Paul Walsh

Paul Walsh
Born: Plumstead, October 1, 1962.

Paul Walsh was an extravagantly gifted forward whose career never quite achieved the heights it might reasonably have been expected to. Debilitating injury problems certainly did not help but it is also likely that Walsh, at times, did not exactly help himself.

Walsh started his career as an apprentice with Charlton Athletic and he was eased carefully into first team action at the Valley. He made his debut as a substitute for Dick Tydeman in a second division game against Shrewsbury Town early in the 1979-80 season and was picked to start the next game at Watford.

He would only appear sporadically that season, however, as the Addicks suffered relegation to the third division. This was the signal for Paul Walsh to make a first team place his own.

The quick, skillful youngster formed a formidable spearhead alongside the experienced Derek Hales and Martin Robinson. Walsh notched a hat trick in a 5-0 drubbing of Brentford in the League Cup before scoring his first league goal in a victory over Walsall at the Valley.

An exciting season saw Charlton reach the 5th round of the FA Cup before going down 2-0 at Ipswich Town as well as clinching the third promotion berth to return to the second division.

Paul Walsh had certainly shown potential and the following season he confirmed it. Walsh hit thirteen goals as Charlton attained the respectability of mid table. Though still a teenager Walsh had shown himself to be a class act. He was blessed with electric pace off the mark but his touch was good and he showed plenty of imagination in creating chances for others. Despite not looking an out and out goalscorer he had found the net consistently and was capable of scoring out of nothing.

Luton Town had won promotion to the first division that season and decided that the exciting youngster was the man to help them bridge the gap as they moved up into the top flight. They paid Charlton £400,000 to take Walsh to Kenilworth Road, it was an inspired signing.

Although Luton struggled all season against relegation, Paul Walsh was excellent and, despite a porous defence, they were generally able to pose a threat going forward.

Not surprisingly Walsh was not the most consistent performer in the first division but on his good days he looked one of the best. His silken style was at home in Division One. The graceful dribbling, clever passing and occasionally thunderous shooting made him one of the most exciting players to watch and his match winning ability was invaluable to a struggling side.

Luton survived by the skin of their teeth after winning 1-0 at Manchester City on the final day of the season and although Walsh was kept quiet in that game he had contributed hugely to the clubs' cause over the course of the season.

With England Youth and Under 21 caps already to his name Walsh was already being talked about in terms of the full England squad. After just one season with them in the top flight Paul Walsh already looked destined for bigger and better things than Luton Town. Walsh did not have long to wait for his call up to the England squad. At the end of this season England were visiting Australia to play three games in a week and Walsh was selected in a highly experimental squad.

The three games became exercises in attrition with Australia strong, well organised and extremely physical. Walsh won his first cap when replacing Luther Blissett in the first game which ended in a goalless draw. In the second game he started up front with Trevor Francis and scored in a 1-0 win before playing most of the third game which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Nobody really emerged with much credit from these games but Walsh had not harmed his reputation. His partnership with Francis in the second game had, at least, provided just about the only quality of the entire series.

Paul Walsh continued to impress at Luton the following season and his cheeky skills were allowed greater freedom as the team, though still in the lower reaches, remained clear of the relegation battle. His undoubted ability was recognised by his fellow professionals who voted him the Young Player of the Year for 1984. Walsh also won two further England caps. He was on the threshold of great things but while he did manage to make one huge stride forward his impetuosity denied him another wonderful opportunity.

His performances had captured the attention of Liverpool and before the season was over Paul Walsh had completed a £750,000 move to Anfield. Although he signed too late to actually play for them he was able to join the party that travelled to Rome to capture the European Cup.

At the same time he managed to scupper his own international chances, however. He had been selected alongside his Luton teammate Brian Stein to lead the England attack for a friendly in France. England lost 2-0 with barely a whimper, although Walsh did show glimpses of class.

After figuring in an even more abject performance in Wales when England went down to a 1-0 defeat, Walsh passed judgement on the England set up and succeeded in alienating the manager Bobby Robson.

When England set out for their summer tour of South America, therefore, Walsh did not travel with them, even though Robson's options up front had been decimated by injuries and withdrawals. England would win famously in Brazil with Mark Hateley appearing from nowhere to claim a squad place. Pretty soon players like Kerry Dixon, Gary Lineker and Peter Beardsley had forced their way into the reckoning as well. Paul Walsh would never be capped again. It is possible that injuries also contributed to the fact that he was never recalled.

Walsh was actually a definite success at Anfield but injuries denied him the chance to ever really nail down a first team place. Walsh wasted no time in introducing himself to the Kop. He had scored within twenty seconds of his debut against West Ham.

His rapport with the fans was instant. Paul Walsh always had a touch of flambuoyance in his game which the crowd loved. There needed to be substance along with the show, however, to convince spectators accustomed to the best, and Walsh provided it.

With another glorious season in prospect for the club everything suddenly evaporated into nothing as the season came to a close. Liverpool were in the unaccustomed position of watching Everton disappear over the horizon in the league but had the FA Cup and European Cup to fall back on.

Walsh had made his mark in Europe when scoring twice in a 4-1 second leg victory over Austria Vienna at Anfield and did his status with the fans no harm by bundling home a last minute equaliser against Manchester United in the FA Cup semi final.

Liverpool then lost the replay to United despite giving an improved performance and the European Cup dream turned into a grotesque nightmare as fans died at the stadium during violence before the final against Juventus had even started.

Paul Walsh was one of those going through the motions as the Italians eventually won the game 1-0.

It was the following season, 1985-86, that things really started going wrong for Walsh, however. Having won a place in the team in October, after scoring twice in a 3-2 win against Luton, Walsh hit the finest form of his career.

In the next fourteen league games Walsh scored ten goals, many of them of outstanding quality, and his all round game looked to have really matured. His pace, movement and control were of the highest order and his finishing, during this spell, was just as good.

A knee injury sustained at the beginning of February ended his season, however, and Walsh had to sit and watch as the Reds marched to the league and FA Cup double.

Paul Walsh would never recreate this consistency of performance and injuries continued to blight his progress. He made the starting line up for the 1987 League Cup final but was replaced by Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool slipped to a 2-1 defeat against Arsenal.

John Aldridge had already joined to offer a threat to his position and the following season the signing of Peter Beardsley and John Barnes further damaged his prospects. There was a suggestion that Walsh might find a place in the side on the right hand side but he had not yet lost his impetuosity and declined this option. Ray Houghton was happy to oblige, however, and a fantastic new side stormed to the league title as Walsh returned south to join Tottenham for £500,000.

As at Liverpool, Walsh found injuries a problem at White Hart Lane and he never really established himself as an automatic choice. Despite finding himself increasingly used as a substitute there is no doubt that he helped Clive Allen and Gary Lineker as they plundered with abandon for the Spurs.

There was little sense of achievement for Paul Walsh in collecting an FA Cup winners medal in 1991 after replacing Vinny Samways for the last ten minutes against Nottingham Forest.

When Paul Walsh had left Liverpool he was only 25 and should have been entering his prime. When he left Spurs to join Portsmouth in the first division (in the year the Premier League started) he was almost 30 and he looked a spent force. There is no doubt that injuries played a huge part in this decline but there remained a suspicion that Walsh had somehow lost his way.

It almost seemed unfair that having quitted the top flight Walsh would now remain virtually injury free. He did not seem to reflect on the vagaries of fate as he proceded to set Fratton Park alight, however. His goals were sporadic but his influence was all consuming. Quite simply he was too good for the division.

The Portsmouth faithful were treated to a festival of football as the team fought a titanic struggle for automatic promotion with West Ham behind the clear leaders Newcastle United. Walsh was the brains behind the Pompey attack, finding space at will and threading balls through to his fellow forwards. As ever his touch remained immaculate.

In the end Portsmouth would be disappointed. They missed out on promotion to the Hammers by the margin of one goal after finishing level on points and then suffered a controversial defeat to Leicester City in the play offs. There was almost a grim inevitability that Walsh would be unavailable as Pompey sought to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the second leg at Fratton Park.

A measure of Walsh's contribution to Portsmouth's cause that season is provided by the fact that the fans voted him the clubs' Player of the Year even though Guy Whittingham plundered a club record 42 league goals during the campaign.

The following season Portsmouth struggled and in March Walsh moved on again, returning to the top flight to join Manchester City's grim relegation battle in the Premiersip. Walsh joined forces with another newcomer, Uwe Rosler, and the pair were instrumental in keeping City up.

City then made a fantastic start to the 1994-95 season with Paul Walsh in particularly fine form. He struck nine goals in the opening thirteen games as the club secured a place at the top end of the table. A 5-0 drubbing at Old Trafford saw them falter badly, however, and the season ended with the club in another precarious position, albeit safe.

Early in the 1995-96 season City made the heinous mistake of sending Walsh back to Portsmouth while bringing Gerry Creaney to Maine Road, as well as handing over a wadge of cash.

Yet again Walsh found himself involved in a desperate fight for survival, a battle which Portsmouth just about won. In the process, however, Walsh sustained another knee injury and approaching the age of 34 he was forced to retire.

It is easy to look back at the career of Paul Walsh and feel he should have achieved far more than he actually did. There was certainly no doubting his talent. The injury problems which beset him must also be taken into account as a mitigating factor.

It is impossible not to feel that had Paul Walsh naturally possessed the maturity which marked the latter stages of his career then he might have really made a name for himself, perhaps at the very highest level. Playing in a succession of struggling sides towards the end of his career Walsh won the admiration of the fans not just for his skill but for his endeavour and application.

As an up and coming youngster, however, blessed with fantastic ability this had not always been the case. Even at a club like Liverpool, just about the strongest side in the world at the time, Walsh could spend the occasional afternoon standing on the half way line with his hands hidden inside his sleeves.

At least that is my memory of an early televised game on the plastic pitch at Luton on a freezing cold day.

Paul Walsh looks like being one of the last examples of the footballing mavericks who used to be a common feature of the English game. Talented, entertaining, unpredictable but always watchable and likely to do something out of the ordinary.

Walsh was a player who gave pleasure wherever he went and was widely popular with fans up and down the country. As the saying goes the boys wanted to be him and the girls wanted to be with him. Proof positive was the "Paul Walsh will you marry me?" banner which followed him around during his days with Tottenham.