As part of our new Brits abroad series, Adam Bate speaks to Gordon Cowans about his time at Bari.
The England midfielder was part of the Aston Villa team that won the European Cup in 1982. Three years later he made the move to Italy to join newly-promoted Bari and spent three seasons at the club. Adam Bate met up with the current Villa development coach to find out more.
How did you come to join Bari?
Two years prior to moving to Bari, I had the opportunity to go to Naples in 1983. I wasn't sure what to do and in the end it fell through because the Napoli president got ousted from the club. The sporting director moved on too and the chance was gone. I still wanted to try my luck in Italy though. A lot of British players were going out there at that time - the likes of Graeme Souness and Trevor Francis - so when Bari came in for me I decided to give it a go.
Aston Villa had recently won the European Cup. Unfortunately, however, they were now starting to break that team up. Graham Turner had come in as manager and there were a lot of players leaving the club who I felt were still more than good enough and more than fit enough to do a job at that level. Perhaps it was decisions from above but these things made my mind up for me really.
A man called Gianni Paladini [who later had a spell as QPR chairman] was working for one of Eddie Fewtrell's nightclubs in Birmingham at the time. Gianni had a lot of contacts over in Italy and decided to become an agent.
Gianni was able to get in touch with the ex-Napoli sporting director, who was now at Bari. He still wanted to sign me and so they came to watch me a few times. They must have liked what they saw because not only were they still keen on me but they also wanted to sign our young centre forward Paul Rideout - so they took the two of us.
What were your first impressions?
Bari were a team just coming up from Serie B and we went out to take a look at them on the final day of their 1984-85 promotion season. It was a great atmosphere and a fairly big stadium but the team weren't that great to be honest.
That wasn't the most important thing though. And it wasn't about the money for me either. It was about putting myself in a different country with a different style of football and trying to learn from it. So I decided to go for it.
When we landed at the airport there were around 5,000 Bari supporters there. It was absolutely potty. We couldn't walk through the airport because there people grabbing us and kissing us. It was a huge shock just how much it meant to them that we were coming to join the club.
Was it tricky to adapt?
It was an all-Italian squad when we went out there but having Paul with me made things a lot easier. We obviously knew each other well already and with neither of us able to speak a word of the language it meant we had someone to talk to.
After a while we started to pick up bits and bobs and it became easier, but at first it was a challenge - and not only for us as players. I was going out there lock, stock and barrel with a wife, a 14-month-old daughter and a dog.
It was a culture shock, not least because the heat was stifling. They took us to a tiny holiday resort where the rooms were like boxes. Fortunately for me, I was straight off to pre-season the next day - but my wife and Paul's girlfriend were left to fend for themselves really. The director of football's wife was good enough to take them out to look at properties and by the time I came back three weeks later it was
