WHEN DAVID ARMSTRONG joined us at Southampton from Middlesbrough the players wanted to see his birth certificate because we could not believe someone who looked like him and had played 350 or so matches could only be 26. We reckoned they must have doctored it in the North-East and knocked ten years off his real age. David seemed even then to have been around forever. I was pleased Lawrie McMenemy had signed him for us because he had always been an excellent player for Middlesbrough; capable, tidy, he never gave the ball away and always had a good football brain. Even when he was a youngster, coming into the team at Middlesbrough, there was a maturity about him, a calmness on the ball which made him stand out. He just looked old.
At Southampton he gave a very good team a lovely balance on the left side. He was the last piece of the jigsaw to complete an outstanding team. We had tried one or two younger lads down the left but David came along and brought quality to that position and he fitted in from day one as if he had been with us all his life. We did not have to teach him a thing because he was already a great professional and his understanding of the game and the way we played it was instantaneous.
What a team that Southampton squad of the early 1980s was. There was already great flair with the likes of Channon and Ball and one or two others and we beat all the big boys for fun week after week. No one on the outside expected much of us but the difference was that we, the players, did expect to do well. Players like Dave Watson, Chris Nicholl and the rest of us, getting towards the end of our careers, still wanted to win. There is a subconscious temptation among players of that age and stage to wind down in one last big move but here was a group of players, many of them in their 30s, who were still desperate to succeed. None of us were looking for an easy run and that is why we came so close to winning the First Division.
I have to say we were not quite good enough. One of the reasons, in my view, was that Southampton did not have the volume of support of the bigger clubs. We had tremendous backing home and away, and from the South Coast fans had to travel many costly miles, but the major clubs will always have an advantage in the sheer size of their following and I think that is what counted against us in the final reckoning.
David was a better player than I thought he was going to be, if I am honest. Sometimes when a player joins a club you find out a weakness or two which you had not expected but with David, he did what it said on the tin. Every performance was an eight out of ten, no matter the occasion or location. You always got the same excellence. Above all, in a team of veterans, he worked his socks off, covering huge areas of the pitch to save our older legs. We needed him to do that and he never disappointed.
I am amazed to discover he only got three England caps. I thought he had got a few more than that, as he should have done, and he would have got more today without a doubt. I suppose at the time there were quite a few left-sided players in competition and sometimes it is simply a managerial choice, depending on the way the England team is set up tactically. But I think the most likely cause of his lack of international recognition is that in Middlesbrough and Southampton he played for two unfashionable clubs. It does help to play for the top sides but three caps was poor reward for a player of David’s calibre.
David would have been better appreciated now. When he was in his prime the vogue was for bigger players and although he could look after himself he would have got more room, more protection and more freedom. David always had a lovely left foot and although he was not pacy he lacked nothing in courage and being a clever player, he used his guile to drift past opponents and his goalscoring record shows he could finish with the best of them.
I think that if he played now he would have played in a more central midfield role. On the left side he was no winger and no wing-back but centrally the ball would have come to him more often and he knew how to use it. Another of his great attributes was his durability and he seemed to go on for ever. All those many matches in succession for Middlesbrough was ridiculous and I wonder if any other outfielder will again do what he did. Perhaps if he had played more centrally he would have got a few more injuries but to steer clear of anything serious for all those years was an achievement in itself.
Like the way he played, David was always unchanging. He had this great ability to mix with everybody and was an affable and much-liked member of the team, sociable and humorous. I understand he has mentioned further in the book about the ordeal of singing a song for the rest of the squad, a cruel initiation which comes to every new signing at most clubs. He says it was painful but I can assure him it was not nearly as painful as it was for us listening. If David had chosen to make his living as a singer this book would not have been written. Overall he was as reliable off the field as he was on it.
David makes mention of the fearsome five-a-side matches we held at Southampton the day before big games. No other major club in the world would have allowed something as blood-thirsty and as competitive to take place on Fridays when players should have been saving their energy and aggression. When I first joined Southampton I said to Lawrie he should stop these dangerous sessions because I had never seen such ferocity among team-mates, such thunderous tackles and commitment. But after three weeks I was worse than them all. Lawrie said the players wanted it that way. For 25 minutes we all turned into something else. But the amazing thing was no one ever got hurt and injuries were rare. David was always in the thick of it.
I am pleased to be able to write these few words on David’s behalf. He was an underestimated, excellent footballer and a good man. He had some bad times after his career finished but he pulled through them and recovered through strength of character and I know his story will be a good one. He deserves the best.
KEVIN KEEGAN
September 2012