Fifteen minutes of fame – The Tony Obi interview - Dan Curtis
The streets don’t forget the names – Aldridge, Constable, Beauchamp, Brannagan – the stories of the greats are told and re-told. Most never reach those heights, but they can hang in the air. For a generation of fans, the name Tony Obi still lingers despite playing for just 15 minutes in an Oxford shirt; Dan Curtis decided to track him down.
For a whole season, his name was there, and it always intrigued me.
Saturday 23rd August, 1986. First game of the season. Watford, away. Lost 3-0. Most of the names were very familiar; Judge, Langan, Trewick, Phillips, Briggs, Shotton, Houghton, Aldridge, Charles, Hebberd, Perryman. Basically the Milk Cup winning team, minus Brock, plus Perryman.
Substitute (used): Tony Obi.
And then that name never appears again.
I always wanted to know what happened to Tony Obi. Was he rubbish and out of his depth? Did he get an injury?
‘I saw him play a few times for the reserves’ said my mate Matt when I told him about my intrigue. “He was great. Really lively and skilful. I always hoped he’d break into the first team. I don’t know what happened to him next though.”
The stats back that up, Football Combination (the name of the reserve league back then). Tony Obi. 29 games. 12 goals.
Decent for a winger. But then lots of people had decent stats in the reserves but couldn’t ever quite cut it in the big league. And we were of course a top division team then.
Maybe he was just one of those ‘nearly but not quite players’. We’ve had lots of them.
Why was I intrigued by this guy then?
Growing up in London, a lot of my schoolmates were black. Almost all the black kids at school were infinitely better than me at football. Despite the huge amounts of racism in the game and society at the time, black players were starting to make a huge impact and more often than not, they were really exciting players. Lawrie Cunningham, Cyril Regis, John Barnes, the Stein brothers, Ricky Hill, Mark Walters, Luther Blissett, Garry Thompson, George Lawrence…
And yet, the team I supported was totally white. Since George Lawrence left in 1984, we’d had no black players. Before George Lawrence, you had to go back even further to Joe Cooke, who played for two seasons between 1979 and 1981. And that had always bothered me.
So, seeing this black guy in the team photo was exciting.
And yet, and yet… he played once as a sub in the first game of the season and was never seen again. I wanted to know more.
There’s not a lot of information about Tony Obi in the football archives. He’s got a few lines in Rage Online. A brief Wikipedia page. Reference is made to being born in Birmingham, starting his career at Aston Villa, a few appearances at Walsall, Plymouth and Bristol Rovers, the 15 minutes for us, a short spell at Brentford, and a long and largely statistic-less spell in Belgium.
Almost no photos on the internet. Very little footage that I could find. But there was a picture of him in a bar in Ostend that bore his name.
I decided to track him down.
I didn’t actually take that long and within 24 hours, a message pinged into my phone.
“I’m flattered to read this! I wish the Oxford fans had a chance to see the best of me! I will gladly do an interview with you.’
Reader, the interview happened.
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When Tony Obi joined the Zoom, I was unexpectedly nervous.
‘So this is quite a moment for me, because you were this kind of mythical character in my childhood,’ I spluttered.
‘Haha! I can’t imagine why.’
After I’d interviewed Peter Rhoades-Brown for the last article, he’d told me Tony was a lovely bloke. He was right. It was soon clear that he was indeed charming and with lots of stories to tell. I started the interview with the question I always ask a footballer… ‘How did you get into football and when did you realise you were good?’
‘At the age of 11, I was playing football for the school teams and got noticed by the district. So I played for King's Norton district…then got scouted by Villa at 12. So I stayed there and got an apprenticeship contract at the age of 16… then I left home, stopped school without any diplomas, exams, or any certificates, you know. So it was a massive risk that I was taking.’
‘I lived in a hostel in Erdington for young footballers. We’d look after the football boots of the players, blow-up balls, making sure that everything's right. And then we did our training ourselves and played for the youth team.
‘I did that for a year and a half and by then, I was playing in the Central League for Aston Villa reserves.
‘One day it was arranged that we’d have a friendly game against the England under-18 team. I had an unbelievable game that night, and absolutely took the left back apart.
‘After that, I was called up to go to Reykjavik for the England youth team… It would be like Oxford really! I was only given 5 or 10 mins at the end of the game. And that was that!’
‘Well, I had a good season at Aston Villa and signed a professional contract, then 17, maybe 18 years old. At that age, you think you will have a really bright future. The year that I signed, Villa’s first team won the European Cup… what’s now the Champions League.
‘I was a young, aspiring winger. I had guys like Tony Morley and Mark Walters in front of me. So that was really something to look up to as a young player.’
A loan move to Walsall followed. He missed a chance in the first game (which he mentions more than once in our chat). Then three postponements due to a brutal winter. A loan to Plymouth followed, but a stomach injury was limiting his impact. He returned to Villa, and at the end of the season was released.
‘You're in a club that's the best in Europe, you know. Life couldn't be going better … and then you get an injury, and you get a free transfer at the end of the season. I was pretty disillusioned.’
‘My girlfriend’s dad told me to start writing to clubs. I didn't have an agent, so I was doing everything myself. He looked at the letter and said, ‘don’t say that… don’t tell them about the injury and the missed chance at Walsall!’
The re-written letter worked. He signed for Bristol Rovers, but shortly after, there was an unexpected turn of events.
‘Ray Graydon contacted me from Oxford United and said ‘listen, Tony, I remember you from Villa, we’d like you to come here to have another look at you. So I remember going to Oxford and playing my first game against Arsenal reserves in the combination.
‘I had a great game. It went so well, and Ray said, ‘we'd like you to give you a contract until the end of the season.’
Back living the dream, he’d signed for a top division club that was on its way to winning the Milk Cup that season.
As the stats showed, he did well. The Combination was full of the reserve teams of all the big clubs in the south of England. Despite joining midway through the season, he finished second top scorer and was knocking on the door of the first team.
‘There were some great players ahead of me there. John Aldridge, the big striker Billy Hamilton, Ray Houghton, Kevin Brock, Andy Thomas, Peter Rhoades-Brown. Trevor Hebberd, a wonderful player, my kind of midfielder. But I was training with them every day.
‘But I was often making the matchday 18. So not getting near the bench but being involved.’
With encouraging words from the manager Maurice Evans in his ear, Tony was kept on at the end of the season.
‘I was determined to have a brilliant pre-season.
‘I don’t know if you have any stats available [I don’t], but I’m pretty certain I was top-scorer in the pre-season.’
‘I was in the matchday squad for the first game of the season sitting on the bus. I was shitting my pants big time, because I was like, this is it, this is the moment.
‘The gaffer came up to me on the coach and sat beside me. He said, ‘You’ve done really well. We’re really happy with your progression.
‘You’ve got some good players ahead of you who I can’t leave out.
‘You showed your potential at the end of last season and now you've done a total pre-season.
‘So, your moment is coming. But we won the cup last year, like you know, so I'm keeping that team. They've also had a good pre-season. You’re on the bench today. But you're that close.’
‘So, I say ‘fair enough. No problem’.
The game didn’t go well. Oxford were torn to shreds by John Barnes, (whose previous competitive game had been the infamous ‘Hand of God’ World Cup match) and Luther Blissett.
‘I think we were two or three down, and he's brought me on for the last 10-15 minutes. I think John Barnes had either scored or assisted two.
Afterwards, the gaffer calls me back over. And he said, ‘Listen, we're really happy with your progression but we can't see you getting in the first team for the next few weeks. So, if you want, you can go to Brentford on loan.’
‘In those days the contracts you had for young players were all about rewarding you if you got in the first team.
‘So, if I was playing for the first team at Brentford, I’d get more money.
‘So all of a sudden, as young player, within a week and a half of being at Brentford, I’d bought my first car!
‘On the one hand, I was gutted to be so close to the first team at Oxford but not get in.
‘I’d had a brilliant pre-season, but the impression he gave was that he wasn’t going to be changing anything in his team for at least four or five games, you know.
‘So, he said they’re sending me off to a lower division to be better in one-to-one situations and get stronger … it made sense for all of us.
‘I had a couple of games there that went okay. I contacted Oxford to say, listen, my month is up.
‘They said: ‘Brentford want you to stay another month, or you can come back. You can choose.’
‘And because I was starting to learn something at Brentford, I felt important at last. Finally, I was a first team player.
‘If Oxford had said, come back, you’ll be close to starting, I’d have been more motivated to come back. But it seemed they wanted me to do another month.
‘So, I stayed at Brentford for another month. And in my second game I tore my Achilles.
‘I went back to Oxford; I did my rehabilitation. But after I got back, I never quite got my speed back. I was skilful, but I had always been really fast too.
‘But losing my acceleration, you know, it was something that really affected my game itself.’
By the end of the season, that was that. The club decided to let Tony Obi go, after literally his 15 minutes of not much fame.
‘I was gutted. To get so close, first at Villa, and then at Oxford and then have it taken away by injuries.
‘At the end of season Maurice said, ‘I've been in touch with an agent who wants you to play in Belgium.
‘You really should go, maybe in a lower division they’ll train less, and also not so intensively. And that way you will have your time to heal and the old Tony will come back.
‘That’s maybe what you need at the moment.’
And that was that. Tony’s time at Oxford had come to an end. Like so many footballers, he got a tantalizing glimpse of the glory, but fate, or bad luck, or whatever meant it wasn’t quite to be.
‘I've got lovely memories at Oxford and the club itself. They really made me feel at home, certainly with the trial that I had with them, and then certainly getting a contract until the end of the season.
‘If it wasn’t for Ray Houghton being ahead of me, who knows! The next season Ray and John Aldridge went to Liverpool. You know, they were top players, and I’d been training with them.
‘In hindsight, you totally respect the decisions of the people who let you go.’
What actually happened next is a much happier story. Tony signed for Belgian third division Ostend, and by the time he called it a day, nearly 200 appearances and many goals and assists later, the club was in the top division.
But in a slightly cruel twist of fate, he only got to play once in the top division in Belgium as well.
‘We were playing Anderlecht, who were the big team in the league. I’d been out of the side all season, but the gaffer called me up from the reserves to play.
‘He wanted me to mark their star player Celestine Babayaro.
‘For 75 minutes I kept him out of the game. When I got taken off, I got a standing ovation.’
By the time Tony hung up his boots he was such a club legend, a few years later he was asked to run a bar bearing his name in the stadium. If you find yourself in the vicinity, pop in on a match day and say hello. You could ask him to recall his tales from those heady times when Oxford were a cup-winning team, tales he often tells his children and grandchildren.
‘I do mention my England cap. I do mention my one match in what’s now the Premier League, and certainly a debut against John Barnes, one of the legends of football. I mention playing with John Aldridge and Ray Houghton! You know they've had wonderful careers. And when I was at Villa we had Mark Walters who played for every level of England, and also with Glasgow Rangers and loads of matches for Villa.
‘I've got beautiful memories playing with great teams with great players. You know I am a believer that everything happens for a reason. I've got a beautiful family. So, in England, in Belgium, I've had a lovely life.
‘I've been able to keep healthy. I've got beautiful memories of beautiful football clubs.’
I did really want to ask Tony the big, difficult question. I finally plucked up the courage: ‘What was it like being a black footballer in the 1980s?’
‘If you spoke to players who played in front of big crowds, I’m sure you’d get a different story.
‘Tony Daley and Mark Walters would play in front of big crowds especially in the north and it was terrible.
‘For Mark Walters to play for Rangers at that time took serious guts. Fair play to him, I couldn’t have done that.
‘When we played our reserve games you could hear everything individuals shouted. But Villa Park is in quite a black area and we had quite a lot of black players.
‘Coming to Oxford, it was different… did we have another black player in the squad?’
‘To be honest though, personally I didn't have any problems at all.’
And did Tony think black players were treated differently by managers? Maybe white managers didn’t trust or understand black players?
‘I don’t know. I certainly think that the manager is totally different with players in his first team from those in the reserves, so it’s not something I really encountered in England.
‘I only had regular first team football in Belgium, and because I was one of the star players there, I was treated well.’
I’d asked everything I wanted to ask Tony. Our conversation went on a lot longer than this article will ever allow, and I enjoyed every second of it. Did Tony have anything he wanted to say before we left?
‘I'm really happy to be back in touch… I've got an affiliation with Oxford United, and so I've got a son living in the City. I still visit regularly but I’ve not been to a game. It’s never worked out.
‘I’ve got lovely friends, lovely memories.
‘It’s a pity that you didn't get to see the best of me as a player. I was close, but just like with the Villa, maybe just not close enough.’
