Ex-Bolton Wanderers manager Bruce Rioch's exclusive interview, part two

Two promotions, a League Cup final and a run of audacious giant-killings were crammed into three successful season’s under Rioch’s watch as Legends were made.

Three decades on, The Bolton News sat down to talk with one of Wanderers’ greatest-ever managers to talk in detail about his time with the club.

BRUCE Rioch had made his point on the décor at Burnden Park but creating a winning team at Wanderers was going to take more than a couple of coats of paint.

This was the summer of 1992. A recession still gripped the UK, unemployment continued to rise and though Alan Shearer paradoxically became the most expensive footballer in the country at £3.6 million he couldn’t stop England making a meek exit from the European Championships that summer.

Bolton’s finances were better than they had been the previous decade, when John McGovern was forced to run half-marathons to keep wolves from the door, but they were by no means flush. And that meant the new management team had to get creative.

Thankfully, Rioch, Colin Todd and chief scout Ian McNeil arrived armed with a well-stocked contacts book and a willingness to drive just about anywhere in the country to spot a potential bargain.

Speaking to The Bolton News 30 years after he first set foot in Burnden as manager, Rioch may have lost some of the chronology on the signings he made. Some of the detail edges may have been rounded by time and retelling. But the former Bolton boss positively glows when he rattles off the names within the squad that he built between 1992 and 1995.

He is the first to acknowledge that Phil Neal had discovered gems of his own. Jason McAteer, Andy Walker, Mark Seagraves, Mark Patterson, Julian Darby, Tony Kelly, David Burke and others gave Rioch a good head start and had gone close to climbing out of the division a couple of times before.

But Rioch enjoys recalling the tricks, the haggling and the fortuitous circumstances that allowed him to bring in the type of player who got the job done.

We will start with the goalkeeper, Keith Branagan, a player who would provide one of the defining penalty saves in Wanderers’ history in the play-off final of 1995 against Reading, and arguably the most recognisable Bolton player of the 90s, the great John McGinlay.

“I think we brought Branny in before anyone else,” Rioch recalled. “He had been at Millwall with me but he wasn’t playing, in their second team, and it was like that with John. Ian (McNeil) knew him well from Shrewsbury Town but when he was at Millwall he wasn’t getting in the team or scoring anywhere near as much as he should have been.

“So they were two players we felt had something to prove but, particularly on John, Ian was convinced he would settle and score goals.

“I think Branny’s deal went down as a free transfer but we actually agreed to pay five or six thousand for him with the chairman, Reg Burr, just so long as he played in 40 or 50 games.

“John cost us about £60,000 in the end but we knew it would be worth it because we knew he could score goals. And I suppose he did OK in the end!”

No Bolton fans needs reminding that the addition of both Branagan and McGinlay was a masterstroke. But it is perhaps less known that Super John would have a say in the signing which really helped Wanderers catch fire in the 1992/93 campaign, that of David ‘Didsy’ Lee from Southampton.

“We had Michael Brown on the right wing and he was a super lad,” Rioch said. “But we felt we needed someone different and I asked John one day to tell me what he knew about David Lee because I knew they had both played together at Bury.

“He just said ‘quick, electric, causes defenders problems and his fitness levels are awesome.’ “I went down to watch him play in a reserve game for Southampton against QPR with Toddy and we came back and immediately started to negotiate a fee for him.

“Ian Branfoot was the manager there and he wanted a lot more than we wanted to pay, so after a lot of negotiating we got him on a loan basis, initially.

“He came back up and the rest is history, what Didsy did for us.”

Lee made his debut in a 3-1 win at Exeter City on November 3, 1992. From that moment on Bolton lost just four times in 31 league games and also beat FA Cup holders Liverpool en route to the fifth round. That game will be covered in detail further down the line.

McGinlay famously scored the decisive goal from the penalty spot against Preston North End, after which Rioch knew he had to build again.

It was at this moment he underlined his earlier point about the quality he had inherited from Neal and some of the unsung heroes of a team which had got the town behind them once again.

“I honestly can’t say strongly enough what a smashing group they were when we first walked through the door,” he said. “We had no problems and even though I had to make decisions and move some of them on, I have to thank each and every one of them because they were professional.

“You look right across the squad even with players like Julian Darby, who was already here. He was a brilliant player who could fill several different positions and when you have multi-role players like that they are invaluable. It’s like having two or three players in one.

“There was Stubbsy (Alan Stubbs) coming through, Ziggy Seagraves, Mark Winstanley, David Burke, Phil Brown – they were solid professional players – and McAteer, of course, who we introduced to the first team but was just coming through. His ability and fitness levels were just awesome.

“With Kells, Tony Kelly, the big issue was getting him into condition. We knew Ian McNeil had had him at Wigan and we’d talked about him at length with Toddy as well. If we could get him into shape then we had a player, and we did.

“The there was the high energy of Paddy Patterson, the attitude, drive, desire, competitiveness. You wouldn’t want to play against him every week, he’d be around you, disrupting you, I mean he was a terrific player to have around.

“And then we had Andy Walker, who was already there, and he was just absolutely outstanding. What a finisher.

“But eventually you have to add to what you have already got. Even with success that season we knew we had to improve again.”

The 1993/94 season was arguably more famous for the club’s FA Cup exploits than a mid-table finish in what is now called the Championship. Rioch faced his own challenges at that stage, on and off the field, about which we will write more later.

On the recruitment front, it proved a largely successful year. Owen Coyle was one of McNeil’s recommendations, coming in to score important goals – and none more so than his double against non-league Gretna.

Then there was the barrel-chested Finn, Mixu Paatelainen, a player Rioch hadn’t even reckoned on watching when he drove with Todd to Dundee to check out a defensive midfielder, Andy McClaren.

“We went up to Scotland to watch the lad playing for Dundee United but during the course of the match we liked the look of Mixu, who was playing up front for Aberdeen,” he said.

“At half time I came down to speak with Jim McClean, the famous Dundee United manager, and said to him ‘didn’t you have him here and sold him?’ “Jim looked at me and said: ‘Bruce, if we had £300,000 in the club now I’d buy him back tonight. I asked if he was really that good and he said he was incredible, not only as a player but as a person. And, of course, that was Mixu.

“The following week we went up to Scotland again because we hadn’t gone to see him initially. And I think it was Airdrie v Aberdeen and I wanted to stand close to him because on the pitch he looked a big, powerful fella but I wondered if there were any weight issues.

“When we got to the fella on the door I told him we’d come to see the manager of the club and that he’d told us to meet him at the end of the tunnel. He didn’t think anything of it and just said ‘OK Mr Rioch, down you go.’ “We went down there and stood on the track, the warm-ups finish and Mixu comes walking past us. Me and Ian (McNeil) look at each other and nod. He was perfect.”

Both Rioch and Todd had flats near to Bolton which were used during the week and would take it in turns to spend a little more time with their families in Hertfordshire and Durham, respectively, after a weekend game.

Typically, both men also used the time to get out and watch some football. And it was on a Monday night trip in his native North East that Todd spotted a player whose cash value would skyrocket in the years to come.

“It was my turn to come up and take training on the Monday,” Rioch explained. “Toddy was at Chester-le-Street and had gone to watch Newcastle United’s reserves.

“I can still remember him rushing into the office the next day with a smile on his face. He said ‘listen, I’ve seen a lad I think we need to sign, Alan Thompson.’ “He was only 19 but Toddy just said ‘get him’ so that afternoon I was on the phone to Kevin Keegan. I trusted his judgement implicitly.

“As the manager I can complete trust in what Colin Todd and Ian McNeil thought about a player. We didn’t waste a lot of time saying we’d go and watch him another few times because that could have wasted another six weeks.”

Thompson cost £250,000. He would eventually leave for Aston Villa in 1998 for £4.5million.

Later on there were more transfer success stories, like Dutch midfielder Richard Sneekes, whose Ajax pedigree and explosive right foot had been hiding away in a small Swiss club, where he was available for transfer.

“We wanted Richard on trial because we liked what we saw but hadn’t really seen enough of him to say ‘let’s just go for it,’ he said.

“We’d gone up to Scotland that pre-season and the agent told us there was no chance. But after a lot of begging and pleading we convinced to let him play against Ross County and he ended up man of the match. Then against St Johnstone, I think, and he was man of the match and then again somewhere else (edit – it was Caledonian Thistle, Bruce).

“He was someone who could create, had a great shot, could score goals and could add something to the team and we got him for next to nothing.”

Given what he eventually gave to Bolton Wanderers, Rioch’s last transfer tale could be his best.

Gudni Bergsson had already played in the top division for Spurs in the late eighties and early nineties but had effectively dropped off the radar when Rioch spotted his name on a reserve team-sheet.

“Toddy had taken training that Monday and I drove into London to see Wimbledon’s Reserves and playing against them for Palace’s Reserves was Gudni – and I thought ‘what’s he doing playing here, I thought he played for Spurs?’ “I watched the game and liked him but on the way back I watched Leicester’s Reserves in an evening match and whilst I was there I rang Terry Venables to ask what was happening.

“Gerry Francis had taken over at Tottenham but I knew Terry and he explained he’d been sent out on loan. Gudni had been back to Iceland to take an exam because he was training to be a solicitor and they had just loaned him out to get some time on the pitch.

“When I got on to Gerry he said the club wanted £300,000. I told him to behave himself, this is Bolton.

“Gerry said to ring his secretary and after a lot of perseverance, long chats, we got them down to £60,000. We couldn’t believe it.

“And let me tell you, Gudni, Mixu, they brought an influence into that dressing room. A different type of self-discipline that we just hadn’t had before.

“They were showing the players different warm-ups, coming in early for training and also warm-down sessions after training.

“That is the kind of thing you take for granted now but back then we looked and learned.”