30 YEARS OF PREMIER LEAGUE | TONY DALEY “ALIVE AND KICKING…”

When Sky launched into our living rooms in the Summer of 1992 with their ‘Whole New Ball Game’ few could have imagined how the Premier League would mushroom into the ridiculous global behemoth as it exists today. But the initial promotional advert that Sky unleashed was essential in setting a tone that would be tweaked and expanded over the next 30 years.

It could not have been more different than what had come before. Sound-tracked by Simple Minds’ ‘Alive and Kicking’ the advert was a game changer in terms of perceptions of professional football. As football tentatively, in the wake of Italia 90, moved away from the dark days of hooliganism and stadium disasters (for many) a rebrand was needed.

New Order (with the ‘help’ of Keith Allen) had made the link between popular culture and football at the Italian world cup. The coupling of ‘World in Motion’ with firstly England’s success and the everyday appeal of Paul Gascoigne (plus tears) had begun to shift mindset on English football. It was a dour World Cup but somehow England emerged with credit – the defining game for me, for example, was the Cameroon Quarter Final in which Gary Lineker’s two penalties gave England a largely undeserved success. No matter, a die had been cast.

When you watch the Sky advert now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EFiPldOq9s)  it can seem dated and almost laughable but at the time it signalled to many a new dawn of regular live football in your living room. For many of my generation, whose interest had been fuelled by Gazza, Lineker and Pavarotti this was an exciting prospect. It also tried to showcase footballers with a glamorous exoticism – David Seaman playing with his children in front of an ostentatious mansion or Anders Limpar waking up in a luxurious bedroom and then splashing water over his face like a male model. The aim was clear – this was football, but not as you have ever known it. And it was live on Sky Sports.

The advert featured a player from each side that would contest the inaugural Premier League, with the same players also featuring in the billboard promotion and other marketing. The full line up is pictured below:

Villa’s representative was of course Tony Daley. Daley represents a good choice to start this series of articles on the Premier League at 30. Although he was in essence, through this media campaign, the face of Villa in the new Premier League he was of course a player that bridged both the ‘pre’ and ‘post’ Premier League era for the club. Many Villa fans would make no argument with the idea Daley’s best days were in the old First Division – and in many ways Daley’s story is one of the changing face of English football.

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Born in Birmingham, Daley made his Villa debut in 1985 – at the age of just seventeen and still an ‘apprentice’. It was the following season that Daley really arrived in the team making 26 appearances and scoring his first goals for the club. He went from strength to strength a tricky and pacy winger who, whilst not prolific, scored some wonderful goals. As Villa finished second in 1990 Daley scored – for this writer – his best goal against Luton Town at Villa Park (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxZXDgJ7f8k). That goal was what Daley was all about – a player who mad the old cliché about getting fans off their seat wholly true. I recall a club VHS called the ‘Pain and the Glory’ which sound-tracked Daley’s best moments to Gabrielle’s ‘Dreams’. They can come true, and they often did at Daley’s feet in those dog days of Division One.

England recognition followed – partly thanks to Graham Taylor – and Daley made seven appearances for his country between 1991 and 1992, including the disaster at Euro 92 as England crashed out. He never played for England after that European Championships which gives weight to an idea that his best football was behind him by the time the Premier League arrived that August.

It made sense that he was Villa’s face in the Sky promotion as he probably was their most recognised player at that point. Paul McGrath was possibly an option, but Dwight Yorke was a long way off being a household name and Dean Saunders wouldn’t join from Liverpool weeks into the season.

But despite Daley’s place in the Sky campaign there was a nagging sense that here was a player of the previous era, struggling to make the same mark in football’s brave new dawn. There were of course moments of cult magic and lest us forget Daley was heavily involved in a runners up campaign in 1992-93 and the League Cup win in 1994, losing a boot on the Wembley pitch before collecting his sole career medal. Even that day, Daley, as was often the case was overshadowed by those around him – it was of course his shot that cannoned off the post for Dalian Atkinson to win a penalty after Kanchelskis stopped his goal bound shot with his hand. Dean Saunders stepped up to score his second of the game.

By July 1994 Daley was gone – reunited with Graham Taylor at Wolves but injuries plagued the winger, and he made only 21 times across four stop start years.

There is no doubt Daley will be remembered as a Villa legend and he remains a welcome face at Villa Park and offering comment on AVTV for U21 games. But there is an irony that the man who was chosen as Villa’s face of the Premier League never really set the new format on fire. Certainly not in the way he had prior to being seen ‘Alive and Kicking’ for Sky Sports

AUTHOR | IVAN MCDOUALL

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Author’s UTV PODCAST archive Ivan McDouall | UTV Podcast | An Aston Villa Blog

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