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September 16, 2002
(Monday)
Ready for that
long career
When Jonathan
Woodgate made his England debut in a European
Championship qualifier against Bulgaria in Sofia in June, 1999, it
appeared to be the beginning of a glittering international career.
His manager Kevin Keegan said: "He could stay in the team for a very
long time."
Woodgate was 19 when he pulled on the white shirt bearing the three
lions and had made only 25 Premiership appearances for Leeds. But so
assured had he looked in those games that Keegan was not alone in his
forecast. A distinguished career for club and country looked certain.
Although no one would have suggested that his maturity on the pitch
was matched by a similar quality off it, he was nevertheless regarded
by everyone at Leeds as a sensible lad whose head had not been turned
by his precocious talent.
That judgment of him was partly because he grew up in the respectable
Nunthorpe district of Middlesbrough. But two months before his
England debut he had already been arrested and spent a night in the
cells after a fight in the Cornerstone bar in Middlesbrough town
centre.
A student Gareth Cowen needed hospital treatment for injuries
sustained in the fight but he and his friends never made a formal
complaint and no charges followed. Woodgate was also a regular at the
notorious Dickens Inn in the town, where witnesses say that he was
known to take several £20 notes from his wallet and set fire to them,
as well as approaching girls with the immortal line: "Hello, I'm
Jonathan Woodgate."
Woodgate was popular in the Leeds dressing room but regarded as
easily led and not the brightest of people. Some team-mates referred
to him as Village as in village idiot.
Moreover his own attorney, David Sumner, in his closing speech at the
first trial, following the events of January 2000, said: "May I make
a cruel remark about my client? It is not meant to be a joke. You
have heard the crown speak of planks of evidence in its case. You saw
Jonathan Woodgate give evidence. There were two planks around that
box. He communicated badly."
If Woodgate is seen as intellectually challenged, his emotions are
clearly in full working order since, after the start of the first
trial in January 2001, he failed to play another first-team game for
Leeds that season. While Lee Bowyer dashed from court to the Elland
Road dressing room to strip for action and give outstanding
performances, seemingly unaffected by events in the crown court,
Woodgate walked away looking increasingly ashen.
He was clearly also upset by the damning evidence given against him
by his team-mate Michael Duberry, which dissolved their friendship.
He admitted after the trial: "We don't speak any more."
Woodgate's career looked like being another victim of the case as
speculation increased that, fearing the reaction from supporters, he
might never find the mental strength to walk out on a football field
again.
After the collapse of the first trial in April 2001 he returned from
the summer break apparently ready to play and made two early
substitute appearances. But when the second trial began in the
autumn, he again found it impossible to juggle the emotions of
standing in the dock with playing top-class football.
Immediately after the trial was over, however, his relief at escaping
prison seemed to give him new strength and he returned to his
position at the centre of defence and once again began looking like a
man who could fill one of the central positions for England in the
World Cup.
He and Bowyer had been banned from being selected for their country
during their trials and many people felt that Leeds should have
suspended them as well. But at the conclusion of the trial, the then
Leeds manager David O'Leary expressed his hope that they might play
in the World Cup in Japan and Korea.
It looked like becoming a reality when the England coach Sven-Goran
Eriksson decided to recall Woodgate for a friendly against Italy last
March. But after the National Civil Rights Movement threatened civil
action against Woodgate, Eriksson, under pressure from the Football
Association, quietly dropped his plans.
The Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale, who had been told that Woodgate
was in the squad, said: "I can only hope that his omission was purely
on football grounds. I would be very disturbed if external pressure
had been brought to bear to prevent Mr Eriksson picking his best
squad for the Italy game and the World Cup."
The World Cup issue was rendered irrelevant a few weeks later when
Woodgate again found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and
suffered a broken jaw after an attack in a nightclub. He failed to
play again for his club last season, ruling out any hope of a World
Cup place, even if the FA had had a change of mind.
He has shown character to resume his career since but ironically one
could now ask whether his recall for England is strictly for
footballing reasons. He played in Leeds' shock 2-1 defeat to the
Premiership newcomers Birmingham last weekend and came off injured in
his only other start at West Brom.
Keegan was at least right about one thing, saying after handing
Woodgate his first cap: "I believe he could surprise a lot of
people."
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