The gentleman of football: Ray Wilkins, a much-loved hero of the game and of London, will be missed very deeply

Wilkins in action for his boyhood club Chelsea
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John Dillon4 April 2018

There are so many reasons to pay tribute to Ray Wilkins, and so many ways to do it.

Amid the vast torrent of emotion, shock and appreciation which has followed his tragically early death at 61, one small thing which stands out is that he finished his full-time playing career wearing the shirt of Leyton Orient at the age of 40.

Not only that, but he also appeared for Hibernian and Millwall once that milestone birthday had passed.

As evidence of his sheer love of football and for playing the game, little could be more simply yet profoundly instructive.

In return, there is no hyperbole in saying he was a much-loved figure in the game and beyond.

Captain of Chelsea aged just 18 in 1975, winner of 84 England caps, skipper of his national side 10 times, midfield maestro at Stamford Bridge, for Manchester United, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Rangers, and still turning out at Brisbane Road in Division Three 22 years later.

He is not alone in having played on for as long as he could before turning to a career in management, coaching and in endearing, unflinching and sometimes idiosyncratic punditry.

But the fact that he did it helped every word he said on TV and radio resonate with insight, belief, knowledge and huge experience.

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The same was true about the countless newspaper interviews he always gave happily and helpfully to me and so many colleagues.

The fact that he often delivered those words laced with a small pinch of oddball humour, humanity and a twinkle in his eye did nothing to detract from their seriousness.

Younger generations will know him best as a commentator and analyst, and I was fortunate to share studio time with him.

Hopefully, they will have appreciated his gentlemanliness and that sense of humour because a lot of football talk these days is too po-faced.

Wilkins, though, spoke with both authority and smart touch of drollery. That will be much missed.

On Wednesday, just hours after his death, the phrase ‘Ray Wilkins My Word’ was trending on Twitter. One message recalled his TV verdict on a Juventus match in the 1990s: “My word ladies and gentlemen, we've really seen something quite extraordinary here today.”

It summed up his respectful and courteous nature perfectly - a manner he displayed just as familiarly as he sauntered chattily around the highways, by-ways and back corridors of the game.

As a pundit, that was important in a sport and a business which is too often about bilious over-reaction.

His assertions about the game bore a twin, emphatic under-statement. It was because he did so much in football for so long in football.

This was a man who conversed in Italian with his former boss at Milan, Fabio Capello, when he came to London to manage England. Nobody else in the game could.

In Pictures | Ray Wilkins' playing career

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It was another symbol of the refinement of Wilkins’ way of playing which meant he was an attractive proposition for the San Siro giants. He moved there in 1987 at a time when Serie A was approaching its most powerful period of ascendancy as Europe’s premier league competition.

Some dismissed him as a negative player who too often sought the easy or sideways pass, leading to the derogatory nickname of ‘The Crab’.

The Italians knew better and admired an advanced football mindset, as did Manchester United, who saw a craftsman at work and with whom he spent five years after his six formative and influential years at boyhood club Chelsea.

Colorsport/REX

Wilkins, born in Hillingdon in 1956, was also one of those great London football men as well as an international star.

Along with all those big clubs, he had two spells with QPR, one four-year stint as a player and - after a flit to appear once for Crystal Palace - another spell at Loftus Road as player-coach.

Briefly, Millwall and Orient followed after short spells with Wycombe Wanderers and Hibs.

Wilkins was a consistently impressive performer for England, although he was the first man sent off while playing for his country at the World Cup finals when he was dismissed against Morocco in at Mexico ‘86 for hurling the ball in frustration at the referee.

Of course he wasn’t perfect. Human frailty affected him when in 2016, he was banned from the road for four years following a much-publicised drink-driving charge.

The fervent wish within the game that he should overcome his troubles spoke volumes about the affection in which he was held.

As a coach and manager, he was again the archetypal London football man. At Fulham in 1997, with Kevin Keegan as CEO, he reached the Second Division play-offs.

There were several spells as a coach and caretaker manager at Chelsea. There was a time at Watford alongside Gianluca Vialli. At Millwall, as assistant to Dennis Wise, he helped guide the club against the odds to the 2004 FA Cup final.

Then it was as assistant to Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea that he enjoyed moulding the club’s first Double triumph in 2009-10.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Five months later in November, 2010 he was suddenly axed. Ancelotti was to unceremoniously follow him at the end of the season.

When things went wrong in that campaign, there was a widespread belief that it was the removal of the influence of Wilkins which was part of the trouble because it had unsettled and dismayed the squad so much.

Certainly, Ancelotti paid him a fulsome tribute in his autobiography published three years later, writing: “Ray is one of those select few, always present, noble in spirit, a real blue-blood, Chelsea flows in his veins ... without him we wouldn't have won a thing."

(Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Brief periods followed back at Fulham, with the Jordan national team and then, in his last job in 2015, as assistant to Tim Sherwood at Aston Villa.

He always wanted to be involved. He was always up for the next challenge and he always knew what he could bring to the next job, with an easy charm but a wealth of ability and background.

The devastation which greeted his death on Wednesday recognised a man and a footballer of class, intelligence, belief, sincerity, gentlemanliness, wit and all-too human weakness.

He was a quietly-spoken hero of the game and of London. He will be missed very deeply.

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