I was lucky enough to know Gary Shaw - the Aston Villa legend even Maradona couldn’t match
"It's a bit boring compared to my life story!"
That response delivered with the trademark cheeky grin will forever be my enduring memory of Gary Shaw, who tragically passed away at the age of 63 today. By complete chance me and my Dad were sitting a couple of seats apart from the legendary Aston Villa striker at an otherwise empty Midlands Art Centre cinema room in Cannon Hill Park back in the summer of 2019.
Gary was there resting his heavily bandaged leg on the row in front as he convalesced following a knee replacement operation. Beaming out from the screen in front of us was the critically acclaimed documentary Diego Maradona - Rebel, Hero, Hustler, God .
"When we going to see you up on that big screen, Gaz?" I asked as we sidled over to him for some small talk over the opening credits of the film.
READ MORE: Stan Collymore posts heartfelt tribute to Aston Villa 'superhero' Gary Shaw
READ MORE: Brian Little pays tribute to Gary Shaw after Aston Villa legend dies aged 63
"Haha, this is a bit boring compared to my life story this, Mat!" smiled the darling of Aston Villa.
He was only half kidding. Truth be told I always harboured an ambition of ghost-writing Gary Shaw's autobiography after getting to know him on the Midlands press beat. It wasn't just at Villa Park that you'd rub shoulders with claret and blue royalty. Often you'd find him phoning through stats at Aggborough, Bescot and even - whisper it softly - St Andrew's in his post-career stint for Press Association.
There's no way the story of his life would have been anything like some of those boring, sanitised, monotone tomes you can find scattered across the sports section in Waterstones at the Bull Ring. Not because of my writing but because of the way he lived his life.
The problem with getting Gary Shaw to reveal all, however, was his modesty. There's so many times I've pressed him for tales of yore over a pint at an event, in press boxes across the region or giving him a lift home, only for him to shrug off his legendary status with a self-deprecating laugh.
"Never mind that, who have you been upsetting at Villa lately, Mat?"
Intensely proud of what he achieved in the claret and blue (and classic all white away kit) of his beloved Villa, he never made a point of bragging about it. This was an elite footballer who won the First Division title, the European Cup and the European Super Cup, along with PFA Young Player of the Year and European Young Footballer of the Year individual accolades in his early-20s, and yet lived the rest of his life without a single edge of arrogance about it
.
He'd turn up at supporter events where the love for him from Villa fans of all ages would be off the scale, the type of adulation usually reserved for boyband pin-ups from teenage girls. Yet he'd do his best to politely utter a few words before hurriedly passing the microphone to Dennis Mortimer, Tony Morley, Ken McNaught or one of his chattier 1982 pals to hold court.
Whenever I meet up with Dave Woodhall, the editor of the Heroes and Villans fanzine, the conversation invariably turns to Gary as I can imagine it will do when we get together to toast the life of an icon and a friend very soon. "How much would Gary Shaw be worth today?" asks Dave, every single time. "I don't think anybody would be able to afford him. He had absolutely everything. Such a graceful footballer, a humble lad and he was a handsome git as well!"
The last time I saw Gary and spent time in his company was at the start of May when he was invited as a guest to the Football Writers’ Association’s Midlands lunch at the Burlington Hotel in town. He was there to collect the player of the season award on behalf of Ollie Watkins who couldn't make the event.
We ended up at the Head of Steam in Temple Street with his former Villa team-mate Garry Thompson, club commentator Mark Regan and several members of the local press pack including Brian Dick, our former Birmingham City writer, and Richard Wilford, the BBC's WM's Blues man with the mic. Gary, true to form, was happy to observe rather than being the centre of attention, only piping up occasionally to fire off some Blues related banter. And it's that mischievous look on his face, enjoying the company of others and keen to wind us all up that I am determined to keep in mind as the claret and blue family comes to terms with the devastating loss of the ultimate one of our own. A Brummie Aston Villa European Cup winner, no less.
You did it Gaz. You lived it. We loved it. We love you.
You're going to read much more erudite tributes to Gary Shaw the footballer than this, celebrating his agility, anticipation and pace. His instinctive partnership with Peter Withe, his uncanny knack of knowing where the net is on pitches that would be condemned these days. I only caught the very back end of his Villa career, by which time injury had cruelly cut him off in his prime.
It's a crying shame he could not add to those 79 goals from 213 games, but when he made his final Villa appearance at the age of 26 in a 1-0 home Division Two win over Ipswich Town on January 16 1988 his work was very much done - and then some.
I did get one story out of him that day at the MAC just over five years ago - and it's a tale you're bound to hear over the next few days.
"You met him didn't you, Gaz, Maradona?"
"Don't get me started on that, Mat. He came into the dressing room after our European Super Cup match at the Nou Camp with his minder and he asked to swap shirts.
"I was up for it, of course, I was, but Jim Paul, the bloody kitman, wouldn't let me give him it because he'd have to order me a new shirt."
Close your eyes and imagine that image of Gary Shaw and Diego Maradona swapping shirts, and stories over a pint up there in football heaven.
The greatest football superstar that ever lived. And Diego Maradona. God bless you Gaz.