The Ex-Files: John Wark Wednesday, 27th Nov 2013 11:39 In the 11th part of our regular series, The Ex-Files, Blair Ferguson catches up with Town legend John Wark. Just where do you start when talking about John Wark and his lengthy association with Ipswich Town? It’s probably best to go all the way back to the beginning. Wark, now 56, found himself moving down to sleepy Suffolk from Glasgow at a young age in the pursuit of football but initially found the adjustment to country life difficult. "I came as a 15-year-old," explains Wark. "I was playing at a boys club and Ipswich had scouts all over the place, they had a scout in Scotland. “They came and watched me and then invited me down to Ipswich for trials when I was 15 and that went OK. "They invited me down twice, once for a week and then a few months later for another week, then they invited me down to sign as an apprentice on my 16th birthday. "Coming from Glasgow, it's a big place compared to Suffolk, which is small, you’re leaving your parents and your family and they put in digs with other families and that was so hard for me. "I think I must have been in four or five digs over six months because I was so homesick but the good thing was that I was doing well at football and I was progressing. “At 17 I made my debut for the first team [in the FA Cup sixth round third replay victory over Leeds]. I think if I wasn't doing well at football then I definitely would have gone home because I was really homesick and missed my family quite a lot." He says Sir Bobby Robson was a big factor in him settling into life in Suffolk and into football at Town: "I was progressing and doing well and we had other Scottish players who were down and the manager, Sir Bobby, was a big influence. “He was like a father figure, he looked after me on and off the field so that helped as well but if I hadn’t been doing well I might have gone back home and maybe tried to play for a Scottish team." Under Sir Bobby, Wark explains how his mentor brought him through the ranks: "Ipswich were a team that gave youngsters a chance and he said to me, when I was 17 and he threw me in the FA Cup in the quarter-final against Leeds, who were the best team I Britain at the time, 'If I didn't think you were good enough I wouldn't have played you. It doesn't matter what age you are'. “So he had faith in me. He used to have chats with me and try make me feel better so he was good that way, he was really good."
The first of Wark's three spells in a blue shirt was his most successful and he talks about it fondly, as you would expect. It's easy to see how he got the Ipswich bug and why he returned so many times. "My first spell was definitely the best," he says. "I won the FA Cup when I was 21 in 1978 and the 1981 season for me was the best ever personally. We won the UEFA Cup and I won PFA Player of the Year and Young European Player of the Year. "That season I scored 36 goals which was incredible for a midfield player. My first period at Ipswich was by far my best." Regarding that Wembley day in May 1978, he recalled: “It was unbelievable and it was great for the club [winning the FA Cup]. Everyone's dream was to go to Wembley and win the FA Cup because you used to see it [and only it on TV] in the old days. "You wondered what it would be like playing in the final and I was lucky enough to do it with Ipswich Town, it was a great achievement at the early age at 21. “There's players still playing now who still dream about it but I think the FA Cup now isn't what it was years ago, it's been put on the back burner because of TV and everything, which I think is wrong." Despite having won two trophies there was still one which eluded him and that team, the league title. Ipswich where on the cusp of winning a treble that would have marked them amongst history’s greatest teams. "I think we could have won the treble if we had had three or four more players,” he insists. “We only had 16 players playing 66 games and we won the UEFA Cup and got beaten in the semi-final of the FA Cup, so I'm sure with three or four more players we could have won the treble and been like Manchester United and Liverpool who have done that.
"It was just great to win something, it would have been so wrong if we hadn't got anything. Injuries played their part, having to play so many games, but it was another great achievement winning in Europe because for me the UEFA Cup was like the Champions League, it was all the top teams and we had to beat them home and away and we did it. “Some teams we beat in there like St Etienne hadn't lost a game and beat Manchester United and Juventus and we beat them [4-1 away and 3-1 at home], that's the sort of team we were." After such a successful spell Wark left for the first time joining Liverpool in 1984 following Sir Bobby's departure. "The reason I went to Liverpool and the only reason I left was because Sir Bobby had gone to be the England manager. When that happened we had had to build a stand and I think five of that UEFA Cup team had been sold. "I couldn't see us being a force again or winning anything and then we sold me to Liverpool because we needed some money as well. “I asked for a transfer because Sir Bobby wasn't there and half the team had gone and I couldn't see us winning things. If Sir Bobby had stayed I reckon I wouldn't have left but the club made a lot of money, I had been there as a kid and I went to the best team in Europe in Liverpool." His second spell, which began in January 1988 following a £100,000 return move from Anfield, saw him arrive to what he had foreseen when he left, a team that wasn't competing and had been relegated into the Second Division, what’s now the Championship. But he says it was difficult to resist the lure of Suffolk.
"It was hard, people say you should never come back but I'd been living in Liverpool and I was slightly homesick for Suffolk because I'd been down here for a while. “I could have gone to Coventry or Watford, who were in the same league as Liverpool, so I dropped a league to come back, only because it was Ipswich Town, I took a major pay cut as well. "When I first went to Liverpool people said I was greedy because I was on decent money but I only went to Liverpool for about £100 more at the most, which is incredible." Wark points out the difficulties he faced on his return: "It was different because I wasn't playing with the players I had played with before. It was a different league, I was changing my position, I was going from midfield and then moving to centre-back but when I came back I was getting on a bit, I think was 32. "I did OK, it was under John Duncan, we didn't have the players but I think I got Player of the Year that season but there weren't a lot of stand-out moments, I was just glad to be back in Suffolk. "I thought I did well again but just at the end of it when I went to get a new contract I was offered very similar money." He left for a second time in 1990, this time for financial reasons. But looking back it's easy to see that he regrets his decision. "I had two really good years and people ask why I left again. It was because the money I wasn't on very good and the reason I left to go to Middlesbrough was because they offered me some stupid money. “Maybe I shouldn't have gone but I did and that was the reason. I thought I can't turn this down but I signed a two-year contract and I only lasted a year because I was coming back every weekend to Suffolk. "It was really hard [in the second spell at Town] and I think the fans expected me to be the player I was but I wasn't, I was never going to be what I was like in 1981 scoring 36 goals, I was younger then and playing with international players, ten internationals were in the squad. "Saying that, I really enjoyed my time and I gave everything in every game and the fans appreciated it as well, but the only reason I left was because the money and I came back because the travelling at weekends and sometimes I would arrive late on Tuesday mornings and it was just getting on top of me.” Prior to joining the Blues for a third time in the early stages of the 1991/92 season he says he was close to hanging up his boots. "I was going to call it a day and retire which looking back was incredible, I remember coming back and I was actually going to sign on in Ipswich and [former Town public relations officer and journalist] Mel Henderson saw me.
"It was at the top if Portman Road and he asked what I was doing and I explained that nothing was happening and I was going to see if there was any work going. “He said ‘Why don't you go into Portman Road and see what's happening?’. I wasn't sure but he talked me into it and I went to Portman Road to go and train and the rest was history." Wark's way back into the Town squad and Premier League was through working from the bottom up and held him in good stead going into the last six years of his career. "They had injuries so I played in the reserves and suddenly they got more injuries and in October they had injuries in the first team and that was me in.
“I played the whole season and we got promotion, then I played for another five years. It's incredible when you think that at 33 I was going to call it a day and then I played until I was 39." After almost giving up Wark went on to be a mainstay of the Town defence, playing against some of the best strikers the Premier League had to offer, with every game special. "Every game was a bonus for me. Playing in the Premier League from 1992 up to 1995, those years were incredible. I was playing centre-back against Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp, Alan Shearer. “Just to play them at my age, I loved every game. Getting promotion and getting into the Premier League was unbelievable, but to play in the Premier League was something I really enjoyed, it was so hard but I did enjoy it." In addition to his successful club career, Wark was also a full Scotland international and their top goalscorer in the 1982 World Cup.
"If you ask any Scottish kid playing for your country is the thing you dream about,” he says. “You want to be a professional footballer first but to play for Scotland was something I dreamt about, we had a fantastic team under Jock Stein, much better than the teams we have now. "I was lucky to play in the World Cup in 1982 where I ended up being top goalscorer, I know it was only two goals but I was top goalscorer for Scotland. "It's another level. I think playing international football is another level than Premier League football for me. When you go to the World Cup it's another level, we played the best team in the world, Brazil, Russia, who were really good, plus New Zealand.
“Every game was tough and the pace was quicker and you had to be on it every second so it was really a step up but I really enjoyed it and having the Tartan Army behind you everywhere you went was fantastic." Christophe Berra recently became Town’s first Scotland international since Wark, who believes regular call-ups will benefit both the centre-half and the Blues. "I think he deserves it, he's done well since he's come in. I didn't know much about him but he's as strong as an ox and since he's come in he's been one of our best players. “I think when you get called up for your country it gives you a buzz and it will improve him when he comes back to play for Ipswich. To be involved in an international set-up can only do him good." You can read all the previous Ex-Files here.
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With the UEFA Cup and Frans Thijssen at the Newcastle game in September 2009, shortly after Sir Bobby Robson’s passing
In more recent international action with the Scotland Masters
