Gary Ablett Remembered

It was announced last weekend, that sadly Gary Ablett had passed away aged just 46. He had been battling cancer for some while.

Gary was a scouser, and it’s fair to say was best known for his time donning the famous red shirt of Liverpool FC. Yet he went on to achieve more appearances for the blue half of Liverpool with 156 matches for Everton. One of those appearances and one of his 138 for Liverpool, included a win at Wembley in the FA cup final – 1995 for Everton and 1989 for Liverpool. He remains the only player to win the cup at both clubs.

Although Gary will clearly always, quite rightly, be associated with Liverpool, (the club and the city), – he actually played almost as many games for us as he did for “The Reds.” He chalked up 124 appearances for us in all competitions between 1996 and 1999. During that time he also scored a couple of goals. Trevor Francis signed Gary for £390,000 from Everton after he had been on a short loan at Sheffield United.

Gary went out on loan to Wycombe during December 1999 and eventually left the club at the end of that year. His last club was Blackpool. He was there for just 6 months.

 Now I never had the opportunity to meet Gary to speak to, but I have spoken to a few people who did and they all say the same thing. They talk about a gentle giant, someone who was polite and well spoken – but also a shy man.

I spoke to a few journalists and one told me of one incident that stuck in his mind. It was in a League Cup game at home to Stockport. We won the game 4-1, but Stockport’s Tom Bennett suffered from a broken leg after an accidental clash with Grainger. Apparently the player that stayed with him while treatment was being given, was Ablett.

Ian Bennett kindly gave me a few moments with his thoughts on Gary. Ian said that Gary and he were room-mates and he described Gary as a fantastic person.

He went on to tell me, “I soon discovered during play that Gary could read the situation in the game, even before it happened. He was always smiling and always willing to help people. Actually he always had time for people.”

I asked Ian if he remembered the Tom Bennett situation, but he said he couldn’t remember the detail – but told me that was exactly the sort of thing that Gary would have done.

Ian also told me that Gary and he enjoyed the horses. “We had some good fun with that.” Ian told me!

I remember  being impressed by the signing of Ablett. At the time we were in need of some experience in defence and Gary fitted that bill very well. I also thought that he was the sort of calibre of player that we should be signing if we were going to build a credible promotion push. Only a couple of years earlier, most sides in the land would have settled for a centre of defence pairing of Bruce and Ablett. I know Trevor was criticised at times for the style of play he employed, but there is no doubting he signed some great players and surely Gary has to be up there as one of the main ones.

He was a part of a side that were beginning to be taken seriously and have credibility. You could argue, as fun as the times were under Mr Fry – these times were at a new level.

I did a bit of digging into his match stats, now there may be the odd error – but they provide a decent indication of how we performed when he played.

When Gary played, we kept a clean sheet 48 times, a fraction under 40% of his appearances. We lost 33 games when he played which is 27%, won 56 – 45% and drew 35 at 28%. I don’t think that is a bad return. Obviously we had the likes of Bruce, Grainger, Breen and Bennett at the back too – but people like to see these figures. 🙂

I gather Gary was working towards coaching, it is sad that a player of such experience and a man who was clearly well liked – didn’t get the opportunity to support, encourage and coach young players. Also as a site, we’d like to offer our condolences to Gary’s family, friends and colleagues.

If you have any stories or memories of Gary, please add them as a comment.

Kev

Images kindly provided by and copyrighted to Birmingham City FC.