The title of former Manchester United winger Keith Gillespie’s moving autobiography might be thought almost impossible in today’s financial climate, with the average United first-team player earning around £7 million in the 2018/9 season alone. On top of this, current players can earn extra money from sponsorship deals, image rights and advertising. In Gillespie’s day, wages were markedly lower, but he still calculates that he managed to squander over £7.2 million during his career, culminating in his being declared bankrupt in 2010. ‘How not to be a Football Millionaire’ is an honest account of his career, describing some glorious highs alongside the events leading to his financial downfall.
Keith’s father Harry was a prison officer in the Maze prison during some very difficult years in Northern Ireland, but the book nonetheless describes a relatively peaceful, almost idyllic,
It is clear from the book that Gillespie is an intelligent man, despite the poor decisions he has made. This intelligence indirectly contributed to the most difficult time of his childhood, as it earned him a place at Bangor Grammar School. This was no doubt a good school in many ways, but it was a place where rugby and hockey took precedence, and football was not approved of. Nonetheless, despite the obstacles the school put in his path, Keith managed to keep playing football and obtain a respectable set of GCSEs. By the age of 16, he was on his way to Manchester to begin the footballing career he had set his heart on.
One of the joys of reading this autobiography is that of reading Gillespie’s opinion of some of the players and managers he has dealt with. In his first lodgings in Salford, he shared a room with Robbie Savage, and marvelled at the extensive amount of time the young Welshman spent on his hair. Nonetheless, this apparently paled in comparison to the extensive beauty regime of another young apprentice called Beckham. Overall, it is clear that Gillespie enjoyed his time as part of the ‘Class of ’92’, and he warmly recounts their FA Youth Cup triumph, even though his own involvement was limited. His gradual breakthrough into the first team is recorded alongside his perceptions of some of the established stars. He was impressed by the charisma and work ethic of Cantona but found Peter Schmeichel harder to get along with. Gillespie amusingly recounts the regular berating endured by the substitutes if they failed to provide the quality of crosses Schmeichel demanded for his warm-up. His second year at the club included a goal scoring debut in the League Cup against Bury, and an FA Cup appearance against Brighton. His Old Trafford apprenticeship culminated in the signing of a professional contract, which was the first time in his life that Gillespie came into possession of a significant sum of money.
It is clear by this stage that Gillespie’s life was changing rapidly. The excitement of his Premier League debut was quickly followed by a goal against Newcastle in front of a packed Old Trafford, as well as family and friends. His path to the top of the game was opening up, yet his life was also evolving in other ways. He had begun to discover the hard-drinking, womanising lifestyle that was not uncommon among leading footballers of that era, and which would be a contributory factor in his later downfall. Gillespie became a regular with Northern Ireland during his time at United, and by all accounts their drinking exploits exceeded any he came across in England. In the book he claims that this helped team bonding, but in reality, if someone had helped him to avoid such excesses, he would almost certainly have enjoyed a longer and more successful career.
Gillespie’s first big transfer came about as a by-product of Alex Ferguson’s wish to sign Andy Cole from Newcastle. Kevin Keegan, who was then in charge at Newcastle, would only agree to the deal if he could take Gillespie in part-exchange. Keith liked what he had seen of the club, so he readily agreed. He recounts how Sir Alex acted as his agent when negotiating the deal and got him a near five-fold increase in salary and a hefty signing-on fee. Thrust into the first team in a football-mad town, the young winger was now far more high-profile than before and became used to the attentions of the press. He now realised that what he did on nights out was likely to appear in the next morning’s newspapers, but this did not prevent him enjoying the attention. During this period, Gillespie turned 20 years old. He was a young man, a long way from home, being feted, highly-paid, and pursued by the press. Drinking fairly heavily provided some artificial escape, but his book makes clear that there was no-one around him offering advice about his lifestyle, or at least no-one that he was prepared to listen to.
At this point, the tone of the book changes, as the subject of gambling is introduced seriously for the first time. Gillespie outlines how he first started visiting betting shops with his fellow apprentices in Manchester, and describes the thrill he derived from betting, primarily on horse racing. He was soon spending much of his spare time gambling. Despite the fact that this was clearly the start of an addiction, Gillespie notes that: ‘nobody expressed any concern’. Inevitably, once he moved to Newcastle on a vastly higher wage, his bets became bigger, and he had more time, because first-team players finished training by 1pm. When he bought his own house, his addiction took an even stronger hold, especially once he had discovered telephone betting. An unscrupulous local bookmaker gave him an account without any obvious limits and just waited for the money to roll in.
In late 1995, Newcastle were top of the league and Gillespie was in the form of his life, but his gambling was spiralling out of control. He lost £62,000 in 48 hours, although after he lost £47,000 on the first day, some bookmakers might have thought twice about taking £15,000 of further bets on the second. This put him in debt for some time and brought a temporary halt to the telephone betting. Assistant Manager Terry McDermott asked Gillespie about his rumoured debts, but he admitted nothing. Finally The Sun got hold of the story, and his gambling became national news for a short while. As was no doubt typical at that time, all he got from the club was teasing in the dressing room. He was given no guidance, nor any offer of counselling. The publicity forced him to stop betting for a while, but he knew this was only temporary.
The next chapters of the book are fascinating for anyone who remembers United stealing the title from Newcastle in 1996, and Keegan’s famous rant at Sir Alex. Gillespie discusses the diverse personalities at the club, from Asprilla to Ginola, and the shock everyone felt when Keegan resigned midway through the following season, to be replaced by Kenny Dalglish. Things started reasonably well for Gillespie under Dalglish, but around this time he appointed an agent, who quickly introduced him to internet betting. This was never going to end well.
1997/8 was a difficult time at Newcastle. Alan Shearer suffered a serious injury, and Dalglish began a cull of the flair players who had defined the Keegan era. Both Ginola and Asprilla were soon gone, despite the latter’s hat-trick during a night of Champions League glory versus Barcelona. Gillespie’s lifestyle came into focus again when a silly dispute with Shearer ended with him knocked out in a Dublin street. The Magpies ended a tough season with a Wembley defeat in the FA Cup final, but Gillespie was forced to sit this one out with an ankle injury. A falling out with club bosses Fletcher and Shepherd was followed by a difficult relationship with new manager Ruud Gullit, and Gillespie was soon on his way to Blackburn.
The early days at Blackburn were difficult for Gillespie, as they were sliding towards relegation under Brian Kidd, and things only got worse when Graeme Souness arrived and sent him out on loan. Financially, he was still earning considerable sums. Nonetheless, his lifestyle, as the book records, was not exactly stable. He married Frances in June 1999, but their relationship was tempestuous. She, not unreasonably, objected to his heavy drinking, gambling and frequent absences, and within a year their relationship was largely over. In football terms, Gillespie’s life improved when Souness brought him back to Blackburn. He was in the team as they earned promotion and, back in the Premier League, they won the League Cup in 2002.
Whilst Gillespie was at Blackburn, a further financial issue was raised by his involvement in a scheme to buy in to film syndicates. The purpose of this scheme was to create a trading loss for tax purposes without costing a significant amount of money. It was not, however, explained to the young footballers to whom it was being sold that if the movies did not succeed they were likely to incur significant bills further down the line when their football income was likely to have stopped, or at least be in decline.
The book includes regular chapters outlining Gillespie’s experiences with Northern Ireland. These consist of a substantial amount of losing and drinking, but the occasional high-points are described in vivid and affecting detail. His love of playing for his country shines through.
By 2003, Gillespie was on his way out of Blackburn, primarily for footballing reasons, but he could not avoid getting suspended for a scuffle with the reserve-team coach. Nonetheless, with a new ex-beauty queen girlfriend in tow, he was soon on his way to Leicester. This was to prove a very difficult time in his life and career. After a slow start to the season, manager Mickey Adams took the squad on a break to La Manga. An encounter with some German girls on the first evening seemed innocent enough at the time, but it ended with Paul Dickov, Frank Sinclair and Gillespie being accused of rape. Whilst the story is told from Gillespie’s viewpoint, it certainly sounds like this accusation was manifestly false from the outset. Nonetheless, while the situation was being resolved, the three players were held in Sangonera Prison. Eventually, Gillespie received £115,000 in libel damages from the newspapers which had publicised the women’s story. Despite being cleared, Gillespie considers that this story remained a black mark against his name.
Football-wise, the first season at Leicester ended with Gillespie out of favour and the team relegated. A moderate second season followed, for which he had to take a 50% pay cut. The team did not tear up any trees, but Gillespie was voted player of the year by the fans. Nonetheless, it was time for him to leave, as his wages were an issue for the club. A trial at Leeds brought nothing beyond the realisation that he did not like Kevin Blackwell, but a chance to go to Sheffield United and play under the legendary Neil Warnock quickly brought him back into the game. Gillespie earned a lot less here than at Leicester, but it gave him another chance to shine. He enjoyed playing under Warnock, and played an important role as the team earned promotion to the Premier League. He made a good start to the Premier League campaign, but the issue of his relatively low salary began to rankle. Warnock was conscious that the club could not afford to implement a lot of expensive contracts, and advised that it was not appropriate to pay high wages to Keith, who would simply waste the money anyway. He felt that bonuses would be a more effective way of rewarding the Irishman. Whilst this view was difficult to argue with, it led to something of a rift between player and club.
After Sheffield United’s relegation was confirmed, largely due to West Ham’s controversial transfer dealings, Warnock left and Bryan Robson took over. Gillespie admired Robson, but the team struggled and he was sacked before the end of the next season. Worse news was that he was to be replaced by the man Gillespie had taken an instant dislike to at Leeds, Kevin Blackwell. Events at the club took an inevitable turn, with Blackwell freezing Gillespie out and Gillespie angrily confronting him. A suspension and indefinite banishment to the reserves followed. After an escalating dispute, involving the PFA, an £87,000 pay-off was agreed, and he left the club in early 2009.
At this stage the book includes an interesting little section about Northern Ireland’s qualifying campaigns for the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 under Lawrie Sanchez. The initial culture shock when faced with Sanchez’s methods led to difficulties, but once the players bought into the new system they achieved considerable success, including notable victories over England and Spain. Unfortunately, Sanchez departed for a higher-paid job at Fulham before the end of the 2008 qualifying campaign, and the momentum was lost. Nonetheless, the tale of how those victories came about is compelling.
From here on in, the story is more about Gillespie’s personal life, as his footballing career starts to wind down after leaving Sheffield United at the age of almost 34. A short-lived spell at Bradford City marked the end of his time in England, and soon it was back to Northern Ireland to play for Glentoran. On a personal level, a brief reunion with Frances had ended, and Gillespie had become involved with an English girl called Vikki. She gave birth to their first daughter in 2007, and they were married in 2009. Their second daughter was born in 2010, but by this time they were back in Northern Ireland, and Vikki was finding it hard to settle, especially with Keith taking up golf too. The real problem, however, was Gillespie’s financial position, which was starting to collapse. The film syndicate deal was now bringing in substantial, regular, tax bills which, once he was playing for Glentoran, comfortably exceeded Gillespie’s income. An unscrupulous financial advisor had also got him involved in some very sketchy property deals, which had cost him more large sums of money. At this point, he recognised that he had to stop gambling, but the damage had already been done.
In the Summer of 2010, Glentoran released Gillespie because they could no longer afford to pay him. His tax bill was in excess of £137,000, and he in
Gillespie’s Northen Ireland career had also ended during his time at Glentoran, as Nigel Worthington told him that he would no longer be selected. Nonetheless, he had earned 86 caps and put in some fine performances for his country. He was disappointed with the way Worthington ended his career, and suspects that his reputation for undisciplined behaviour might have had something to do with it.
A later chapter outlines Gillespie’s legal action against the financial adviser who had cost him so much money. This was ostensibly successful, but because their indemnity insurance was capped, it was something of a pyrrhic victory, as the payout simply went to satisfy a few creditors. Nonetheless, Gillespie was able to emerge from bankruptcy in October 2011. His agent found him an opportunity to play for Longford Town in the Irish second tier, as well as doing some marketing work, which meant that he no longer needed to claim benefits. He also met a new partner, Claire Munn, who soon became pregnant with his third child, a boy. His domestic life was therefore a little complicated as he tried to see his daughters as much as possible too.
With all of his money gone, Gillespie became clinically depressed, and a moving chapter explains how Claire helped him to finally open up about this. He was prescribed anti-depressants but realised that they only provide some relief from the symptoms. By the end of the book he is working with a clinical psychologist, and is optimistic of a gradual return to robust mental health. He also sets out some of the options for his future career (he now makes money from after-dinner speaking), about which he was very uncertain at that stage.
Overall, this is the kind of autobiography that you will read with a combination of wonderment and grim fascination. Gillespie’s football career included some amazing moments, and was certainly not unsuccessful, although his lack of discipline no doubt prevented him from achieving even more. The inside story of some of the clubs he played for will both amuse and shock at times, as will the wild times with Northern Ireland. The heart of the book, however, is the story of how his life
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