If there is one word that supporters of both Manchester United and Crystal Palace would use to sum up the contribution of Steve Coppell, it is ‘consistency’. A constant presence on the wing wearing red; a constant presence on the touchline in red and blue.
Never one to seek out the limelight, Coppell is an unlikely hero – but a hero he is both in the North-West and in sSuth London. A trophy winner at Old Trafford and at Selhurst Park – yes, Full Members Cup, we are looking at you – he would receive a rapturous reception at either ground to this day.
But how did the young footballer who turned down contracts at a series of top clubs to focus on a degree in economic history make it to the very top?
Creativity was clearly in the water in the area of Liverpool in which Coppell grew up – his school could boast among its alumni a young musician by the name of John Lennon, who had apparently gone on to find considerable success with a band called ‘The Beatles’. We’ll have to take their word for it.
On the books of Tranmere, he resisted the advances of clubs in higher tiers as he focused on his studies at the University of Liverpool. Then, in 1975, Manchester United came calling.
It was an offer too good to turn down, and Coppell completed his degree while nailing down a place as the starting right-winger for one of the biggest clubs in the land.
Although the youngster hit the ground running, success wasn’t instant. The 1970s were a turbulent period for Manchester United, and despite being overwhelming favourites they lost the 1976 FA Cup final to Southampton.
A year later they got revenge, beating Liverpool to win a major piece of silverware – and denying their arch-rivals a historic treble in the process.
He was ever-present for Man Utd – literally. Between 1977 and 1981 he made 207 consecutive appearances for the club, setting a record which stands to this day. But his fortune would not last.
Playing for England saw Coppell’s injury woes begin, as a brutal challenge from a Hungarian opponent shattered his knee and saw him undergo surgery to get back to playing. He continued to battle on for Man Utd, but in the end his body got the better of him and he retired at the age of 28.
He made 373 appearances for the Red Devils, scoring 70 times; he had 42 England caps to his name, and seven goals. Some career.
Never one to be cowed by a challenge, a new chapter began: in June 1984 he became the new manager of Crystal Palace. He had wowed then-chairman Ron Noades during a testing six-hour interview process.
The great irony was that he was not Palace’s first choice. Dave Bassett, then at Wimbledon, had seemed to accept the job before going back on his word days later. Coppell signed, and at just 28-years-old became one of the Football League’s youngest ever managers.
He didn’t have a huge budget to work with, so had to get imaginative. A young striker from Greenwich Borough looking for a route to the top? Ian Wright: not a bad find. A plucky centre-forward looking to make his name away from Leicester City? Mark Bright would certainly make an impression.
Coppell took Palace striding into the First Division, and then embarked on some of the finest years in the club’s history.
A run to the FA Cup final in 1990 saw Palace beat Liverpool in a classic semi-final at Villa Park, with the 4-3 victory in extra-time still cited by supporters as one of the greatest games witnessed from the stands. Heartbreak followed in the final, losing out to Coppell’s old side Manchester United in a replay, but progress had been made.
The following season the Eagles were back at Wembley, this time to contest the Full Members Cup final – while seeking a European spot in the league.
"We had the mentality to a certain extent which was a little bit non-league - something to prove,” Coppell remembered years later. “We all appreciated we weren’t a bad side, which is not a bad starting point.”
Palace were unbeaten in their first 10 games of the 1990/91 season, and lost just twice in their first 20.
“We were really fit and wanted to play at a tempo not many teams could handle,” Coppell says.
“When you’ve got a strike partnership of [Ian] Wright and [Mark] Bright, people loading the bullets like [Eddie] McGoldrick and [John] Salako, when you’ve got a real solid back four of Eric Young, Andy Thorn organising, two really good full-backs and a top, top quality goalkeeper – an awful lot of good things can happen. And they did that year.
“The one thing I remember about that season more than anything was we didn’t make many changes… We had [a squad of] 17, 18 or 19. It wasn’t as if you could make wholesale changes, and the players wanted to play rather than run up and down Farthing Downs [then the club’s rudimentary fitness routine].
“I think it was very much a rolling stone. The way we played at that time was almost clockwork; we had a style of play which was direct, I’d be the first to say that.
“We had a mentality… We trained on Saturday mornings before games. Things like that just don’t happen anymore. We went to a lovely Italian restaurant for the pre-match meal after we trained; we drove from the ground to the restaurant in Thornton Heath and then drove back.
“It seems like a lifetime ago, but it worked for us. We got into a routine with all these games where we just felt we could beat anybody.”
It was a momentum that took Palace back to Wembley, were Howard Kendell’s Everton stood between them and silverware.
“For us to return to Wembley – although it wasn’t obviously the big game – was a chance to put things right,” Coppell said. “It was possibly very close to the team that should have played the year before, with Bright and Wright up front. He [Wright] was a cat on a hot tin roof at the best of times, but he felt this was very much his chance to prove himself to everybody… Going in to it was almost redemption.”
After extra-time, Ian Wright’s brace had fired Palace to victory and the cup was in their hands. “After that final,” Coppell remembers, “we hadn’t planned a celebration or banquet dinner or anything like that. I seem to remember meeting up with quite a few of the players at a bar in Cheam just to have a few beers. And that was somehow typical of the team.
“It wasn’t: ‘We’ve won a final at Wembley, we should go to the Royal Garden and have a sit-down banquet.’ I think even later that night, after a couple of beers with the players in Cheam, we went back to Ron’s and he was having an open house with players coming in and out. To a certain extent, it was amateur hour after winning a cup final at Wembley!”
It seemed to be the start of a grand new chapter in the club’s history, with Palace sitting comfortably in third – second-placed Liverpool were still banned from European competition, and third would be good enough for a continental adventure.
Third was secured, but a cruel twist of fate denied the Eagles: Liverpool’s ban was lifted a year early, and UEFA Cup qualification was snatched away from South London.
Fates twist and turn in football, and within a few years Palace were back in the second tier – Coppell had resigned in 1994.
He would return in numerous capacities: Director of Football – alongside Ray Lewington – in 1995; Chief Scout in 1997, only to become manager once again later that year and earn promotion to the top-flight once again; and manager a final time in 1999 as financial issues closed in.
His service to the club had been exemplary, and in 2005 he was voted by fans as the manager of what was then Palace’s Centenary XI.
His first spell saw him take charge of 442 matches, the second-longest spell in the club’s history behind only Edmund Goodman, who took charge of 613 games between 1907 and 1925. Some career.
Mr Consistent had swatted misfortune aside and become Mr Reliable.
