"Alreet!" The story of how John Harkes found out Chris Waddle had signed for Sheffield Wednesday
and live on Freeview channel 276
When Trevor Francis travelled to Paris on his own to complete the signing of England superstar Chris Waddle in the summer of 1992, the image of the club changed. Cup finals and European football were on the horizon.
Such a coup it was, Wednesday sought to do the deal on the quiet and with Waddles’ club Marseille agreeable to a £1m transfer fee, a deal was done with little initial fanfare after Francis’ covert mission to meet the later disgraced politician, singer, actor and owner of Adidas, Bernard Tapie, Marseille’s owner.
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Hide AdWith Waddle on the left wing, Wednesday became a genuine force in English football. But his genius was counter-balanced with the quality of another full international, USA midfielder John Harkes, on the right.
Harkes, signed under Ron Atkinson in October 1990, improved immeasurably under Waddle’s tutelage as the pair became firm friends.
“He took me under his wing and we would train together, an extra half an hour, two or three days every single week,” he told The Star.
“He was teaching me how to get early service in off my left foot and how to come back onto my right foot. He was a great teacher of the game, a great person and we quickly became top mates off the field as well as on it. Our wives became really close.
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Hide Ad"I asked him for ideas, I was always looking to learn and he was brilliant. He’d walk me through everything, he’d set up the cones, everything.
“It was really specific stuff, why to take a touch here, not there, we’re talking inches of difference.
So quiet was the deal done that Harkes remembers that despite excited whispers, even Wednesday’s players were not told of Waddle’s signing.
Ahead of an official announcement on July 17, the players were at Middlewood Road for pre-season training. And Harkes, heading into his third season with the club, headed into a portacabin to change his footwear ready for another gruelling session.
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Hide Ad"I went back into the changing room, we had big temporary changing rooms at that time,” he said. “Well I could not believe it. He was there.
“I had to check myself. I was like ‘Is that Chris Waddle? What’s he doing here?’ Nothing had been said at the club that he was coming in. I’m thinking ‘That can’t be Chris Waddle?’
“He came up by me and I said ‘Hey how’s it going?’ He just said ‘Alreet!’ That was when I realised, that’s a Geordie accent, I think! That’s him!
“He came out for training and it raised my game hugely straight away. Chris Waddle was on the opposite wing to me. That was inspiring.”
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Hide AdSuccess followed. Waddle went on to inspire Wednesday to two domestic cup finals that season and won the football writer’s player of the year.
“He grew my love for Sheffield,” Harkes said. “With hi and what we were achieving it grew even more and got even better.
“It was such an incredible time for the club, we won the cup, we were promoted, all of a sudden cup finals, the UEFA. But Waddle’s signing came in the middle of all that and it changed Sheffield Wednesday for the better.”