Little fella but absolute giant of a football-player.
One of the best we ever had, and that 5-0 against Forest, who finished 2nd that season, extraordinary football, brilliant, astonishing.
I remember hearing Tom Finney had watched the match with Bob Paisley, and said at the end it was the best performance he had ever seen on a football field. Brian Clough was of a similar opinion. We were that good, and Beardsley was a huge part of it. He just knew what to do with a football, that's the best way I can say it.
Then, like others have said, it all went wrong for us, and so quickly.
My rough personal view on Souness is that he was a sentimental thug. He always claimed the squad was too old, and may have had a point, until you realise he got rid of everyone form McMahon to Beardsley, with the exception of Barnes, and kept all those, like Nicol, Whelan, Bruce, who he had been team-mates with. As if to say, your medals don't count, because I wasn't playing.
Then if you remember how Beardsley was playing with Newcastle well into his 30s, as good as anyone in the league, Bergkamp, and he could have still been playing for us, it's very upsetting.
As for why he doesn't get mentioned, I really don't know, maybe he just keeps a low profile, and since so many of our other great players from that time - Whelan, Lawrenson, Houghton - don't know when to shut up - we don't want to disturb him just in case he ruins a little of what we have left.
I heard the rumour that his wife was on the phone all the time, complaining when he wasn't in the team, but it was newspaper talk, I think, for the most part, when Kenny left.
And I'm pretty certain Tomkins covered it in a piece some years ago - I wouldn't know how to find it now, I'm afraid - but he showed that in actual fact, throughout his time at Liverpool, Beardsley was one of the most regular starters for Liverpool, whatever the game was.
Come to think of it, I believe the newspaper stories were concocted out of the coincidence that 2 seasons running Beardsley missed games at Plough Lane, against
Wimbledon, and from that they made up Dalglish not trusting him for the 'rough, hurly-burly' matches, and that his wife was on the phone all the time.
Brilliant player, stunningly good.
