Sammy Lee (footballer)

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Sammy Lee
Personal information
Full name Samuel Lee
Date of birth February 7, 1959
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Position Midfielder
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
1976-86
1986-87
1987-90
1990
1990-91		 Liverpool
QPR
Osasuna
Southampton
Bolton Wanderers		 197 (13)
30 (0)
?? (??)
2 (0)
4 (0)
National team
1981-83
1983-84		 England Under-21
England		 6
14 (2)

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.

Sammy Lee (born February 7, 1959 in Liverpool) was a diminutive but skilful midfield player in the great Liverpool team of the early 1980s.

Contents

[edit] Life and playing career

Lee rose through the ranks at Anfield after joining on an apprenticeship in 1976, making his first team debut on the 8th April 1978 as a 6th minute sub for David Johnson, Leicester City at Anfield were the opponents for the day, he also managed to find the net in the 56th minute of the tight 3-2 victory. A year earlier he had been put in the squad for a huge European Cup semi-final and although he didn't play, manager Bob Paisley said he would have had no qualms about using him if required.

Lee became a regular from 1980 onwards and, although small in stature, he established a reputation as a sharp-passing and strong-running midfield player who could also hit a decent shot.

In the 1981 League Cup final, Lee was at the centre of a controversial incident which left opponents West Ham United feeling slightly cheated. Lee had ventured forwards in an attack and ended up flat out on the turf following a challenge. The West Ham defence pushed out of their area to leave Lee in an obvious offside position but when Liverpool full back Alan Kennedy scored with a follow-up shot, the goal stood. The rules about "interfering with play" were still vague back then, and there is no doubt that a similar goal now would also be allowed to stand without complaint. West Ham did equalise but Liverpool won the replay with Lee in the side.

In that year's European Cup semi-final against Bayern Munich, Lee was unusually asked to do a man-marking job on Paul Breitner, the strong and skilful West German player. It was the first instance Liverpool players recall of worrying at all about an opponent, normally preferring to let the opposition do the worrying, but Lee did the marking job to perfection and Liverpool went through to the final against Real Madrid, which they won 1-0 with Lee again in the side.

Lee got this first League title medal in 1982 and also helped Liverpool retain the League Cup; the same applied in 1983 and 1984, the latter of which was also the year of their fourth European Cup triumph - Lee played in every game en route to the final and scored a clinching goal of the 1st leg at Anfield against Dinamo Bucharest in the semi-final.

Bobby Robson gave Lee the first of his 14 England caps during this period, he again scored on his debut in the 3-0 European Championship qualifier victory over Greece on the 17th November 1982.

Injuries took their toll in 1985 and Lee struggled to regain his previous form. With Jan Mølby in the side, there was no longer a place for Lee at Liverpool. He left during the August of 1986 joining QPR.

Spells at CA Osasuna, Southampton and Bolton Wanderers followed before he retired from playing.

His former Liverpool captain, Graeme Souness, invited Lee to join his Anfield coaching staff in 1993 and he did so with relish and respect to the extent that both Roy Evans and Gérard Houllier kept him on the payroll after Souness left, gaining promotion from reserve team coach to first team coach under Houllier.

Lee became a part-time coach under Sven-Göran Eriksson with England in 2001, eventually leaving Liverpool to go full-time with the national set-up in 2004.

This was to be a role that he would remain in for a year, but in June 2005 he made a return to league football with Bolton as the assistant-manager to Sam Allardyce following the departure of Phil Brown to Derby County. In August 2006 he was offered the full-time role of England U-21 manager (currently held by Peter Taylor who divides his time between Crystal Palace F.C. and England), but Lee turned it down, he also stepped down from his England role to concentrate full time on his club commitments with Bolton where he is considered as the natural successor to current manager Allardyce.

Lee is still a favourite amongst Liverpool supporters and was included in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop. Over 110,000 Liverpool fans worldwide voted in the official Liverpool Football Club web-sitepoll for their 10 favourite players of all-time with Sammy finishing in a respectable 47th.

[edit] Honours, all with Liverpool F.C

[edit] Runner-up

[edit] External links

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