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For
much of his short reign at West Bromwich Albion, Tony Mowbray has
been looking for balance, a blend of know how and desire, of talent
and determination. And he’s been looking for his goalkeeper.
With nearly 700 games and the hunger for success of a player half
his age, in Dean Kiely he found the solution, a player who fits
his work ethic like a glove.
Mowbray got himself a top class goalkeeper, a player utterly focused
on his work, ferociously proud of his achievements but still hungry
to add more. A goalkeeper who played his 600th league game against
Cardiff last Tuesday, but who is looking to stick another couple
of hundred onto that tally. A goalkeeper who is still determined
to improve and with no time for failure. Not a bad shopping trip
after all.
The irony is that, had West Brom not been trying to stave off apparently
terminal decline back in the late 1980s, Dean Kiely might well have
played all those 600 league games for them, rather than simply the
most recent half a dozen. When he signed on the dotted line for
Albion, Dean was also coming full circle, back home to the place
where he took the first steps on the footballing path as a teenager,
a place he left behind when it became very obvious, even to a callow
youth, that things were going horribly wrong.
“Goalkeeping has been my life really. At the age of 9 or 10
I dabbled as an outfield player a bit, but I settled in goal when
I was about 10 and that was it. It fitted my personality in terms
of diving around and getting dirty. Like any kid, I played for my
school, got to play for the district, moved into Sunday football
and then Roy Horobin scouted me for West Brom, which was a great
thing for me as a teenager, incredibly exciting.
“I signed schoolboy forms at 14 and really enjoyed it. Johnny
Giles was here as manager, then Nobby Stiles, Tony Brown worked
with the youngsters as well, I had a great time learning the game.
I owe the club a lot going back then because they put me forward
for trials at Lilleshall, the FA National School, which I got through
and then spent two years there. That gave me a base, a platform
to carve out a career as a footballer.
“It was just a shame that during my two years at Lilleshall,
the management changed and Ron Saunders came in. As a kid, 15 or
16 at the time, it all came as a bit of a shock. From everyone from
Johnny Giles down being very open and warm, accommodating, making
the kids feel part of the club, it went to a situation where the
manager focused completely on the first team and anybody beyond
those eleven for Saturday were secondary.
Things changed a little bit and I ended up leaving to go to Coventry
City. I’ve got no regrets, but it is nice to come back and
go full circle if you like.”
Right from those adolescent days when he first began to train with
the Throstles, Dean had a very level headed, hard headed approach
to the career path he wanted to take. He might have been school
age, but he was looking at where he wanted to be a decade further
down the line.
Not only was he not afraid of making sacrifices to get there, he
positively embraced them, going out of his way to find challenges
and overcome them. Talking to him now, at 36, you’d be hard
pushed to find a more driven individual, somebody more committed
to his craft, more determined to give everything to his job. But
it seems as if he hasn’t changed in more than 20 years.
The hunger that drives him now, drove him then, exemplified by the
ease with which he adapted to life at the FA school in Lilleshall,
an experience he views as wholly positive.
“Lilleshall has closed now which is a pity. I loved I there,
it was fantastic. The difficult thing is moving away from home at
14, but that makes you grow up, toughen up. You haven’t got
your parents to tidy up after you so you become self reliant, you
look after your laundry, all your gear, that kind of thing.
It’s character building, you learn a lot of life skills. And
it was a great opportunity, at 14, to go to the national sports
centre, where you have all those facilities at your disposal. I
really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.
For some people, it didn’t sit right with them, they got homesick,
they couldn’t handle the responsibilities and they left, but
I thrived on it. It was a two year apprenticeship, what you’d
normally get from 16 to 18, but I had it from 14 to 16, which I
felt gave me an advantage over everybody else. And it was with elite
coaches, the best facilities, I think I’d have been daft to
turn that down.
“Being a goalkeeper, the fact that it toughens you up, it makes
you resilient and self-reliant, that’s a great thing, because
so much of the game is in the mind. It’s a team sport but a
goalkeeper is an individual position within that, quite exposed
compared with everybody else, so you have to be thick skinned, mentally
tough. You sink or swim at Lilleshall, you’re either up for
the challenge or you shy away from it. That’s the reality.
I’m quite a strong person, and if that came from being at Lilleshall,
then great.”
The sudden Saunders putsch at The Hawthorns had pretty much forced
Kiely out of the Albion, but there were no shortage of suitors,
Dean eventually deciding that Coventry was the place to be for the
next stage in his education. They were thrilling times at Highfield
Road too.
“Coventry won the FA Cup in May 1987 and I joined the pre-season
that followed. I progressed through the youth team and into the
reserves but opportunities were limited, which can often be the
case for a goalkeeper, because there’s only one shirt for you
to go after.
I reached a point where I was doing well, I was pleased with my
game, but I was in a cul-de-sac really, simply because Steve Ogrizovic
was there and still with years ahead of him. So my route to the
first team was stunted, simply because he was a great ‘keeper
and a great pro who looked after himself and went on for a good,
long career.
I bumped into him last Christmas which was great because he’s
a great person, got an amazing work ethic and approach to the game
and that’s something I certainly took from my time with him,
something I’ve applied to my game.
“But Steve was going nowhere, he was playing well and I could
see I wasn’t going to get past him. My philosophy is that things
happen for a reason and it was meant for me to drop right down the
divisions and have the next part of learning my trade at York City.
That was a big decision because again, born out of the fact that
things were getting a little too easy. My family lived in Warwick,
I was living at home, life was comfy, everything was done for me.
One day the penny dropped that I could sit around in Coventry, twiddling
my thumbs, playing in the reserves, but meanwhile, there were goalkeepers
my age getting games in the lower divisions, playing senior football.
That was the route I decided to go down, I had to play some games
that mattered because I didn’t want to drop behind my contemporaries
and take the easy option.
“For me, you’re not a footballer unless you’re playing
football matches. I had all the paraphernalia of Coventry City,
the kit, the tracksuit, the boots, the player’s pass, but in
a quiet moment, you sit and think, “My job description is “Footballer”
but I’m not playing”. I think it’s a little different
nowadays, squads are bigger, there is rotation and that has changed
it a little bit. But the way I felt then - and the way I feel now
- was that I wanted to be able to get the Rothmans Yearbook out,
see the name Dean Kiely, and have a lot of senior games played next
to it.
Now, I bore my friends and family by telling them how many appearances
I’ve made, but when the laughing dies down, the reason is because
I’m fiercely proud of having done that. My long tem plan now
is to rack up as many games as possible, keep playing for a long
time yet, because I want to tell my grandchildren that I played
football, that I wasn’t just at a football club.”
If you were compiling a list of the least glamorous places to play
your football, then York’s Bootham Crescent would be up there.
But for a young professional, fresh out of Lilleshall and then a
First Division outfit, going down to Division Four was a real opportunity
to see exactly what life was like at the sharp end. Characteristically,
Dean revelled in the task.
“York City was a great place to learn the job, you learn great
values, great disciplines. I started the season off with them having
a look at me, playing reserve football, and I got into the side
around Christmas time. At that level, playing in the team, getting
appearance money and a win bonus made a dramatic difference to my
lifestyle. I was trying to forge out a career, but at those clubs,
it’s hand to mouth and you are on a tightrope.
That’s when it dawns on you that winning or losing is life
or death. If you do well, you kick on, you might get another contract.
If you don’t, if you don’t make a success of it, from
York, you were on the way down to non-league football, out in the
football wilderness somewhere. That was the impetus for me to really
roll my sleeves up and get my work done. It’s a lesson I’ve
never forgotten either, that playing every week, doing well, winning
games, that’s everything in football.
“I’ve always been self-referencing, knowing what I need
to do rather than needing to be told. Back then, I needed to get
in the first team, make a contribution and help the team succeed.
It worked out well because it wasn’t long before we got promoted
through the play-offs, I saved a penalty in the shootout, so that
was a big day. Then that’s the gateway to a higher league against
better players, and there are all these little hurdles that you
have to go over. Can I play at the next level up? I found I could,
so then the next challenge was to get up another division and another.”
York won promotion to Division Three at Wembley Stadium on May 29th,
1993, the game with Crewe going to a shootout.
“To play in a penalty shootout at Wembley is fantastic for
a goalkeeper because as an individual, you can’t lose. I look
back at the scrapbooks now from that day and they still make me
smile. They were good times because the team that was put together
was a good little unit, it clicked and we performed to a really
high level for a couple of great seasons. They hadn’t had much
success for a while, so it was a good place to be because we were
giving something to the supporters.
“For me, I was getting 40 or 50 games a season, suddenly I’d
played 100 games and then you feel comfortable, you feel you’re
on your way. It was a fantastic learning experience at York, because
now, there’s no situation that occurs on a Saturday that hasn’t
happened to me. I’ve played in front of one man and his dog
and I’ve played in front of tens of thousands.
“Having won the play-offs the one year, we then lost in the
semi-finals at Stockport the following season. That could have been
one of those springboard things, where you just get so much momentum
going for you that pretty much regardless of who you’re playing
against, you feel bullet proof. To get successive promotions at
York would have been incredible. It was disappointing to lose, but
all told it was a successful season. Unfortunately thereafter, it
petered out a bit, York stayed in that division and we ended up
being lucky to stay up. We played at Brighton, last game at the
Goldstone Ground, it had to be put back to the end of the season
because of a pitch invasion, and that was eerie because we had to
win to stay up, in front of nobody. It was tense a big test, but
we came through it. Tick that box as another experience that you’ve
got to draw on.”
If
you’re standing still, you’re going backwards. That’s
the nature of modern day football, where you can guarantee that
whenever you’re having a break, somebody, somewhere, is still
working, trying to catch you up, overtake you. That somebody is
probably Dean Kiely.
In the first part of this feature we traced the roots of his competitive
instinct, his work ethic, and his willingness to do anything, play
anywhere to make sure he was playing every Saturday. From Spring
Road to Lilleshall then to Hghfield Road, he did his apprenticeship.
But it was at York that he really learned to be a footballer. The
tragedy for a club like York City is that when they do get their
hands on a talent like Dean Kiely, there’s no keeping him.
As York began to slide towards the bottom, he was offered a chance
to move on
On the face of it, it looked like a move sideways, because Bury
had little more going for them at Gigg Lane than York did at Bootham
Crescent. But just looking at the surface doesn’t tell you
the whole story. York had gone past the peak and were on the downward
slope. Bury were on the other side of the hill, dashing up it, as
Dean explains.
“Stan Ternent was the manager at Bury and he called me up.
My contract was running out and Bury had just got promoted into
our division. He said, “I’ve got a team that can challenge
to get promoted out of here. I’ve got everything I need, except
for a goalie. Do you want to do it?”
I’ve always tried to put myself in a place where somebody wants
me to play because it’s great to be wanted, whatever you’re
doing. It wasn’t a move for money or anything because the terms
there weren’t much different. I went because the manager said
he was desperate for me to play in his side. Nine months later,
we were champions. He was bang on and I loved playing a part in
a successful time. I’ve got the medal, I’ve done my job.
“There’s nothing better than when you come to put your
feet up in May, looking back and knowing that you’ve done your
bit to the best of your ability and you’ve achieved something.
We let seven goals in at home that year, only one at the one end.
Things like that stick with you because they’re reminders of
great times. I had Chris Lucketti and Paul Butler in front of me
as central defenders, we got on great off the pitch as well, they
were great times.
I think you should play the game with a smile on your face. I know
football is big business, there’s a lot at stake, but you play
your best football when you’re in an environment you enjoy,
with people you enjoy being around.”Playing in what is now
the Championship was a big step forward for Bury and they became
a very difficult side to break down as they fought for survival.
But in the end, they didn’t have quite enough going forward
and they slipped away. That was a particularly galling result for
Dean who was one of the best performers anywhere in the division
that year.
“The biggest down in my career came at Bury when we got relegated.
What stuck in my throat was the fact that we kept 18 clean sheets,
the same as some of the teams that got promoted, so it was a bittersweet
thing really. We struggled to get goals that year, we’d dominate
games, we had a run of something like seven 0-0s. We were solid,
but the inability to score did us. The following year, I went to
Charlton, kept 19 clean sheets and we went up as champions!
“With Bury going out of the division, they had to sell the
spine of the team, so after three great years, I moved on to Charlton
so they could bring some money in. That was a different kind of
challenge, they’d dropped out of the Premiership but Mervyn
Day, the assistant manger, called me and said, “We saw what
you did at Bury last season in a struggling team. We’ll give
you the shirt, put you between the sticks and you just do the same
again. It was exciting to play with such great quality players and
have to live up to that. I equalled Nicky Johns’ club record
of clean sheets, and I know a lot of people don’t care, but
it matters to me because it shows you earned your money.
“I’d had the chance to join some Premier League clubs
in previous years, but I didn’t want to go as second or third
choice, training every week, getting nothing at the end of it. I
wanted to earn the right to play there and I did it with Charlton
which was very satisfying. Then we were favourites for promotion
but we wanted to prove we had enough and we had a great season,
top half, and for me, it was achieving a longstanding goal.”
“The last few games of the season, we were promoted and we
were a bit slack and lost a few games. We came to The Hawthorns
on the last day and I was still one short of the clean sheet record.
Albion had to win to stay up that day, but I was desperate not to
concede. As it turned out, Albion won 2-0. I remember being upset
about that at the time but standing here now, I’m pleased it
worked out for everybody!”
Until this season’s trials and tribulations, Charlton have
been a model for smaller clubs. Kiely should have a feel for what
the secret is having spent the best part of seven years there.
“Charlton’s consistency is testament to the way they do
things. It’s a very tight unit, very focused. I still talk
to the chief executive there now as a friend, and that doesn’t
happen at clubs. Everybody connected with the place, whichever cog
they are in the machine, everybody does their job and wants success.
There are no factions, everybody is pulling in the same direction.
I was there in a golden era, where the bought good players and good
lads. There were no egos, nobody who needed pampering or looking
after, it was come to work, put your boots on, do your best and
we’ll be fine. There’s something good about that. There’s
nothing worse than be in a dressing room where this player loves
himself, that player is moody, because you’re walking on eggshells
and that’s hard. There was a great work ethic, team ethic and
everybody was very comfortable in what they were doing.”
Dean’s career hasn’t simply progressed on the domestic
front, because he spent a number of years in the Irish set-up, a
period which he looks back on with mixed feelings.
“I got in the Irish squad at the back end of my Bury career
and then when I went to Charlton, the higher profile helped. I had
four, five years in Irish squads and that was great. The majority
of my family live in Ireland, it was a great honour, a privilege,
all of that, but in the end, I only came away with eight caps. If
you strip away the honour, it wasn’t what I wanted in a lot
of ways. This is my job, and all the endeavour, the work, the effort,
the traipsing around the world, getting back exhausted on Thursday
night to prepare for a Premier League game on Saturday, it was just
starting to have a detrimental impact on my game. I loved playing
for Ireland, but my job is to play for a club, they pay my wages,
that’s my career. Ireland was a lovely bonus, but I just started
to feel that I was working without really getting the reward of
minutes on the pitch, and it wasn’t doing my week to week game
any good either.
“At that point, I had to make probably the most selfish decision
I’ve ever made, which was to retire from international football.
I think I explained it correctly to Brian Kerr, who inherited the
situation from Mick McCarthy, and I think he understood that eight
caps was a poor return when they were opportunities for make to
get more experience, be more involved. I think I did well for Ireland,
I kept some clean sheets, especially in a volatile game in Turkey,
so I performed whenever I got a chance. But it was frustrating to
come away having not played again. I wasn’t kicking up a fuss,
the manager picks his team, Shay Given is a great goalkeeper, I
haven’t got any problem with that. But eventually, I asked
myself, “Am I giving myself the best opportunity to play well
for Charlton?” And the answer was no. It was the right decision
because I’m here now at 36, I feel in great shape, don’t
carry any weight, I feel fit and strong, mentally and physically
and I feel there’s a lot more football in me, hopefully until
when I’m 40 at least.”
Dean’s departure from Charlton came as something of a surprise,
but again it’s a measure of the man and his attitude.
“It was a wrench to leave Charlton, but it reflected what I’m
about. I had 18 months left on my contract, I lived 15 minutes down
the road, but I wasn’t in the first team any more. I injured
a finger in pre-season, I was out the side and then couldn’t
get back in - any goalkeeper can understand how that is. I took
on the challenge, which was to put myself on offer. I go back to
the one basic thing, it’s alright saying you’re a footballer
but you have to play football. It wasn’t happening at Charlton,
but the opportunity was there at Portsmouth so I took it.
“To choose to go there, when they were pretty much dead and
buried, less than half the season to go, that was a big risk for
some people I suppose. But the ingredient that mattered to me was
I was going to play on Saturday. A cushy life sat on the bench watching
Charlton play for 18 months was a million miles from what I want
to do. I’m not after an easy life, being carried along, I want
to contribute. And if that meant going into a relegation dogfight,
so be it. Harry Redknapp said he wanted a bit of experience, some
know how, a bit of steel, in and around the training ground to galvanise
the squad and get people right up for it. The satisfaction I got
from being part of that short term charge up the table was enormous.
It was a gutsy decision to make but I’m so pleased I did it.”
This season, Dean spent a little time on loan at Luton, playing
more games, but looking for something more permanent. That arrived
in January.
“Coming to West Bromwich Albion is a great opportunity. Leading
up to the window when I was at Luton on loan, there was talk of
one or two Premiership clubs being interested in me as a squad player,
see what happens. But those clubs didn’t desperately want me,
they’d have me as back up, but nothing more. I’m not looking
for guarantees, I’m willing to battle and work for my place,
but I want a chance to do that. When this move came about, it took
me minutes to decide. It was the one I wanted. There were four or
five ifs and buts going on including this and I desperately wanted
this to be the concrete one, and thankfully it did, I was here in
a flash because the manager wanted me an because I can improve here.
“You can’t ever feel like you know everything. There’s
never been a day when I’ve walked off a training pitch thinking
I’ve cracked it. There’s always more to learn, ways to
get better at your job. I think I’m an honest. Open person
and I like to work with the same kind of people. For me, Joe Corrigan
is a great coach to work with. He played in an era when I was being
shaped and moulded watching goalkeepers on the television. Joe struck
me as a fantastic, consistent, reliable goalkeeper. He’s all
of that and his personality is exactly the same, shakes your hand,
looks you in the eye, tells you what he expects to do and that’s
great. That was a big factor in coming here, the chance to work
with good people who want to see you succeed. When Joe opens his
mouth to talk to you on the training pitch, I listen because I have
enormous respect for him.”
Which brings us to the matter in hand, the promotion run-in. It’s
at times like this that you need a cool head. Fortunately, getting
promoted is one of the many boxes that Dean has already ticked.
How does he see the next couple of months shaping up?
“The Championship is incredibly tight, but you look to teams
who are in a run of form and we’re certainly one of them. You
look to gather momentum and then you don’t want to let it stop.
You do that by working hard. We don’t leave anything in the
dressing room, we take everything out on the pitch and give it everything.
Yes, we have gifted players here, but the ingredient that’s
impressed me is the tremendous steel and resolve to achieve what
we want. That has to come out first and foremost, you have to battle
and then your talent can be the edge that wins the games. Everyone
is pulling in the same direction and wants to play their part in
what could be a special season.
“Beyond that, I want to be here at Albion, playing in the first
team, for a long time yet. It’s obvious that Tony Mowbray is
trying to build something that lasts here, he’s not sticking
a plaster on and hoping to get away with it in the short term. This
is a big project he has in mind and I want to be part of that, I
really do, because it’s very exciting.”
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