Ask an Arsenal fan today to list the club’s greatest players, and you’ll hear plenty of names from the glorious reigns of George Graham and Arsene Wenger. A generation earlier, one name stood above all others.
“I worshipped him because he was great, and I worshipped him because if you cut him, he would bleed Arsenal,” Nick Hornby eulogised in the seminal Fever Pitch. “There was a third thing, too – he was intelligent.”
Liam Brady’s contribution to Arsenal is lauded throughout one of football’s most iconic books, a compliment that the man himself took with humility. “It was an honour,” the 67-year-old tells FourFourTwo now. “Nick is a great writer, who has written other great books as well. Because of my inclusion in Fever Pitch, we’ve become friends.”
This month, Brady launches his own book. His autobiography, Born To Be A Footballer, retells a career that took him from Dublin to legendary status in north London, then on to Serie A glory with Juventus and spells at Sampdoria, Inter and West Ham, bagging 72 caps for the Republic of Ireland along the way – even a winner against Brazil.
Today, Brady is back on familiar turf in Highbury, meeting FFT at The Alwyne Castle pub to reminisce about it all. Over lunchtime bangers and mash, the man once nicknamed ‘Chippy’ tells us he’s ready to answer your questions…
You’re from a footballing family, with your great-uncle and older brother also winning caps for Ireland. How competitive was the Brady household growing up?
Brian Mullen, Galway
More supportive than competitive, I’d say. I was the youngest – the seventh child – and I came along quite a long time after Frank, the second-youngest in the family. With an eight-year gap, there wasn’t really any competition between us as a family. Ray and Pat were much older, by about 20 years – I never played with them other than the odd kickabout. But there was this awareness that all of my brothers had played professionally, and I wanted to play. [FFT: Was seven considered a large family back then?] Not by the standards of the day. Not every house had a television, which was the only acceptable birth control under the watchful eye of the Catholic Church.
How did a born-and-raised Dublin boy end up joining Arsenal? Were there other clubs interested, too?
Mark Lavery, Bray
Manchester United had the pick of the best young players in Ireland at the time, and most kids were fans due to the aftermath of the Munich disaster and the legendary players they had. Their Dublin scout, Billy Behan, got in touch with my parents when I was 12 – talks of a trip over to
