An ex-work colleague of mine (City fan / director of a major infrastructure company operating in central London / a bloke who got about) described to me that he met up with Nial Quinn, on the piss after a game many moons ago. He said that Quinn proved to be a good boozing companion, affable / pissed / talkative.
They were on the lash in Manchester, with others, and then shared a taxi out to the 4 seasons in Hale for more beers etc.
During the taxi ride, Quinn gave him the lowdown on his life as a player. My colleague told me that he asked Quinn about how he enjoyed playing for City and Quinn said it wasn't a choice. That his agent told him where he had to play and that he had no say in that. That was how things were at the time.
That was when the Irish troubles were still on the go and the Irish agents (or agents of Irish players) were connected to one side or the other and everything was quite heavy, so you can understand that choices were few maybe.
The gist of the story was that Quinn did what he was told to do, was paid good money for those days but wasn't in a position of choice. He didn't play for City because he loved City. He played for City because he was told to do so and he was bitter about it (as anyone might have been I'd suppose).
My take on it was that he was bitter about his life then and that he's continued like that ever since.
Thats a great insight.cheers for posting,
I used to visit Dublin (during Quinns time with us) ,on the piss with Blues,meeting The Dublin supporters branch at The Plough.Great great beeery nights...but when i asked about The Great Man..(thats what he was.. ,at that time;,on the Kippax) they all said..he,d never visited the supporters club.never.
This was an era that 1st team players would routinely pop into supporters club branches to give a speech or just say hello,whatever..Those were different times,brilliant times,when fans felt part of the club and players were not so detached...ex players too..i remember doing The Conga around the function room of the Plough with 50 or so pissed up Blues including Mike Summerbee and his wife....
Back in the day,there was no ffp,we werent in europe,uefa were nothing to us....They were brilliant brilliant days....
And just for the record.....Quinn was a fantastic player for us from day one.He never shirked a tackle,was big and strong up front ,and gave the team a focal point.He scored some outstanding goals,my favourite being the full volley from distance at white hart lane for a 1nil win.Whatever he says about us now(and he definitely has an issue..) he worked his socks off for City on the pitch.Ive met him a few times over the years and he was always charming ,gregarious with a warm smile.
Edit.just watched utube vid of Quinns last min headed equaliser at Anfield.2-2...forgot about that...got to be my fav Quinn goal.we went crazy in the away end.
