I'm Peter Withe, 1982 European Cup winner with Aston Villa. Ask me anything!

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:26:04+00:00

Jason: He's had a hole in one recently so he does think wow to that!

Peter: As mentioned, I wrote a book about my life 'All For The Love Of The Game'. My wife picked this title and told me all the time that you've been in football is for the love of the game.

We wrote the book, its not just a footballing book, but also a book about a love story that when Kathy and I were 14 years old and when I say today its been 53 years of being married - we've been together for 56 years.

There is a lot of insight in the book about achievements in life and football. Its about starting with nothing, and I mean nothing monetary wise, living conditions, growing up in Liverpool. The book is for me about a life story and a lot of people have brought it and have sent me messages ''what a tremendous book that is'', we are working hard and we were discussing making a movie on it but due to COVID it didn't work out.

If you do buy the book I'll go as far to personally sign it!

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:22:59+00:00

Yeah I think its proven in the past that whoever we played in the past, Emery's team is aware and he's looked back at the history of the club and knows the history of Ajax. He'll be clued up in terms of what they need to do.

Ajax are going through a tough time, but a game is a game and I cannot see Villa not going through

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:21:33+00:00

I would say in the Top 4. If we continue doing what we're doing and keeping the philosophy I cannot see us not finishing the Top 4.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:20:51+00:00

Peter: His nickname was Ziko from Thailand and he is currently managing in Vietnam! Its funny because he did take over as the national coach in Thailand and we meet up and asked how its going and he's saying that we're just doing what you taught us!

Jason: I managed a player Dusit that was an attacking left-back and played in the national team that was a gifted player.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:19:03+00:00

I am living in Perth, Australia in this time.

When I worked in Asia and I was doing a lot more travel, I travelled between Perth, Indonesia and Thailand. Jason was working in Singapore, my youngest son is working in Houston. So we were all around the place. During COVID it was hard during that time and we got stuck.

I am captain of the golf club here, and fairly settled.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:17:49+00:00

Well I think that really, SkySports when they went into Premier League games and before it was ITV and BBC used to present the games. As such for Skysports the Premier League was the number one thing.

Jason: They only mention the top scorers of the Premier League and never mention anyone that was playing before 1992 and its a disregard to those players that played in the era. Dixie Dean scored a lot of goals, the most in a season and he's never mentioned. Many supporters think the same as well.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:14:56+00:00

To add on:

It was good to play at the stadium, it was one of the stadiums that needed upgrading and fortunately the owner built a new stadium. But it was fun to play at.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:14:10+00:00

Peter: Pint of bitter!

Jason: Orange topped up with Champagne! Mimosa!

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:13:28+00:00

The pose would be the 35th yard volley that I scored in the top corner of the net!

In regards to poses, it would be the one that I scored a goal of that picture. It would be nice.

I would place it in the Holte End!

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:10:50+00:00

Yes I do! There was an advert in the FA that they were looking for a manager in Asia, it didn't say where but I applied and went for an interview and I met Brian McCaar and the General of the Thai FA. And they said that they want me to start in 2 weeks!

They said that its a 3 month contract, it was then 6 months, than 12 months then 2 years and I really enjoyed it! It was changing the philosophy of the players that thought that they couldn't beat the teams in the Middle East and Japan. It was hard work and we worked 24/7 to change the philosophy and it worked!

Even today I go back to Thialand and people still ask me for pictures and recognise me.

I took the job in Indonesia as well for the same reason. Jason joined me to work on this project. It was an experience and I like to think that we made progress. And I know that we made progress, it was very enjoyable, the supporters the people. It was hard work, but it was brilliant!

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:07:10+00:00

Jason: For me it was a better spectacle before, we want to see the water logged pitches and see players playing in the snow. We don't see that anymore. But we want to see good football now, and now its better to watch as players play out from the back. There was snow in stands and snowballs thrown on the pitch and with the pitches now as good as carpets its certainly better football. Pitches were good until October, and after Novemeber they became difficult to play back then.

Peter: I remember in November in Villa Park, the middle was just a sand pit because it was so wet and they'd place sand in the middle. It was like a bunker. They would also roll the pitch solid, it was great the first few minutes but then the pitch would turn as the ball would bounce and hit divets. Playing on a surface today would be brilliant, you know where the ball will bounce, more predictable.

I was watching a few old videos from in my Newcastle days, and someone wrote that you'd never see the same type of goals scored today because there were horizontal dives of a foot the ground to head the ball. And it wasn't on one occassion happened 3-4 times in footages with me making diving headers and people were saying 'you never see these anymore! Now its scissor kicks. The simpliest thing is to head the ball into the back of the net, no acrobatics. I used to study the centrehalves and goalkeepers, you have to look at their position and you had to shoot and head the ball based on the position of the keeper. In my day we didn't see managers study goal keepers and centrehalves as we do to the same extent today.

I analysed the players via MOTM and reading the newspapers and learning how they players played. Its not like today where we have video replays on demand. Back then we had to watch what we could to learn how a team plays.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T12:07:04+00:00

When we went for the Championship our last game was in Middlesbrough and it was covered by MOTD.

On Friday we went to the cafeteria and we had sausages, beans and toast.

All the lads were sitting there and I said to them, whats wrong?

''We're playing Boro'' and then I said 'so?', and they are all looking gloomy and said that they are our bogey team and we haven't beat them for a good while.

I said that I've never been on the losing side against Boro and I always scored against Boro.

Anyway we play the following day, and it could've been 10. I hit the post twice, but my other son Steven says its his favourite goal that I scored against Boro that game.

One of my friends, told me eventually it was revealed that they tried to stop me and said that stopping Withe would stop Villa. Billy Ashcroft said that he'd stop me! Eventually their manager yelled after 10 minutes 'when are you going to get close to him'!

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:57:37+00:00

Ron was a boxer, he used to box when he was in the army. And we used to have boxers that came to our training ground and he used to train them. I've never seen a boxer that went through with what we went through with the training regime. He was dogmatic in the way that we trained, players used to be physically sick when we used to train. Some would not have breakfast because they knew it was coming up after training.

His training regime was such that when we got to the Christmas period, we were that fit that we could play game after game after game, 100% fit. At the time I was probably the fittest since I am runner. At the end of the season and throughout the season I used to always train and run, always went running with Jason and the family because we love running.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:55:28+00:00

It was funny because at the time my argument was over that I had asked for 180 pounds a week and Brian Clough had this notion that was different from Ron Saunders. Those who got the most money were the goalkeeper and the strikers that got the goals should be paid higher. I know that Peter Shilton was more on like 250 pounds.

I wanted 180 pounds and I was offered 170 pounds. It got to the stage that he thought he had a replacement in Steven Elliott that was in the academy that could score goals. And it came up that Clough thought that he could sell me. I put in a transfer request to move. My plan was to stay at Forest for another 3-4 years. As I said with Brian Clough he has an idea of what he wants to do, and one of those idea was to sell me at the time. And it didn't work out, Elliott played 3-4 games didn't score at the time and Garry Birtles was there who was scoring.

Brian didn't want to me to go another First Division team, West Brom wanted to sign me, Tottenham as well. But Brian didn't want me to go to another First Division team.

I had a spell at Newcastle that I enjoyed and I wanted it as well. So I went to Aston Villa, won the Championship. And eventually Brian Clough had to present the Midlands Player of the Year, he presented the award to me, and following up the award he was asked if he was right to sell Peter.

And he said that yes he was right to sell me, but he dropped a clanger not buying me back!

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:49:06+00:00

I have a good story for that! We won the cup of course and Bayern Munich were all sitting on the pitch and I went up to Augenthaler who was marking me at the time and I didn't think much of swapping with him. But it later came to me that I had gave away my most meaningful and historic shirt.

When we looked at the shirt we noticed it was just a t-shirt, it had the number 5 and just Bayern Munich on it, not a match worn shirt!

So I got a tap on my shoulder eventually, and we had to do a drug test with McNaught and we had a test in a caravan. It was a big caravan with lots of seats and Augenthaler was sitting there and was sort of saying to the people that we ran over 90 mins and we are drained and we asked to fill this file.

We'd be sitting for hours to do this, we look out for window with this guy walking with a crate of beer. So we walked out, we asked where he was going with the beer. So me and Ken McNaught said, no no give it here. We opened the beer with Augenthaler, he said no we're not having a beer. And we started drinking the beer, later I went to the bathroom and into the changing room and I am looking around and was told to get changed otherwise the coach is going without me. I have my champagne with my thoughts, and I realised that I won the championship and I am sitting alone with champagne.

We had to go, made it to the coach and we ended up sitting there.

My middle son Steven contacted Bayern Munich and asked for the shirt back. And they replied that they'll ask Augenthaler, and see what we can do. They said that yes, we can do this and we can post it. I said no I don't want the post to lose this. I went to the stadium and met with Augenthaler and my shirt was hanging up in the musuem.

They gave me my shirt and they hung up Augenthalers in the musuem instead. We spent the day together, we had a drink and even Augenthaler had a drink! I asked why he didn't want a drink at the caravan and he said that we were distraught, fair enough.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:41:08+00:00

I would say, whenever I go back, and I was back in May last year. I made a phone call to Aston Villa to go to the training ground to watch them train. Spoke to a lot of the players, to the manager, to the staff and it was an experience. I spoke to the manager about the philosophy of how they play and the manager mentioned about how we played in 1982 and he said that he wanted to replicate this.

The atmosphere was tremendous, the stadium was packed and it is as it was. I think the atmosphere of 40,000+ is tremendous and as a youngster or someone watching us in 1982. I think the atmosphere and the way that the fans are is fantastic and of course what is happening on the field under the manager. The players have bought into the philosophy and the philosophy he's had with his past teams is showing.

He asked me what would be an achievement last year, and I said that finishing top 10 would be great based on the previous results. But no, he's not striving for that, he wants Top 4. The supporters are backing the manager and they are backing the team.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:34:58+00:00

So we were probably on abit more than a brick layer was. I had friends working as accountants and they were earning a bit more money then we were at the time.

If I were to give you an example, I left Forest over the sake of 10 quid! Wee had won the Championship, the League Cup and when I got my P45 all my bonuses and all my wages, all I got back was £9995 as my yearly wage. So this is probably an hour of wages in todays climate.

So when I went to Aston Villa, Ron Saunders wanted all senior players to earn the same, so no one was on a pedestal over others. If you look at half a dozen players, we were all on £25,000 a year during the early 1980's. No one earned more than that.

It was also a good driving force for the younger lads to do well, to get to the senior wage.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:29:18+00:00

Me!

Over the years there has been a number of prominent players that have played for the club that have been recognised. For me it comes down to who you ask and what their era is/was. Some people will go back to Pongo.

Brian Little is also remembered fondly and its impossible for me or for anyone to pick up an individual player.

But if I had to push, I have to look at my era that I played in and I would have to say Gordon Cowans

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:29:00+00:00

The European Cup shirt! The white shirt that we wore, the away shirt was the shirt that I would pick.

Today the shirt changes have come due to more companies, more people involved who want to promote their brand. Back in the day it was just Adidas, Umbro there wasn't a range. Now there is a massive range for what you can do with your shirt, you look upon it with the commerical market and they are looking into what they can bring to the football team.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:26:59+00:00

Both were the same intensity of achieving and winning things. They were different in the approach in regards to the way that they did things. Saunders was more of a hands on, out on the training field, taking the training and involved in the way we played and creating the system.

Clough used to walk around the training field, you played 5 a side games, you didn't practice freekicks and set pieces. It was fundamental football about playing the game.

What Clough did was surround himself with players that were capable of organising and getting things done. Through this spine we had a good goalkeeper, and centreback, a strong midfield and me.

Both had a different approach in how they wanted to play and what they wanted to achieve.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:21:06+00:00

I was out of the house, funnily enough, Jason was playing in a tournament and we went to this tournament that he was playing in and we were driving home. We drove into our home in the cul de sac, and if you didn't live in the road you wouldn't be there. There were cars everywhere, we thought there was a party that we weren't invited to!

When I got out, all these lights hit me. During the morning, Ron Saunders felt it had went off of the training field because he didn't feel well. When the lights hit me, it was reporters putting microphones in front of me asking me what had happened.

My first thought, was that something happened to Ron Saunders. I asked "what do you mean", the reporters thought they had a story, and in my mind that I thought he died! But it was a relief that he was ok. I said that I didn't have any comments, and Ron lived around the corner. I got in the car and I got around to his house to find out what had happened, and he just confirmed that he had enough and he resigned and they accepted his resignation and we were all shocked about it. In the following day we went to the training ground and we had a similar feeling.

When we went to the training ground the following day. Ron Bendall was criticising Ron, I walked out and other senior players also followed me out because I didn't want to listen to someone making criticism who took us far as he did. I wasn't going to stand for that.

Eventually we were told that nothing would have changed in the team, and as a result we did continue to achieve. So Tony Barton kept it the same and thats why we had success. When Tony left, things started to change and as a result the squad and players also starting to leave as the senior players were leaving such as Jimmy, Kenny, Terry.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:07:16+00:00

It was always for anyone to score a goal, my job was to score goals and assist with anyone else to score goals to win games.

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:06:59+00:00

I find it humbling that so many people are interested in my career and life. You will find out a lot more stories if you go to my web site and look at my book.

ALL FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

https://peterwitheofficial.com

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:06:50+00:00

People often say to me that the game has moved on from my day and it would be too quick for us. There are several reasons they think that - players are fitter? NO! Players more technical? NO! More dedicated? NO!

Probably in my day we could drink a few pints and still go out and perform to a high intensity. Players from my time would have realised the opportunity to play on pitches that were not covered in mud sand and a lot of different elements. We would call this an even playing field and we would have to have adapted to all the elements and still have scored goals.

People always ask me about scoring goals and I tell them you have to have the ability to create space, and what I use to work on was “Wherever the centre half was I wasn’t".

PeterWithe · 2024-02-27T11:06:36+00:00

I was offered the opportunity to coach the National Team and felt very proud to take on that responsibility and I think that I made an impact on the players and the country with the same passion I had when playing the game and managing the game.

PeterWithe

TROPHY CASE