Ian Rush (1 Viewer)

mate

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2002
1,685
#4
I'm not going to do any comments about Rush... I was lucky to be too young to see him... but I advice you... they won't be nice.... :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
OP
Nick

Nick

Junior Member
Jul 12, 2002
297
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread Starter #8
    Thanks a lot paolo looks like he was shit although i've heard that he was really good while at liverpool
     

    Tom

    The DJ
    Oct 30, 2001
    11,726
    #9
    at Liverpool he was really good, yes!
    But I didn't even know he'd played for us..it seems for just one season though!

    and we finished 6th :eek::(

    not a good year :D
     

    KeNgO

    Senior Member
    Oct 28, 2002
    507
    #11
    Ian Rush's style doesn't suit italian football!!!

    he used to be a great player at liverpool and scored alot of goals!!! but in italy he failed big time! i thought he only scored 6 goals in the league though!
     

    ReBeL

    The Jackal
    Jan 14, 2005
    22,871
    #14
    Speed, power and touch make modest Rush my top choice


    Who is the best UK footballer of the past 50 years? Football is all about scoring goals. You could argue that a midfielder or a full-back is deserving of the accolade, but in my opinion Ian Rush is the best centre-forward of the past 50 years and that makes him the best footballer.

    If you compare him with his contemporaries, Gary Lineker, Robbie Fowler and Alan Shearer were all capable of scoring 25 goals a season and were no different from Rush in that respect. But he was a prodigiously hard worker, constantly closing down defenders and trying to nick the ball off goalkeepers. When you think he played the majority of his career when keepers could pick up back passes it makes you wonder how many more goals he would have scored in his pomp if they saw him bearing down on them with that phenomenal pace and had to kick the ball.

    As a finisher he was clinical and calm, very much like Jimmy Greaves who was a brilliant goalscorer if not as industrious as Rush. In front of goal I think Ian was Jimmy's equal and could poach and score tap-ins as well as anyone, but in every other area Rush was the better player. They say the best finishers are selfish and there's no doubt that Rush had a ruthless streak and could turn it on when the situation demanded, but what characterised him most was his all-round work and his selfless dedication to the team. First and foremost he was a team player, far more so than any other elite centre-forward.

    People have this misconception that he was weak in the air but he wasn't really. He scored some powerful headers - he wasn't nicknamed "Tosh" after John Toshack as some kind of ironic joke - but they weren't his bread-and-butter goals. In the 346 he scored for Liverpool, a decent proportion were scored with his head, but because of his height people used to assume he would score more. But Liverpool did not play to his aerial strength all that often and instead exploited his intelligent positioning, speed, power and touch.

    He is a self-effacing guy from north Wales and his modesty would prevent him from putting himself forward as one of the greats, never mind the greatest. He is a normal, down-to-earth guy and that's why the prevailing Italian football culture of his spell at Juventus just wasn't for him. Being isolated in a training camp for large parts of the season would never have made a home-loving boy feel comfortable.

    Let us not forget either that he joined a team in transition - Michel Platini had retired the summer he joined - and most Serie A teams were still obsessed with dull, defensive conservatism. It did not work out for him there even if I think he performed creditably, but he thrillingly proved over the next decade that his ability was not diminished by his so-called "failure".

    If anything, when he came back to Liverpool he worked even harder. Look at his record at Leeds and Newcastle and you would think that it showed signs of decline, but there were mitigating circumstances. At Elland Road he played most of the time in midfield and at Newcastle he took the role of second striker, starting much deeper than of old. It was a position he perfected in his latter years at Liverpool to accommodate Robbie Fowler, and I think Robbie appreciates how much his early success was down to playing with Rushie and the work he put in to allow Fowler to flourish.

    Ian was the ultimate team player and, ludicrous as it may sound for a man who scored 408 career goals, I cannot think of a less selfish centre-forward in the history of the game. He is my kind of man and was a great, great player.

    By John Barnes
     

    ReBeL

    The Jackal
    Jan 14, 2005
    22,871
    #16
    Ian Rush: Napoli wanted me but had to settle for Maradona


    ALL bar one of Ian Rush’s most productive top flight seasons were spent at Anfield. That solitary season in exile was spent in Italy at Juventus – and both player and Reds fans alike were relieved when it was over.

    But the Liverpool legend may well have endured other Italian jobs, as he reveals in his new autobiography “Rush,” published this week by Ebury Press.

    Rush was offered a breathtaking deal by Napoli in the summer of 1984, when he had just celebrated an unforgettable 40-goal haul. Liverpool predictably and stubbornly blocked the move.

    Then when the Reds finally did agree to let their master marksman leave three years later, Juve wanted a year-long loan . . . to Lazio.

    The stories are related by Rush himself in a candid and colourful account, told to Les Scott, the man who has also collaborated on the autobiographies of Tommy Smith, Sir Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Greaves, George Best, Gordon Banks and Tommy Docherty.

    The tale of Napoli’s interest in the summer of 1984 is told for the first time.

    “I was very happy at Liverpool and had no desire to leave, but Charles Roberts (his agent) told me I should not dismiss the opportunity outright. When Charles told me what Napoli were offering it made my eyes water. I was to receive £1m as a signing on fee. I was aware of my knees trembling, and I nearly fainted when Charles told me the ‘bones of the deal’. In addition to the signing on fee, Napoli was willing to pay me another £1m over a three-year contract. It was a Thursday and the Italian transfer deadline was 48 hours off. Charles told me that if I did not sign by Saturday all bets were off. Liverpool chairman John Smith was in London watching the tennis at Wimbledon, and in the days before mobile phones Charles didn’t manage to get in touch until Friday. Mr Smith told him he needed time to think and refused to discuss the matter until the Monday morning, which of course was two days after the Italian transfer deadline. I managed to contact Mr Smith, asked if I could come down to London to discuss the matter, only for him to refuse point blank. Though still not 100 per cent sure about whether I wanted to move or not, I was angered by Mr Smith’s reaction, given the urgency of the impending deadline. The deadline came and went. As a consequence the deal collapsed. I then received a call from Charles to say Napoli had been in touch. Having been unable to speak to Mr Smith they’d had no alternative but to look elsewhere and had signed Diego Maradona. I was so upset with the chairman’s belligerence and rudeness in not even returning Napoli’s calls that for a long time afterwards I refused to acknowledge him. Ironically, when I eventually did go to Italy three years later I did so for a fee of £3.2m. Without even taking inflation into account the club had let £1m slip away – as, to all intents and purposes, had I.”

    When the Italians came calling again, in the wake of the European ban on English clubs, Liverpool were far more receptive. Rush was once again reluctant to leave, and when he was called into boss Kenny Dalglish’s office he was rocked by the news which awaited him.

    “It had been some time since I had been in the manager’s office,” he recalled. “The flock wallpaper had gone, as had the flying ducks and the picture of the scrambling pigs. ‘Fings’ weren’t what they used to be. Sitting alongside Kenny was our secretary Peter Robinson. ‘There are stories in the newspapers about you moving,’ said Peter. ‘Well that’s the newspapers for you,’ I said dismissively. ‘It’s the close season. You know how it is Peter; it’s the silly season for newspapers. They haven’t got any news to write about’.

    “ ‘That’s as maybe Ian, but those stories, they’re true’. I literally flopped back in my chair. I was totally flabbergasted. I was being moved on? My mind went blank with the shock news. Peter went on to say that, reluctantly, the club were prepared to sell me. The European ban was having a severe effect on club finances and, after much deliberation, the club had agreed to sell me as a solution to a cash flow problem that would only get worse unless a sizeable injection of capital was generated.”

    This time Juventus was the team who had come calling. The Italian giants already had Michel Platini and Michael Laudrup filling their allowed complement of foreigners. Platini had originally planned to retire at the end of the 1985/86 season, but had been persuaded to stay on for one more season.

    Rushie recalled the conversation he had with Juve president Mr Boniperti. “ ‘When Platini retires at the end of 1986/87 we will recall you,’ Mr Boniperti concluded.

    “From where? I asked, becoming confused and not a little concerned.

    “‘Lazio’ replied Mr Boniperti. We will sign you now and loan you out to Lazio for the season, then when Platini retires, you come back here.

    “‘With all due respect, no,’ I said. And I meant it. Lazio were at the time in Serie B. To me such a move would be akin to me leaving Liverpool to spend a season at Sheffield United or Sunderland.”

    The solution to the impasse came from Rush himself.

    “‘OK if I have to go on loan, what about this,’ I suggested. ‘I sign for Juventus and I go back to Liverpool on loan for the season’.

    “The lawyer raised his eyebrows, but I could tell by the slight sideways nod of his head he thought this a possible solution to the impasse. Peter Robinson practically grazed his jaw on his shirt buttons at the thought of Liverpool receiving over £3m, but still having me for another season.”

    That’s how it worked out, with all parties delighted by the outcome.


    But ‘Rush - The Autobiography’ doesn’t just focus on the football aspect of Ian’s life. There’s plenty of insight into his private life, including the childhood illness which might have had fatal consequences, but instead helped hone the razor sharp physique which would later terrorise European defences.

    “At the age of five I contracted meningitis,” he explained. “I was immediately admitted to Flint Cottage Hospital where I spent two weeks in a coma in an oxygen tent. Obviously, my recollection of this traumatic event in my life is very vague. Mum told me at one point it was touch and go whether I would survive or not. I spent over a month in hospital. Seemingly, while on the road to recovery, doctors feared I might suffer permanent brain damage. Fortunately that never happened, though try telling Kenny Dalglish that. Ironically there was a positive result from my being close to death’s door. Before my illness I was a small but chubby lad. Having spent over a month at the Cottage Hospital, during which time I hardly ate a thing, I lost a lot of weight. When I was discharged I was very lithe and though I regained my appetite in no time and settled back to eating mum’s regular meals, I never did put the lost weight back on again, which was to serve me well later in life.”

    Rush also offers an image, sadly unsupported by photographic evidence, which would prove more terrifying to top flight defenders than him bearing down on goal.

    “Throughout the 1970s my great musical hero was David Bowie,” he wrote. “He retired Ziggy Stardust only to become Aladdin Sane and, I have to say, I followed suit.

    “At one stage I, too, dyed my hair orange, then followed Aladdin Sane by changing it to purple. On occasions I even sported the Aladdin Sane lightning flash across my face. The only thing I didn’t try to adopt was Bowie’s bisexuality!”

    lRUSH - The Autobiography. Published by Ebury Press on August 21. Priced £18.99

    by David Prentice, Liverpool Echo
     

    Scottish

    Zebrastreifenpferd
    Mar 13, 2011
    7,728
    #17
    I was just looking on the FIGC website at top scorer lists from the 80s and discovered that Ian Rush was at Juve for a season. I'd thought that Charles was the only Welsh dragon to have played at Juventus. By the looks of it he was an expensive flop in Serie A but still scored 2 in 3 European games and 5 in 7 Coppa games.
    @Tanu_Mz do you have any stories to share about Ian Rush's time in black and white?
     

    JuveJay

    Senior Signor
    Moderator
    Mar 6, 2007
    72,073
    #18
    I was just looking on the FIGC website at top scorer lists from the 80s and discovered that Ian Rush was at Juve for a season. I'd thought that Charles was the only Welsh dragon to have played at Juventus. By the looks of it he was an expensive flop in Serie A but still scored 2 in 3 European games and 5 in 7 Coppa games.
    @Tanu_Mz do you have any stories to share about Ian Rush's time in black and white?
    I thought Rush being at Juve was at least moderately well known, at least for British watchers.

    You must have heard this one?



    'It was like living in a foreign country'

    :D

    He never actually said it but it's a bit of a classic now.
     

    Scottish

    Zebrastreifenpferd
    Mar 13, 2011
    7,728
    #19
    I thought Rush being at Juve was at least moderately well known, at least for British watchers.

    You must have heard this one?

    'It was like living in a foreign country'

    :D

    He never actually said it but it's a bit of a classic now.
    I don't think I'd heard of him playing at Juve but read that quote earlier :D
     

    Tanu_Mz

    Senior Member
    Jan 5, 2014
    1,881
    #20
    I was just looking on the FIGC website at top scorer lists from the 80s and discovered that Ian Rush was at Juve for a season. I'd thought that Charles was the only Welsh dragon to have played at Juventus. By the looks of it he was an expensive flop in Serie A but still scored 2 in 3 European games and 5 in 7 Coppa games.
    @<a href="http://forum.juventuz.org/member.php?u=18947" target="_blank">Tanu_Mz</a> do you have any stories to share about Ian Rush's time in black and white?
    I have to say, I was lucky enough to see one of his best games ever and a bit of a gem in those post-Platini era when we were mediocre at best.
    I have nice memories of the game, less so of the return journey as I and my mate Claudio were assaulted by Napoli fans at Torino station. We took off the belts from our trousers and started to wave the belts to keep them back, then managed to jump on the train to Milan about to depart. Quite frightening, but still managed to insult them from the window of the train as it was leaving :)


    ps for Scottish: you will have a new private message soon!!
     

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