Liam Brady reflects on career where he was sacked after winning Juventus title
Liam Brady played in Italy when Serie A was regarded as the best league in the world.
But now the ex-Arsenal and Juventus midfield great, believes Italian football “is a long way” from what it was back in the 1980s. Italy play at Wembley on Tuesday night with a team very much in transition and many of their players now play in a league that is a far cry from the days when all the big stars went to Serie A.
Brady, 67, said: “The Premier League can get anyone they want - until the Saudis came into the equation. That’s the only opposition to the Premier League. Serie A now is a long way from what it was back then. When I went, you could only have one foreign player, it became two after two years and they gradually became the powerhouse of European football.
“Maradona came to Italian football and is the best player I’ve ever played against and have ever seen. Then you had Zico Platini, Socrates, Junior, Boniek. The Italian clubs were signing the best in the world as well as having some of the best players anyway.
“Where would you rank them now? Maybe fourth, I would say. Mind you, they got a team in the final of the Champions League last year with Inter Milan. It’s on the up but compared to when I left in 1986/87, where it was No. 1, it is probably fourth now but it’s on the up.”
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Brady left Arsenal for Juventus in 1980 and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder went as arguably the most gifted player in English football at the time.
He had two years at Juventus then went to Sampdoria, Inter Milan and Ascoli but embraced the Italian culture and his career was as much about playing in Serie A as it was about being an Arsenal legend who finished his career at West Ham.
“I really wanted to go. I’d been learning German on a lingua phone,” said Brady. “My agent Dennis Roach had told me that Bayern Munich were going to sign me. But that didn’t happen and I approached Italy like an adventure. I’d just got married and really enjoyed the experience.
“Don’t get me entirely wrong, there were financial considerations, if Arsenal had paid me what I was going to get in Italy, then I might not have had the bottle to go. In the '60s, Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law, John Charles and all the top players gravitated towards Italy.
Born to Be a Footballer by Liam Brady is out now
Liam Brady in training with Juventus (Mirrorpix)“I started it off again in the 80s because Joe Jordan went, followed by Ray Wilkins, Mark Hateley, Graeme Souness and Trevor Francis. The Italian league was like the Premier League is now.”
It ended badly at Juventus. Brady arrived at a time when they only allowed one foreign player per team. That was expanded to two in 1982 but Brady was still ousted because they signed ex-France star Michel Platini and Poland’s Zbigniew Boniek.
Brady was told he was surplus to requirements before the end of the season and was so “p***ed off” that he asked then-Juve manager Giovanni Trapattoni to be taken off penalty duty.
“It all came down to the final game, we needed to win and then we got a penalty in the final game but the regular penalty taker had been substituted,” recalled Brady. “You don’t get many volunteers in Italy! Trapattoni looked at me and I said: ‘OK, then.’
“It was a good way to say goodbye because I scored and I’m down in history as the guy who got sacked and took the penalty to win the title.”
Brady went through the card in football. His new book Born to Be a Footballer goes through it all. It is pure football and an excellent read. First he was a player, then manager, TV pundit and back to Arsenal as head of youth development.
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He added: “What was the best? It was all the best. I’m 67 now, got my first professional contract when I was 17, I’ve been earning a living from football for 50 years.
“How lucky am I? Management wasn’t great for me and, after the taste of it for Celtic and Brighton, I wasn’t prepared to stay on the merry-go-round.
“Then I got the head of youth development at Arsenal which was a beautiful job. It began to bear fruit after a few years. What a time to be at the club with Arsene Wenger and all the success he brought.”
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Arsenal legend Liam Brady is still remembered as scoring one of the all-time great goals. His curling shot in Arsenal’s 5-0 win at Tottenham on December 23, 1978, is still replayed regularly to John Motson’s immortal piece of commentary as the late BBC great screams: “Look at that, just look at that!”
Brady recalls: “There wasn’t much between the teams in the league. I think we were hovering around sixth or seventh, the same for them and they had a good team with Glenn Hoddle, Stevie Perryman and so on. But on the day it all fell for us.
“It was as good a team performance that I was involved in with Arsenal and being against Tottenham made it an extra special ingredient. The goal? It was the icing on the cake of a great team performance. It was one of the best goals I’ve ever scored.
“I used to practice and practice - smashing balls against the wall of my local community centre - and hour after hour of doing that paid off at White Hart Lane in front of 50,000 people. I got on well with Motty. He was a real football nutcase. He just says what he says and the goal is remembered for his commentary as well.”
* Born to Be a Footballer by Liam Brady is out now
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