Steve Nicol started his playing career in his native Scotland with Ayr United in 1979, a club whose nickname is the Honest Men. He played 70 games for them before Liverpool paid £300,000 to bring Nicol to Anfield in 1981.

Nicol made his Reds debut on the 31 August 1982 under Bob Paisley and became a regular starter under his successor Joe Fagan. He went on to win a series of the game’s top honours in both England and Europe. With Liverpool, he won four English Leagues, three FA Cups and one European Cup (now called the Champions League) on a famous night in Rome. Steve is 17th in the all time list of appearances for Liverpool, with a total of 468 games for the Reds.

Nicol won 27 caps for Scotland and played in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Jock Stein gave Steve his international debut on the 12 September 1984 in a friendly with Yugoslavia, with Scotland winning 6-1.

In January 1995, he received his first management role at Notts County, and in 1999, took over as interim player/manager of the New England Revolution, left and rejoined as assistant coach in 2002 when he finally took overall control.

On the eve of New England Revs’ MLS match against Sounders FC in Seattle, we talked past, present and future of Steve Nicol with the man himself.

PROST AMERIKA: You made your Scotland debut in a 6-1 win over Yugoslavia.

STEVE NICOL: I did aye.

PROST AMERIKA: Can you make a comeback please?

STEVE NICOL: Jeepers yeah. (Talking of Scotland’s 4-0 loss to Norway) I mean it was a disappointing result, but you got to be rational about these things. To play 60 minutes with ten men is not easy. I mean, at international level it’s just nigh on impossible and then as you saw 4-0; you just can’t – you can’t do it, so we shouldn’t be surprised we lost the game. Obviously 4-0 doesn’t look good but we shouldn’t be surprised we lost that game.

PROST AMERIKA: You’ve been out here in America roughly as long as me. Do you still scream at the television when Scotland are playing?

STEVE NICOL: Absolutely, aye. Of course I do.

PROST AMERIKA: Now, you have had the privilege as a player to play under some of the greatest managers, Paisley, Fagan, Jock Stein, and Sir Alex Ferguson. How would you rate the great managers you’ve played under and which has taught you the most?

STEVE NICOL: It’s a bit difficult to try and bring it down to only one guy. I mean, they’ve all got the same kind of thing, they’ve all got great knowledge of the game. They all know a football player when they see one. They all know how to organise teams to win games, and they can all motivate guys so you know they’ve all got those things. But then they have that wee bit extra that all the good guys have, which again you can’t put your finger on, and certainly, those things I mentioned I’d like to think I learned from all of them; all that stuff from each and every one of them.

PROST AMERIKA: Are you upset that you narrowly missed playing for (former Ayr and Scotland manager) Ally McLeod?

STEVE NICOL: Um, aye. (laughs) I once spent a great afternoon in Ally’s pub in Ayr one day when I was back home so if that’s anything to go by, then I’m sure playing under him would have been- well you want to win games – but I’m sure it would have been fun as well.

PROST AMERIKA: I don’t think a lot of people know this. Even as a full back, you scored a hat trick once against Newcastle.

STEVE NICOL:I did.

PROST AMERIKA: How did that happen?

STEVE NICOL: Well, I put a ball in the net three times.

PROST AMERIKA: (laughs) I asked for that, didn’t I?

STEVE NICOL: (laughs) Aye. Actually, it was strange that because I was supposed to be giving my twin sister away that day, and they changed the game on us. The game was supposed to be a Saturday and they changed the game for the TV to a Sunday which meant I couldn’t give her away, you know so I guess there was a lot of things on my side that day that went towards that.

PROST AMERIKA: As a twin yourself has it been easy motivating Sainey (Nyassi) for this game?

STEVE NICOL: Absolutely, aye, yeah, I mean he obviously number one wants to do well anyway. But I don’t know whether you’ve grown up with a brother but we always wanted to beat them so hopefully he wants to do that tomorrow.

PROST AMERIKA: Once you played in the Liverpool team and they beat Crystal Palace 9 (nine) to nothing. You scored twice.

STEVE NICOL: I did, aye.

PROST AMERIKA: Can you remember the names of the great forwards of that Liverpool side who only scored once?

STEVE NICOL: I don’t think there’s too many forwards scored that day to be honest with you. I think there were eight different scorers: myself, Gillespie, Staunton. I don’t know, it was 20 year ago.

PROST AMERIKA: I’ll go research it so you don’t have to.

STEVE NICOL: Aye that’d be grand if you did that. You fill in for me! *

PROST AMERIKA: Talking a bit about tomorrow, just wondering about New England’s season at the table. You’ve only 18 games played. What would you rather have, the games in the hand, or the points in the bag?

STEVE NICOL: I think that’s an easy one, the points in the bag, you know? Having games is one thing, getting points is a whole other. So certainly we’d rather have the points.

“You’ve got to think you can get every point that’s available.”

PROST AMERIKA: Would you take five from those three now, or would six be reasonable?

STEVE NICOL: Ask me after the three games.

PROST AMERIKA: That’s a fair point. On the subject, I’ve looked at your fixture list. It gets really nasty towards the end. Have you identified certain fixtures as a better chance of points?

STEVE NICOL: Not so. That’s an impossibility because you can’t. All you can do is affect what’s coming up next, and all we can do is affect what’s happening tomorrow, and that’s all we really concentrate on. So there’s no point in thinking where and when not going to get points; you’ve got to think you can get every point that’s available.

PROST AMERIKA: All of Boston probably wants me to ask this. Do you get extra pleasure from beating the New York franchise?

STEVE NICOL: (laughs) That’s a good question. Well I guess we want to beat everybody but we’re not exactly best of buddies with New York lads and ourselves.

PROST AMERIKA: Is is more hostile than Ayr United v Kilmarnock?

STEVE NICOL: No way (laughs).

PROST AMERIKA: Last question, in the past you’ve been touted for the USA job on occasions, who would you rather manage, Scotland or USA

STEVE NICOL: (looks around to see who else is listening) Scotland of course!

Steve’s team beat Sounders FC 0-1 the next day and have won their match since to relaunch their play off hopes. Thanks to Jeff Lemieux and Lizz Summers of New England Revs, and photographer, Greg Roth.

*Liverpool’s Goals v Crystal Palace (9/12/1989) :
Steve Nicol (7), (90)
Steve McMahon (15)
Ian Rush (45)
Gary Gillespie (56)
Peter Beardsley (61)
John Aldridge (67 pen)
John Barnes (79)
Glenn Hysen (82)