Over the last 12 months, Steve Archibald has fought tooth and nail to stop a Spanish energy giant taking the shirt off his back. For the only Scot ever signed to replace Diego Armando Maradona, power struggles in Barcelona are nothing new.
Sweet-talked into leaving Spurs by the barrow-boy sales pitch of Terry Venables in 1984, the promise of his favourite No 8 shirt sealed the deal.
The problems began when German midfielder Bernd Schuster made it crystal clear he wouldn’t be swapping his favourite jersey for the No 10 jersey vacated by Maradona any time soon.
Steve Archibald was plucked from English football by Barcelona and immediately given the unenviable task of having to take on Diego Maradona's iconic No 10 shirt
‘I had always been a No 8,’ Archibald reflects now. ‘And, before I went, I said Terry I wanted the No 8 again.
‘But when I realised it was already Schuster’s shirt, I thought: “I wouldn’t like it if I was him”.
‘He was my main provider. If I took his number, I might not get too many passes if I pinched it.
‘So I took the No 10 instead. And that brought all sorts of nonsense on my head…’
By the summer of 1984, Barcelona players were no strangers to wearing crash helmets. The Copa del Rey final had sealed the fate of Maradona when he sparked a mass brawl in front of the watching King Juan Carlos by taking exception to an agricultural assault by the infamous ‘Butcher of Bilbao’ Andoni Goikoetxea.
rchibald (right) of Barcelona takes on Gatetano Scirea of Juventus in European action
As players swapped punches and kicks before the watching millions on TV, the crowd of 100,000 bombarded the pitch with missiles. When the casualty list ended up reaching 60, Maradona had to go, joining Napoli for a then world-record fee of £6.9million.
In his first power struggle with Barcelona president Josep Lluis Nunez, Venables threw a chunk of the transfer cash at new Tottenham chairman Irving Scholar — despite Archibald’s complete and utter indifference to the whole idea.
Like the crooner taking the mic after Sinatra, he was nudged on to the stage, a reluctant conscript.
‘I had never considered going to Spain,’ he tells Sportsmail now. ‘Not even on holiday. It was a place I never fancied.
‘I didn’t want to leave Spurs. Why would I?
‘I’d been there for four years, won the FA and UEFA Cups, scored bundles of goals and had an incredible relationship with Spurs fans.
‘I was comfortable, Ossie Ardiles was a very good friend of mine, it was all working and it was a good place to be.
‘But Terry was the new manager of Barcelona and wanted me over Hugo Sanchez, who the Barcelona president wanted to sign.
‘Terry was desperate to get the deal done and I really had no option because Spurs had accepted the offer.
Archibald was happy and thriving at Spurs and admits he didn't even consider leaving
‘Straight away I get there and folk are asking me: “Are you the substitute for Maradona”? ‘And I’m thinking: “Nobody could be a substitute for Maradona, for crying out loud”.’
A man who started out combining part-time football with tarting up old cars, Archibald wasn’t afraid of a challenge. Yet, while doing justice to Maradona’s old shirt was far from the first hurdle he’d overcome, it was clearly the biggest.
‘It helped that my first goal was in a 3-0 win over Real Madrid in El Clasico in the Bernabeu,’ he says with casual understatement.
‘The newspapers really whipped it up as a game that was fixed so Madrid would get off to a flyer.
‘You can’t imagine what was going on. On the way into the stadium the bus was pelted with rocks and bottles and the windows smashed and you’re thinking: “Welcome to Madrid”.
‘I’d had a bit of bus banging as a wind-up when Aberdeen went to Celtic or Rangers, but nothing as violent as that.
‘The club hadn’t won the league in 11 years and when you look at Barcelona now you realise how unthinkable that was at the time.
‘But, you know, I won over the fans in that first season and it’s still there today. Scoring my first goal against Real Madrid made life a lot easier…’
A lingering love affair with Barcelona eventually drew him back to the Catalan capital to live. A footballer whose brains were always unusually close to his head, the former Aberdeen title winner helped to establish a football-themed renewable energy company, FC Energia.
Archibald tasted success with Spurs, seen here with the old UEFA Cup in 1984
‘I knew nothing about energy,’ he admits bluntly. ‘I knew how to put the light on and that was it.’
A business partner offered knowledge of the sector and a joint venture with Nexus Energy.
