BigFudge speaks with.........Simon Bergara

It's been a while since my last County interview so I thought it was about time to do another one and this time we have Simon Bergara, son of Danny. I'd like to give my sincerest thanks to Simon for agreeing to this...so without any further ado, here it is.

Very much so! The Club have been fantastic in offering their support to the family and always make us feel incredibly welcome. It is well documented the tributes put together at the match with Cardiff shortly after Dad passed to which the family were all invited. I remember two full coaches of supporters came to the funeral which was incredible after 13 years I would still like to say a massive thankyou to those that travelled and those that couldn’t make it for all that amazing support. The club asked my Mum if she minded the fans singing DB’s Blue and White Army at the end of the service which she was so happy about and it helped make it a fitting send off and very uplifting. John Sainty travelled all the way from Southampton I recall to be there, Pure class from Sainty!

Thereafter Norman Beverley, the Chairman at the time kept in touch and we were all VIP guests at Wembley 2008 which was amazing and to finally see the victory we had all craved with flags of Uruguay dotted around the County faithful was awesome.

Photos from Wembley and Dad at County are framed and still very much in place at my Mum’s house in Sheffield so strong are the memories and feeling for the Club.

I have been a couple of times a season to Edgeley and until the Dover game (which I was invited to by Andy Birchenough) had never seen a team of Jim Gannon’s lose I was beginning to think I had a good luck charm !

Whenever family have come over from Uruguay they ALWAYS want to visit his spiritual home and numerous times Steve Bellis, Simon Dawson and the team have gone out of their way to make it happen often opening parts of the ground specially to maximise the experience. Furthermore County fans Stuart & Josie MacKinlay and Don Cain during a tour of South America a couple of years back paid a visit to the family home in Montevideo and were made to feel very welcome spending time chatting to members of the family including Dad’s Mum (My beloved Nanny Cuca) who has just celebrated her 99th Birthday on the 17th June!

I must add that Phil Brennan did a brilliant job with the book “The Man from Uruguay” which is a wonderful account of his life and County was a significant part of that and the Book provides an everlasting record which we are all incredibly grateful for.

Even as recently as during the Covid pandemic Steve Bellis went out of his way to phone Mum and check on how she was doing and make sure there was any support that could be provided…pure class !

I think therefore a resounding YES to the connection!

I believe he was and when second opinions were required John Sainty and Dave Jones were part of a very strong coaching team to add support. Dad had been involved in Football on a coaching level since 1973 so was used to going and watching players and teams when he was at Luton and Sheffield United plus he spent quite a bit of time in the 80’s either out of work or in between jobs and did do plenty of Scouting for David Pleat so he was well used to providing analysis on players. There are records galore at home and his written accounts of players from those days are quite meticulous especially when you consider English was not his natural language! There is one of a young Gary Lineker at Leicester around 1980/81 who was a sub at a match at Rotherham United and he came on for the last 15 minutes burst through and scored and Dad wrote “David he can catch pigeons and can score…SIGN HIM IF YOU CAN!! The rest is history.

It was hugely important to Dad that money was spent wisely and he looked at it as though he was spending his own so would ring people to check on players character to see if it matched the on field ability and raw talent. So for Jim I know he spoke to Dave Bassett, for Kevin I think Arthur Cox and any players he had not had previous experience with he would go over and above to check their character because he knew that if things were not going well on the pitch would they be a good influence on and off the pitch and I cannot remember any “bad” signings that totally didn’t work out? although maybe I am biased and County faithful will put me right!

It was hugely uplifting for my Family. Unfortunately I was unable to make the game as I was away on a family holiday but my Mum and Sister, Ellen, were and they spoke of how uplifting the experience was at a very sad time. County fans always had a way of cheering Dad up and that has carried on ever since. On the day there were lots of heartfelt messages from ex players and fans and Mum has said it will live long in the memory.

His love for the fans and the people at the club (players and staff) who had always supported him was undiminished and whenever possible he would accept invitations to go to functions and presentations. I know for a long while the bitter experience of how he was sacked and the accusations made scarred him without a doubt he was never quite the same afterwards it took a lot of getting over. I Remember it took him over 4 years to clear his name so during this time it would have been very difficult for him to go to Edgeley when there was the ongoing tribunal case. Not the fact the club had sacked him as that is part and parcel of football it was the way it was done by the people in charge at the time that really hurt him. However through all of that the likes of Steve Bellis, Phil Brennan, Graham and Stuart White and many others were there for him and the connection with the fans was incredible and remains so to this day.

It is very surreal and we are very proud that after all this time the appreciation of his work burns stronger than ever. I went to the Blossoms gig last year with my youngest daughter Amy who is 21 now and she was blown away by the whole experience and was very proud that her Grandad means so much to the people of Stockport. I have to admit leaving the gig that night put a lump in my throat with the floodlights on people swarming over the streets cars queuing outside the stadium people singing brought back very vivid and happy memories of those great nights of the early to mid 90s.

England meant so much to Dad through family and he was given his opportunity to coach here in 1973 at a time when it was frowned upon for foreign people to come and take jobs from the natives! To put this in perspective I watched a programme last week about the “Football’s Foreign Legion” because a friend of mine mentioned Alex Sabella from Dad’s time at Sheffield United was on. This was 1978 5 years after Dad had started coaching at Luton and when Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles signed for Tottenham. Footage of an interview with the PFA Chairman Gordon Taylor incredibly shows him saying “As much as we see the value of two world cup winners adding to English football this means there are two less jobs for British players” This was from the PFA Chairman incredibly short sighted and non-inclusive attitude and it was this type of barrier that Dad fought against from the time he arrived so whilst he was very grateful and appreciative of the people at Luton and beyond for giving him the chance he always felt it was an uphill battle to change very traditional attitudes in the game. Now we have the entire opposite where British players and managers just occasionally stop the foreigners from getting jobs lol!!

As for Stockport the town and people meant the world to him as stated earlier. Although he built great relationships with the clubs he served throughout his career Stockport was very very special probably because of the stage in life he was at, where County was at when he joined and basically the mutual desire for a change in fortune so it was a match made in heaven and because it had taken so long to have the opportunity to manage a club in his unique way.

Another English connection with Danny saw him become the first ever foreign Manager to lead an English team out at Wembley stadium blazing the trail for the likes of Guardiola, Mourinho, Ancellotti, Klopp and many more. Just how do you describe the feeling of your Dad having such a prominent place in English football history?

It makes us all very proud! When he married my Mum in England in 1966 just before the World Cup he was invited to train with the Uruguay squad in London (not sure how he did not make it in to the Squad as he was 5th top scorer in La Liga that season! They must have had a good side!) and he also watched England’s opener v Uruguay as a guest of the Uruguay FA. So from an early age Wembley and England had a strong meaning to Dad. I also remember at the end of his first season in England he was offered the Luton Town Cup Final complimentary ticket for Liverpool v Newcastle 1974 at Wembley which he accepted. However he got a shock as the ticket was standing in the Liverpool end so remember him coming home and saying “I never saw a bloody thing!” Little would he know that nearly 26 years after his first visit he would lead out SCFC and the Guest of Honour was one Bobby Moore who Dad watched play against Uruguay all those years earlier. I wonder if he reminded Bobby that England couldn’t beat Uruguay in 1966 and that England still trailed his home country by 2 to 1 in World Cup wins- he reminded us often enough of this!!

That is a question probably better for the Club staff employees and players who had to put up with him day in day out! He was meticulous about certain things he had high standards of conduct even hygiene. I seem to recall he would insist all players wore flip-flops around the changing areas so that they would not pick up verucas and stuff!

In my opinion it was a combination of his humility, his total desire to succeed and he worked tirelessly to do the best he could. He was a man of the people and knew what it meant to the fans to have something to cheer about. There is a piece of cine-footage from Sevilla in the late 60’s and he is sat on our small apartment balcony just a few hundred yards from the Stadium and as my Mum is filming he suddenly waves down and jokingly shouts something to supporters walking past below...that sums him up having the relationships with supporters was huge as a player and he took that on into management.

Obviously County have had a hard time recently but seem to be on the way back now with a former player of your Dads, Jim Gannon, do you see any similarities in Jim to Danny? In them as a person or a manager?

Well Dad did say Jim was volatile as he could play in numerous positions lol! So maybe that is a characteristic they share! Joking aside, I don’t know Jim away from Football but he is a family man and clearly has similar passion and heart for the club and has been a great success for County both as a player and manager and I hope he leads the club back to the Football League and remains at the club for a very long time. I have also been impressed with Jim connecting with the community and loved the footage last year of seeing him arrive at a fans house as a surprise to mark a special occasion and the reaction of the unsuspecting young fan with his parents was great.

Many of his former players speak fondly of him as a person as well as a manager and loved his eccentricity with his strange team talks and lying on the dugout trying to clear pigeons from the stands. How did Danny the person differ from Danny the manager?

He had his moments of eccentricity at home as well! Very loyal and a family man, very generous to a tee. To be honest whilst he could engage in non-football matters he would always come back to using football analogies! Taking up Golf at a relatively late age in the mid 80’s was good for him it got him away from the microscope of management. He was much loved at Lees Hall Golf Club in Sheffield and in later years would partner Keith Edwards among many others. He liked his music to the point where if a song came along he liked it would be on a non-stop playlist for what seemed eternity! I just wish he had got the Stone Roses as I would loved County to have run out to “This is the One!”. Dad certainly wasn’t one for pubs and clubs or shopping trips he was happy watching football or being involved in some way.

So many really from his playing days to life in England. One that will resonate with County fans that, for me, tells you everything about his relationship with County and what the club meant to him was after leaving County he was David Pleat’s First Team Coach at Sheffield Wednesday in the PL for the season 95/96. They went away to Old Trafford (having drawn 0-0 at home to them earlier on) and took a very credible 2-2 draw from a United team comprising Keane/Cantona and the rest...he came home that night and I said wow what a result Dad two games unbeaten against Fergie! He said ..”you what ? giving away a bloody two goal lead against United…would never have happened at County!!” Brilliant.

What were your favourite memories of his time at the club?

So many but games that put “hairs up on the back of your neck” – Halifax away 1990 so nearly promoted, Andy Kilner’s volley against Torquay, Scunthorpe and the 5-0 promotion party, Burnley home to get to Wembley for the first time, Dad walking the team out at Wembley v Stoke and those full houses v Birmingham, West Brom, Bolton and Stoke at Edgeley park and sending them all home empty handed!

I also recall a moment I hope Big Kev won’t mind me mentioning, just after he signed we played Hartlepool at home, it may have been his home debut. I was getting physio treatment from Roger Wylde after the game (as a favour which Roger had no choice in the matter!) anyway we were going for promotion we lost 3-1 and Big Kev missed several chances he walked in to the physio room and Roger asked him how he felt and Kev replied “it sort of sums up how my luck has been going”. So me and Roger looked at each other afterwards and joked that didn’t sound very confident did it!! Little did we know that Kevin was probably feeling a bit sorry for himself and as we all know his “luck” and County’s turned upwards very quickly and for a very long time!

Again many thanks to Simon for taking the time to answer these questions for us and giving us a great insight to Danny Bergara, the Manager and Danny Bergara, the person!