Peter Coates in praise of 'The Great Man' Sir Stanley Matthews

There would be very young, it would be after the war, so I'd be what, some sort of eight or nine, that sort of age. But I used to be taken occasionally to Stoke City with my brothers. I grew up in a large family, and I'd either go with my next brother. We had quite a lot of sisters, and my elder brother used to take me to Stoke. They were always members of town, which would be a bank 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 was 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 even a big topic of conversation. And yeah, the way people weren't happy that he was leaving. Mmm. And Blackpool probably enjoyed great success, and I guess the pinnacle was the 53 final, the Matthews final.

I actually saw it on television. We hadn't got a television, but we went to relatives named Doyle's in Golden Hill, and 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, and it's changed such a lot. But it was a pretty crowded living room when we all saw what a dramatic final it was. It's gone down as one of the great post-war finals.

Well, he was like, you know, he's our most famous football son, and there's always been great interest in him, because there are very, very few names, if any, more iconic than Stanley Matthews in terms of English football. He's up there with just a few. Hmm. And of course, eventually he does come back to Stoke City in the early 60s.

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 huge, huge anticipation and 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 he was a very fine athlete, a man before his time. He was into diet, he didn't drink, he was into all sorts of stretching, things that are now commonplace. Oh, he was a very intelligent guy. He 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.

Even though, 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 with the president of the club, and I used to see him a bit and take him out for dinner, so I got to know him very well, and we became good friends. And he did say, and he said, 'One of the mistakes I made, I retired too early. I could have got two more years in me.' Whether Tony wanted to agree to that, I shall never know, because I never asked him. But it was he that they were very much for me. Lips? I remember smiling when he told me the story. Retired too early at 50? He said yes.

Well, he had wonderful pace. You know, he was a boy, his record for the hundred yards was very impressive. He would have been a fine athlete and a fine sprinter on his own. So he got pace, but he got this surge of pace, you know, that quick ten yards when he could just go, he just left you. And sometimes they were on the back because he dabbled with a bit of skill. But he got wonderful balance. You look at good players, they've got that wonderful balance. And you see old shots of him, and you could see that just looking at old pictures, you've seen him in certain poses and postures where you see that great balance. He had wonderful dribbling skills. Dribbling was much more common then, and nobody, he wasn't called 'The Wizard of the Dribble' for nothing. And he had a wonderful strike 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 still had 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 understandably, I think he would have adjusted. It probably would have suited him absolutely perfectly, because he had all the skills, he had one little touch, he had everything you need to be a modern-day footballer. So yes, he would have been very much at home. These wonderful pitches, lighter ball, wasn't the greatest, but he might have had in the modern game. Great footballer.

Well, he was very modest. He was a very modest man, given his position in football. I certainly think 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. I mean, 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. The attendance would go up simply because Stanley Matthews was playing. No television, they didn't see him on television, so they had to go and see him in the flesh. In London, crowds would go up. In South America, they went to see this special player. So it gives you some idea of just how significant he was in the game at a global level. I think he was the first truly international player. What I mean is what you've just said: the first global name in football. Hmm.

Well, without question, he's 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. But there's no doubt he stands there as our most famous ever footballer. And it's a great legacy. And it's also, even now, I've been away and been in football tournaments with, say, England, and where are you from? Stoke, Stoke City. And even in modern times, people will say, 'Our Stanley Matthews.' That's something, doesn't it?

Oh, it was. And I got on very well with him. I liked his company. He had a charming wife, and I used to enjoy sometimes having dinner with them. He was a very careful eater and a very modest eater. But a bit like, I always used to say, a bit like Peter Pan, he never wanted to grow old, not able to do. But Stanley in particular kept that youthful movement. I used to think, even in his older age, you almost think he might have gone out and played. Is that okay? Of course, he used to dress with his baseball cap and his jeans, he was just so common in the right way. He liked to not go to gold? I'm changing? I always used to say to people, 'He's a bit like Peter Pan.' And so he did do things like that to make him feel young. And he did move, as you know. In his old age, he died at 85, didn't he? But prior to that, he kept really very well, never had any weight, very careful. But he did like about, and he didn't have a drink. So he looked after himself. And you almost say he felt he would go on and on. He seemed to. I think his wife's lifetime seemed to affect him. Yes, because she died about it. Were you very clear? But not long before, and I just had a feeling he went downhill after that. She clearly was good for him. She was a very smart, attractive woman, very well educated, a Czechoslovakian officer class. Her dad was an army officer. So you could tell she came from a well-educated family. And she was a pretty nice person. But I definitely think it affected him. I always was surprised that something had happened. But I think he was affected by his ex-wife's death. Yeah, mmm.

But reluctant hero? Oh yes, he didn't... you know, he was a very modest man. He wouldn't, he didn't look for people to come and run about after him or anything like that. He was quite shy, I think. I'll tell you what happened. I think he was very wary of people. He felt he'd been used a bit, and he probably had. I mean, that's life, these things happen. And I think it made him a little bit reserved in a way. But once he got to know you, you were fine. But I think he was always cautious about people trying to get something out of him, because he was... he never had to pay for anything. Imagine, you never had to pay wherever he went. Somebody paid his hotel bill or wherever. Not really, because even now, not because he was comfortable. He had a nice house, didn't he? He bought Oliver Lodge's house, didn't he? You know, on the hill. He had a nice house. He was comfortable. Didn't have to pay for anything. And I remember a good example. I do have to look this up because I can't remember when he was... when Billy Wright? I went to his funeral with Stan, and I went representing the club. We parked a little way down at the bottom end, you know where the new were down there, and we walked up to the stadium because they were meeting. And of course, he would have been a VIP guest, so he went into the boardroom at Wolverhampton with the family. Close friends and relatives were gathered in the boardroom. And anyway, when we walked up, huge applause because the crowds were lining the streets. So you walked out and the crowd applauded. But there was that you would instantly recognize who he was. And that tells it again, just what his position was. It was Sir. There was huge applause. So that tells it all, really.

When he was... when Billy Wright? I went to his funeral with Stan, and I went representing the club. We parked a little way down at the bottom end, you know where the new were down there, and we walked up to the stadium because they were meeting. And of course, he would have been a VIP guest, so he went into the boardroom at Wolverhampton with the family. Close friends and relatives were gathered in the boardroom. And anyway, when we walked up, huge applause because the crowds were lining the streets. So you walked out and the crowd applauded. But there was that you would instantly recognize who he was. And that tells it again, just what his position was. It was Sir. There was huge applause. So that tells it all, really. Even then, I mean, I'm thinking of myself growing up and not living in Stoke, and the names you say, Stanley Matthews, the name is there as being famous. Well...

Well, I was talking to Bobby Charlton on... oh, we did the Loving Cup, didn't we? We did the Loving Cup there. And so I made a speech, I had to make a bit of a spiel. And one of the things I said, United went in the first division, so they didn't get a mug. I pointed that out to them. And I did say to them, they've done pretty well since. But I said that I said, and it was this mug was given for the coronation in 1937. I said, and Stoke City would have had a young Stanley Matthews playing then. And I went on to tell about we've got this wonderful finest ever team of young local talent, lost the best years of the war. But Bobby then started talking to me about Stanley. And he said that he used to go to Newcastle, and he and Bobby would go and stand by the corner flag so they could get close to him when he was playing. So when he came to Newcastle, they wanted to be on the so they could be near him. But he said, he said, 'You know, there was never anybody like Stanley for me.' And he mentioned even Tom Finney. He said, 'Even Tom Finney, something was something about...' He said, 'But there was nobody like Matthews.' When he was... he took pop used to say measures me, and so he would be the same. He said that he got that all right. And yet he was the biggest name in football in his prime. You know, which is... he lost some of his best years. Stanley lost some of his best years.