Les Crang
This is a three-part series on an Arsenal player called Paul Vaessen, with some interviews to follow up. My interest in this player stems from the fact that, at 18 years of age, he scored the winning goal at Juventus in a European Cup-Winners Cup semi-final. Three years later, he retired from football with knee trouble and little financial help from the club. During his last three years, in pain, Vaessen was often mercilessly derided. Eighteen years later, he died in Bristol of a heroin overdose.
I wanted to divide this into three sections. The first, the lead-up to and scoring of the Juventus goal. Secondly, the next three years - his goals, injury problems and depression. Thirdly, Paul Vaessen’s life and death after football. I have looked into making this into a book at some stage, but I wanted to tell the story of an unknown Arsenal hero. A man who should be on the Emirate walls. I think it would be fitting to the memory of Paul Vaessen. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian Castle, for helping in the writing of this article, and Arsenal Collective.
In 2001, Arsenal lost a player who retired from the game. A semi-final cup-winning scorer. A player who had a young family. To many Arsenal fans, this would mean David ‘Rocky’ Rocastle. Rocky was given a minute’s silence when he passed away and we played Spurs that day (who showed respect during the silence). But my story is not about Rocky (a great player and fine professional), but about a player called Paul Vaessen. To many Arsenal fans, his name might not mean much, but to me in 1980, supporting Arsenal, Vaessen was a hero.
In April 1980, Paul Vaessen scored the winning goal at Juventus as an 18-year old substitute with three minutes to go, sending Arsenal into their second-ever European final, and ending Juventus’ record of being undefeated at home by an English team (a feat not repeated until Manchester United won their semi-final there in 1999). A mere three years later, Paul Vaessen would retire from football with a knee injury. From the heady heights of Rome as an 18-year old, Paul would sink into a world of decline and drugs that would cost him his life before the age of forty. Paul Vaessen is often the forgotten man of Arsenal FC, and that is why I would like to write about him.
Paul Leon Vaessen was born on 16th October, 1961. His father, Leon, played professional football for Millwall and Gillingham in the 1950s and 1960s, before falling down the divisions, ending his career at Crawley. Paul soon followed in his father’s footsteps, joining Arsenal in 1977, turning professional in 1979, and representing the team at every level that season (youth, reserve and league). Paul Vaessen had scored his goal in November 1979 against Brighton in the League Cup. The Times headline for the match called it Vaessen, a young man with his head in the air, the article said of his performance ‘Finding space and each other with contemptuous simplicity, Arsenal led after four minutes. Their eager, surprisingly composed 19-year-old forward Vaessen, who replaced Sunderland, attracted instant admiration for a short, powerful sprint on the right wing, taking him yards clear of his pursuers.’ Of his goal they said ‘Brady bad clipped their cross- bar as well 'as baffled them with his mastery of angles, and then he inflicted worse with a tantalising, dipping cross over the goalkeeper to the far post, from 'where Vaessen headed his first deserved goal.’ Arsenal ran out 4-0 winners, with Vaessen taking the plaudits.
Vaessen was also in a team that would be playing in two finals and also be remembered for playing in the longest FA cup semi-final in history against Liverpool. By the end of 1979-80, Arsenal would play 70 games.
While Arsenal were fighting for a European cup, the FA did what their initials suggested when game-congestion started. This certainly was underlined when the noisy neighbours of Spurs made us play them on Easter Monday, 1980, when we had to play Juventus at home in the European Cup-Winners Cup semi-final on the Wednesday. Accordingly, Terry Neill – then the Arsenal manager - put out a weakened team, playing not only Vaessen but handing Arsenal’s finest uncapped player, Paul Davis, his debut (how did Carlton Palmer get capped and Davis not?). Of Davis’ debut The Times said he ‘strolled into the game with almost veteran assurance’. The Times headline for the match said it all against poor Spurs. Arsenal have enough in reserve to handle Spurs. Vaessen scored with a thumping header. Arsenal went on to win 2-1 at WHL and Arsenal fans to sing for the next few years ‘we beat Spurs with six reserves’. So Paul Vaessen’s first league goal was against Spurs? What more can you ask for as an Arsenal fan (especially in the early 1980s)?
So, although Arsenal rested the likes of Pat Jennings, Sammy Nelson, Graham Rix, David Price and Frank Stapleton for the match, they still had to play the mighty Juventus at home two days later at Highbury. The game was not for the faint-hearted. I think, for many younger fans, playing an Italian team was not something to look forward to back then. Italian football was marked by some of the finest players in the world and some of the most downright dirty players I have ever watched. The admirable players would be Gaetano Scirea, Juventus’ flawless sweeper; up front was Roberto Bettega, who had destroyed England in the World Cup Qualifiers three years previously. Bettega would certainly have an impact in the first game. The more aggressive players included centre-half, Claudio Gentile (his man-marking of Maradona in the 1982 World Cup was an example of his attitude to defending). In the middle was probably the finest holding-midfielder in Italy ever, Marco Tardelli. Think Patrick Vieira on steroids. Italian football was also based on catenaccio. In other words, defending. Deep. Very Deep.
The first game at Highbury is the thing of legends amongst fans. Dirty. Aggressive. A couple of goals. A penalty. A penalty save and a red card. The game’s aggressive approach was underlined in the 20th minute with Bettega ‘leaving his foot in’ on David O’Leary, leaving the usually charming Neill to say after the match ‘we had to take the studs out of O’Leary’. The Arsenal fans instead screamed ‘You F***ing W***er’. Things couldn’t get worse. Until Brian Talbot hacked Bettega down for a penalty. Up steps Antonio Cabrini to take the penalty, only for Big Pat to get a hand to it, but knocking it towards the onrushing Cabrini to slam home. Arsenal 0 Juventus 1. Juventus played to stifle the game. Unfortunately, Juventus got Tardelli sent off, but still retained a strong line at the back. Late in the game, Arsenal got a free-kick and threw in a high ball for Stapleton at the back stick to keep the ball in play. Bettega, under pressure, headed into his own net. Full-time whistle - Arsenal 1 Juventus 1. Vaessen played for six minutes, after coming on for John Devine.
But what type of player was Paul Vaessen? Don Howe said of him ‘'He was a big, heavy boy, inclined to put weight on; he needed to get a little bit quicker. He was not bad in the air. If you said give me an example of someone he was like, I'd say Niall Quinn. He had a nice touch, he could handle the ball. He was a terrific prospect”. Gary Lewin, Arsenal physio and youth-team goalkeeper at the time, was friends with him. He said of him in an interview ‘'Paul was a young professional when I was an apprentice. When I was in the youth team as a goalkeeper, he was a regular reserve-team player as a centre-forward. He had a very promising career”. Vaessen seemed set for great things, and this was to be underlined against Juventus.
Two weeks later, Arsenal had to face the mighty Juventus at Stadio Comunale Vittorio Pozzo. As a previous writer has indicated, with ‘no such thing as TV coverage of anything as unimportant as a European semi-final’ in 1980, radio was the call of the day unless you were one of 500 travelling away fans. The Arsenal team was as follows - Jennings, Rice, Devine, Talbot (Hollins 80), O'Leary, Young, Brady, Sunderland, Stapleton, Price (Vaessen 77), Rix. Most pundits had written off Arsenal’s chances of making the final. With the scores from the first leg standing at 1-1, Arsenal had either to win or draw 2-2 or higher. Juventus were a team known for their defensive acumen, as mentioned previously, so Arsenal had to win. In Italy.
Not only that, Roberto Bettega was the star of Italian football, so Neill’s comments “we had to take the studs out of O’Leary” in the first leg had created a cauldron of hate. After the first match, Neill had added, when speaking to the Italian press, “You must be ashamed. It must be difficult admitting you are Italian tonight”. O’Leary was incensed that Bettega’s tackle was ‘criminal’ and disgusted he didn’t even come to see him after the match.
Upping the tempo was Juventus chairman Giampiero Boniperti saying “Neill’s behaviour was unacceptable and he should be fired”. Animosity between the teams had reached such heights that Juventus’ General Manager warned Arsenal fans and players that “the atmosphere will be very tense. Feelings have been inflamed by newspaper reports of what was said at Highbury. We fear our fans may be planning something for Arsenal. They are very angry that Juventus players have been called animals”.
Bettega had also tried to diffuse the situation by inviting Neill and O’Leary onto his TV show he had at the time. O’Leary refused, but Neill did go. During the interview, Bettega asked about his violent reaction to the incident. Neill responded “I am not a violent man, but I reacted to the situation as I saw it. I don’t regret a word I said”. Hardly conciliatory.
So Arsenal went to the game with the odds highly stacked against them. But they did have the advantage that Tardelli was suspended for the match. Then Juventus lost defender Sergio Brio prior to the game. This meant that Gentile was moved from full- back to centre-half. Neill felt this acted to our advantage with Sunderland’s and Stapleton’s aerial prowess, saying “both our front men are accomplished in the air. It will be important for us to use them well as Juventus will miss a key player like Brio”. Aerial prowess would certainly win the day, but from a more unknown source than Sunderland and Stapleton.
It seems ironic in this time of wall-to-wall football via Sky, blogs, Twitter and other social media, that football on April 23rd, 1980 was not televised live for a European Semi-final. People had three ways of gathering information on the second leg. First, if you were brave enough, go to the game in Turin (500 souls did). Secondly, you could check on the score via a new technology called Ceefax (if you had a new television). Or via the most common way, the transistor radio. This is why Jon Spurling called them a ‘transistor match’.
Ian Turner, who lived in Turin at the time, went to the match saying “It was a weird experience, and actually very annoying. For a start I couldn’t really see a f***ing thing because of these stupid firecrackers. But in the second half, the Juventus fans started to lose their arrogance and got a bit edgy, and the fires died down........Arsenal were by far the better side and Brady and Rix probed and probed..........But with ten minutes to go, Juventus fans believed they’d got it in the bag.......Arsenal sent on a guy by the name of Vaessen who, to be honest, I’d never heard of........I remember Willie Young chopped down Scirea - you know, took him out of the game and trotted forward to try and increase the pressure, and the Italians began to panic. It was as if Young’s tackle knocked all the stuffing out of them.......Then Rixy got the ball on the left and I remember looking at the ref who checked his watch. Rix floated in a lazy cross which sailed over Zoff’s head towards Vaessen. All the Italians watched now, as this ‘nobody’ Vaessen nodded the ball into the net.”
The Times wrote of the goal:- ‘The goal, if there was to be one, was bound to be borne of a cross. Rix, taking the ball far out on the left wing, threw over a long, hopeful Cross and there was Vaessen, bless him, to thrust home his header.’ For the first time in 11 attempts a British side had triumphed in Turin. At the final whistle the Arsenal players went to applaud a small band of supporters in one corner of, the ground. Unfortunately this only drew attention to their presence and there were frightening scenes of violence on the terraces as Italians and English supporters pelted each other with stones and bottles.
More than a few fans listening on transistor radio in England were elated by the score. One fan wrote “Sitting in my bath it probably took me a half-second longer. Then, like Vaessen, I too leapt into the air - and screamed. And as we all learnt at school, for every action there is a reaction; in this instance my action caused a flood of tsunami magnitude to sweep unstoppably across the bathroom floor”.
With two minutes left, Arsenal just had to hold out. Juventus just didn’t have the time or the will. 1-0 to the Arsenal. We had beaten Juventus. The Arsenal. By a late goal. Sounds like some other Arsenal games. After the match, Terry Neill said “It has got to be one of the best European results ever”. Goal-hero Vaessen said afterwards “Incredibly, I had a dream last night that I would come on as substitute and score the winning goal. It is all so exciting”. Vaessen said years later of the substitute appearance and the goal “A 0-0 draw would have put us out on the away-goals rule,..... That was the score when coach Don Howe sent me on with about 15 minutes left. I remember him saying, ‘Go on Paul, knock one in for us.’ And I replied, ‘Yeah, OK’”. For years, Vaessen cherished what happened next - “I'll never forget the silence when I scored. The firecrackers, the drums, the chanting all stopped. It was eerie”.
