The Stan Bowles Interview - 15th September 2004
Stan Bowles has brought out a frank and amusing tale of how the former Man City, QPR, Nottingham Forest and England star revelled in a rock star lifestyle, blowing upwards of a quarter of a millions pounds from gambling!
What do make of all the football autobiographies that are now in the shops?
Well, the reason I wanted to do this one was because I was reading Ryan Giggs’s book and I thought ‘what a load of bollocks! I’ve got more interesting stories than that.’ It was one of those books that once you’ve put it down you never want to pick it up again.
I find a lot of players’ books boring and I read in the papers the other day that Michael Owen’s book is set to be a ‘blockbuster’. A blockbuster? F**k me, he hasn’t even said anything!
So what is your favourite story from your book?
They’re all pretty good, but I guess I’ll always be in the record books for my Superstars appearance. I was only there for the appearance fee, so I treated it as a joke, like it was a weekend out, but everyone else there was taking it double serious. I got the lowest points ever and I didn’t do any of the gym tests. I just told them, ‘I don’t give a fuck, I’m not doing them!’
The day before the shooting event, an army man covered in badges was training us and telling everyone how he could kill a guy from 200 paces. When it was my turn to take my first shot with live ammunition, he stood right next to me, but after I picked up the gun and accidentally shot the table in half he ran about 200 paces in the opposite direction! I just thought, ‘well it looks like I can kill a man from two paces.’
You also had a run-in with the FA Cup?
Yeah, well QPR played Sunderland a couple of days after they had won the cup and they decided to display the trophy on a table by the pitch for the whole game. There were a couple of us who had a bet on who could knock it off the table with the ball first. So during the game I got the ball, made a run for it and sent the thing flying. I wound up their fans even more by scoring a couple of goals and in the end there was a pitch invasion that made it on News at Ten!
You gambled on everything, was playing football not enough of a challenge?
No it wasn’t, I was never nervous before a football game. I could play in front of 50,000 people or in front of 15, it didn’t bother me. I think that’s because, firstly, I wasn’t in love with football – my father pushed me into that and secondly, because I never hung around with footballers. On the pitch I made up the tricks as I went along and the thing about the QPR fans was that if they went wrong I would hold my hands up, but they would blame somebody else anyway!
How did you handle the pressure from the press that’s in our game?
Well, there are more cameras around now than they were then. But whenever I did have a cameraman following me, I used to say ‘well come and fucking well follow me then, I don’t give too fucks.’ And they used to leave me alone because they thought I was a lunatic. A nice bit of reverse psychology that.
What do you think of Sven Goran Eriksson making as many headlines as the players?
I don’t understand the affection with Eriksson. He’s always at a football match, so I’m surprised he’s got time to shag birds. Last time I was up north I expected to see him at a Rochdale game! As for the way he talks… (shakes his head) I’d rather listen to Kenny Dalglish!
Were you superstitious at all?
I didn’t have any superstitions, I was usually in a betting shop 30 yards away from the QPR ground until 2:45pm, but Frank McLintock and David Webb – who had won everything – would be in there an hour and a half before kick-off being physically sick. I never understood why people got there so early. All you have to do is put your kit on and tie your shoe laces!
How do compare the referees today with the ones in your day?
When I was playing you’d get referees that if you swore at them they would swear back and just get on with it. I once asked a referee, ‘What would you do if I said you were a cunt?’
’Obviously,’ he said, ‘I’d have to send you off straightaway.’
‘What would you do if I thought you were a c**t?’
‘I wouldn’t be able to do anything about that.’
‘Well, I think you’re a c**t!’
You replaced Rodney Marsh at QPR. What do you make of the constant comparisons since?
For me, Rodney Marsh only did it in the lower leagues - I did it in the higher ones. When he went to Manchester City they were 12 points clear and they lost the league, so that tells you everything! I don’t think he was a bad player but at the end of the day that is up to the QPR supporters to decide.
What are your memories from playing under another colourful character in Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest?
Well, we got off on the wrong foot straight away when he said, ‘You cockneys are all the same’ and I told him, ‘Excuse me, I’m from Manchester.’ I also told him once that I had a load of ‘O’ Levels and ‘A’ Levels and when he found out that was all bollocks he went mad!
People say he was a great manager but to me he wasn’t. He didn’t used to come into the dressing room until about five minutes before kick-off, and invariable he would be half-pissed – so work that out for yourself. He never took training either so don’t ask me how he won the European Cup twice.
Don’t get me wrong, he was amusing. He used to say, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job,’ but I couldn’t stand him and he could stand me and we haven’t spoken for about 20 years.
Finally, what was your last football-related bet?
Well, I can’t remember the last time I won! Probably Rio Ferdinand to score first against Denmark in the 2002 World Cup. Football is more unpredictable than Horse Racing. You pick four odds-on teams to win and one will always let you down.
