176: Lee Carsley, Derby County, Merlin’s Premier League 99 Official Sticker Album

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at a midfield stalwart who more than made up for his lack of hair with his commitment on the pitch. Rather than go for the questionable hair transplant like his one-time Everton colleague Wayne Rooney or slap on a syrup like Bulgarian keeper Borislav Mihailov today’s subject embraced his baldness and led Mat down today’s particular wormhole. Over to Mat.

While commuting into work on the train the other day, I had a football podcast on. Nothing new there; just a way to ease me back into my latest return to the office. I can’t remember how they ended up getting onto the topic, I think it was Granit Xhaka receiving his millionth red card for Arsenal, but the group of guys on there started talking about footballing hardmen.

The question: who were genuinely hard footballers? Dennis Wise? An annoying little sod but not actually that hard. Granit Xhaka? That was met with laughter. Someone even had the minerals to shout out Lee Cattermole! Thomas Gravesen was mentioned but even he wasn’t considered as being a true hard man. But that comment got me thinking about bald midfielders, some of whom could be hard.

Jonjo Shelvey came to mind in the wake of his annual stunner but again, a Liverpool reject with a propensity for acquiring red cards doesn’t make a hard man. Again, Scott Brown of north of the border could be considered hard. Or is he more of the Dennis Wise but bald school of footballer? 

Then Lee Carsley came to mind. To be honest, he did just after Thomas Gravesen was mentioned. In my mind, back in the mid noughties, I often saw Carsely as a poor Gravesen. The fact the latter got a move to Real Madrid while Carsley went from Everton to Birmingham City and then to Coventry City may back that up somewhat. Cue some research into Carsley (aka a Google search and opening Wikipedia).

An interesting nugget from his early career, where he came through the ranks with Derby County and made his debut in an Anglo-Italian Cup group stage game and a 6-1 win over Cesena in 1994. As a side note – the 1994 Anglo Italian cup was the seventh time the competition had been played as a professional tournament, with Notts County being crowned the winners after a 2-1 victory over Ascoli. It was abolished in 1996, so Genoa have the honour of being the reigning champions. Hard luck Port Vale.

Back to Carsley’s potted history. After Derby, he got a move to Blackburn Rovers in 1999, before moving on a few seasons later to Coventry City. Then came his move to Everton as one of Walter Smith’s last signings ahead of David Moyes coming in. That managerial appointment was the making of Carsley. He became a Moyes favourite and was the hard man in that functional but effective Everton team that secured a top four finish in the 2004/05 season. By 2008, injuries and new faces at Goodison saw Carsley turn down a new contract, and a move to Birmingham City before a final stint back at Coventry.

That Moyes era midfielder strikes me as someone in that Wayne Rooney/Jonathan Walters type of footballer as I’ve previously mentioned. Someone who doesn’t always look great. In many ways someone who has come straight from the Sunday League pitches and landed in the top tier. The bald head, unflashy Nike Total 90s, always looking knackered, and seemingly constant simmering anger that I recall him playing with added to that image. However, he only received one top flight red card. He got 47 yellows though. So not a soft touch. Was he the best bald midfielder? Maybe. Actually no. What am I saying. Zidane was.