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Peter Marinello


casey
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Read his book last week, Fallen Idle.

 

Very interesting stuff with a couple of chapters devoted to his time at Motherwell between 1975 and 1978. Some good and bad memories of certain games. Sounds like he was some character.

 

Well worth a read, I think.

 

 

Showing my age here but Marinello was part of the first Motherwell team that I can actually remember watching ....

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With hindsight, his profile had dropped quite a way when he came to us, but as a teenager at the time, signing anyone from England was a result, never mind a player who had a few years ealier had been highly regarded.

 

IMHO though, he was a cracking player and part of a fantastic team at the time - Pettigrew, Graham, Davidson, etc (check out the other post of the STV archive for a taster if you haven't already)

 

 

MON RA DOSSERS

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Last year I met an old Arsenal player, Sammy Nelson, on a hospitality day. He was a good friend of Peter Marinello and played with him at Arsenal in the early '70's. He referred to him as "catweasle" - I guess he was known for being a bit scruffy. Picked up the following about Peter Marinello from a web site. Sorry it's a bit long but something to help pass a few minutes on a boring Sunday afternoon:

 

"Early days in Edinburgh

As the name suggests his family is of italian origin, or Sicily to be more precise. They had a shop in Leith (Edinburgh). Peter was born february 20th 1950 into a neighborhood with a mixed population of protestants and catholics. There is a club called Salvesen Boys Club in Edinburgh and Peter joined them after leaving St.Anthonys Secondary School. The purpose of the club was to build bridges over the religious divide in the population trough football. Graeme Souness grew up in the same area, and the two of them are the best known players to come out of the Salvesen Boys Club. Peter's talent was soon to be recognized, and he landed his first professional contract when he signed for Hibernian in 1966. The following years he amazed the scottish football audiences with his dazzling skills. There were many highlights, but perhaps none bigger than his two goals at Ibrox that gave Hibs a rare 3-1 win in 1969. I reckon that day is still talked about amongst the Hibs fans, at least the grown ups. Scouts from the big english clubs also became aware of Peter Marinello who by now had been labeled "the new George Best".

 

London calling

In january 1970 Arsenal paid Hibs £100.000 to bring Peter Marinello to London. The transfer was a big media event . The fee was a huge amount of money in those days. In today's market value that should be around £15 million or so. In George Armstrong's absence Peter became a regular starter right away and expectations were high when the little winger made his debut no other place than at Old Trafford, George Best's home ground. When he also scored the media went mad. Imagine the headlines. How on earth are you going to top that? Peter played 18 games for Arsenal during the spring, including 4 in the Fairs Cup. Perhaps it was symbolic for his fait that he didn't make the team for what perhaps was the most memorable night at Highbury ever, the 3-0 win over Anderlecht that won Arsenal the Fairs Cup.

 

The playboy

Things looked good at Highbury now. Arsenal had just landed their first trophy for 17 years and they had plenty of young promising players like Pat Rice, Sammy Nelson, Ray Kennedy, Charlie George and perhaps the greatest talent of them all Peter Marinello. Arsenal went on to win a league and cup double, but for Peter things started to go wrong. A knee injury sidelined him for most of the double season. However Peter was just as big a star off the field as on it. He had the looks of a movie star and plenty of girls had a crush on him. A perfect object for commercial forces. He got his own news columns, participated in commercials and fashion shows, had his face on posters all over and last but not least he had guest appearances on the tv-show "Top of the Pops". That was a big deal back then. Someone even made him record a demo in an effort to become a pop-star himself. Everybody wanted a piece of the Peter Marinello phenomenon, and Peter willingly let himself be used. Imagine what all this attention can do to the mind of a 20 year old that in reality is all alone in London. These events probably changed him from a football wizard to a football playboy.

 

The come back

In the spring of 1972 he finally clawed his way back into the team. The venue was Highbury and the occasion was a second leg quarterfinal tie in the european cup. Arsenal were 2-1 down to holders Ajax from the match in Amsterdam and just needed a 1-0 win to go through. John Radford were suspended and new signing Alan Ball were ineligible for the game. That opened the door for Peter Marinello and he responded with a magnificent display. He did everything against the european champions, everything except score. If you ask people what they remember best from the match I bet just as many will answer Marinello's miss as George Graham's own goal that in the end sent us out of the competition. Some of europe's best footballers was at display that night and Peter Marinello was the best of them all. If he just had put that ball in the net it could have been Ibrox all over again and perhaps things would have developed different the coming months. Instead of being the hero he became the scapegoat. Just his luck!

 

Another set back

For some reason Bertie Mee never seemed to find room for Peter Marinello and George Armstrong in the same team. Perhaps that was due to tactical reasons, or perhaps Peter's playboy image just was a bit too much for the strict disciplinarian. In the end of the day Peter always came out as second choice. Peter got a good run of games in the first half of the 1972/73 season when Geordie was out injured. I remember seeing him live on tv in november 1972 at Molineux. The only way to describe his performance that day is "sheer brilliance". Nevertheless that was to be one of his last matches for Arsenal, because come december Geordie was back in the team and Peter was out once more. It just wasn't meant to be. Bertie Mee was starting to break up the double team and a new generation of players was coming trough the ranks. Peter didn't feel apart of either and the boss didn't seem to appreciate him much anyway. I think that was the final straw that made him give up on Arsenal and settle for just being a football playboy once more. He was offered a new contract for some reason, but he had his hart set on moving on. In fact he had been "tapped-up" by Portsmouth.

 

The rest of his professional career

Portsmouth put in bid of £100.000 for Peter Marinello and also tempted him with a paycheck that the Highbury board didn't want to top, so Peter decided to leave. The playboy got the upper hand and Peter took the money and ran. In fact the fee and salary for Peter Marinello was almost more than Portsmouth could handle, and the club got into some economic difficulties as a result. After two years as the girls favorite and the cashier's nightmare in Portsmouth he returned to Scotland where he played three seasons for Motherwell doing well enough to get back into the scottish national team. Next in line was a visit back in London, this time to play a few games for Fulham before the temptation of american dollars became too much to resist. When he joined Phoenix Inferno he was 30 years old. He later returned to Scotland to play for Hearts and Patrick Thistle, without any luck.

 

Where is he now?

With his professional football career over and done with in 1984 I believe he settled down in Edinburgh running a pub. However I guess he conducted his business in the same way he did much of his football career after Highbury, in search for quick money. Subsequently he went bankrupt in 1994 and ended up in Southbourne near Bornemouth where friends helped him back on his feet. He settled in with his wife and two sons (Paul and John) and he has stayed there for the last 15 years. He has always loved his football though. He continued playing for a amateur team called Parkbury until he was 50 years old and a bad hip finally put a stop to it. In fact he played in the same team as his oldest son. He was also seen playing for various Arsenal XI charity teams through the years.

 

Why am I writing this?

I don't know. I just felt like it. It gave me a chance to pay tribute to a man whose fait I have followed for the last 35 years. Life hasn't been easy on Peter, but I've learned that he hasn't become a bitter grey haired man. Not quite true - he has gray hair now, but he also has a smile on his face and is still the gentleman he always has been. Perhaps we all have something to learn from Peter Marinello, learn to be able to see beyond the footballer. See people as people and not as merchandise. Especially the media who had a big responsibility in the wrecking of Peter Marinello's career. They were first in line to ridicule and bury him when things went a bit stray, and in the end we are the ones feeding the monster by buying all their bullshit. Just a thought."

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Apprently it was all down to Peter Marinello that ian st john quit his job as manager of portsmouth.

In games he wasnt doing what he was told and due to a financial crisis at Fratton Park sinji had to sell players. He advised the board that peter was the man to go, but the chairmens wife said no 'i like him' - so ian quit right away.

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Noticed on Amazon and Play.com that there are 2 versions of the book at different prices - anyone know if the dearer one an update of the other ?

 

 

MON RA DOSSERS

 

Think the cheaper version is the smaller sized paperback with smaller print and more pages.

That's the copy I have. Nice pic from 76 cup tie against Hibs inside.

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Great book!

 

Really interesting, even without the Motherwell connections!

 

Opens your eyes to some of the stuff that went on in those days!

 

My favourite story was of the Arsenal squad travelling upto Bolton on a Friday night, and all having a right bevvy, as they thought the game would be off due to snow. It went ahead though! :blink: They got a 1-1 draw if i remeber right?

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One of my favourite players as a kid. I remember going to Cowdenbeath for a Cup Game. My abiding memory is that it seemed the whole town had turned up in Fife that afternoon, but I also remember Marinello having a great game.

 

Terrific to watch.

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One of my favourite players as a kid. I remember going to Cowdenbeath for a Cup Game. My abiding memory is that it seemed the whole town had turned up in Fife that afternoon, but I also remember Marinello having a great game.

 

Terrific to watch.

 

Was that the game we had to cross over an old railway track to get to the ground? What year was that? There was a big Well support at that game. What a team we had then. I still see Bobby G on a friday night when he drops his granddaughter at cheerleading when I'm dropping my daughter off. Will need to ask him if he has read the book.

 

I bought the hardback for 29p, you can get the paperback for 1p. Read through the small print if you want the hardback

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Curiosity got the better of me and I had to check back. Cowdenbeath game was 1976, the year we got robbed by Rangers in the semi final losing 2-3. God I was 7 then and it still leaves a bitter taste when I think about it. That team should have won the Scottish Cup that year.

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One of my favourite players as a kid. I remember going to Cowdenbeath for a Cup Game. My abiding memory is that it seemed the whole town had turned up in Fife that afternoon, but I also remember Marinello having a great game.

 

Terrific to watch.

2 nil to the Dossers if it's the Scottish game I remember

 

My memory is coming out the ground and there being Well buses everywhere you looked.

 

 

MON RA DOSSERS

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