Steve Stone was the last England player to lift the World Cup – dancing like Nobby Stiles with the Jules Rimet trophy in Baddiel and Skinner's Three Lions video.
He was also part of the first team to be relegated from the Premier League in 1993, when Brian Clough bowed out after 994 games in charge of Nottingham Forest. The greatest manager England never had should have been carried across Trent Bridge on an emperor's throne at his passing-out parade.
Instead, Clough's last stand in football was an anaemic 2-1 defeat at Ipswich, blowing kisses to away fans from the steps of the team coach as they conveyed their contempt for director Chris Wootton, who was perceived as a force behind the downfall of a legend. In 40 years of this hack scribbling notes for a living, and 30 years of the Premier League marque, it remains one of the saddest sights in football.
“I still remember the absolute hush, the quietness of the away dressing room at Ipswich when it was all over,” said Stone. “We all felt the sadness. It was such a shame for someone who had brought so much happiness to people's lives to go out like that. But since then I've learned that in football, with few exceptions, you don't get to choose the manner of your exit.
“Normally you are a hostage to the moment your body breaks down, or your team is not good enough. It's a fact that more careers end on a low note than glory. “It was a poignant farewell, but the team was in massive trouble and he was probably ready to go. He'd had enough of the pressures of football and he deserved a break.”
At 21, Stone had already demonstrated the resilience of youth, recovering from three broken legs to score the winner at Middlesbrough on his Forest debut earlier that season. Clough, always a demanding taskmaster but a master of pastoral care, had sustained the injured Geordie prodigy with one-year contracts as he recovered from each setback.
Stone found a kindred spirit during his first prolonged spell on the sidelines. Sean Dyche, another teenage prospect at Forest, had broken his leg three days earlier and they forged a lifelong bond as fellow patients on the long road back to fitness. They were manager and coach at Turf Moor when Burnley lost their nerve and fired them in April. It didn't save the Clarets from relegation.
As Forest return to the Premier League after 23 years, Stone regards his football upbringing at the City Ground as a sacrosanct decade. Despite the broken legs and Clough's funereal passing-out parade, it was the best of times.
“At some clubs, you walk in the door and you can feel the history. You can taste it,” he said. “For me, it's English football's loss that it took them so long to make it back because it's a proper football club. The City Ground holds about 28 to 30,000, but it always feels like a lot more. They have signed a lot of new players, and they will need to fit the jigsaw pieces together quickly, but there is nothing wrong with ambition.
“The manager (Steve Cooper) did an amazing job last season and he comes across as a humble man who knows how to build a team. He didn't shout from the rooftops when he pulled off a miracle, but he is a good fit for that club and I always thought it was a canny appointment. I just didn't think he would do it so quick.”
Now 50, Stone - whose career spanned 446 club appearances and nine England caps across 15 years - was a manager's dream, a robust cocktail of graft, guile and an eye for goal from the right flank. He was an integral part of the Forest side who bounced back at the first time of asking on Frank Clark's watch in 1994, and they caught the wave to finish third on their return to Premier League orbit and reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup the following year.
By the time Forest were on another tailspin towards the drayman's hatch in 1999, Stone was on his way to Aston Villa for £5.5 million. He played in the 2-0 defeat at Villa Park which sent his old team-mates down.
That was the season when Ron Atkinson rode to the rescue on his last managerial assignment and famously took his seat in the away dugout at the City Ground before his first game in charge against Arsenal.
After waving to the cameras, Big Ron turned to the figure in the next seat for a pre-match discourse and found it was Dennis Bergkamp.
“The die was already cast,” said Stone. “He was actually really good, and lit up the place with his stories and humour, but he had been dealt an impossible hand. We weren't good enough – but it felt very strange to be on the opposition side who sent Forest down. If I'd known it would take them 23 years to get back, I would have felt more guilt than I did at the time, but Nottingham Forest will always be a special club close to my heart.”
Stone's lifetime in football is an impressive body of work - yet his four daughters insist the pinnacle of his career was that Three Lions video.
“My kids say that's what I'm famous for,” he admitted.
And in fairness, we all still see that tackle by Moore, and when Lineker scored, Bobby belting the ball and Steve Stone dancing...
