Commodore is the commonly used collective name for Commodore International Limited and the various national companies that operated underneath it, including Commodore Business Machines (CBM), the U.S.-based home computer and electronics manufacturer with headquarters in West Chester, Pennsylvania that it shared with its parent. Commodore played a vital role in the development of the home–personal computer industry in the 1970s and 1980s. Commodore developed and marketed the world's best-selling desktop computer, the Commodore 64 (1982). Commodore later released the Amiga range of computers in 1985.

The company declared bankruptcy in April 1994. It was bought by Escom which also went bankrupt. In 2005, the brand survived after mergers with Yeahronimo Media Ventures Inc., SATXS Communications BV and Tulip Computers.

History[link]

Founding and early years[link]

Commodore PR-100 programmable calculator

The company that would become Commodore Business Machines, Inc. was founded in 1954^[1] in Toronto as the Commodore Portable Typewriter Company by Polish immigrant and Auschwitz survivor Jack Tramiel. For a few years he had been living in New York, driving a taxicab and running a small business repairing typewriters, when he managed to sign a deal with a Czechoslovakian company to manufacture their designs in Canada. He moved to Toronto to start production. By the late 1950s a wave of Japanese machines forced most North American typewriter companies to cease business, but Tramiel instead turned to adding machines.

In 1955, the company was formally incorporated as Commodore Business Machines, Inc. (CBM) in Canada. In 1962, Commodore went public at New York stock exchange under the name of Commodore International Limited. In the late 1960s history repeated itself when Japanese firms started producing and exporting adding machines. The company's main investor and chairman, Irving Gould, suggested that Tramiel travel to Japan to understand how to compete. Instead, he returned with the new idea to produce electronic calculators, which were just coming on the market.

Commodore soon had a profitable calculator line and was one of the more popular brands in the early 1970s, producing both consumer as well as scientific/programmable calculators. However, in 1975, Texas Instruments, the main supplier of calculator parts, entered the market directly and put out a line of machines priced at less than Commodore's cost for the parts. Commodore obtained an infusion of cash from Gould, which Tramiel used beginning in 1976 to purchase several second-source chip suppliers, including MOS Technology, Inc., in order to assure his supply. He agreed to buy MOS, which was having troubles of its own, only on the condition that its chip designer Chuck Peddle join Commodore directly as head of engineering.

In December 2007 when Tramiel was visiting the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, for the 25th anniversary of the Commodore 64, he was asked why he called his company Commodore. He said: "I wanted to call my company General, but there's so many Generals in the U.S.: General Electric, General Motors. Then I went to Admiral, but that was taken. So I wind up in Berlin, Germany, with my wife, and we were in a cab, and the cab made a short stop, and in front of us was an Opel Commodore."^[2] Tramiel gave this account in many interviews, but Opel's Commodore didn't debut until 1967, years after the company had been named.^[3]

"Computers for the masses, not the classes"[link]

Commodore PET 2001 (1977)

Once Chuck Peddle had taken over engineering at Commodore, he convinced Jack Tramiel that calculators were already a dead end and that they should turn their attention to home computers. Peddle packaged his single-board computer design in a metal case, along with a full-travel QWERTY keyboard, monochrome monitor, and tape recorder for program and data storage, to produce the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). From PET's 1977 debut, Commodore would be a computer company.

Commodore had been reorganized the year before into Commodore International, Ltd., moving its financial headquarters to the Bahamas and its operational headquarters to West Chester, Pennsylvania, near to the MOS Technology site. The operational headquarters, where research and development of new products occurred, retained the name Commodore Business Machines, Inc.

The PET computer line was used primarily in schools, due to its tough all-metal construction (some models were labeled "Teacher's PET"), but did not compete well in the home setting where graphics and sound were important. This was addressed with the introduction of the VIC-20 in 1981, which was introduced at a cost of US$299 and sold in retail stores. Commodore took out aggressive ads featuring William Shatner asking consumers "Why buy just a video game?" The strategy worked and the VIC-20 became the first computer to ship more than one million units. A total of 2.5 million units were sold over the machine's lifetime.^[4]

Commodore 64 (1982)

In 1982, Commodore introduced the Commodore 64 as the successor to the VIC-20. Thanks to a well-designed set of chips designed by MOS Technology, the Commodore 64, (also referred to as C64), possessed remarkable sound and graphics for its time and is often credited with starting the computer demo scene. Its US$595 price was high compared with that of the VIC-20, but it was still much less expensive than any other 64K computer on the market. Early C64 ads boasted, "You can't buy a better computer at twice the price."
Australian ads used a tune speaking the words "Are you keeping up with the commodore? Because the commodore is keeping up with you. "

In 1983, Tramiel decided to focus on market share and cut the price of the VIC-20 and C64 dramatically, starting what would be called the "home computer war." TI responded by cutting prices on its TI-99/4A, which had been introduced in 1981. Soon there was an all-out price war involving Commodore, TI, Atari and practically every vendor other than Apple Computer. By the end of this conflict, Commodore had shipped somewhere around 22 million C64s—making the C64 the best selling computer of all time.

Tramiel quits; The Amiga vs. ST battle[link]

Second Commodore logo, with mixed-case company name (1985–1994).

Commodore's board of directors were as impacted as anyone else by the price spiral and decided they wanted out. An internal power struggle resulted; in January 1984, Tramiel resigned. He founded a new company, Tramel Technology (spelled differently so people would pronounce it correctly), and hired away a number of Commodore engineers to begin work on a next-generation computer design.

Now it was left to the remaining Commodore management to salvage the company's fortunes and plan for the future. It did so by buying a small startup company called Amiga Corporation in August 1984, for $25 million ($12.8 million in cash & 550,000 in common shares) which became a subsidiary of Commodore, called Commodore-Amiga, Inc.^[5] Commodore brought this new 32-bit computer design (initially codenamed "Lorraine", later dubbed the Amiga 1000) to market in the fall of 1985 for US $1295.

But Tramiel had beaten Commodore to the punch. His design was 95% completed by June (which fueled speculation that his engineers had taken technology with them from Commodore). In July 1984 he bought the consumer side of Atari Inc. from Warner Communications which allowed him to strike back and release the Atari ST earlier in 1985 for about $800.

During development in 1983, Amiga had exhausted venture capital and was desperate for more financing. Jay Miner and company had approached former employer Atari, and the "Warner owned" Atari had paid Amiga to continue development work.^[6] In return Atari was to get one-year exclusive use of the design as a video game console. After one year Atari would have the right to add a keyboard and market the complete Amiga computer. The Atari Museum has acquired the Atari-Amiga contract and Atari engineering logs revealing that the Atari Amiga was originally designated as the 1850XLD. As Atari was heavily involved with Disney at the time, it was later code-named "Mickey", and the 256K memory expansion board was codenamed "Minnie".^[7]

The following year, Tramiel discovered that Warner Communications wanted to sell Atari, which was rumored to be losing about $10,000 a day. Interested in Atari's overseas manufacturing and worldwide distribution network for his new computer, he approached Atari and entered negotiations. After several on-again/off-again talks with Atari in May and June 1984, Tramiel had secured his funding and bought Atari's Consumer Division (which included the console and home computer departments) in July.

As more execs and researchers left Commodore after the announcement to join up with Tramiel's new company Atari Corp., Commodore followed by filing lawsuits against four former engineers for theft of trade secrets in late July. This was intended, in effect, to bar Tramiel from releasing his new computer.

One of Tramiel's first acts after forming Atari Corp. was to fire most of Atari's remaining staff, and to cancel almost all ongoing projects, in order to review their continued viability. In late July/early August, Tramiel representatives discovered the original Amiga contract from the previous fall. Seeing a chance to gain some leverage, Tramiel immediately used the contract to counter-sue Commodore through its new subsidiary, Amiga, on August 13.

The Amiga crew, still suffering serious financial problems, had sought more monetary support from investors that entire spring. At around the same time that Tramiel was in negotiations with Atari, Amiga entered into discussions with Commodore. The discussions ultimately led to Commodore's intentions to purchase Amiga outright, which would (from Commodore's viewpoint) cancel any outstanding contracts - including Atari Inc.'s. This "interpretation" is what Tramiel used to counter-sue, and sought damages and an injunction to bar Amiga (and effectively Commodore) from producing any resembling technology. This was an attempt to render Commodore's new acquisition (and the source for its next generation of computers) useless. The resulting court case lasted for several years, with both companies releasing their respective products. By March 1987 they had settled out of court, with all suits against Tramiel's engineers dropped. His "Business is War" tactics had succeeded again.

Amiga 500 (1987)

Throughout the life of the ST and Amiga platforms, a ferocious Atari-Commodore rivalry raged. While this rivalry was in many ways a holdover from the days when the Commodore 64 had first challenged the Atari 800 (among others) in a series of scathing television commercials, the events leading to the launch of the ST and Amiga only served to further alienate fans of each computer, who fought vitriolic holy wars on the question of which platform was superior. This was reflected in sales numbers for the two platforms until the release of the Amiga 500 in 1987 which led the Amiga sales to exceed the ST by about 1.5 to 1,^{[citation needed]} despite reaching the market later. However, the battle was in vain, as neither platform captured a significant share of the world computer market and only the Apple Macintosh would survive the industry-wide shift to Microsoft Windows running on PC clones.

Demise and bankruptcy[link]

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the computer press had often sought Commodore, one of the industry's leading players, and its colorful management for information, despite the company's notorious reputation. One columnist stated in April 1981 that "the microcomputer industry abounds with horror stories describing the way Commodore treats its dealers and its customers."^[8] The VIC-20 and C64, although aggressively marketed, were arguably more successful because of their price than their marketing. After Tramiel's departure, Commodore executives shied away from mass advertising and other marketing ploys, fearful of repeating past mistakes. Commodore also retreated from its earlier strategy of selling its computers to discount outlets and toy stores, and now favored authorized dealers.

By the late 1980s, the personal computer market had become dominated by the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh platforms. Commodore's marketing efforts for the Amiga were less competitive and seemed half-hearted and unfocused. The company also concentrated on consumer products that would not see a demand for another few years—including a digital TV system called CDTV. As early as 1986, the mainstream press was predicting Commodore's demise.^[9] Nevertheless, The Philadelphia Inquirer's Top 100 Businesses annual continued to list several Commodore executives among the highest-paid in the region.

In the early 1990s, CBM continued selling Amigas with 7–14 MHz 68000-family CPUs (even though Amiga 3000 with 25 MHz 68030 was in the market by that time), when PCs with 33 MHz 486s, high-color graphics cards and SoundBlaster (or compatible) sound cards offered comparable, and eventually higher, performance, albeit at higher prices. By way of contrast, when introduced in 1985, the Amiga had compared favorably against 286-based systems with EGA graphics and rudimentary sound capabilities that frequently cost 2–3 times as much.

In 1992, the production of the A600 seemed like a backward move; it replaced the A500, yet it removed the numeric keypad, Zorro expansion slot, SCSI capability, and other functionality in favor of PCMCIA and a theoretically cost-reduced design. It was basically unexpandable and lasted less than a year. Productivity developers moved to PC and Macintosh, while the console wars took over the gaming market. David Pleasance, managing director of Commodore UK, described the A600 as a 'complete and utter screw-up'. (Smith, 1994)

In late 1992, Amiga hardware began to reach parity with PCs with the release of the A4000 and A1200 computers, which featured an improved graphics chipset, the AGA. By this point, both the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh had a much larger market share than the Amiga platform. As software developers shifted to these platforms, the Amiga lost value for mainstream consumers. The custom-designed and custom-built AGA chipset also cost Commodore considerably more than the commodity chips used in IBM PCs, further reducing Commodore's profit margins. Common wisdom was that even though the AGA clearly improved upon the original chipset (OCS), it never returned to Amiga the clear dominance of multimedia computing that it once promised.

Software piracy has often been given by trade publications and user groups as the reason for the Amiga's demise, but this view is controversial^{[citation needed]}. For information on the specific challenges in the Amiga market of the time, see the Amiga Software article.

In 1994, the 'make or break' system, according to Pleasance, was the 32-bit CD-ROM-based game console: the CD32, but it was not sufficiently profitable to put Commodore back in the black.

In the early 1990s, all servicing and warranty repairs were outsourced to Wang Laboratories. By 1994, only its operations in Germany and the United Kingdom were still profitable. Commodore declared bankruptcy on April 29, 1994, and its assets were liquidated. The former site of Commodore's operational headquarters in West Chester, Pennsylvania, now houses the headquarters and broadcast studios of leading cable retailer QVC, Inc. (On November 26, 2004, QVC became the first retailer to sell the DTV, a "C64 in a joystick" designed by Jeri Ellsworth.)

The company's computer systems, especially the C64 and Amiga series, retain a cult-following among their users years after its demise.

Post-Commodore International, Ltd.[link]

Following its liquidation, Commodore's former assets went their separate ways, with none of the descendant companies repeating Commodore's early success. It should be noted that both Commodore and Amiga product line still exist today, but separately with Amiga being its own company. Other companies develop operating systems and manufacture computers for both Commodore and Amiga brands as well as software.

Commodore UK was the only subsidiary to survive the bankruptcy and even placed a bid to buy out the rest of the operation, or at least the former parent company. For a time it was considered the front runner in the bid, and numerous reports (all false), surfaced during the 1994–1995 time frame that Commodore UK had made the purchase. Commodore UK stayed in business by selling old inventory and making computer speakers and some other types of computer peripherals. However, Commodore UK lost its financial backing after several larger companies, including Gateway Computers and Dell Inc., became interested, primarily for Commodore's 47 patents relating to the Amiga. Ultimately, the successful bidder was German PC conglomerate Escom, and Commodore UK was absorbed into Escom in mid-1995.

Escom paid US$14 million for Commodore International, primarily for the Commodore brand name. It separated the Commodore and Amiga operations into separate divisions and quickly started using the brand name on a line of PCs sold in Europe. However, it soon started losing money due to over-expansion, went bankrupt on July 15, 1996, and was liquidated.

In September 1997, the Commodore brand name was acquired by Dutch computer maker Tulip Computers NV.

The Commodore brand name resurfaced in late 2003 on an inexpensive portable MP3 player made in the People's Republic of China by Tai Guen Enterprise, sold mostly in Europe. However, the device's connection to Tulip, the legal owners of the name, is unclear.

In July 2004, Tulip announced a new series of products using the Commodore name: fPET, a flash memory-based USB Flash drive; mPET, a flash-based MP3 Player and digital recorder; eVIC, a 20 GB music player. Also, it licensed the C64 trademark to the producers of the C64 DTV.

In late 2004, Tulip sold the Commodore name to Yeahronimo Media Ventures for €22 million.^[10] The sale was completed in March 2005 after months of negotiations. Yeahronimo Media Ventures soon renamed itself to Commodore International Corporation and started an operation intended to relaunch the Commodore brand. The company launched its Gravel line of products: personal multimedia players equipped with Wi-Fi, with the hope the Commodore brand would help them take off. The Gravel was never a success and was discontinued. On June 24, 2009, CIC renamed itself to Reunite Investments.^[11] CIC's founder, Ben van Wijhe, bought a Hong Kong-based company called Asiarim,^[12] and Asiarim purchased the Commodore brand from Reunite. Asiarim then changed its name to Commodore Holdings Corporation (presumed to have become effective March 2011).^[13]

The Commodore Semiconductor Group (formerly MOS Technology, Inc.) was bought by its former management and in 1995, resumed operations under the name GMT Microelectronics, utilizing a troubled facility in Norristown, Pennsylvania that Commodore had closed in 1992. By 1999 it had $21 million in revenues and 183 employees. However, in 2001 the United States Environmental Protection Agency shut the plant down. GMT ceased operations and was liquidated.

Ownership of the Amiga line passed through a few companies, from Escom of Germany in 1995, and then to U.S. PC clone maker Gateway in 1997, before an exclusive lifetime license was made to Amiga, Inc., a Washington company founded by former Gateway employees Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss in 2000. On March 15, 2004, Amiga, Inc. announced that on April 23, 2003 it had transferred its rights over past and future versions of the Amiga OS (but not over other intellectual property) to Itec, LLC, later acquired by KMOS, Inc., a Delaware company. On March 16, 2005, KMOS, Inc. announced that it had completed all registrations with the State of Delaware to change its corporate name to Amiga, Inc. Several companies produce Amiga hardware and software today.

Commodore Gaming was formed to reintroduce the brand to the booming gaming PC market, after jointly acquiring the Commodore name with Commodore International Corporation in 2005.^[14] At the CeBIT 2007 show in Germany, four new gaming geared PCs were introduced, named Cg, Cgs, Cgx and Cxx. These are described as ranging from an entry level gaming PC to an “extreme specification model”. Each x-86 machine has Microsoft Windows as the default operating system with customization from a range of high end components and peripherals. Production has ceased.

Product line[link]

Calculators[link]

774D, 9R23, C110, F4146R, MM3, M55, P50, PR100, SR1800, SR4120D, SR4120R, SR4148D, SR4148R, SR4190R, SR4212, SR4912, SR4921RPN, SR5120D, SR5120R, SR5148D, SR5148R, SR5190R, SR59, SR7919, SR7949, SR9150R, SR9190R, US*3, S61(The Statistician).

Computers[link]

(listed chronologically)

• Commodore KIM-1 - single board computer
• Commodore PET/CBM range
• Commodore VIC-20 - aka VC-20 and VIC-1001
• Commodore CBM-II range - aka B-range aka 600/700 range
• Commodore MAX Machine - Predecessor to C64
• Commodore 64 - including C64C
• Commodore Educator 64 - 64 in a PET 40xx case
• Commodore SX-64 - all-in-one portable C64 including screen and disk drive
• Commodore 16 - including C116, incompatible with C64
• Commodore Plus/4 - compatible with C16
• Commodore LCD - LCD-equipped laptop (never released)
• Commodore 128 - including 128D and 128DCR
• Commodore 65 - C64 successor (never released)
• Commodore 900 (never released)
• Commodore Amiga range
  • Amiga 1000
  • Amiga 500 - incl A500+
  • Amiga 1500
  • Amiga 2000 - incl A2000HD
  • Amiga 2500
  • Amiga 3000 - incl A3000UX & A3000T
  • Commodore CDTV
  • Amiga 600
  • Amiga 1200
  • Amiga 4000 - incl A4000T
• Commodore PC compatible systems - Commodore Colt, PC1, PC10, PC20, PC30, PC40, ..., 486SX-LTC

Games Consoles[link]

• Commodore TV Game 2000K/3000H
• Commodore 64 Games System
• Amiga CD32

Software[link]

• AmigaOS - Operating system for the Amiga range; multitasking, microkernel, GUI
• Amiga Unix - Operating system for the Amiga, based on Unix System V Release 4
• Commodore BASIC - BASIC interpreter for the 8-bit range, ROM resident; based on Microsoft BASIC
• Commodore DOS - Disk operating system for the 8-bit range; embedded in disk drive ROMs
• KERNAL - Core OS routines for the 8-bit range; ROM resident
• Simons' BASIC - BASIC extension for the C64; cartridge-based
• Super Expander - BASIC and memory extension for the VIC-20; cartridge-based
• Super Expander 64 - BASIC extension for the C64

Notes[link]

• Tim Smith and Chris Lloyd (1994), "Chewing the Facts", 'Amiga Format' Annual 1994, 106-111, 107.
• Boris Kretzinger: Commodore - Aufstieg und Fall eines Computerriesen, Skriptorium-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-938199-04-0.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Commodore International

	Pennsylvania portal
	Companies portal

• Commodore International Corporation - Commodore Asia. Co-owner of the Commodore brand.
• Commodore Gaming - Co-owner of the Commodore brand and maker of Commodore-branded gaming PCs.
• Commodore World
• Software Archive
• Chronological History of Commodore Computer – by Larry Anderson
• The Canonical List of Commodore Products – by Jim Brain, maintained by Bo Zimmerman
• CommodoreUSA The latest incarnation of Commodore. Producer of the new C64x and future Amiga's x86-x64

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Emlyn Walter Hughes, OBE (28 August 1947 – 9 November 2004) was an English footballer who captained both the England national team and the much-decorated Liverpool F.C. team of the 1970s.

From Blackpool to Liverpool[link]

Emlyn Hughes, was the son of Fred Hughes, a Great Britain, Wales, Barrow, and Workington Town rugby league footballer.^[1] After being refused a trial by local side Barrow, Hughes joined Blackpool, who were then a top-flight side. He made his début for Blackpool in 1964 and played alongside the likes of Jimmy Armfield and Alan Ball. Hughes was then an inside forward, but Blackpool turned him into a left-half, and as such he made his début for them in the 1965–66 season.

In February 1967, after just 28 appearances for Blackpool, he signed for Liverpool in the February for £65,000, (based on average increases in earnings, this would be approximately £1,770,000 in 2009).^[2] Manager Bill Shankly was stopped in his car by the police as he drove Hughes to Liverpool for the first time and said: "Don't you know who I've got in this car? The captain of England!" The policeman peered through the window and said that he didn't recognise the man, to which Shankly replied: "No, but you will!" In the future Hughes did indeed go on to captain his country.

Hughes made his Reds début in the 2–1 league win over Stoke City at Anfield on 4 March 1967, he scored his first goal in the 6–0 thrashing of Newcastle United, again, at Anfield on 26 August the same year.

Hughes settled into the midfield at Liverpool during a transitional period for the club, earning the nickname Crazy Horse after an illegal rugby tackle on Newcastle United winger Albert Bennett. Liverpool did not win any honours in his first four seasons there but Hughes was seen as a demonstration of the future which Shankly had in mind. His versatility was noticed too – he filled in at left back and central defence, a trait which was spotted by England coach Alf Ramsey in 1969.

Ramsey gave Hughes his début on 5 November of that year, playing him at left back in a friendly against Holland in the Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam. England won 1–0. He played in the next game in the same position. Hughes scored his only international goal against Wales; the opening goal of a 3–0 Home International victory at Ninian Park in 1972.

A watershed year[link]

For Hughes, 1970 was an important year in his career. After Liverpool were humiliated by Second division side Watford in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, Shankly made a decision to clear out much of the ageing playing staff which had won two League Championship titles, an FA Cup and reached a European Cup Winners Cup final and recruit new, younger blood to take Liverpool back to the helm of the English game. Hughes, still not 23, survived the cull – as did the likes of Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith – and a batch of fresh faces which would shape Liverpool's success in the 1970s began to arrive.

Meanwhile, England were about to fly to Mexico and defend the World Cup won four years earlier. Hughes had six caps by the time Ramsey included him in his provisional squad of 27 which flew to South America for altitude-acclimatising friendly games against Colombia and Ecuador. Hughes featured in neither game, but was selected in the final squad of 22. He was the youngest selected by Ramsey, and the only Liverpool player in the squad.

Hughes was one of only two outfield players (along with Nobby Stiles) who did not feature in any game as England progressed to the quarter finals where they were defeated by West Germany. Question marks were raised about Ramsey's substitution decisions during the game, with much attention paid to the decisions to withdraw Bobby Charlton and Martin Peters in the second half, but then to let first choice left back Terry Cooper remain on the pitch for the whole 120 minutes when he was clearly exhausted, rather than allow his natural replacement Hughes to take over. Hughes would ultimately never feature at a World Cup.

Bribery Allegation[link]

In 2008, Tommy Smith claimed in his autobiography, that on 8 May 1972, Hughes told him that he had been speaking to a number of Arsenal players, and they had said that they were "willing to throw a match for £50 a man" in a vital match at Highbury which decided the title. Liverpool failed to win and the title went to Derby County. Smith wrote that he was disgusted with what Hughes said and never spoke to him again after this. Smith maintained that the only witness was Ian Callaghan. However, Smith also stated that he wasn't sure if Hughes was suggesting that they should bribe the Arsenal players, was wanting him to bribe the Arsenal players, or told him this so he would be incriminated. Smith said he never told Shankly because it would have "Broken his heart".^[3]

The 70s[link]

If Hughes' long international career would prove to be unfulfilled, his club career was about to hit every height there was. In 1971, Liverpool reached the FA Cup final, losing 2–1 after extra-time to Arsenal, who completed the then-rare 'double' of League title and F.A. Cup. Hughes was seen being barely able to control his devastation as he collected his losers' medal, upon which BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme remarked: "Emlyn Hughes there, really absolutely sick."

Hughes soon established a reputation for charging upfield from his defensive midfield position on long, complicated runs, and constantly berating referees. As a footballer, he had his share of both admirers and critics – some said he was a great player, others said he was a good player in a great team.

Hughes was still a full back for England, featuring regularly in Ramsey's team. Hughes played as England's interest in the 1972 European Championships ended at the two-legged quarter final stage, with West Germany again victorious.

In 1973, Hughes won his first League Championship title with Liverpool FC and his first European honour with the UEFA Cup. He scored both goals in a memorable win over Merseyside rivals Everton at Goodison Park, and also became captain after Tommy Smith had a publicised falling-out with Shankly, who nonetheless kept him in the team. Smith and Hughes' relationship soured as a consequence, although it never affected their football.

At this stage of Hughes' career, there was a low with England to go with a high with Liverpool. In October 1973, Ramsey selected Hughes to be left back as England entertained Poland at Wembley. Victory would guarantee a place at the 1974 World Cup finals. Anything else would take Poland through.

England dominated the match but were denied constantly by the charmed antics of Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski. Then Poland had a breakaway after a misplaced tackle by Norman Hunter in the second half, and only Hughes and goalkeeper Peter Shilton were back to defend. The ball was spread across to Jan Domarski who shaped to shoot from the edge of the area. Hughes flew into a last-ditch tackle but Domarski's shot evaded his block and slipped under the body of Shilton and into the net.

England equalised through an Allan Clarke penalty but couldn't find the winning goal. Although some questioned whether Hughes' attempts at a tackle had unsighted Shilton, Hughes emerged rightly blameless for the Poland goal, with the emphasis placed on Hunter's initial mistimed tackle and Shilton's desire to hold rather than merely stop the ball, which in the end meant he did neither. Ramsey was sacked six months later.

At the end of that season, a now-famous smile was back on Hughes' face when Liverpool reached the FA Cup final and destroyed Newcastle United 3–0. Hughes, as skipper, received the trophy from The Princess Anne, whom he would encounter again later in his professional life. It was a good month for Hughes, as he was also appointed England captain – as successor to Bobby Moore – by caretaker boss Joe Mercer. Hughes led out England for the first time on 11 May 1974 in a Home International against Wales in Cardiff, which England won 2–0.

Hughes captained England for every one of Mercer's seven games in charge, and initially maintained the role when Don Revie was appointed as Ramsey's permanent successor. However, after the first two qualifiers for the 1976 European Championships, Revie decided to drop Hughes from the team. He gave the captaincy to his former Blackpool team-mate Alan Ball, and Hughes appeared only twice for England in 1975.

With his international career seemingly in tatters, Hughes nevertheless remained a solid and successful leader with Liverpool, now under the guidance of Bob Paisley following Shankly's retirement. Liverpool won nothing in 1975, but achieved another League Championship and UEFA Cup double in 1976. The following season was the most eventful in Hughes' career.

It began with a shock recall by Revie, who played Hughes in the second qualifier for the 1978 World Cup, although he did not return the captaincy to him – this was now held by Hughes' clubmate Kevin Keegan, leading to a peculiar situation of a club captain being instructed and led by one of his charges. Hughes was now predominantly a central defender, and played in a tactically-disastrous team against Italy in Rome which marked the lowest point of Revie's tenure as England manager. England lost 2–0.

Revie selected Hughes for further games through the early part of 1977, during which time Liverpool were heading towards an unprecedented 'treble' of League Championship, FA Cup and European Cup. Ultimately, they would win the title but then lose the FA Cup final to bitter rivals Manchester United, with Hughes again cutting a sickened figure as he climbed the Wembley steps to receive his losers' medal, although he did manage to lead Liverpool on a lap of honour afterwards. However, the smile was restored 4 days later when he captained Liverpool to a historic 3–1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach in Rome to win the European Cup. His season ended with some individual glory, when he was voted the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year.

Revie gave Hughes the England captaincy back for a Home International match against Scotland when Keegan was unavailable, before selecting him for the squad which would tour South America in the summer. During this tour, Revie secretly engineered his departure from the England job, and when Ron Greenwood took over, he returned the captaincy to Hughes. England left too much to do after the defeat to Italy to qualify for the World Cup, but Hughes nonetheless celebrated a 50th cap when England beat the Italians 2–0 in the final qualifier at Wembley at the end of 1977.

In 1978, Hughes was in the Liverpool team which lost its first ever League Cup final to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest after a replay. The league title went to Forest too, but Liverpool managed to retain the European Cup with a 1–0 win over FC Bruges at Wembley, with Hughes lifting the trophy for a second year running. Hughes' place was now under regular threat from a talented young Scottish defender named Alan Hansen who had arrived the previous season for a mere £100,000 from Partick Thistle. The following season, Hughes made just 16 appearances, enough to earn his final title medal. Paisley decided to let him go and sold him to Wolverhampton Wanderers for £90,000 in August 1979. Hughes left Liverpool after 665 appearances and scoring 49 goals for the club. His 59 appearances for England while at Liverpool made him the club's most capped player until Welsh striker Ian Rush broke the record more than ten years later.

The last hurrahs[link]

Hughes made his Wolves début at the Baseball Ground on Wednesday, 22 August 1979 in a 1–0 win over Derby County.

Hughes went on to win the League Cup in his first season with Wolves – the only trophy he did not win with Liverpool – and duly lifted it as captain after a surprise 1–0 win over Nottingham Forest at Wembley. He was also decorated with the OBE for services to football and featured on the television tribute show This Is Your Life.

He continued to be selected for England squads even after leaving Liverpool. He featured sporadically in England's successful qualifying campaign for the 1980 European Championships, he captained the team for the final time in the 1–1 1980 Home International game with Northern Ireland draw at Wembley, and won his 62nd and final cap against Scotland in the next game as a substitute.

Greenwood still put him in the squad for the European Championship finals in Italy as experienced back-up, but Hughes ultimately did not play as England were eliminated in the group stages. Hughes was England's only connection with their previous foray into the finals of a tournament – the 1970 World Cup – but his non-participation in either earned him the dubious honour of being England's most capped player never to feature in a major finals. A more acceptable honour was that of becoming only the fifth player to represent England in three separate decades, joining Jesse Pennington, Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton and Peter Shilton. The 57 caps Hughes earned in the 1970s make him the most capped England player of that inauspicious decade.

After the ball[link]

Managing Rotherham[link]

Hughes left Molineux in 1981, joining Rotherham United as player-manager. Inheriting a side that had won the Third Division championship under Ian Porterfield including such players as John Breckin, Tony Towner and Ronnie Moore, Rotherham made a patchy start to the season and were in the relegation zone in January. However, a run of 9 wins in a row followed and Rotherham climbed from third last to third place in the league. Promotion would be missed by four points, but the finish of 7th place was the Millers' highest since the 1960s.

The following season, Rotherham appeared to be holding their ground in the Second Division and were 9th at the start of 1983. However, the side plummeted down the table. On the morning of 20 March Hughes was asked to resign at manager. He refused and therefore was sacked, and replaced by George Kerr the following day. Rotherham would only go down on the final day of the season, as they won only one more game afterwards.

Later life[link]

He also played for Hull City, later becoming a director. He joined Mansfield Town briefly in 1983, but did not make any appearances for the Stags. Later that year he also turned out for Swansea City, with whom he brought his playing career to a close.

Hughes developed a successful television career after leaving football. In 1984, he became a team captain on the long-running BBC quiz A Question of Sport, opposite England's former rugby union captain Bill Beaumont. Hughes became much-mimicked for his competitive nature and high-pitched protestations when not being able to recall an answer. In the show's picture board section, in which panel members were shown a board with a choice of 12 photographs of well known sports personalities to be identified, Hughes would usually reference his old shirt number at Liverpool in informing the show's host David Coleman "Number Six please, Dave".

He infamously identified a picture of a heavily-muddied jockey as John Reid, only to be mortified when told it was the Princess Anne. Later in the same series, she came on the programme, made it clear she was not remotely offended by the misidentification, and was put on his team. Hughes caused a minor national debate when he defied protocol and put his arm around her. He called her "ma'am" throughout.

Hughes later joined her team for the much-criticised It's a Royal Knockout project, the brainchild of her brother the Prince Edward.

Hughes' involvement with the BBC also included work as an analyst on radio. Alongside Peter Jones he was present at the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985 and uttered the words: "Football has died and the hooligans have won." He also was a member of the punditry panel for BBC television's coverage of the 1986 World Cup. However, he left A Question Of Sport – and the corporation as a whole – in 1987 to go to ITV and skipper a team on the unsuccessful Sporting Triangles. Through this, he also occasionally appeared as a pundit on ITV's own football coverage. He was also immortalised in comic strip form as he was signed by Melchester Rovers in the Roy of the Rovers strip; he also wrote a column for the teenage football magazine Match. Alongside Peter Jones again, he was present at the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989. Later he paid visits to the parents of Andrew Devine, who was left comatose after the tragedy, in hospital and offered the support and help.^[4]

On 24 July 2008 it was announced that Hughes will be inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame. The National Football Museum in Preston started its Hall of Fame in 2002 with the inductees chosen by a selection panel that includes Gordon Banks, Sir Trevor Brooking, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Charlton, Jack Charlton, Mark Lawrenson and Gary Lineker. The awards will be presented at the annual ceremony, this year being held at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel in London on 18 September.^[5]

Career details[link]

* Liverpool F.C (1967–1979) 665 appearances, 49 goals

• 4 Division 1 (Level 1) championship winners medals (1973, 1976, 1977 and 1979)
• FA Cup winners medal (1974)
• 2 European Cup winners medals (1977 and 1978)
• 2 UEFA Cup winners medals (1973 and 1976)
• European Super Cup winners medal (1977)
• 3 Charity Shield winners medals (1974, 1976 and 1977)
• 3 First Division (Level 1) runners-up medals (1969, 1974 and 1978)
• 2 FA Cup runners-up medals (1971 and 1977)
• Football League Cup runners-up medal (1978)
• European Super Cup runners-up medal (1978)
• Charity Shield runners-up medal (1971)

* Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C (1979–1981) – 58 appearances, 2 goals

• Football League Cup winners medal (1980)

* England (1969–1980) – 62 caps, 1 goal

• Hughes captained England 23 times and was part of the 1970 World Cup squad in Mexico

* Personal Honours

• Awarded the OBE in (1980)
• Football Writers Footballer of the Year (1977)

Final years[link]

A statue of Hughes outside Emlyn Hughes House, Barrow-in-Furness

In later years, Hughes lived a quiet retirement, occasionally carrying out duties as an after-dinner or motivational speaker.

In 1992 he appeared on an episode of Gamesmaster (a TV based computer games magazine) promoting the football video game which carried his name Emlyn Hughes International Soccer.

He became chief patron to the Sheffield based charity F.A.B.L.E. (For A Better Life with Epilepsy) in 1995.

From March 2002, he became a presenter and pundit on the nightly football phone-in on Real Radio Yorkshire. He remained in this role even when he became ill.

In 2003, it was announced that he was suffering from a brain tumour, for which he underwent surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Hughes continued to battle against the disease until his death at his home in Dore, Sheffield, at the age of 57.

A minute's silence was held the following evening at Anfield before Liverpool's game against Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup and was impeccably observed. His funeral service took place at Sheffield Cathedral.

Hughes was married to Barbara and had a son and daughter, both named after him (Emlyn Jr. and Emma Lynn).^[6] His last public appearance had been at his daughter's wedding, nine months before his death.

Emlyn is a much loved character amongst the Anfield Faithful and was voted in the top 10 at No.10 on the official Liverpool Football Club web site poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop.

A statue of Hughes was unveiled in his birthplace of Barrow-in-Furness in 2008, it is placed in front of a new office building on Abbey Road which was also named after Hughes.^[7]

A Cancer support charity in Hughes' name is run by the Freemasons of Tapton Masonic Hall in Sheffield, of which Hughes was a devoted member.

See also[link]

• Emlyn Hughes International Soccer
• List of notable brain tumor patients

External links[link]

• Player profile at LFChistory.net
• Emlyn Hughes management career stats at Soccerbase

References[link]

1. ^ David Lawrenson (2007). "The Rugby League Miscellany [Page-6]". Vision Sport Publishing. ISBN 978-1-905326-30-3
2. ^ "Measuring Worth - Relative Value of UK Pounds". Measuring Worth. 23 April 2003. http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/. Retrieved 31 December 2010. 
3. ^ Anfield Iron – Tommy Smith (2008)
4. ^ Hillsborough remembered. Mirror, 11 April 2009
5. ^ Hughes To Join Hall Of Fame
6. ^ Kelly, Rob; Turner, Georgina; Schaerlaeckens, Leander (10 November 2004). "The worst start to a top-flight season". The Guardian (London). http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,13854,1346901,00.html. 
7. ^ "Home town gains Emlyn sculpture". BBC News. 18 April 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/7353893.stm. 

• BBC obituary
• Guardian obituary
• Memory of Emlyn Hughes
• Retro football at 442football.net
• Shankly Gates interview

v t e England squad – 1970 FIFA World Cup 1 Banks 2 Newton 3 Cooper 4 Mullery 5 Labone 6 Moore 7 Lee 8 Ball 9 B. Charlton 10 Hurst 11 Peters 12 Bonetti 13 Stepney 14 Wright 15 Stiles 16 Hughes 17 J. Charlton 18 Hunter 19 Bell 20 Osgood 21 Clarke 22 Astle Coach: Ramsey

v t e England squad – UEFA Euro 1980 1 Clemence 2 Neal 3 Sansom 4 Thompson 5 Watson 6 Wilkins 7 Keegan 8 Coppell 9 Johnson 10 Brooking 11 Woodcock 12 Anderson 13 Shilton 14 Cherry 15 Hughes 16 Mills 17 McDermott 18 Kennedy 19 Hoddle 20 Mariner 21 Birtles 22 Corrigan Coach: Greenwood

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009)

Peter Andrew Beardsley MBE (born 18 January 1961^[1]) is an English former footballer who played between 1979 and 1999. He once set a record transfer fee in the game and represented his country 59 times between 1986 and 1996, once as captain. He played for Newcastle United, Liverpool and Everton, having also had spells with Carlisle United, Manchester United, Vancouver Whitecaps, Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City, Fulham, Hartlepool United and the Melbourne Knights. He is currently employed as the Reserve Team manager of Newcastle United. He was briefly appointed as the club's caretaker manager in 2010.

Club career[link]

Early career[link]

Born in Longbenton, Northumberland, Beardsley was a product of the famous Wallsend Boys Club in North Tyneside. However, he was released as a teenager by hometown club Newcastle United and began his professional career with Carlisle United in 1978. He managed 22 goals in 104 league games, helping them win promotion to the Second Division at the end of the 1981–82 season.^[1]

He was transferred to Canadian club Vancouver Whitecaps on 9 September 1982, but his stay in North America was brief. Only weeks after arriving in Canada, he was on his way back to England when Ron Atkinson paid £250,000 to take him to Manchester United. He made just one first team appearance for United in a Football League Cup tie against AFC Bournemouth before returning to Vancouver on a free transfer on 1 March 1983, but again his stay in North America was a short one. He was on the move once again on 23 September 1983, this time to join Newcastle.

Newcastle United[link]

Beardsley signed for Newcastle for a fee of £150,000, although when they had let him go earlier they could have signed him for nothing. The pacey, incisive and skilful forward made his debut for the Magpies the day after he signed, 24 September, in the 1–1 2nd division draw with Barnsley at Oakwell. Beardsley was an instant hit with the Newcastle supporters, scoring and setting up spectacular goals. He went on to celebrate promotion with his team-mates, who were captained by Kevin Keegan in his final season as a player. They finished in the final promotion spot behind winners Chelsea and runners-up Sheffield Wednesday. He scored 20 league goals that season and formed an exciting strike partnership with former England striker Kevin Keegan who had also won major honours with Liverpool. Beardsley's career would have echoes of that enjoyed by Keegan, who retired at the end of that promotion campaign.

Beardsley scored his first goal for the Magpies on 19 October 1983 in their 2–0 victory over Cardiff City at Ninian Park. His first goals at St James' Park came in Newcastle's next fixture, against Manchester City. United beat City 5–0 and Beardsley scored his first ever hat-trick.

In his first season in the First Division, Beardsley scored 17 goals in 38 league games as Newcastle finished in 14th position. During the following campaign he played in all of Newcastle's 42 league matches, scoring 19 goals. In one fixture against West Ham United, Beardsley ended the game as a stand-in goalkeeper. The game ended in an 8–1 defeat for Newcastle, with Beardsley conceding the last 3 goals. However, apart from a brief run of fine form early in the 1985–86 season which saw a few observers tip them as dark horses in the title race, Newcastle never looked like winning anything major during Beardsley's first spell in the team, and he was soon being targeted by more successful clubs.

Upon returning from the 1986 World Cup, Beardsley helped Newcastle to another mid-table finish (11th), scoring 11 goals in 27 appearances, and won a further six caps for his country, before Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish made a national record £1.9 million offer to Newcastle for Beardsley's services. Manager Willie McFaul accepted the offer and Beardsley was on his way to Merseyside after four seasons on Tyneside which had brought a total of a 61 goals (all in the league), his transfer completed on 14 July 1987.

12 years later, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson revealed in his autobiography that he had made a bid for Beardsley, but McFaul had rejected the offer and told him that he wouldn't sell the player even if Ferguson offered £3 million.^[2]

Liverpool[link]

Beardsley joined Liverpool at the same time as John Barnes, the Watford winger who would be voted PFA Player of the Year for the 1987–88 season. They were added to John Aldridge, who had signed during the previous campaign, with the three tearing Arsenal apart on Beardsley's debut at Highbury for Aldridge to score after just nine minutes of the opening day of the 1987–88 season, 15 August 1987. Liverpool went on to win 2–1 and this would shape the rest of the season for the Reds. The new-look striker partnership of Beardsley and Aldridge took over from the long-standing partnership of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush, which was arguably the most successful partnership in English football during the 1980s. Rush had departed to Juventus of Italy, while player-manager Kenny Dalglish had decided only to make occasional first-team appearances from then on. Aldridge had signed during the 1986–87 season as Dalglish prepared to build his new strike force.

Beardsley's first goal for his new club came on 29 August 1987 in the 4–1 victory over Coventry City at Highfield Road, with Beardsley scoring in the 83rd minute. He helped Liverpool to a record-equalling 29 league matches undefeated as Liverpool convincingly strolled to the League title with just two defeats to their name. However, there was disappointment at the end when Wimbledon denied them the 'double' with a shock 1–0 win in the FA Cup final, a game in which Beardsley "scored", only for it to be ruled out by the referee who awarded Liverpool a free-kick for an earlier foul instead of allowing play to continue. Wimbledon then scored the only goal of the game thanks to Lawrie Sanchez, and Liverpool's second chance of a goal (and a unique second double) was blown in the second half when John Aldridge missed a penalty.[7]

Beardsley scored 15 league goals in his first season for Liverpool, level with John Barnes as the club's highest scorer behind John Aldridge.

Rush rejoined the club in the 1988 close season and Liverpool returned to Wembley and won the FA Cup the following year, but lost their League championship with virtually the last kick of the last game of the season against Arsenal. Although Rush missed 14 games due to injury, when all three of Liverpool's strikers were fit, Dalglish played with a 4–3–3 formation that allowed Beardsley, Aldridge and Rush to play alongside each other. Beardsley scored 11 league goals that season.

In April 1989, after the Hillsborough disaster claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans, Beardsley was among many Liverpool stars left distraught by the tragedy, attending several funerals and visiting the injured in hospital. He was part of the team that won the FA Cup that season with a 3–2 win over neighbours Everton at Wembley Stadium, though the league title slipped away on the final day of the season when Liverpool conceded a last minute goal to champions Arsenal at Anfield.

With the departure of John Aldridge a few weeks into the 1989–90 season, Dalglish reverted to a 4–4–2 formation with Beardsley and Rush as his main strikers, with Beardsley scoring 10 goals in 29 games.

Liverpool did win the championship again that season, but the arrival of Israeli international striker Ronny Rosenthal saw his first team opportunities limited in the title run-in, in which Liverpool overcame a strong challenge by Aston Villa to finish champions by a nine-point margin. Despite UEFA lifting the ban on English clubs in European competitions for the 1990–91 season, Liverpool were unable to compete in the European Cup as (being the team present at the Heysel disaster that had sparked the ban in 1985) they had to serve an extra year of the ban before being allowed to play in European competitions again.

Beardsley suffered another blow to his first team chances in January 1991 when Kenny Dalglish brought in David Speedie. Dalglish stepped down the following month and was replaced a few weeks later by former Liverpool player Graeme Souness. Still, Beardsley managed 27 games that campaign and scored 11 goals – three of them in a 4–0 league win over Manchester United on 16 September 1990, and a further two in the Merseyside derby a week later.

His final league goal for the Reds came on 17 November 1990, when he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at Coventry City. By this relatively early stage of the season he had scored an impressive 11 times in the league, but a failure to add any more goals over the Christmas period may very well have played a part in Dalglish's decision to sign a new striker in the new year.

His final competitive goals came in the dramatic first replay of the fifth round FA Cup tie against Everton at Goodison Park on 20 February 1991, which ended in a 4-4 draw and would be the club's last game before the sudden resignation of manager Kenny Dalglish, who by the end of the season had been succeeded by Graeme Souness.^[3]

Liverpool were top of the league at this stage, but in the new year were overhauled by Arsenal and the title went to Highbury at the end of the season. And with the arrival of Dean Saunders for a national record fee of £2.9 million after the end of the season, Beardsley's days at Anfield were looking even more numbered, despite the sale of David Speedie. And there was also talk of Souness signing Glasgow Rangers striker Mo Johnston, though the transfer never happened.

During Beardsley's Anfield career he played in 175 matches and scored 59 goals, but it was his vision, guile and all action style of play that endeared him to the Anfield faithful, so much so he was voted in 19th position in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop, conducted by the official Liverpool Football Club web site; over 110,000 supporters worldwide voted for their 10 favourite players of all time.^[4]

Everton[link]

Liverpool's derby rivals, Everton succeeded in gaining 30-year-old Beardsley's signature when he joined them on 5 August 1991 for a fee of £1 million. Ironically, they had tried to sign Dean Saunders (the player who effectively replaced Beardsley at Anfield) just weeks earlier, and soon afterwards Beardsley was joined by Mo Johnston, who had been a Liverpool transfer target just before Beardsley's transfer. He made his debut on 17 August in a 2–1 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Beardsley scored 25 goals in 81 appearances for the blue half of Merseyside, though Everton never achieved anything greater than a mid table finish in the league during his time there.

While at Everton he became – along with David Johnson and Nick Barmby – one of only three players to have scored for both sides in Merseyside derbies. He finished as the club's top scorer by the end of his first season at Goodison Park and again showed his dynamic quality during his second season, but off the field Everton were suffering financial difficulties and when former club Newcastle offered Everton £1.5 million for Beardsley it was a sum they couldn't turn down for a 32-year-old player.

After 95 matches for Everton, scoring 32 goals, he was on his way back to his home town club Newcastle after six years away on Merseyside.

Return to Newcastle United[link]

On 16 July 1993, Beardsley rejoined Newcastle for £1.5 million, where his old team-mate and strike partner Kevin Keegan was now manager. Newcastle had just won promotion to the Premier League as Division One champions, and in 1993–94 they finished third and qualified for the UEFA Cup, with Beardsley scoring a total of 25 goals and his strike-partner Andy Cole scoring a club record of 41 goals in all competitions. He played for a further four years at the club, almost captaining them to the FA Premier League title in 1996, but they were pipped to the title by Manchester United.

During his second spell at St James's Park he racked up 157 appearances and scored 56 goals, bringing his overall total after two spells with the club to 321 appearances and 117 goals. This equates to a goal every 2.74 matches, a decent ratio for a player who was seen by many as a provider rather than a goalscorer, particularly in the 1996–97 season when he was switched to midfield following Alan Shearer's arrival. It is this period of his career that Beardsley regards as the time when he peaked.

Later career and retirement[link]

He left Newcastle on 18 August 1997 for £450,000, joining Bolton Wanderers, where he made 21 appearances but was unable to save them from being relegated from the Premier League. He then went on loan to Manchester City, where he played six times.^[1] This loan spell made Beardsley the only player to play for both top flight teams in Liverpool and Manchester.

He then moved to Fulham who were managed by his former manager Kevin Keegan, where he made 28 appearances in two separate loan spells, eventually signing for them permanently. He then went to Hartlepool United on a free transfer, and played 22 times in Division Three to secure their Football League status.^[1]

He finally ended his career at the age of 38 when he played twice for the Melbourne Knights in Australia. In a professional career totalling 20 years in English football, he managed 659 league games and 210 goals, and a total of 799 games and 238 goals in all competitions. He had collected three major trophies (all of them with Liverpool) and was capped 59 times by England, scoring nine times. [8]

International career[link]

During his first spell at Newcastle, Beardsley became a regular in the England side and teamed up with striker Gary Lineker, who described Beardsley as "the best partner I could ever have".

Ironically, it was Lineker who made way for Beardsley when manager Bobby Robson gave him his debut as a substitute on 29 January 1986 in the 4–0 friendly victory over Egypt in Cairo. His first goal came in his fourth appearance, on 17 May 1986 in the 3–0 friendly win over Mexico in Los Angeles.

Having only made his debut on 29 January 1986 in a 4-0 friendly win over Egypt,^[5]Beardsley's performances for England won him a call-up for the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico. England scored seven goals in the tournament, of which Lineker scored six (winning the Golden Boot for doing so); the other goal came from Beardsley in a 3–0 victory over Paraguay in the second round. England had failed to score a goal in the first two matches of the finals, but in the third match – Beardsley's first start in the tournament – they beat Poland 3–0. Beardsley contributed in that match with a spectacular cross to Steve Hodge, which allowed Hodge to make England's second goal for Lineker.

Despite falling out of favour in the Liverpool line-up, he maintained his place in the England team and featured in both Euro 88 and the 1990 World Cup. He was given the honour of captaining England on 17 February 1988 when they drew 0–0 in a friendly with Israel.

Beardsley was ignored by England manager Graham Taylor after the end of 1990, and continued to be overlooked by him despite England's dismal performance at Euro 92 as well as their troubled and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 1994 World Cup – a large step backwards for a national side who had been semi-finalists and only been prevented from reaching the final by a penalty shoot-out defeat at the previous World Cup under Taylor's predecessor Bobby Robson.^[6]

During his second spell at Newcastle Beardsley was recalled to the England team in early 1994 after an absence of three years, and ultimately ended his international career while still at Newcastle in 1996, after gaining 59 caps and scoring 9 goals.^[1]

Beardsley once scored four goals for England against Aylesbury United. These did not count towards his international tally, however, as this was not an official international match.^{[citation needed]}

Coaching career[link]

Newcastle United[link]

Beardsley joined the coaching staff at Newcastle United after his playing career was over.^{[citation needed]} In early 1999, Beardsley also served as assistant manager to Howard Wilkinson during his first caretaker period as manager of England, between the dismissal of Glenn Hoddle and the appointment of Kevin Keegan. England faced – and lost to – world champions France in a friendly at Wembley.^[7] In 2003 Beardsley was the subject of a Premier League inquiry, after it was claimed that he had bullied two Newcastle United youth players. He was cleared of the charges.^[8]

Beardsley left Newcastle United in 2006, when Glenn Roeder took over as permanent manager of the club. He believed Newcastle should go in a different direction. Beardsley then worked in a media role at the club.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, his former boss at Everton Howard Kendall stated he was interested in taking over as manager of Republic of Ireland with Beardsley as his assistant manager. Beardsley was also linked with a return to Newcastle in January 2008 when Kevin Keegan returned as manager for a second spell.^{[citation needed]}

Then in March 2009, Beardsley was re-appointed as an academy coach at Newcastle United, working primarily with young strikers.^[9] On 27 July 2010, he was appointed as Reserve Team Manager, with Steve Stone as his assistant manager.^[10] On 6 December 2010, following the dismissal of Chris Hughton, Beardsley was briefly placed in charge of the team on a temporary basis before Alan Pardew was brought in as Hughton's replacement.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Beardsley has been married since 1981^[12]to his wife Sandra^[13]. They have a son Drew (born 1989) and a daughter Stacey (born 1993).^[14]

Honours[link]

Club[link]

Liverpool[link]

• Football League First Division (Level 1)
  • Champions: 1987–88, 1989–90
  • Runner-up: 1988-89, 1990-91
• FA Cup
  • Winner: 1989
  • Runner-up: 1988
• FA Charity Shield:
  • Winner: 1988, 1989 and 1990 (shared)

Newcastle United[link]

• FA Premier League
  • Runner-up: 1995-96, 1996-97
• FA Charity Shield
  • Runner-up: 1996

International[link]

England[link]

• 1990 FIFA World Cup: 4th place
• Rous Cup
  • Winner: 1986, 1988, 1989
  • Runner-up: 1987
• 1991 England Challenge Cup: Winner
• 1995 Umbro Cup: Runner-up

Individual[link]

• PFA Team of the Year: 1990, 1994
• English Football Hall of Fame inducted in 2007

Trivia[link]

Beardsley starred in a video game in the eighties: Peter Beardsley's International Football.

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• Peter Beardsley career stats at Soccerbase
• Official Liverpool FC profile
• Profile at LFCHistory.net
• Peter Beardsley index at Sporting-heroes.net
• English Football Hall of Fame