Exactly What Batty is Paid For: Roberto Mancini’s Hard-Fought Makita Trophy, 1992 - The Square Ball 9/8/21
SETTLE DOWN
Written by Rob Conlon
In twelve years as a defender for Sampdoria, Pietro
Vierchowod earned two nicknames. His first, The Tsar, was thanks to his father,
a Ukrainian soldier who fought in the Soviet Army. During the Second World War,
Ivan Luchianovic was held as a prisoner of war in Italy. When the fighting
stopped, he chose to settle there rather than return to the Soviet Union,
paving the way for his son, first, to train as a plumber at his dad’s
insistence, then to prosper in Italian football.
His second nickname, The Hulk, came courtesy of Diego
Maradona. “You only miss the green colour,” Maradona told Vierchowod after
being harrassed on the pitch, later describing the centre-back as, “an animal,
he had muscles up to his eyebrows.” El Diego tops a long list of greats,
including Marco van Basten, Gabriel Batistuta and Gary Lineker, describing
Vierchowod as the meanest defender they ever faced. Throw in a couple of
Scudettos, a European Cup and a place in Italy’s 1982 World Cup-winning squad,
and you get the picture. Giuseppe ‘The Warrior’ Bellusci, this ain’t.
At Elland Road for the 1992 Makita Tournament with a
fearsome reputation to maintain, Vierchowod had Stuart Pearce or Roy Keane to
choose from in Sampdoria’s semi-final against Nottingham Forest. Instead he
went for 5ft 9in Nigel Clough, the manager’s son but meek as milk. A report in
Sportsweek says the duo ‘fought a running feud almost from the first whistle’,
Vierchowod finally earning a late booking for an ‘assault’ on Clough. He was
lucky to still be on the pitch after an ‘appalling’ tackle on Gary Crosby in
the first half, completing his pantomime villainy by scoring the second goal in
a 2-0 win.
His goal was a surprise to former teammate Trevor Francis,
who caught the last fifteen minutes before managing Sheffield Wednesday to a
1-0 defeat to Rotherham later that day. Francis came back the next day to
co-commentate on Sampdoria against Leeds United in the tournament final.
Another of Francis’ former Sampdoria teammates, Liam Brady, was also around,
and ITV’s Brian Moore promised, “an afternoon of classy, sophisticated
football.”
Enter David Batty. Had Batty watched Vierchowod kicking
lumps out of Forest the previous day and thought, ‘challenge accepted’? Or did
Batty rock up for a glorified pre-season friendly on a warm summer’s day
smelling mischief in the air, an opportunity to treat football with the
frivolity it deserves? In a 2015 interview with Moscowhite for The City
Talking, he remembered, “It was a friendly, wasn’t it? So you could do what you
wanted. It was just funny.”
In the first thirty seconds, Batty stole the ball in
midfield, launching a counter attack, his left forearm and right elbow taking
him past the attempted blocks of Vierchowod and left-back Marco Lanna and
crunching into a 50-50 tackle with England teammate Des Walker.
Still fuelled by the adrenaline of showing Nigel Clough
who’s boss, Sampdoria were aggressors in the first fifteen minutes, Batty the
recipient of a mutually appreciated foul by Veirchowod and a naughty lunge from
left winger Ivano Bonetti. Bonetti had turned 28 the previous day, turning his
nose up at a celebratory Graveley’s as Sampdoria flew their own chef to West
Yorkshire for a party to mark the occasion.
The party vibes transmitted to the pitch, Roberto Mancini
trying to chip John Lukic and Bonetti going close with an overhead kick. But
the mask slipped when Atillio Lombardo, minutes after being floored by his own
captain, Mancini, reacted angrily to a sliding tackle from behind by Tony
Dorigo. Brian Moore suggested it was a tackle that “can rip an achilles tendon
away”. Trevor Francis was less worried: “I take the point, but I don’t like to
see Italian players like Mancini and Lombardo asking the referee to get his
yellow card out.”
It was all the encouragement Howard Wilkinson’s wrecking
crew needed. Sampdoria liked to dish it out, but they didn’t like to take it.
An innocent trip by Batty was enough to rouse the crowd, and a firmer challenge
on Mauro Bertarelli seconds later was enough to agitate Mancini. A nonplussed
Batty was soon swatting away two pushes and the most Italian of finger and
thumb gestures from Mancini and his friends, and replying with some ‘settle
down’ gestures of his own that would irritate anybody.
Francis and Brady knew how Batty was feeling. A young
Mancini had picked fights with both of them, feeling his authority in the side
was under threat when they signed for Sampdoria in the 1980s. By 1992 Mancini
had a say in the club’s transfer business and managerial appointments, now
“almost a son to the president, Paolo Mantovani,” as David Platt puts it in his
autobiography. Mancini should have had a word with Wilkinson beforehand and
found out what Batty thought of authority figures if he wanted a peaceful
afternoon.
Wherever Mancini now went, Batty followed. Even when the
no.10 jogged to take a corner, Batty was joining him to form a one-man wall.
Vierchowod was finding Lee Chapman harder to bully than Nigel Clough, so
Mancini had to stick up for himself. He wasn’t very good at it. Trying to kick
Gary McAllister, Mancini fell over, and Macca had to lift him off the floor and
dust him down as if saying, ‘Have another go.’
Just as the match threatened to calm down, David Batty
provided two of the great David Batty moments. First, his face of pure
innocence at the precise moment Lanna emerged from behind the advertising
hoardings, furious after being nudged into the stands. Then his wink to
McAllister after calmly sidestepping Lanna’s attempted retribution, leaving the
full-back on the floor with Leeds men stepping over and around him, like a
lagered-up lad discovering he’s no match for the heavies on the nightclub door.
After Lanna’s airborne adventure, referee Joe Worrall went
to the bench, asking if Batty could be substituted for the general peace and an
easier day. Wilkinson, watching from the stands, arrived at the touchline in a
fury, putting an end to that idea. In commentary, Francis completely misread
the moment, bizarrely suggesting Wilko was asking Worrall to send his
midfielder off.
Wilkinson put that right in the post-match press conference.
“The ref wanted Batty taken off. He felt he had been upsetting one or two
people and that the game would be easier to control without him around. It is
my view that is exactly what Batty is paid for.” Even new Sampdoria boss Sven
Goran Eriksson concurred. “There were several situations involving Batty but my
players weren’t angels either. I told them at half-time that Batty was an
aggressive player who would challenge hard and that they shouldn’t expect any
less — maybe I should have warned them before the start.”
In the aftermath of the two incidents, Sampdoria scored the
only goal of the game. Whatever.
It is at this point the original YouTube highlights end,
Batty’s afternoon already cemented in folklore. But more footage has turned up,
showing his delightful antagonism continuing into the second half, when after
half an hour of relative calm, he went into two aerial challenges in quick succession
with two elbows raised just enough to fell his opponents and prompt yet another
explosion. While two Sampdoria players tried strangling Batty, Mancini went and
got the ball, so he could bounce it off the back of Batty’s head. Batty had no
time for hand gestures now and kept his message nice and simple: “Fuck
orrrfffff,” before gently leading the referee away by his arm while the two
sets of players squared up to one another.
Batty and Mancini were finally booked, leaving the rest of
the Leeds team to take up the mantle. Mancini was soon on the floor being
yelled at by Gary Speed, who was oozing champion cool, wearing the no.11 shirt
as a makeshift centre-back,. Then Steve Hodge was hurling the ball into a
Sampdoria player’s chest from a yard away after being denied a throw-in.
The introduction of Eric Cantona helped Leeds assume the
ascendency, Eriksson replacing a striker with a defender to help Vierchowod
deal with Chapman, Cantona and Rod Wallace. The Peacocks failed to find an
equaliser but, whatever. Mancini was wound up right to the end, reacting to a
pat on the head from Chris Whyte like a declaration of war, but nobody from
Leeds thought a friendly was worth all this stress.