350: Keith Gillespie, Newcastle United, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

Today Emlyn Jones takes a look at a man who proves that the beauty of football often rests in the stories it creates and that the majority of the game’s fans would much rather read about a man who ate nine dinners on one coach trip than one who doesn’t like films. Additionally if there are any publicists out there looking for a salesman I think Emlyn might do a good job. Over to Mr Jones.

Hundreds of football autobiographies are released each year, particularly following any strong showings in international tournaments; leading to hastily arranged tomes cashing in on the footballing Zeitgeist. Wayne Rooney released the first of, to date, three autobiographies at the age of 20, capitalising on England’s narrow World Cup wins over the mighty Paraguay and Ecuador. The bulk of these are transparently ghost-written, with little insight beyond ‘Born, trained, was good at the football, scored some goals’. However, every once in a while, a genuinely fascinating book is released that gives insight into unknown facets of a player.

As a Reading fan, I thought the tale of lamping Stephen Hunt and sparking a fight between Wally Downes and Neil Warnock would make for a good article, and picked up Keith Gillespie’s book on Amazon for a few pounds as research. I was already aware of his reputation for enjoying the social life available to a footballer a little too much, and well-documented battles with gambling, but Gillespie is brutally honest and self-analytical throughout the book on all of these issues and his career. 

Born in Antrim, Gillespie was signed on youth terms by Manchester United, and debuted in 1993. He moved on to Newcastle United as part of the deal to sign Andy Cole, and was an instrumental part of the team that Keegan would have so loved to win the league, and which went on to defeat Barcelona under Kenny Dalglish. A spell at Blackburn Rovers followed, including a League Cup win, before a move to Leicester City.

 

Gillespie opens up about a number of incidents, including a fist-fight with Alan Shearer, vomiting all over Peter Beardsley’s car, and the Blackburn squad preventing the press getting pictures of a team-mate caught cheating by all covering their heads in tracksuit tops. On a darker note, he also details the incident in which he, Paul Dickov and Frank Sinclair were accused of involvement in a rape in Spain once he had moved to Leicester. Although he was exonerated and the witnesses were rapidly discredited, the allegations followed Gillespie throughout the rest of his career, and he eventually moved on to Sheffield United on a free transfer for a substantially lower wage.

 

Whilst at Bramall Lane, coming on as a substitute against Reading, Gillespie immediately twatted Stephen Hunt as outlined earlier. Despite this, and an ongoing contract dispute, manager Warnock continued to pick Gillespie, however, once Kevin Blackwell took over, the writing was on the wall, and he eventually moved on to Charlton Athletic on loan and then Bradford City having been confined to the reserves. Retaining his phone number, Gillespie took to occasionally messaging Blackwell with jibes about his performance and small man syndrome. Childish, but pretty bloody funny.

 

From here, Gillespie had a number of short stints with Irish sides, including a handful of games this year, coming out of retirement, to play for Mindwell. Gillespie also made 86 appearances for a Northern Ireland side that sadly never made an international tournament, and there are plenty of tales from international trips detailed. As much as the story is Keith’s version of how events transpired, I’d highly recommend seeking the book out if possible. Gillespie was made bankrupt in 2010, the victim of a questionable film tax dodge and gambling losses, while between clubs; leading to him signing on. This led to an eventual diagnosis of depression which is dealt with matter-of-factly and with brutal honesty on the page, and it’s impossible not to feel sympathy with his struggles. Definitely beats Rooney not talking about shagging pensioners anyway.