ITALIA ‘90 hero Andy Townsend has pledged to raise a glass to late gaffer Jack Charlton at a stage show to honour their ground-breaking World Cup campaign.
Players including Townsend, Niall Quinn and Ray Houghton will come together to mark 35 years since Ireland, led by boss Big Jack, first qualified for the World Cup.
Two shows are being put on at the RDS in Dublin on March 14 and the Cork Opera House on March 16.
And speaking to the Irish Sun ahead of the special reunion, Townsend insisted Charlton will be with his history-making players “in spirit”.
Proud Andy – who played in all five of Ireland’s matches at Italia ‘90 as the Boys in Green reached the quarter-final in the country’s strongest ever campaign – told us: “Big Jack is going to figure prominently over that weekend with us all.
“He will no doubt be the topic of conversation, and we will have a few laughs about some of the things he used to say and some of the meetings we used to have before games, after games, on the bus.
“He was amazing. He was very unique.
“And so, whilst he’s not going to be with us, he’ll be with us in spirit, that’s for sure.
“He really will, because we’ll all be speaking about him a lot.”
Ace midfielder Townsend hailed the inspirational leadership of Big Jack during Irish soccer’s golden period as he guided the country to Euro ‘88, Italia ‘90 and USA ‘94.
Despite his no-nonsense nature, Andy recalled how Guinness-lover Charlton used to let his players have a couple of pints to unwind.
Big Jack even famously let the Boys In Green drink the Black Stuff two days before their World Cup quarter-final against Italy in 1990.
Speaking to the Irish Sun last night, Townsend told how the pints did wonders for team bonding – but revealed wily Big Jack regularly dodged paying the booze bill.
DODGING BOOZE BILLS
Andy told us: “He used to let us have a drink, he used to occasionally.
“Not before a match, but if we’d been training the day, maybe a couple of days before a game, we’d might drive past the pub and we’d pull over and we’d all get off the bus after training and go in and just have one quick pint of Guinness before we headed back to the hotel.
“And he was famous for producing a cheque book back in the day, out of his pocket.
“And of course, the bartender would go, ‘no, no, no, I don’t want the cheque, these are all on me’.
“And so we used to, we always used to laugh because he’s done it again. Do you know what I mean? He’s managed to get another round of drinks and then he’s cost himself bugger all. He did that a few times.”
‘TRULY SPECIAL’
Townsend enjoyed a top-level club career, lining out for Chelsea, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough in the Premier League.
But the former player turned pundit described his journey with the international team to the 1990 World Cup in Italy as “truly special”.
He told us: “Italia ‘90 was so special for a number of reasons.
“Obviously for the country, the first time going to the World Cup just made it so special all round.
“I think not just the players and Big Jack and all of us guys were excited by it. The whole country was gripped by it, of course, and it just felt special.
“I know that we had Euro ’88, but it just felt like there was something quite serious happening with the team and everyone in the country at the time of Italia ‘90.
“It was just such a wonderful period to actually be part of it. And the tournament itself was fantastic.
“I speak to a lot of people over the years, and whilst there have been tournaments where I think the football has probably been better, there was something about Italia ‘90, for everybody that made it a very memorable one and such a special one.
“And certainly for us, it was amazing.”
‘MAGICAL MEMORIES’
Recounting the “magical memories” of Italia ‘90, Townsend says he puts the tournament at the top of his career highlights.
He declared: “It’s right up there.
“It is not often you get the chance to play in World Cups, and to get to the last eight was a great achievement for us.
“At the first time of asking, so I think that as a memory and as a tournament, it was amazing and very special. It really was.
“It was just a pleasure to be part of it.
“And, you know, there was a little period there where we just after 1990 as well, we were a very, very useful team.
“We rarely got beat. We were very difficult to play against.
“We built a reputation of being the sort of team everyone wanted to avoid in a nice way.
“And that’s when you know you’re doing something right when you get that.”
Townsend is part of the panel reuniting for Italia ‘90: An Evening With The Greatest Football Team.
‘CAN’T WAIT’ FOR REUNION
Players will recall Kevin Sheedy’s strike against England, the Romania penalty shootout win, and quarter-final exit to hosts, Italy.
Proceeds from the two shows will go to fund Cork City FC’s Academy.
Ahead of the shows in Dublin and Cork, Andy says he “can’t wait” for Jackie’s troops to be reunited.
He told us: “We haven’t met as a group, really, for a long time.
“We had a little reunion a few years ago when Big Jack was still with us.
“Most of the guys were there that time, but we haven’t had as many of the players all under one roof, really, since probably back in the day.
“So it will be really lovely to see everyone. I haven’t seen them all in a long time. We haven’t all been together where we can have a chat and have a beer and just chat about some old times.
“We haven’t had that for a very long time.
“And no better time for it than over the St Patrick’s Day period.
“It’s over that weekend, so that will make it perhaps even more, just a little bit more special. I’m really, really looking forward to it.”
