Paul Dalglish

Name: Paul Kenneth Dalglish

DOB: 18/02/77

POB: Glasgow

Position: Centre forward, second striker, right midfielder.

Clubs: Newcastle United,
Bury, Norwich City,
Wigan Athletic, Blackpool, Scunthorpe United, Linfield, Livingston, Hibernian, Houston Dynamo, Kilmarnock.

International Caps: 5 (under-21)

The legend goes that Paul Dalglish was signed by Blackburn on schoolboy forms at a time when he couldn’t
get a game for his college team. Perhaps his father was a hindrance in setting
the bar too high to reach but Paul should surely be thankful for the obvious
nepotism practiced by “King” Kenny.

Celtic and Liverpool were the first two clubs to take him on
as a full-time youth player before Kenny decided that utilising connections
wasn’t enough to secure his son’s future and signed him for Newcastle. Thus far we’ve been a little harsh
on Paul. Even though it was evident early that he didn’t inherit his fathers
talents, there are few people in history who’ve had the skills that Kenny
Dalglish once possessed, and it was clear from a few fleeting appearances at
Newcastle that he still had some skill.

The family name so worked against him when Ruud Gullit told
Paul that he wasn’t going to play him because he didn’t like his father. Kenny
does often come across as a miserable bastard but it’s a little harsh to take
that out on his son. Either way Paul left St James’s to join Norwich in 1999.

The three years spent at Carrow Road are the most stable from his
differing destination filled career. At first he was a first team regular,
playing up front and then at right midfield when it became clear that the
attributes he did possess didn’t stretch to goalscoring. Acclimatised to the
north-east, Paul didn’t settle in Norfork, finding himself sitting in alone
most nights with fast food for comfort. He didn’t take his career seriously and
was depressed by the direction it was obviously heading in.

In 2003 he moved onto Blackpool, featuring as a squad player
and showing his usual reluctant to get on the score-sheet from his natural
second striker position, which once again led him to being shunted onto the
wing, a position which suited his pace but few other aspects of his game.

Rock bottom came crashing into view when a move to Linfield,
in Northern Ireland,
was cancelled by the club after just a few months. Football was clearly not his
passion and he decided that enough was enough after such a disappointing run in
his career, so he retired.

Paul was still a famous name and therefore didn’t have to
wait long for work. He found some on the film set after being cast to play a
role in the movie Goal! (irony alert) and got back into football playing with
the Soccer AM eleven-a-side team The Badgers, while he worked on the show every
Saturday doing interview segments. The combination of work reignited his love
for the sport and he returned to play for Paul Lambert at Livingston.

Perhaps the time out of football acted as a wake-up call, or
maybe Dalglish profited from the fleeting early glimpses of inspiration that
Lambert dished out at Livingston because he was the only one who could
understand the mumbling manager having been around his father for so long, or
maybe it was just that the SPL, like it has so often, gave a crap player a
platform in order to perform. Whatever the reason, Dalglish was a hit at Livingston, not scoring often but proving an effective
playmaker in his natural No. 10 position.

His performances were such that Tony Mowbray saw enough
talent to take him to Easter Road to join the pass-preaching Hibs side of the
time. Dalglish role was firmly that of a squad player but he did contribute
when given a chance and Mowbray did want to sign the player to an extension at
season’s end. Surprisingly he turned down the move; lured in by warm weather,
better training facilities and an even lower standard by which to improve his
confidence as a football player, he joined Houston Dynamo in the MLS.

Dalglish will certainly say he made the right decision,
winning the MLS Cup in 2006 in his first season with the franchise. He wasn’t a
bit part player any more but a hero to the Dynamo fans after scoring twice in
the Western Conference Finals (semi-final to you and I) and being named man of
the match.

Once his time in Houston was
up he came back home to join Kilmarnock in the
SPL. Despite only being 31 years old he had racked up several injures
throughout his career, perhaps in part due to the casual attitude regarding
fitness earlier in his career, and looked well past it as a footballer at the
top level in Scotland.
He retired, for good, at the end of his time with the Ayrshire club.

Where is he now? Dalglish went back to America and
into coaching. After time spent as Houston Dynamo’s assistant head coach he was
given the manager’s role with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Poor performance saw his
contract terminated and is now manager of the Austin Aztex, who are a fourth
tier club.

Show: Jeff Benitez