United legends

[An old shed boy]

Paid a visit to the Whitehall theatre on Friday for the United legends event.
Maurice, Doddsy, hamish and Heggy.
Like most of these things entertaining but nothing controversial. And most stories forgotten by the time you?re home.
But the one thing they all agreed on was Uniteds greatest ever player was David Narey.
According to these guys Davie could have played for any team in Europe but didn?t have any interest in leaving home.
Asked if he regretted missing the opportunity his answer was that he didn?t as he had no interest in moving.
He?s been asked to appear at events but it?s just not his cup of tea.
Also mentioned that Doddsy?s goals were in the 6 yard box. Which was why he didn?t take penalties. They were too far out.

[TangerineDream]

Absolute privilege to witness Dave Narey playing for United. What a player he was.

Also the lads on the stage and many more in the late 70s, 80s teams for me. Amazing and superb times.

Thanks to all of them.

[Arabdownsouth]

Absolute privilege to witness Dave Narey playing for United. What a player he was.

Also the lads on the stage and many more in the late 70s, 80s teams for me. Amazing and superb times.

Thanks to all of them.

Seconded

[Burach11]

Agree with all that has been said about David Narey. He is the finest footballer ever to have come from the City of Dundee. I would put him up there with Franz Beckenbauer.

[NOSCOTCAPS]

Seconded

I would say one of the finest footballers to come out of Scotland, if not the UK. As someone said earlier would have graced any of the top sides in Europe. I think wee Jum rated him as world class. In different and bigger club than Dundee United, his stock and value would have risen ten fold or more.

[beardyface23]

didn't matter if he would have wanted to go, Jim had them all on 10 year contracts...with a 5 year option.

[Steve Finan]

I’m very proud to say Dave Narey gave me an interview for the Champions 82-83 book (still copies available at club shop, I think). As far as I know it is the only interview he has given in the past 30 years. I think John Holt persuaded him.
In the interview Dave talked about why he stayed at Tannadice when he had so many chances to move. Also talked about his trial at Nottingham Forest.
Definitely the best player I’ve known who was born in Dundee. Better than Peter Lorimer, Derek Johnstone, any of them.
I feel sorry for United supporters of younger ages who missed seeing Narey play. It was a different level of expectation (I’m sure older fans will agree) when United had players like DN, Luggy, Ralphie, Mo and Heggie in the team. You’d get clubs like Monaco, PSV Eindhoven (with World Cup winners in their team), Monchengladbach with Lothar Mattheus in the team, Barcelona with Lineker and Hughes, come along to Tannadice and everyone thought, “Aye, we’ll beat this lot”. Not just we CAN beat them, it was we WILL beat them.
The champions of Belgium, Standard Liege, showed up in 1984. And we didn’t know much about them, just that – obviously – United would give them a hiding. And we did, 4-0. It was a different fan experience to nowadays.
With Dave Narey, one of the big differences was the anticipation. He knew what was about to happen on a football field. It would look like the opposition were mounting a dangerous attack, then Dave Narey would just step in, take the ball, feed it out to Eamonn or Kirkie, and that was that. No bother, no fanfare. He just did it. It’s only when you see players who can’t do it to the same level that you fully appreciate it.
Again, I asked him how he did this for the book.
The thing that’s always said about him was that in a race with the opposition’s slowest player, he’d win by a yard. He’d also win by a yard if running against the opposition’s fastest player. But it went further than that. He was also a very good athlete, a big, strong guy. He could handle rough tough centre-forwards, he was never injured, he could tackle if he had to, and he got up to defend high balls too.
Probably Van Dijk would be the closest modern comparison. And I always thought DN was very like Paolo Maldini (although that’s going back 20 years now as well).
There were four or five players in that 80s team who could have been stars in the English top flight. Dave Narey would have been too (he’d have a couple of European Cup medals if he had signed for Forest). But Dave would also have been a star in the Italian or Spanish leagues.