Many people think that the first black player to pull on a Liverpool shirt was John Barnes. Wrong. In 1977, they fielded a young winger by the name of Howard Gayle. At a time of rampant fan racism, he paved the way for fellow black professionals. He had a checkered career, yet he overcame all adversity, from playing park football in poverty-ridden Toxteth to becoming a regular in the top two leagues of English football, not just with Liverpool, but notably Birmingham City, Newcastle United, Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers. Nowadays, he works tirelessly to make other youngsters in inner city Liverpool to realise their potential.
On his rise to prominence, he seems grateful for the opportunity given to him. “I suppose that it is a remarkable achievement, to go from playing in Sefton Park on Saturday and Sunday, to playing in front of 70,000 people in the Olympic Stadium within three years. You have to understand that I was heading down the slippery slope to disaster until football saved me. The club also had some good pros like Emlyn Hughes and Sammy Lee who where good to me in the early days.”
Gayle was infamously substituted after initially coming on as Kenny Dalglish’s replacement in the European Cup semi-final against Bayern Munich in 1981, after running the German’s ragged for the time he was on the pitch. It still hurts him to this day: “I felt that it was a harsh decision to take me off, as I still had the energy to cause more havoc among the German defence. I had been kicked to bits by the Germans and when I committed my first foul in the game I got booked. Bob Paisley feared that I might be sent off by a poor referee. But I felt in some ways that they didn’t trust me to keep a calm head, which I would have done. But one thing that separated LFC from the rest was that the team always came first and I had to accept that. We went on to win the game and the final in Paris against Real Madrid. So it all turned out well in the end.”
In a poll of Liverpool fans, he was voted number 84 in ‘100 players who shook the Kop’, a testament to his important, albeit brief impact. I asked him if he feels a sense of what could have been? “That game in Munich brings back a lot of good memories for Liverpool fans, and how much that game meant to them. It became one of the great occasions in the club’s history. Liverpool fans know their football and they realise that because of me it opened the door to the likes of John Barnes, Michael Thomas and Mark Walters.”
Images of monkey chants, banana skins and even Nazi salutes during the 70’s and 80’s are well known, but as a player who experienced this directed towards him, Gayle explained that it had a positive effect at times: “I don’t remember any of my teams speaking out. In general we had to face it on our own. But to be fair we couldn’t do much about it apart from it spurring us on to play well, which was the best way to get back at them. The abuse came on a weekly basis as we were easy targets for the bigots.”
As for his reputation during his playing career, he feels that it is a harsh assessment. “I was known as someone who could look after himself, and of someone who would speak his mind and wouldn’t bow down to racism. Some people like to use the phrase as a defence mechanism because they don’t have any argument.”
Gayle was a prominent force against speaking out against Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s ownership of Liverpool. “Those two muppets picked on the wrong club to exploit, with their lavish lifestyles coming at the expense of the club. They made a lot of promises to the fans about getting the club back to its former glories, but they were all lies. The fans mobilised ourselves and the ‘Spirit of Shankly’ was born. And on the back of a rigid campaign we ousted them from the club.”
He doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind to me about the increasing trend of foreign-owned clubs in England: “Football is changing all the time with wealthy men all trying to flex their financial muscle, obtaining clubs and spending vast amounts of money on players’ wages that make the rest of us envious. But it is big business now and only the money bags will survive. Owners will pay a fortune to build up their brand name by buying the best players. Soon I think that big companies such as Coca-Cola will end up buying clubs outright as it won’t make any financial sense to keep paying out millions of pounds each year on sponsorship.”
Since retirement, Gayle has worked in poor areas of Liverpool coaching youngsters. I wondered why untapped potential was where his heart lies. “I spent five years at Tranmere Rovers at their Centre of Excellence. I really enjoyed my time there and learnt a lot, but my heart has always been on the community stage. I coach social inclusion in primary schools with young people from my community. I try to encourage them to come to school to get a start and keep up with their education. If we can do that then they have a better chance of achieving in secondary school and beyond. I also work in a juvenile prison where self esteem and team building through football helps young offenders raise their aspirations whilst in prison and when they are released. Young people are the currency of the future and over the last 40 years society hasn’t invested wisely in them”.