Nearly Men 35: Niall Quinn, waiting at a platform for a Port Vale loan move that never happened…

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The future Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland star came achingly close to a move to Vale Park in the early stages of his career…

Top image: Arsenal FC

About Nearly Men

This is an occasional OVF series about transfer moves that failed to materialise or players who never ended up making an appearance for the club. In a parallel universe the likes of Steve Bull, Keith Gillespie and Tom Finney could all have played for the club, while there’s a host of trialists who never played a competitive game…

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According to the history books, Niall Quinn made a spectacular start to his playing career. Plucked from the obscurity of the reserves, he played and scored in his First Division debut for Arsenal against Liverpool. However, as Quinn recalls, it could have been a very different start.

At the same time as Quinn was emerging, the 1985-86 season, John Rudge was managing Port Vale to the first promotion under his tenure. It was achieved with a rookie strike force of Robbie Earle and Andy Jones. However, with Vale’s striking cover – Ally Jones and Andrew Shankland too often on the treatment table, around December 1985, Rudge starting looking for some forward cover.

Step forward Quinn, who at the time was 19 years of age and on a hot streak of eighteen goals in eighteen reserve games for the Gunners. Here’s the man himself to tell the tale to the FA website: “On the Thursday I was at Euston ready to catch the train to join Port Vale on loan.”

However, unbeknownst to the striker, Arsenal were suffering an injury crisis. Here’s Quinn again: “but the club got a message to me not to board as Tony Woodcock was injured and I was needed as cover for the game against Liverpool. On the Saturday, I got the train from Enfield to Finsbury Park, walked among the fans to the stadium, not expecting to even be on the bench. At 2pm, Don Howe put the team-sheet up and I was playing – Paul Mariner having also dropped out injured. Then, with 25 minutes on the clock, I’ve followed up a Paul Davis shot to make it 2-0. An almost surreal day.”

So, a dream debut for Quinn but a missed opportunity for the Valiants. Instead of the young up-and-coming striker Rudge was forced to loan in a couple of veterans – Steve Biggins and Steve Cammack – and neither troubled the scoresheet during their seven appearances. Luckily, it didn’t matter as Earle and Jones stayed fit and in form to power Vale to promotion.

As for Quinn, he went on to make over 500 top-flight appearances, scoring over 150 times as well as winning 92 caps for Ireland.