Des Walker
Born Hackney, November 26, 1965.
Generally all football supporters favour the attacking members of their team when looking for their heroes and popular terrace chants mainly honour the players who put the ball in the net most often or those who show the most individual flair.
The Nottingham Forest fans of the late 1980’s and early 90’s were different, however, and the two refrains most likely to be heard ringing around the City Ground were both in honour of defenders.
There was the simple “Psycho! Psycho!” that greeted every meaty challenge Stuart Pearce ever put in but the real favourite, the one that made the Forest faithful swell out with pride in the belief that they were hailing a player superior to anyone that could be put up against them, was the terrace anthem in eulogy of Des Walker.
“You’ll never beat Des Walker!”
It was a Forest staple and for a fair time it was basically true.
Walker arrived at the City Ground as an apprentice having been rejected by Tottenham, the team he supported. The young defender was no prodigy but made steady progress at the club outside of the first team for a couple of years before getting his first start in March 1994 as a replacement for the injured Viv Anderson at right back against Everton.
The youngster was unable to establish himself in the senior side at this time, however, and made only a handful of appearances the following season. Des Walker was not big or strong enough to justify selection at centre half and although he had the pace and tackling ability to be an effective right back his quality on the ball was not sufficient to suit Brian Clough’s ideas of what a full back should offer his side.
Blocking his path at this stage was Chris Fairclough, another promising defender who had come through the ranks and, being eighteen months older, was better equipped to meet the physical challenge of first division football.
Fairclough suffered a long term injury before the 1985-86 season, however, and Clough felt the time was right for Walker to stake his claim. From that moment on Walker became a fixture in the Forest back four and was pretty soon its’ cornerstone.
From the first Des Walker’s greatest asset was his pace. He wasn’t just quick he was electric. His powers of recovery, if beaten, were exceptional and he was also able to cover right across the back line to bale out colleagues in distress.
Playing alongside the gifted but almost static Johnny Metgod this was a priceless gift to Forest.
Walker looked an easy target for bully boy centre forwards. He was not the tallest and lithe rather than powerful and he would have looked agreeably skinny to opposing target men. Somehow he seemed able to overcome this potential weakness without much fuss.
His pace and natural spring allowed him to intercept many crosses and high balls before they reached their target and if jumping with his man he had a knack of coming in from the side of his man to head clear rather than engage in a bodily tussle.
However he managed to subdue these bigger, apparently stronger, opponents it soon became clear that he was a defender to be relied on completely.
Fairclough returned but had to fight for the right to play alongside Walker and would soon move on to Tottenham.
Clough was strengthening his side in all areas with his son Nigel emerging as a clever scheming centre forward, Steve Hodge and Neil Webb a formidable midfield partnership and Stuart Pearce a fearsomely adventurous left back.
The real jewel in this burgeoning Forest side was Des Walker, however. His good reading of the game and express pace allowed the rest of the side to concentrate on playing attractive attacking football.
In some respects you could say he was too good. Maybe Clough did not realise how much he needed another defensive pillar simply because Walker was so consistently magnificent.
When Clough had conquered England and Europe with his earlier Forest team he had immediately weighed up its’ potential and bolstered this with heavyweight signings Peter Shilton, Archie Gemmill and Kenny Burns.
Now he seemed content to leave everything to Walker and while his team became probably the best to watch and enjoyed some success the acquisition of a top class keeper or centre half to complement his thoroughbred defender would surely have seen this side achieve more.
Following Metgod and Fairclough as Walker’s defensive partners were Colin Foster, Steve Chettle and Terry Wilson. These weren’t bad players but you could have rolled them all together and you wouldn’t have had a Kenny Burns.
Neither were Hans Segers, Steve Sutton or Mark Crossley worthy of comparison with Shilton.
Forest never finished outside the top ten in Division One during Des Walker’s first spell at the club and they finished 3rd in both 1988 and 1989. Not surprisingly it was in the cups that this flamboyant side fared best, however.
In 1988 Forest reached the FA Cup semi finals only to lose narrowly to Liverpool but a year later they were challenging in three knockout competitions.
The League Cup brought Walker his first silverware as Luton Town were beaten 3-1 at Wembley and the defender was instrumental as Forest made it back to the FA Cup semi finals. The team did not concede a goal in defeating Ipswich, Leeds, Watford and Manchester United.
Forest were pitted against Liverpool in a mouth watering semi final but what should have been a great occasion turned horrendously sour as the Hillsborough tragedy unfolded and left the game abandoned after just six minutes.
There seemed little prospect of Forest prevailing after the events of that day and so it proved, Liverpool putting them out for the second year in a row when the game went ahead at Old Trafford.
There was some consolation as the club picked up the Simod Cup after a thrilling 4-3 extra time victory over Everton at Wembley.
Forest retained the League Cup the following year after a 1-0 win over Oldham Athletic but it was the FA Cup that the club, the supporters and, most of all, Brian Clough wanted and in 1991 everything seemed set fair for Forest to triumph.
Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Southampton, Norwich City and West Ham United were knocked out on the way to a Wembley meeting with Tottenham.
When Paul Gascoigne managed to cripple himself in the early stages with two of the worst fouls ever seen at the famous old stadium and Pearce punished the second one by driving Forest into the lead the omens looked good for a Forest victory.
Spurs, allowed to replace Gascoigne who should certainly have been sent off, were able to fight back however and took the game into extra time where the destiny of the trophy was decided by a Des Walker own goal.
Unbelievably, after six seasons of unremitting excellence, Walker chose the very worst moment possible to head into his own net and gift Spurs, his boyhood favourites, the cup.
Football can indeed be a cruel and unfair game.
Forest were back at Wembley the following season on two occasions, losing the League Cup final to Manchester United by a single goal and winning the Zenith Data Cup with a 3-2 victory over Southampton.
Neither Forest, Clough or Walker would make it to another FA Cup final, however.
Des Walker’s imperious form for Forest had obviously brought him to the attention of the England manager Bobby Robson.
He was recognised at under 21 level but overlooked at full level with Tony Adams and Mark Wright the preferred partners for the stalwart Terry Butcher.
His way into the set up was established during the 1988 European Championships. England travelled to Germany for the finals minus the injured Butcher with Adams, Wright and Everton’s Dave Watson getting the nod ahead of the uncapped Walker.
England lost all three games but it was the 3-1 defeat to Holland in which Marco Van Basten scored a hat trick and destroyed the England defence that really opened the door for the fleet of foot Walker.
He would make his England debut a few months after these finals when coming on as a sub for Adams against Denmark and received his second cap in the same way in the next game, a World Cup qualifier against Sweden.
The next game, a friendly against Greece, saw Des Walker make his first start for his country and he would remain Butcher’s partner for the next two years. It is possible that Walker enabled Butcher to prolong his international career to the 1990 World Cup finals but the veteran also helped the newcomer find his feet at the top level.
Butcher’s bulldog spirit, power in the air and all round bravery (stupidity) blended well with Walker’s pace and surgically precise tackling.
The pair of them certainly did as much as anyone to carry a limping England to those finals in Italy. Qualification was secured with two gruelling goalless draws in Sweden and Poland with the pair of them, along with Peter Shilton, outstanding in both games.
Butcher famously played on with blood gushing from a huge head wound in Sweden, continuing to throw his skull at anything that moved while Walker confirmed his growing stature with a magnificent display.
Perhaps Des Walker did have that fatal flaw in his make up, however. Having given an impeccable display under immense pressure he then almost blew everything with an inexplicable back pass in the last couple of minutes that succeeded only in putting a Swedish attacker through on goal.
Fortunately Shilton came to the rescue and England made it through to the finals.
Confidence in the teams’ chances of doing anything in those finals was at perhaps an all time low but Bobby Robson’s squad proved all the doubters wrong with a magnificent tournament that came within inches of ending in the ultimate triumph.
The tournament is certainly mainly remembered, from an English perspective, as Gazza’s crowning glory but there was nobody was more crucial to England’s efforts than Des Walker. There was certainly no better defender at the event.
England started with a dour draw with the Republic of Ireland which drew scorn from the rest of the world and left the critics writing their obituaries.
From here on, however, England showed that they could play football with anyone on earth while the rest of the world found out that it was impossible to play anything resembling football against the Irish.
Next up was another meeting with Holland and Marco Van Basten. Everyone was keenly aware of the hat trick he had banged past us two years earlier but as Gascoigne led the way at one end with an inspired display Des Walker simply got hold of Van Basten and dumped him as deep into his pocket as any international forward has ever been stuffed before or since.
The scourge of defences worldwide simply could not get a kick. He couldn’t trick Walker, he couldn’t bully him and he certainly couldn’t outpace him. I for one don’t think the Dutchman ever truly got over it.
On and on England went with Walker, carrying a severe knock from a ridiculous barge into the advertising hoardings from John Aldridge in the first game, magnificent in a newly designed three man defence alongside Butcher and Wright.
There was a wobble against Cameroon in the quarter finals as the game simply deviated from any normal pattern as the Africans threw caution to the wind in search of a semi final place but it was England who progressed to meet the favourites, West Germany, in the last four.
Walker was once again a colossus as he subdued the main danger man Jurgen Klinsmann almost completely. Klinsmann, with the game into extra time, seemed to be through on one occasion only for Walker to move through the gears and execute a truly sublime recovery tackle. It is not often that defending is a thing of beauty but this was one of them.
Of course Walker could do nothing about the ridiculously fortunate German goal, deflected high over Shilton by Paul Parker, and he was never going to take a penalty unless really necessary so his and England’s World Cup adventure ended at the semi finals.
The ultimate test of a footballers’ greatness is the World Cup. It is a test too many of our supposedly/potentially great players have failed. Not so Des Walker.
Walker never played better than during that month in the summer of 1990 when it truly did appear that you never would beat Des Walker. There was no better defender in the tournament. There was no better defender in the world.
Such performances meant his continued presence at Nottingham Forest was more doubtful. In a time before Sky had made English football the wealthiest on earth it was the Italian giants who showed most interest.
Legend has it that Clough refused to do business with Juventus because of objections over dealing with a car salesman, albeit the owner of Fiat, but if this is true it only ended up costing Forest money as Walker eventually moved to Sampdoria in the summer of 1992 for a modest £1.5 million.
That summer also saw Des Walker involved in another major finals as England travelled to Sweden for the European Championships. Now under the control of Graham Taylor this was not such a happy experience.
Walker, alongside Martin Keown, helped ensure that a patched up back four kept clean sheets in the first two games with Denmark and France but this was only good enough for two draws.
Despite taking the lead against the hosts in the final game the England performance degenerated after half time and the side ended up in some disarray and losing 2-1 to seal an early exit.
I suppose, outside of Sheffield, that is the story of Des Walker. If he crops up in conversation or maybe a quiz question the image that springs to mind is Des in his Forest kit; magnificently lean, his hair shaved at the sides, his two front teeth just exposed above his bottom lip as he waits poised for another potential crisis to deal with. The look in his eye betrays an expectation that the crisis will present itself sooner rather than later yet a confidence that the matter will be resolved without too much fuss.
If this is not the image that comes to mind then it is Des in his England kit; the look is pretty much the same only there seems to be a more relaxed air to the confidence. Some players are more naturally suited to the international arena and up to this point it seemed Des Walker’s natural home.
Of course this is not the full story for Walker is only 27 at this point, surely his prime, he is the pillar of the England defence and about to head off to Italy to teach the supposed masters of the art how to really defend.
Somehow, however, everything seemed to go wrong from here on. The popular view as to why was the theory that niggling injuries had taken the edge off Walker’s electric pace. You could also point the finger at the two managers’ he now came to play for in place of Clough and Robson, you could argue that covering for lesser players was bound to take its’ toll eventually. You could even argue that a handful of mistakes were blown up out of all proportion.
You could actually argue that they weren’t really mistakes at all, just the consequence of being the last man in a malfunctioning side.
Des Walker was certainly not the success in Italy that had appeared such a formality. He lasted only one season at Sampdoria where he was used mainly at left back. You might think no manager ever would have been stupid enough to play him in that position but I’ll just whisper the words Sven, Goran and Eriksson to you and things do become a little clearer.
The most disturbing aspect of Walker’s sudden loss of form, from an English point of view, was his unusual fallibility in an England shirt.
England were lurching towards the abyss under the inadequate leadership of Graham Taylor (RIP) and embarked on a shabby, stumbling attempt to qualify for the 1994 World Cup finals.
England suffered an early setback when drawing their first group game at home to Norway one apiece. No blame could be attached to Des Walker or any other defenders for this one, some bloke called Rekdal slamming one in from 30 yards late on to salvage a point from a game England should already have put to bed.
England’s next crunch game came with the visit of Holland and this is were everything started to go pear shaped. England came flying out of the traps, were 2-0 up in no time and looking likely to inflict an embarrassing defeat on the Dutch.
The situation altered when Gascoigne was forced off the field with a broken cheekbone after a nasty elbow from Jan Wouters and Holland found a way back into the game. The Dutch pulled one goal back but it looked like England would hang on for victory until Marc Overmars suddenly burst clear of Walker with seconds remaining.
Walker had the opportunity to drag Overmars down outside the area but was not cynical enough at the vital moment. The winger made it to the box before going down and Holland had a penalty from which they equalised.
England could only draw their next game, in Poland, and Walker was more obviously at fault for the goal conceded.
This made the trip to Norway four days later absolutely crucial and Taylor reacted by going to three at the back, Gary Pallister coming in alongside Walker and his now regular partner Tony Adams.
The result was horrible in every respect. England lost 2-0 while giving one of their most inept displays ever. Lee Sharpe looked lost as the left wing back, Gazza could not get into the game wearing a Zorro face mask to protect his broken cheek and Carlton Palmer was suitably embarrassing.
Up front Les Ferdinand and Teddy Sheringham barely got a kick.
Des Walker was only a sub for the next game, a friendly with the USA which brought another woeful defeat, and was not selected when England met Holland in the crucial return which they lost so controversially.
His last appearance for England came in the final group game in San Marino where it was his former colleague Stuart Pearce who made the shocking error that gifted the minnows a first minute lead.
Taylor was quickly relieved of his duties and Terry Venables took over. The new man quickly showed that he had no faith in Walker and he was left with a tally of 59 caps.
This seems a shame for although Walker had suffered along with many others under the erratic management of Taylor there is no reason why he wouldn’t have rediscovered his best form under the more assured guidance of Venables.
He certainly resumed consistently excellent service at club level. Sheffield Wednesday paid £2.7 million to bring Walker back from Italy and for eight seasons he became for the Owls what he had been for Forest.
Perhaps not as quick but quick enough his reading of the game, always sound, had become honed and Walker was a giant for the Owls as he found himself in a team generally in decline.
When he joined the club Wednesday had been challenging for honours but the side had peaked and his time at Hillsborough was spent mainly in the lower half of the Premier League. The nearest the side came to achieving anything during his time there was in his first season when the Owls made it to the League Cup semi finals.
Walker was excellent in the 1st leg of their tie with Manchester United at Old Trafford in which Wednesday restricted United to a 1-0 victory but he was swamped in the 2nd as Alex Ferguson’s vibrant young team struck mercilessly to win 4-1 on the night.
In 1999-2000 Wednesday finally succumbed to the relegation that had been creeping up on them for several seasons and Walker’s final season with the club was the first he had spent outside the top flight in a long and distinguished career.
At the end of that season Wednesday released the player, partly because of his age, mainly because of his wages, and he spent some time with his old Forest teammate Nigel Clough, now manager of Burton Albion in the Unibond League.
In 2002, however, there was an emotional return to his spiritual home as Nottingham Forest brought Des Walker back to league football in the first division.
Ironically the veteran now got to play alongside perhaps his finest Forest defensive partner in the rough but ready shape of Michael Dawson. This pair excelled as Forest reached the play offs and the club looked set to reach the final and a shoot out with Wolves for a place in the Premier League when they took a two goal aggregate lead over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in the 2nd leg of their semi final.
The Blades came back to take the game to extra time, however, and then took the lead. It was then that Walker managed to head his second famous own goal in the clubs’ colours to put the tie beyond reach.
Walker became more of a bit part player the season after and made his final appearance in league football when coming on as a substitute in the opening game of the 2004-05 season at Wigan Athletic.
The club granted him a well earned testimonial at the end of that season when a Forest Legends XI took on an International XI although the night became infamous for Walker subsequently being arrested at his home and charged with being drunk and disorderly.
This would have shocked many but perhaps offered evidence in support of Roy Keane’s assertion in his autobiography that Walker was “a world class playboy”.
So Des Walker’s profile is almost finished and the only goals mentioned have been two own goals. Can this be right? Even Brian Labone managed two at the right end during his long career tidying up after everyone else. Surely Des managed one along the way.
Indeed he did. Just the one in 628 league games.
It came on New Years Day 1992 in a home game against Luton Town. Forest were trailing by the only goal, the game was entering injury time and thousands of fed up, hung over fans were making for the exits.
Des picked up a loose ball around the halfway line and suddenly surged forward. He carried the ball to the edge of the box and played a one two before unleashing a tremendous drive that arrowed into the top corner as though Bobby Charlton had hit it.
Off went Des on a manic run of celebration, you’ll never catch Des Walker, while the remaining fans went absolutely beserk. This was undoubtedly one to tell the grandchildren about while those listening in the streets outside would be kicking the cat for weeks afterwards.
As I’ve already said, however, despite his sterling service for Sheffield Wednesday and his remarkable longevity in the modern age Des Walker will be remembered almost totally for his truly magnificent displays during his first spell with Nottingham Forest and for his brilliance in an England shirt before the late blip.
Most of all, to me at least, he will be the man who was the King of Defenders at the 1990 World Cup when a much maligned England side went within an ace of conquering the world.
You’ll never beat Des Walker? You’d better believe it.
Des Walker Career Statistics
CLUB GAMES GOALS
Nottingham Forest 264 1
Sheffield Wednesday 307 0
Nottingham Forest 57 0
England 59 0
TOTAL 687 1