John Wark
John Wark is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame. Wark had long spells at the club, which bookended his career, and a third, brief interlude dividing his briefer periods at Liverpool and Middlesbrough. A versatile player, Wark played most of his professional games as a midfielder, although he sometimes played as a central defender and on occasion as a striker.
Born in Glasgow, Wark represented Scotland in international football, winning 29 caps and scoring seven goals. This included selection for Scotland in the 1982 FIFA World Cup in which he made three appearances and scored twice.
During his playing career, Wark appeared in the film Escape to Victory. Since retiring as a professional player in 1996, he has continued to work for Ipswich Town—since September 2008 in the corporate hospitality department. His autobiography, Wark On, was published in 2009.
Early life
Wark was born on 4 August 1957, in Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital to parents Alex and Helen. The third of four children, he has an older sister Wilma, older brother Alex and younger brother Andrew. The family lived in a four-storey tenement block in Partick. The family was impoverished: Wark's parents could not afford a cot and as a small child, he slept in a drawer from a sideboard. Although christened John, Wark was soon referred to by his family as Johnny, a diminutive that stuck throughout his footballing career.In the early 1960s, the family moved to another tenement block, this time in Scotstoun, and Wark's father secured employment at nearby Albion Motors. The new home accommodated a back yard in which Wark played football from the age of six. He said "ootball seemed to occupy 99 per cent of my time as a youngster" as he tried to emulate his brother Alex, who had become a professional at St Mirren. Wark attended Scotstoun Primary School, where he became captain of the football team. On moving to secondary school, he was selected for the Glasgow Schools representative team. He also played for Drumchapel Amateurs at the under-14 level, where he was, for a period, managed by David Moyes' father, also named David.
During Wark's time at Drumchapel, he attracted the attention of Celtic. He trained with the club at their Parkhead ground, before receiving an invitation to sign schoolboy forms for the club. As a lifelong Rangers fan with whom Celtic have a notable rivalry and with interest from "several English clubs", including Bristol City, Manchester City and Ipswich Town, Wark stalled on the offer. He trialled with both Ipswich Town and Manchester City, and selected Ipswich when the latter remained non-committal. On arrival at Portman Road, Town manager Bobby Robson, later described by Wark as the person in football "who had the single biggest influence on ", personally welcomed him and Wark signed with the club as an apprentice.
Club career
First spell at Ipswich
Wark started his career at Ipswich in the youth team, initially playing at left back before moving to the centre of defence and occasionally occupying the right back position. He signed up as a professional for the club on his 17th birthday. Selected for the senior squad as a replacement for the injured Kevin Beattie, Wark made his first-team debut on 27 March 1975 in the 3–2 FA Cup 6th round victory over Leeds United; the game was played at Leicester City's Filbert Street. A nervous and homesick Wark was reassured by manager Robson:
"My debut was in the quarter-final of the FA Cup against the Leeds team of Giles and Bremner. He said, 'I wouldn't put you in the team if I didn't think you were good enough'. He was a father figure as well because I was homesick. If it hadn't been for the boss I would have been straight back to Glasgow."
Making four more first-team appearances in place of injured regulars, Wark ended the season still on the youth team, and experienced success in the final of the FA Youth Cup, defeating West Ham United 5–1. He spent much of the 1975–76 season playing for the reserves, and was presented with the club's Young Player of the Year award, despite making just four appearances for the senior team. Moving into midfield, Wark made over 30 appearances in the 1976–77 season, scoring his first goals for the club, taking over penalty kicking duty; he also received his first red card.
In June 1977, Wark was selected for the Scotland squad for the first time, for a friendly match against East Germany; however, a torn hamstring sustained in pre-season training ended any chance of an international debut. The injury also kept him out of first-team football until January 1978, when he returned for a match against Cardiff City in the third round of the 1977–78 FA Cup.
Indifferent league performances that season meant that Ipswich finished just three points above the relegation zone, but the season ended in success in the FA Cup. Wark scored in a 3–1 victory over West Bromwich Albion in the semi-final, and appeared in the final at Wembley as part of a side that surprised favourites Arsenal, winning the game 1–0. Wark remarked, "We were underdogs but on the day we hammered them." Wark did not touch the ball for the first 18 minutes of the match, and as the players left the pitch at half-time, David Geddis said to Wark, "Make sure you hit it between the posts in the second-half. Avoid the white bits." In the second half of the game, Wark "ignored Geddis' advice and hit Pat Jennings' right post twice with almost identical swerving right-foot shots from outside the penalty area".
Twice in the three seasons that followed, Ipswich came close to winning the League championship, but finished as runners-up to Liverpool and Aston Villa, respectively. However, Ipswich did win the club's only European trophy when they lifted the 1980–81 UEFA Cup. Wark set a competition record by scoring 14 goals, including two – one in each leg – in the final as Ipswich overcame Dutch side AZ 67 Alkmaar 5–4 on aggregate. Wark's record equalled the long-standing scoring record in a European competition, set by José Altafini of A.C. Milan in the 1962–63 European Cup. Wark's personal triumph that year was to win a European accolade, Young Player of the Year, and gain the acclaim of his fellow professionals in England to earn the PFA Player of the Year award. He ended the 1980–81 season with 36 goals.
Wark continued to play for Ipswich, but after Robson left to become England manager in 1982, the side was gradually broken up by new manager Bobby Ferguson. Following a rejected demand for a wage increase, Wark submitted a transfer request, which was accepted. He signed for Liverpool for £450,000 on 10 March 1984. At the time, Liverpool had won the league title six times, the European Cup three times and the League Cup three times in the preceding eight seasons.
Wark's final full season at Portman Road, 1982–83, had seen him record the highest league goals tally of his career. He scored 20 goals in 42 league games, though it was not enough to prevent Ipswich from slipping to ninth place in the final table – their lowest position since finishing 18th in 1978.
Liverpool
The medical examination for Wark's transfer somewhat surprised him:
"I was rather taken aback when the doctor entered the Anfield boot room", Wark said. "He was small in stature and I could not help but detect the smell of alcohol on his breath as he introduced himself to me. I was even more surprised when he announced we would stay put to conduct the medical examination. "He took my blood pressure, looked at the reading and muttered 'that's fine'. Then something happened that to this day I still cannot get over. He asked me to bend down and touch my toes. "Trying not to show my surprise, I did exactly as he asked and as I lifted my head he spoke again, this time to announce 'you've passed'. That was it, my Liverpool medical."
Wark made his debut for the club on 31 March 1984 in a 2–0 league win against Watford at Vicarage Road, and scored Liverpool's opening goal in the 58th minute. Liverpool won the English league title that season, and Wark made sufficient appearances to earn himself a medal. His unusual ability as a goalscoring midfielder was on display when he finished the 1984–85 season as the club's top goalscorer, ahead of prolific striker Ian Rush, with a tally of 27 goals in 62 appearances—a goal every 2.3 games. Wark's season included three hat-tricks, one each in the League, the FA Cup and the European Cup. Liverpool qualified for the 1985 European Cup Final but the match was overshadowed by the Heysel Stadium Disaster, a tragedy Wark remembers as "a nightmare memory".
In the 1985–86 season, Wark made 18 appearances, scoring six times, but missed out on the club's run-in to their League and FA Cup "double", due to a broken ankle suffered just after the turn of 1986, followed by an Achilles tendon injury. He eventually regained his fitness but struggled to regain his place in the Liverpool team until injury to Steve McMahon allowed him back in. Wark came on as a late substitute when Liverpool lost the 1987 League Cup Final to Arsenal. No longer a part of manager Kenny Dalglish's plans following the arrival of new midfielders including John Barnes, Wark was sold back to Ipswich on 4 January 1988 for £100,000. In spite of more financially lucrative offers from both Watford and Coventry City, he followed Bobby Robson's advice: "Money isn't everything—go where you will be happiest." Wark left the Merseyside club with a record of 42 goals in 108 appearances, a goal every 2.6 games.
Second spell at Ipswich
Ipswich had been relegated 18 months before Wark's return to the club and were still playing in the second tier of English football. During this second spell at Ipswich, Wark was close to being an ever-present in the side: he missed just two games in two seasons. He was the club's equal top-scorer in the 1988–89 season, sharing the achievement with forwards Dalian Atkinson and Jason Dozzell.Following three seasons of mid-table finishes, manager John Duncan was sacked and replaced by John Lyall. With his contract expiring, Wark received what he considered to be a "derisory" offer from Lyall, which he declined. Once he became a free agent, Wark signed on a free transfer for Second Division rivals Middlesbrough in August 1990. In his two additional seasons with Ipswich, Wark had scored 20 goals, and won the club's Player of the Year award in both seasons.