Steve Bull at 60 - Big interview with Liam Keen
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00:00Well Bully, first of all, happy birthday. Thank you. 60th on Friday. Thanks for reminding me.
00:07How does that feel? Exactly the same as 59? Or are you excited for this week?
00:11No, you know, I always say to all my mates, I think when I was 49 I never had an ache in my body, nothing at all.
00:16As soon as you hit 50, you go, ow, ooh, uh-uh. And now, 10 years on, you're thinking, oh my word, I'm just creaking even more.
00:23My knees, my back, my shoulder, everything's just creaking at the moment. But, I'm still here, I'm still going.
00:29I'll take you back very quickly. 06 was it, your testimonial here against Villa?
00:33Yeah. I mean, how old would I have been? I was up in the stand watching that here.
00:37I think you played, yeah, this tall. About that big, yeah. Still that height now.
00:41I think you played seven minutes that day, talking about your knees. I did.
00:44Talking about the knees, I mean, it's been a little bit of a time since you were out on that pitch.
00:49It was. You wouldn't believe it, because Mick McCarthy, who was the manager at the time,
00:53he said to me, Bully says you can play as long as you want, have as long as you want.
00:57So, about three or four weeks before the game came about, I got myself fit, really fit.
01:02I kept off the wine, kept the food. I thought, I'm going to give this a good go. I am going to give this a good go.
01:06But, before the game itself, you wouldn't believe, I was stretching in the bathroom.
01:10I think, I'm going to try school today to give this something to cheer on, you know.
01:14And I'm stretching, I went pop. I popped my knee up like that and it cracked.
01:17My knee cracked. And a piece of bone that I'm going to return with, a foreign body, cracked.
01:22And I couldn't straighten my leg. So, if you watch them seven minutes, I'm running with a bent leg like this.
01:26Two days later, two pieces of bone, I stepped up. Otherwise, I was going to give it a good go.
01:31I was going to give it a good go. But now, two part knee replacements now, still going just about.
01:36Looking good. And look, you talk about knees, you talk about careers, but what a career it was.
01:42When you think back to first signing at the football club, leaving a certain club down the road to arrive here,
01:51did you ever think that you'd get to this point now, having a birthday, yes, a big birthday,
01:57but having people celebrate it with you, thousands of people celebrating it with you because of how much you meant to them?
02:03Yeah, not really. Not really, because I think if you knew who was going to win the lottery, you'd put the right numbers on.
02:08It's one of them, wouldn't it? It's one of them. When I first came here, this wasn't even here.
02:14It wasn't even a stand hardly. To look back now, on the years I've been here, I've been privileged, to be fair,
02:19to see it transform, so the fans still stop here. And as you say, 60, I know I'm going to be saying next year as well,
02:26we're going to have the same conversation. I've been here 40 years next year, and I'm going to go,
02:29oh my word, here we go again, 40 years, and I remember the first day me and Tommo came. Honestly, scary, scary.
02:36What were those thoughts in those first couple of days? You and Tommo arrived at £65,000, £70,000 at the time.
02:42Yeah, yeah, £64,000. I think Tommo was £40,000, I was £24,000, I think. No, it weren't, Tommo, it weren't.
02:48The way we both played, anyway, was both equal. And when we came here that first day, we walked through the corridor,
02:55which was a corridor, torn down, there was water all over the place, cockroaches everywhere.
02:59And we'd just come from a stripey lot up the road, there was a championship there, there was division,
03:03like a premiership now, and we'd just come here and thought, what have we done, what have we done?
03:07But they didn't want us, they didn't want us up the road, and I mean, it's their loss, and these gain.
03:12Look how it worked out. How do you think your life changed, because you go from those working-class roots,
03:20a black country lad, you finally make it in professional football, and you make it a fantastic club like this.
03:26How has Wolves changed your life?
03:28Well, I don't think it's changed my life, it's changed my outcoming life, because of my house, my car, my house.
03:34I'm a very lucky person, the way I was when I came here, but I'm still the same person I was when I came from Tipton,
03:38from the warehouse where I used to work, or the builder's yard where I used to work.
03:41I'm still the same person you've known this now over the years, been talking to me, I'm still the same person as I was then.
03:47I have to thank these, these for giving me the breakthrough from them letting me go up the road,
03:52and these sticking by me, because they could have turned round and said, you've got dodgy knees, we don't want you.
03:56They just said, come on, get out there, you do the job out there, we'll keep supporting you.
04:00But equally, you've also got to go out there and do the job as well.
04:03You have, you have, and I absolutely love doing it, I was going to say, I love doing it, mate.
04:10I think if somebody said, turn back the clock now, and go back to a certain game, I'd go, yes, I'd love to revisit that one.
04:16But now, I've done my bit now, I'm enjoying life, and they've gone to the hard work now.
04:20And you've been able to, you know, you've built a life and a career through football, they call it the beautiful game for a reason.
04:25You've gone on to be able to do some brilliant things from a charitable perspective with the club throughout since then.
04:31So to be able to keep yourself connected to one singular club, it's very rare these days, and to have that must be really special.
04:37You're not going to get it, you're not going to get it, you know what I mean?
04:39I've got this specific language, I speak a Blackhunter language, and it ain't my face, it's my voice.
04:44People know my voice, you know what I mean?
04:46But being here for that many years is unbelievable, unbelievable.
04:49And you'll get there, like you said, you as a little kid when you first saw me, and now you're getting older, and I'm getting older.
04:55It's just one of those things, but this place, this Wolverhampton itself, just drags you in and tries to keep you in, and it's what they do.
05:01I'll tell you buddy, I've got some family members who are still amazed that I have your phone number.
05:04Are they? OK, don't give them, don't give Kagan them.
05:07No, they've all got it now, they've all got it.
05:09And obviously lots of happy memories as well.
05:11I mean, we're going to go through in a minute some of the goals you scored.
05:14But I mean, you go through all 306 of them, from 500 plus appearances, an amazing record.
05:21And there were so many last minute winners, there were so many big moments.
05:24And you look back on those and think that you made the most of your talent.
05:28I did, I did, to be fair. My talent was to score goals.
05:31I ain't got no skill at all, you know what I mean?
05:34The Robbie Keynes are the skilled people and all them people, but I was banging the net.
05:38That was my job, full stop, and I absolutely loved it.
05:41Plus, I was on under a quid a goal, so I need to score more goals.
05:46And I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, you're sat across now from a stand that has your name emblazoned upon it as well,
05:52and has done for some time now.
05:55To have that at a club like this as well must be really special.
05:59Well, I think I'm still alive, I know I think.
06:01Because most people who have a stand have gone and passed away.
06:04And I think it is lovely.
06:07I mean, I have to thank Sir Jack for that.
06:09It was a good opportunity, and I didn't know he was doing it because we had a dinner upstairs here,
06:14me and my wife to put an event on.
06:16And when I went into the reception, the security guy says,
06:19Sir Jack wants to have a word with you.
06:21I went, oh sugar, what have I done?
06:23What have I done that he wants to speak to me?
06:25So I picked the phone up and I went, hello?
06:27He went, hello Steve, how are you?
06:29I went, I'm alright Jack, you okay?
06:30Yeah, yeah, fine thanks.
06:31He says, I'm still plenty passionate to say that I'm changing the John Ireland stand to the Steve Vaught stand.
06:36I went, you can't do that.
06:38He says, I jolly well can't.
06:39He says, you scored all the goals, he just put money into the club.
06:43I went, cheers Sir Jack, cheers, thanks.
06:45I put the phone down.
06:47I should have said to him, does that come with a villa in Portugal and a van driver?
06:51I didn't, I just thought, oh no.
06:53But I had to thank him for that.
06:55I do pinch myself every time I drive past when we do it in the car,
06:58and my dad goes, dad, dad, shut up will you, shut up.
07:02And also, I don't know if this is too dramatic to say,
07:05but you look at, it's a big football club, a historic football club,
07:08with lots of club legends.
07:10I don't know if you get embarrassed by using that word.
07:13But it's helped shape what this football club is these days.
07:16Because yes, I know we had folks come in in the Nuno era,
07:19and Wolves are now an established Premier League club,
07:22but they don't get back there with all the history.
07:24They don't now, they come and go now,
07:26and that's what a football club's about.
07:28I think it's all, I can't say it's all about money these days.
07:31You come into a job, you get sacked, you get to another one.
07:33Or you come to a football club, you don't want to leave,
07:35but you've got to go somewhere else.
07:36It's one of them, and I've been very, very fortunate.
07:39I wasn't, I still ain't a money-oriented person.
07:42If I was, if I'd had an agent, who knows,
07:44I might not be sitting here talking to you.
07:46But I did it all on my own back.
07:48Yes, I probably could have got thousands more
07:50if I'd have asked for more of it, but I didn't.
07:52Fair days pay, fair days work.
07:54And like I say, you're going to see majors come,
07:56you're going to see chairmen come,
07:57you're going to see owners of clubs come and go.
07:59It's just life, and that's the way it goes.
08:01But they'll have a job on their hands to get rid of me,
08:04don't worry about that.
08:05And finally, look, Wolves are in the Premier League,
08:08have been for a few years now, back where they belong.
08:10An established Premier League club,
08:12and hopefully, as you say, your 60th is this week.
08:14Wolves will get themselves over the line,
08:16stay in the Premier League,
08:17and be a top-flight club for next season as well.
08:20Well, if you said to me,
08:21what would you want for your birthday,
08:22I'd say, what can I say,
08:23somebody buy me a box of wine, please.
08:25Which everybody knows I like a glass of wine with ice.
08:28And also, to survive this year.
08:30I think Vitor's come in,
08:32he's had the bare bones to pick from,
08:34he's had loads took off him,
08:35and I think he's done a good job with what he's had.
08:38I think the players, me personally at the moment,
08:41they are excelling themselves to keep us in this league,
08:44and they know what they want,
08:45Premiership football next year.
08:46And I think two more games,
08:48I think, if we beat West Ham,
08:50I mean, fingers crossed,
08:51I'll have the three points for my birthday off West Ham,
08:54and then we won't be far away over the Tuchel now,
08:56because you don't want to be in the Championship,
08:58you want to be a Premiership side,
08:59and all these want Premiership football,
09:01and you can see the way the crowds are actually gradually coming away,
09:04because they're going down,
09:05or not spending money.
09:07We need this all packed, week in, week out,
09:09so these players here can get behind the players
09:11to get the wins and get the Premiership.
09:13Absolutely.