have a little bit of light lunch on Sunday and go through it."

So, by that time, they were like that.

He walks out and all the players, they start whispering,

"We liked Alan until he did this."

I go down to the players' lounge.

There's two Irish kids have burst out the reserve team dressing room

and this little kid gets on the phone to Dublin, and he says,

"Get as much money as you possibly can on Alan Hansen to be

"the next Liverpool manager."

So I've got to put an end to it. I've got the phone down, went back to...

And all I can hear is, "Hansen's a..."

He came back in about a minute later. He said, "Not really, guys.

"I just want to say I'm retiring."

But it was just typical Alan Hansen. He always had a joke.

The first person I see is John Barnes and he went...like that.

I said, "Boys, I'm only kidding. I'm leaving."

I thought Alan Hansen was taking over after Kenny had left

because Alan's knowledge of football is fantastic.

-PRESENTER:

-..the biggest cheer of the ceremony,

holding up the league championship trophy.

I suppose a telltale sign is the fact that, being such

a nervous player and hating the pressure

of having to play, imagine...

Because being a manager is ten times worse.

Bill Shankly, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness -

Scottish managers of Liverpool.

So...

Why did you never have a go at the management?

I wanted to keep my hair relatively black.

-You've no done that either.

-That's gone as well.

I just never fancied it.

Here, by the way, let me tell you,

he wanted to keep his hair relatively black.

I think supplemented it.

Never at any stage. No tint whatsoever.

And when you went into television,

which is something I've done about ten years after you,

-was that something you always fancied?

-No, never.

I fell into it. I mean, absolutely fell into it.

You said before...

When you were playing, you were nervous in the dressing room,

which we never picked up on, did we?

-I'm a worrier. I'm a worrier.

-He was flustered.

When you used to bring it out from the back...

ALL TALK OVER EACH OTHER

Of, if he got into the opposing penalty box,

he was really flustered.

He had the equivalent of the yips in golf.

-He couldn't get his right leg back.

-..my right leg back to hit it.

I'm telling you!

-PRESENTER:

-He saw the gap, too, beautifully.

Sold a lovely dummy...

and Fairclough puts it in!

-You froze.

-Absolutely. I froze. It was worse than that.

Do you get a cold sweat on or...?

No, no. What I used to do, I used to dummy myself.

I used to go like that and then... He'd be running in. He'd be...

-PRESENTER:

-United coming out for the offside.

And although Hansen was doing the right thing

and had indeed has been waved on by Pat Partridge,

he will now score.

It's not as if he'd be critical of you if you didn't pass to him.

No, no, no. He'd just blame me.

He'd just blame me. "Al, you're rubbish."

That's what you used to say, "Al, you're rubbish."

But I think that's maybe where your inferiority complex,

-and mine, came from.

-Kenny.

-Absolutely.

-Abusing us all the time.

-Over the years.

By the way, let me tell you, I had plenty of ammunition.

THEY LAUGH

I had realised at the time that, as a player,

if I was feeling the tension as much as I did,

to become a manager...

You can multiply that by 100.

I think Alan could have made a good manager.

His knowledge of the game, the way he puts himself over,

is absolutely first class.

He is one of the people that...

When I sit down at home and watch Match of the Day,

he is one that I will sit down and listen to.

So you finished playing, you don't want to be a manager...

How quickly did you decide to go into television?

Well, Janet said to me, "What are you going to do?"

And I said, "Well, trust me, that phone will never stop ringing",

which was the most naive thing I've ever said in my life

because I'm qualified to do nothing.

I mean, he played football, and it's such a short career...

Suddenly it's over and what are you going to do?

I mean, there's only so many managers' jobs and coaching jobs

that Alan didn't really know what he was going to do.

So after three months, she said to me,

"Remember that phone that was never going to stop ringing?

"It's not rung once." So I had to get off my backside...

and I went to BSkyB, who were doing Classic Cup Finals.

The phone rang and it was a certain Alan Hansen saying,

"How do I get into television punditry?"

And he came and did a few jobs for us and was brilliant and, obviously,

the rest is history.

Alan did a little bit of radio work, and then did some work for Sky,

and then, obviously, with the BBC.

But it wasn't really a life plan of what he was going to do.

I was doing the radio, I was doing a bit on Sky and a bit on television.

It was a great grounding for Match of the Day.

Good evening. The Premiership season is under way again.

Just another 37 weeks to go.

1992, a time to be daring.

Who might lead the way in this new age of analysing

and offering opinions?

We just got Match of the Day back after a four-year absence

and everybody was very excited.

Desmond Lyman was in his pomp at that time.

Good evening. I suppose it's back to the future tonight.

Match of the Day returning on a regular basis after

a gap of four seasons, and 28 years after the very first programme.

I don't remember.

Alan was a new boy, but they hit it off very quickly.

We'll be doing our best to be sharp up front and tight at the back.

They'd got the experience of Jimmy Hill,

who had done a lot of television jobs,

so it blended and worked very seamlessly from very early on.

Well, he tried to play a continental system with British players,

and I couldn't agree with that at all.

He's been very good and I'm glad he was left in the studio cos

I worked with him once on commentary

and I couldn't get a word in sideways.

I think, on Match of the Day, Alan created a genre whereby

he was able to control the excerpts he used

and make sense of what he said straight afterwards.

I think he fitted into the demands of the programme better than

anybody else I've seen.

That goal was a little bit reminiscent of Dalglish at his best.

He runs a bit quicker than Kenny did in his prime, mind you.

DES LAUGHS

He and I were completely different when we were watching games.

I watched it like a football punter, like,

the ball going from end to end...

but I couldn't see why this team were winning 3-0.

He could say,

"That midfield player has lost their midfield player, blah, blah, blah."

He would see it all and he could tell you why this team's three up.

If we say, "It's a brilliant goal", Hansen says, "No, defensive error."

Why do you think you became such a good pundit?

I worked with a lot of good people and Lynam was just the best.

I was fortunate to have him.

I couldn't believe how nervous he was.

Alan Hansen, this great star of football,

won the league championship untold times,

came on the show nervous as a cat.

Alan always had that brain that analyses things.

Des is really relaxed and laid back.

-The big conference is over.

-HE LAUGHS

-Nothing to say.

-We're going to have some football, apparently.

I think Des would have met him and thought,

"I can help this fella."

And the combination of the two then really worked.

I just think he's playing with so much confidence it's unbelievable.

We just weren't going to show the goals.

That's how it used to be.

I'd say to Desmond, "You want to get away from that

"because you'll have replays of the goals.

"You want to try and do something different."

This is classic centre forward play.

There's no way he should be able to get into the box from here.

But with strength and determination, and excess pace,

he gets away from Bart Williams and he just drags his shot wide.

Then we got a bit of recognition for what we were doing...

and never really looked back.

# You talk

# You talk a good game

# I wish I could talk the same... #

It helps if you've been a top class player and you've won a bit,

it helps if you're forthright, it helps if you can speak,

and it helps if you're going to speak your mind.

Well, it looks like it will be the goal of the season.

Obviously I'm going to find a flaw in it somewhere.

If Alan were to say, after a game, "Jamie Redknapp played well"

or, "Look at this from Jamie Redknapp", I was so happy.

That made me feel a million dollars

because it was a respect that you wanted as a...

It was an acknowledgment that you'd done well and...

And it come from someone like Alan Hansen. It meant so much.

Match of the Day is such an important show.

And you always felt when Alan Hansen spoke that that was the final word,

that that was the authority.

I grew up on him. He probably won't like me saying that,

you know, but... He did everything in the game and, obviously,

he gets his points across quite well.

And when he speaks people listen.

He had credibility when he finished his career

and he was able to deliver it very well, too.

That Scottish accent always helps.

The Hull defending is like the mother of all shockers.

It's the worst defending I've ever seen in my life...bar none.

There are certain ways of doing Match of the Day,

I've always been unorthodox.

I always wait until the final whistle and say, right, can you find...?

So, the guys have to spool through the tapes and they'll say,

when was it? I'll say, Well, it was between 15 minutes and 35,

which usually means it's 49.

That's a lot for them to be able to find this stuff.

But that's the way I've always done it.

Can we see that any stage, could we get that up?

Certain back players have always been in contact

so if the ball goes over the first one's head,

the second one is there to mop up and vice versa.

Is that why you and Lawro are so close together?

This is the closest we ever were,

I can tell you that much. Carry on.

I used to get between you!

In your dreams!

Lawro is a natural talker, so I think it was easier for him,

than for anybody else.

Shouldn't I be there and you be here?

I was always covering for you anyway.

Yeah, right!

COMMENTATOR: He's has got it away from Lawrenson.

Here's Crooks. Covered by Alan Hansen.

See, just like when we played.

They say, what was your relationship like as a player?

-I say, I just did what he told me to do.

-It's called delegation.

As somebody said to me, you don't want to be heading it long-term.

I said Lawro, you head it.

Then somebody said to me, you don't want to be tackling.

Lawro, you tackle. Then someone said to me, you don't want to be running.

I said, Lawro, you run.

Very good at doing nothing, but then take the accolades!

Being a pundit is the same.

You do all the work but also, I'll give you the crap games

and I'll take the good games. That's fair.

-That is called delegation.

-I've had 17 years of crap games.

Don't worry about that!

Do you member that day we did FA Cup Live?

-How did we ever get away with that?

-I'll never forget that.

That was one of the great broadcasts of all time.

A little more homework than usual has been acquired by Alan Hansen

and Mark Lawrenson.

Mm, yes, definitely.

Do you concur with that?

Very much so.

After your homework, what have you concluded?

After you, Al.

Forget that, let's talk about...

It was that bad a game that we decided to have a bit of a spoof

where I ignore him, then you ignore him

then he'd come back to me and then we'd talk.

Remember they used to have that dressing room door

that went straight on to the street?

-Are you going to ask any question?

-No, nothing at all.

I never heard the 60 seconds to go, 30 seconds to go,

or this is for real.

Is this for real?

This is obviously not for real.

Are we on the air?!

Yes, we're on-air.

Right, OK, then.

Tell the story.

The worst thing you can say, are we on-air?

That line back like that!

I heard Armstrong in the scanner saying, too right we're on-air!

I sort of jumped up!

How did we get away with that?

Before I became a pundit, I didn't like any pundits.

I always thought they never knew what they were talking about.

-Fowler was in the best position.

-Jimmy, be quiet!

EXPLOSION

Jimmy, I thought I'm going to like him within five minutes.

In five minutes, I loved him.

Also, Collymore could break through the Spurs' defence.

Stop recording!

You won't get it better than that!

109 times?

The modern-day ones - Al has all the criteria.

Single minded, he knows the game inside out, a top-class player.

This is an old man's tackle.

That is just an old man trying to get back.

It is late and it is vicious

but apart from that, it was perfectly fair.

I always say to him, I finished his career, because I remember

running past him at Anfield when I was a young whippersnapper

at Southampton.

I told him it was time to pack in when I ran past him

because I wasn't the quickest.

You get into it and find, this is harder than I thought it was,

and then you become really good at it and that's what Al's done,

he's become really good at it.

He's normally just being nice,

I don't know what he'll say behind closed doors to his mates.

How can you complain when the ball ends up in the back of the net?

You stick to defence.

There's lots of good ones coming through.

Obviously Gary Neville has done extremely well at Sky.

I've always liked Jamie.

You could never do that, you're the problem all England players have,

coming inside, coming inside.

Graeme Souness. When I say he's coming through,

he's excellent as well.

There's a mixture.

There's one famous line, well,

many famous lines that you have uttered over the years,

but there's one in particular that always stands out, of course.

The opening day of the season, Manchester United, Aston Villa.

COMMENTATOR: Leicester have it here, Taylor scores!

Draper.

It's 2-0!

We've played just over 35 minutes.

It's in danger of becoming a real rout and already it's a scoreline

which asks serious questions of Manchester United.

-I blame you for that because you were on that night.

-I was on that night.

You said to me, when Man United had been beaten by Aston Villa,

-a very similar line.

-Going to blame me for it?

We had this thing with Bob Paisley who said to me,

experience was everything.

I thought, well, that's right, but I'll change it a bit.

I will never forget that moment.

He almost ruined my life that night, watching Match of the Day.

We'd just been beaten at Aston Villa and I came home

and watched it on the TV with my mum and dad.

Obviously, such a well-respected pundit,

when he says something, the country listens.

United were scarcely recognisable from the team we've known

over the last couple of seasons. What's going on, do you feel?

I think they've got problems,

I wouldn't say they've got major problems.

Obviously, three players have departed.

The trick is always, buy when you're strong. So he needs to buy players.

You can't win anything with kids.

When Sir Alex made that call to replace Kanchelskis,

Hughes and Ince, with the kids, we all thought he had lost the plot.

You just think, will it go right, will it be OK?

You have two believe in your ability as young players,

but we were going into the unknown, really, as a group.

COMMENTATOR: Giggs shoots, oh, that has settled it!

That was kind of a motivational theme throughout the season.

From that day onwards, we improved and went on to prove him wrong.

COMMENTATOR: Manchester United win the FA Carling Premiership!

I lied to those four or five kids.

With five kids, you'll never win anything, and he's right.

I would defend him on that comment, really.

We didn't win the league with kids.

We had Roy Keane, Bruce, Cantona,

Schmeichel were the critical people in that team.

Towards the end of the season when we needed carrying over the line,

it was the experienced players that really helped us

and delivered for us.

Since then, it is something we always joke about now

but at the time, he was, probably right in what he was saying.

To this day, I stand by that line.

How many times in your life have you seen a manager

pick experience before youth? It happens all the time.

The kids became superstars

but the superstars in that team were the Schmeichels and the Cantonas.

-You're still wriggling out of it?

-It was a line that made me.

I was going to say, do you think that line was good for you

-or bad for you?

-It was great for me.

Fantastic, everybody recognises the line.

You go to Euston or Heathrow and they will be shouting behind poles,

and also trying to do the accent. Nobody can do the accent.

-GARY LINEKER AS ALAN HANSEN:

-That is absolutely diabolical defending.

-AS ALAN HANSEN:

-Terrible defending, terrible defending.

They're all useless at doing the accent.

I've heard some people do you quite well.

Oh, hello, pal.

The defence was terrible.

It's like... MUMBLING

You cannot defend like that,

you've got to play higher up the field.

The lines were all over the place, absolutely woeful.

Absolutely shocking defending!

HE MUMBLES

Goal! Great goal!

That's rubbish actually, isn't it?

There's so many of your sayings

I've heard so many times over the years.

I have lots of them.

His passion, his precision!

-Effort, attitude and commitment is Kenny's.

-Time and time again.

Indecision is final, is a good one I came up with.

-I thought of that myself.

-Not a great combination.

It's not a great combination!

Obviously the shocking, unbelievable, terrible defending.

When was the last time I said diabolical on television?

I will bet it's about six years ago.

Also, the decision against them was diabolical,

never a penalty in a million years.

The other thing people are interested in

and I have looked at it for 20 years, the scar on the forehead.

-Why is that there?

-I was playing volleyball.

We were playing in a youth club in Bridge of Allan.

I missed the bus, I see an opening and I think it's a door.

He went through the glass window.

The sun was shining and he never saw it, he went right through it.

I am lying there, I don't know I've hit it,

I don't know the blood's coming out like that, I don't know you can die.

The first person I see is my brother. who says...

Brain of Britain!

-That's a fair comment.

-Three people had hit it that day.

I was the only person that had gone through it.

We sued the sports centre.

It went to the court case

and Alan in his wisdom the day before the court case

because he had had his hair down the day before it

he had his hair swept back, so the judge said,

it doesn't seem to bother you too much, this scar,

because you've got your hair swept back.

So he got a few bob, he didn't get as much as he should have.

Brain of Britain!

Maybe not, but give him a break. The brain of punditry.

For 22 years, the king of the pundits.

So, that's it from Match of the Day.

-A definite decision?

-Absolutely. 22 years.

Why now? You're still young.

I think I've had a great time.

I went at the very top of Liverpool, the last game I ever played

was when we won the title in 1990.

I have had a great season on Match of the Day.

-I know I'm not going to miss it.

-You don't think you'll miss it?

The minute I walked out the door at Liverpool, I never missed it at all.

I know the minute I walk out this door, I'm not going to miss it.

I think he's been a star of the show, don't you?

He's a very nice man, a good man and I'm sure all of us wish him

a happy retirement.

You almost forget that he was a player and how good he was

and how important he has been in television in Match of the Day.

He will be missed because he's very good at his job,

very well respected and rightly so.

You cannot have been in it for that amount of time

if you're not good at it.

He's an iconic figure at the BBC and he's one that every pundit

getting into the game aspires to be like.

22 years, on an iconic programme.

With the best people, working for the best organisation.

You can't get much better than that.

I feel really sorry that he is retiring.

I think he was great, but if that is his decision, I wish him the best.

He'll be remembered for his voice

and that shrewd observation of football and also for his opinions,

because they were hard and firm and he never bottled it.

His career at Liverpool was of course incredible,

so he will be missed but I am sure he will be at Anfield more

and I will be able to speak to him that bit more.

I had better get the glasses off!

Alan's professional career has been amazing.

To be able to say he's my brother is wonderful.

One minute to transmission, one minute!

I don't think he will miss working on a Saturday,

but he will miss the team that he works with.

He's loved working on Match of the Day for so many years.

Good evening, the final day of a magnificent Barclays Premier League

season began with two teams in contention for the title.

Manchester City were favourites but despite their collapse

at Crystal Palace, Liverpool still dared to dream.

I have certainly enjoyed watching him as a player.

I have loved watching him as a pundit

and he will certainly be missed.

It's your last show, Mr Alan Hansen.

-Very sad.

-22 years. We will miss you.

Very few players in the history of the game achieved more than him

at home and abroad, so he always carried that authority.

Difficult to replace, that.

The best ever moment I've had on Match of the Day

was a couple of minutes ago

when you struggled to find your glasses to read the league tables.

That is what's changed!

There's a saying that you have your best games when you don't play.

By that, some of that Alan Hansen, when he's not on there,

he will be missed so much

and people will look back and go, we missed that.

Thanks, Alan.

APPLAUSE

Thank you, everybody.

-It's emotional.

-Yes, it is, it's emotional.

He's a wee boy from Sauchie that made good.

But at the end of the day, he's still a wee boy from Sauchie.

This is the right time for me to go

and I've had the greatest time you could ever imagine.

We're going to miss you. I think you're the real class of '92.

There you are, look at that! Schmaltz at last from Lineker!