Peter Coates - Memories of Sir Stanley Matthews

Well, they would be very young. It would be after the war, so I'd be some sort of eight, something like that, eight or nine, that sort of age. But I used to be taken occasionally to Stoke City with my brothers. I came from a large family, and there was a gap between me and the next brother because we had quite a lot of sisters. My elder brothers used to take me to Stoke. I always remember it was the Victoria Ground, which was a bank, a tip, and they'd find a good place so that I could see the game. And that would be my very early memories of that Stoke City team after the war, when the great man played.

Well, I'd be pretty young, but I know there were a lot of concern about it. Because we talked a lot of football at home, as they did in places like Golden Hill. Football was a big topic of conversation, and yeah, there were people weren't happy that he was leaving.

I actually saw it on television. We hadn't got a television, but we went to a relative's, named Doyle's in Golden Hill, in the back streets. I can remember, I could take you to the house now if it's still there. I'm not sure, I think some of them still survive, but it's changed such a lot. And it was a pretty crowded living room when we all saw what a dramatic final it was. It's gone down in history, it was one of the great post-war finals.

Well, he was like, we know he's our most famous football son, and there's always been great interest in him. Because there have been very few names, if any, more iconic than Stanley Matthews in terms of English football. He's up there with just a few.

Well, that had an amazing impact because the crowd went up. You probably can find the figures, I can't remember them off the top of my head, but they were dramatic, the change that had taken place. And the feel-good factor around the city that he was coming back. So yes, it created a huge anticipation and a feeling, a really good feeling.

Well, he was an amazing player, and he would have been an amazing player today. I take the view that you can only be the best in your own time, and I've had that view a very long time. But I'm equally certain that, remember, he was a very fine athlete. He was a man before his time. He was into diet and he didn't drink. He was into all sorts of stretching and things that are now commonplace. So he was a very intelligent guy who wanted to look after himself and wanted to play for a long time. He achieved that, but he was clearly a man who thought a lot about the game and a lot about fitness and the best way to extend his career.

Well, it is a record, and I can tell you a little story which he told me, and he told me with a straight face, but I was never quite sure. But I think he was very serious when he told me. He said that I was chatting with him in the boardroom, because he was the president of the club, and I used to see him a bit. I've taken him out for dinner, and so I got to know him very well, and we became good friends. And he did say, he said, one of the mistakes I made, I retired too early. I'd, I've got two more years in me. Whether Tony Waddington agreed with that I shall never know, because I never asked him. But those were very much from his lips, and I remember smiling when he told me the story. Retired too early at 50. He said yes, yes.

Well, he had wonderful pace, you know. As a boy, his record for the hundred yards was very impressive. So he was a fine athlete and a fine sprinter, and so he got pace. But he got this surge of pace, you know, this quick ten yards where he could just go, he just left you. And sometimes they were on the back foot because he dazzled them with his bit of skill. But he got wonderful balance. You look at a good player, you've got that wonderful whatever about you, and you'll see old shots of him and you can see that, just looking at old pictures and you've seen him in certain poses and postures where you see that great balance he had. And wonderful, wonderful dribbling skills. Dribbling was much more common then, and nobody, he wasn't called the Wizard of the Dribble for nothing. And he got a wonderful, wonderful striking of the ball. His corners are much talked about. I don't believe the stories about the lace being in the right position for Freddie Steele to head the ball, but it's a good story.

Well, I have a view, you can only be the best in your own time, as I've said. And Stanley was that, and I think he would have adjusted. It probably would have suited him absolutely perfectly because he got all the skills, got wonderful touch, got everything you need to be a modern-day footballer. So yes, he would have been very much at home. These wonderful pitches, a lighter ball. He wasn't the greatest header of all, so he might have headed the modern ball.

Well, he was very modest. He was a very modest man, given his position in football. As certainly no one's had a more prominent position in football than Stanley did in his day. We've got to remember things were different, but he was what I call the first truly international player. What I'm saying is that he was the first footballer to be recognized all over the world. I don't know who predates him, I don't think anybody does, and that's quite something. And the attendances would go up simply because Stanley Matthews was playing. No telly, remember, they didn't see him on the television, so they got to go and see him in the flesh. In London, crowds would go up, Europe, South America, got to go and see this special player. So it gives you some idea of just how significant he was in the game.

A global, I think he was the first truly international player. What I mean is what you've just said, the first global name in football.

Well, he is without question our most famous footballing son, and it'll take some changing. It would be nice to think somebody could come and perhaps measure against such an icon. There's no doubt he stands there as our most famous ever footballer, and it's a great legacy. And even now, I've been away and been in football tournaments with, say, England, and where you're from, Stoke, Stoke City. Even in modern times people will say, ah, Stanley Matthews. That tells you something, doesn't it?

Oh, it was, and I got on very well with him. I liked his company. He's got a charming wife, and I used to enjoy sometimes having dinner with them. He was a very careful eater and a very modest eater. He was a bit like, I always used to say he was a bit like Peter Pan, he never wanted to grow old. Don't overdo it. But Stanley in particular kept that youthful movement. I used to think even in his old age you almost think he might have gone out and played.