John Scales had been linked with a move to Anfield for a number of
seasons before he actually put pen to paper on a £3.5 million deal in
September 1994. Despite his humble surroundings at Wimbledon he was a
shining beacon of calm amongst the cut and thrust style used by The
Dons. Roy Evans decided to utilise this talent alongside that of the
rugged Neil Ruddock and Phil Babb who, 24 hours before Scales joined
Liverpool, had sealed a club record £3.75 million switch. He was to
operate in the middle or right hand side of the trio. A cool attitude
reminiscent to that displayed by Alan Hansen, coupled with pace and
finesse, saw him settle into the side with ease.
A masterful and clean
tackler he could also bring the ball forward although possibly lacked
the ambition or confidence of his contemporaries. When found in the
latter third of the field he usually looked to offload the ball to
better placed colleagues rather than take responsibility. The four goals
he scored for Liverpool were headers converted from set pieces where he
normally was the target for delivery. He brought a sense of assurance
that had been missing from The Reds' backline for a number of seasons
and looked set to operate at the heart of the club's defence for a
number of seasons. However, despite a couple of niggling but not
insurmountable injury lay offs he lost the confidence that had made him
such a rock and moved on to Tottenham Hotspur in December 1996 for a fee
of £2.6 million. (Darren Williams) |