IT is an extraordinary statistic – and one that should further burnish the reputation of the North East’s very own footballing fame academy.
Michael Carrick’s late duck over the line into the England reckoning for South Africa means that Wallsend Boys Club has now provided players in five of the country’s last six World Cup squads.
There is obviously Carrick in 2010 and 2006, the great Alan Shearer in 1998 and Peter Beardsley, who served with distinction in both the 1986 and 1990 squads. It would have been six out of the last six if Shearer, still a goalscorer of international class in 2002, hadn’t retired before the finals in South Korea and Japan.
For Peter Kirkley, the affable coach of the 72-year-old Newcastle boys club, it is a record that brings pride but no triumphalism.
“It’s quite a surprising fact I suppose. What makes it even more remarkable is that all of those lads have come from a within a five-mile radius of the club,” he said.
“I think the fact that those lads have had success is down to the managers and the coaches that have helped us over the years. Many of them put their time and effort in and they are volunteers, which I think some people sometimes forget.
“We won’t go shouting from the rooftops about it. To be honest, sometimes the biggest job that we have at the club is telling parents that just because their kid is at the club doesn’t mean they’re going to play in a World Cup.
“I have to be honest, it’s not about me feeling pride for what they’ve done. All three of them have earned what they have got because they have worked their socks off for it. There is no substitute for hard work.
“What is so pleasing is that all of those people who have played at the World Cup haven’t forgotten their roots. The support they give the club is still incredible.”
On Carrick, written off by many before even boarding the plane to South Africa, Kirkley believes that he can surprise a few people.
“Michael has terrific ability and he is capable of proving people wrong,” he said.
“The manager that England have now seems to work to a system and if you want to play for him you need to be able to fit into that system.
“Now what Michael has that some others don’t have is that he is very flexible.
“He can play in more than one position and he has that terrific ability. Like the rest of the 64 boys who have gone on to play professional football, he has a terrific temperament and that has stood him in very good stead.”
A disciplined outlook is essential to success at the club – and is something that he believes those who have gone on to play professional football have maintained through their careers.
“None of the players that are talked about ever gave their managers any trouble. That is maybe a message that we might repeat to some of the lads if it looks like they’re getting too big for their boots,” he said.
“A few years ago the BBC went all over the country and asked some of the club’s ex-players – Steve Watson who was at Villa, Alan Thompson and Robbie Elliott were at Bolton, and Peter Beardsley – ‘What one thing did you learn from Wallsend?’ and they were all unanimous. They all said it was discipline.
“They all have a set of rules at the club and no one is allowed to get too big for their boots. I hope that by the end we have made them into not just good footballers, but good citizens too.”
Kirkley remains in demand at the North East’s three professional clubs, which should be little surprise given his eye for a rough diamond.
He would have been responsible for helping the development of another England World Cup hopeful if Adam Johnson hadn’t been cut from the squad. Manchester City’s flying winger had been rejected by Newcastle and Sunderland as a 12-year-old before Kirkley encouraged employers Middlesbrough to take a chance on him.
Just a few months ago he declined an offer to provide assistance in the youth set-up at Sunderland, where former graduate Steve Bruce is doing a fine job of turning the Black Cats into a top-ten Premier League club.
He prefers to concentrate on working for Wallsend – and helping out at Newcastle. “It’s been great to have Steve back on the patch, he’s not changed. He’s still a credit to the club,” he said.
“He’s desperate to get me into Sunderland but Wallsend is my number one priority, and I still do a bit for Newcastle too.
“When Dennis Wise came in he had this idea I was too old but what he forgets is that it is the eyes that tell you whether someone will be a player or not and you only get that experience from watching a lot of football.”
As three former World Cup caps for England would testify, there are few finer spotters than Wallsend’s great servant.
