Gerard Wiekens

east2 said:
I moved in to the house next door to him, shortly before he moved out. It was a City house, that Eike Immel previously lived in.
Weikens Was a really nice guy, sorted me and my family out with players tickets for the final game of the season against Portsmouth in 2002 when Pearce ballooned his pen over the bar. Spent a bizarre afternoon in the players lounge, with his family along with Steve Howey, Stuart Pearce and Keeegan talking football, and how Beasant had told Pearce to put the ball in the corner for his 100th goal, and he wouldn't move.
Click to expand...

Haha

Wasn't it Southampton? I think they moaned to the PL about the reduced away allocation
 
Speaking to Gerard Wiekens remains one of my favourite interviews I've ever done.

When I was doing my book on the 1999 Playoff winning team, I was aiming to meet them all the players face-to-face to interview them (only never got to see Terry Cooke and had to interview him over the phone because he lives in the USA these days). I'd tracked Wiekens down through his old club Veendam a few years earlier for an interview with Blue Moon Podcast and still had his email, so I told him what I was doing and arranged a time to interview him.

Both me and my dad flew to Germany, crossed the border into the Netherlands and holed up at a hotel in Groningen. By sheer coincidence, Gerrard and his wife have stayed at the hotel in the past, so he came to meet me there after breakfast and we had a good chat for a couple of hours about his career, memories and time at City. After we'd finished, he offered to show me around the training ground and stadium at Groningen, where he was then working - so I grabbed dad and the three of us went looking around the facilities nearby.

Completely out of the blue, he then took us to Veendam's stadium. It was the only other club he played for than City - he moved from there and, when Keegan let him go, went straight back, retiring there at the end of his career. However, they'd just gone out of business, and the stadium was derelict, overgrowing and the gates chained up. I poked my phone through and took a photo.

He talked us through the club's money struggles until they eventually went under and explained he'd have still been a coach at Veendam rather than Groningen had it still existed because he'd grown up there and loved the place - and the sadness he felt that it had now gone.

We were expecting to go back to the hotel then, and completely unannounced, he took us to his home. He's converted his garage into a British pub-style bar, with football shirts on the walls, his medals and favourite pictures from his career, pool table... all sorts. He's got pictures from the last derby at Maine Road, that goal he scored at Stoke in the 1-0 win in Division Two, and he's got shirts from all sorts of Dutch legends and players he'd swapped with in England. We met his wife and chatted about Manchester and he told us they still come to City matches when his job allows and that his kids are both City mad, before he dropped us back off at the hotel later that afternoon.

I asked him for 90 minutes to chat about City and the playoff game and his career - and in the end, he gave up pretty much the whole day to give us.
 
Brilliant article,really enjoyable.

As above,the harsh times are what makes the last few years all the more sweeter while serving as a reminder that we should never take our incredible fortune for granted.

Gerard never started as a favourite of mine but that changed during his stay as he grew into a very cultured and elegant footballer,maybe somewhat ahead of his time in some respects.As a centre half i thought he was a great leader and a very classy performer - maybe we could do with something similar now.
 
FantasyIreland said:
Gerard never started as a favourite of mine but that changed during his stay as he grew into a very cultured and elegant footballer,maybe somewhat ahead of his time in some respects.As a centre half i thought he was a great leader and a very classy performer - maybe we could do with something similar now.
Click to expand...
A 25 year old Wiekens in a Pep side would be very useful wouldn't he ?
 
Great bloke I saw him away from the pitch in Brannigans one night on Quay Street in town. He was babysitting Weaver who was totally smashed out of his head and it certainly wasn't the ale.
 
BlueMooney said:
Speaking to Gerard Wiekens remains one of my favourite interviews I've ever done.

When I was doing my book on the 1999 Playoff winning team, I was aiming to meet them all the players face-to-face to interview them (only never got to see Terry Cooke and had to interview him over the phone because he lives in the USA these days). I'd tracked Wiekens down through his old club Veendam a few years earlier for an interview with Blue Moon Podcast and still had his email, so I told him what I was doing and arranged a time to interview him.

Both me and my dad flew to Germany, crossed the border into the Netherlands and holed up at a hotel in Groningen. By sheer coincidence, Gerrard and his wife have stayed at the hotel in the past, so he came to meet me there after breakfast and we had a good chat for a couple of hours about his career, memories and time at City. After we'd finished, he offered to show me around the training ground and stadium at Groningen, where he was then working - so I grabbed dad and the three of us went looking around the facilities nearby.

Completely out of the blue, he then took us to Veendam's stadium. It was the only other club he played for than City - he moved from there and, when Keegan let him go, went straight back, retiring there at the end of his career. However, they'd just gone out of business, and the stadium was derelict, overgrowing and the gates chained up. I poked my phone through and took a photo.

He talked us through the club's money struggles until they eventually went under and explained he'd have still been a coach at Veendam rather than Groningen had it still existed because he'd grown up there and loved the place - and the sadness he felt that it had now gone.

We were expecting to go back to the hotel then, and completely unannounced, he took us to his home. He's converted his garage into a British pub-style bar, with football shirts on the walls, his medals and favourite pictures from his career, pool table... all sorts. He's got pictures from the last derby at Maine Road, that goal he scored at Stoke in the 1-0 win in Division Two, and he's got shirts from all sorts of Dutch legends and players he'd swapped with in England. We met his wife and chatted about Manchester and he told us they still come to City matches when his job allows and that his kids are both City mad, before he dropped us back off at the hotel later that afternoon.

I asked him for 90 minutes to chat about City and the playoff game and his career - and in the end, he gave up pretty much the whole day to give us.
Click to expand...

Fantastic to hear that, the term legend gets banded about to much in football but this says it all about Wiekens.
 
my first daughter was born at stepping hill hospital by a section , the wife and daughter had to stay in for 5 days, on one of my daily visits I held the door open for a bloke I looked at him, thinking I knew him, alright mate(what I usually say when I cant remember peoples names :)) then it clicked it was gw ,anyway about a week later I was coming out of the registrars offices and I bumped into him again.
 
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