Paul Ince: A profile of the former Man Utd and Liverpool midfielder

Ahead of Sunday's clash between Liverpool and Manchester United, we profile Paul Ince - a player who starred for both clubs. With the help of a host of former team-mates, Adam Bate looks at why Ince's abilities can sometimes be underestimated by supporters…

There could well be songs about Robbie Fowler and Eric Cantona on Sunday. Steven Gerrard will get a mention from both sets of supporters. But as Michael Owen found out, representing both clubs means being adored by neither. In the case of Paul Ince, that's particularly unfortunate.

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Maybe Ince was always destined to be a divisive figure. He was the self-styled 'Guv'nor' after all. Even his time at boyhood club West Ham ended in acrimony - his ill-advised decision to pose with a Manchester United shirt before the deal had gone through playing its part in bringing years of abuse from Hammers fans.

His old team-mates at West Ham remember a brash teenager, but someone who could more than justify his own hype. "I first came across Incey when he was an apprentice," Tony Gale, who spent a decade with the club, told Sky Sports. "He wasn't short on confidence. He was a cocky so-and-so.

He could shoot from distance. I remember he got one for West Ham from about 40 yards out at Aston Villa that was a fantastic goal.

"At the time, Incey's confidence was bordering on the flash. I'd say that to his face. When he first came into the team, there were the likes of myself, Alvin Martin, Liam Brady, Alan Devonshire and Ray Stewart. But you needed that kind of assurance in yourself and being from the East End, he had that confidence."

As a younger member of the team, Tony Cottee had a slightly different perspective. "As a lad, I loved him," he told Sky Sports. "I could identify with him because we both broke through at West Ham as teenagers. He'd come around my mum and dad's place and we'd play tennis together and do all the things you probably shouldn't be doing as a footballer.

He could so easily have played as a centre-back as well. There were a couple of times we tried him as a sweeper, he was that good.

"There were a lot of really powerful characters and it took a lot to break into that team and hold your own. But he was a confident lad, bordering on arrogance, and he wasn't scared of going into a squad and having a few arguments with the older players, which I remember him doing. There were a few tasty rows but that's how it was."

Both Gale and Cottee regret that Ince did not come through sooner, each convinced that West Ham's third-place finish in 1986 could have been two better if the young midfielder had been part of the squad that season. But by 1989, with Cottee sold and the Hammers subsequently relegated, Ince moved to Manchester United.

He was joining a club that hadn't won a title in over 20 years but would form a key part of an iconic team built on quality and, crucially, character. Sir Alex Ferguson certainly rated him highly. "Sometimes you lost one player but gained another of similar merit," he explained in his autobiography. "We missed out on Paul Gascoigne, for example, but landed Paul Ince."

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville made his debut in the club's 1993/94 title-winning season and recalls Ince's "ferocious determination" that was typical of that team. "Schmeichel, Bruce, Ince, Robson, Hughes, Cantona - they weren't just great players, but fierce competitors and real men."

He’d been encouraging us young lads and looked after us on the pitch.

Roy Keane is notoriously less effusive in his praise but even he acknowledged that while he had issues with Peter Schmeichel, Ince could walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Their midfield partnership was a key factor in establishing a period of dominance that culminated in United winning seven of the first nine Premier League titles.

Ince was there for the first two of them. In the 1992/93 victory, he opened the scoring in a derby win over Manchester City, starting all but one game that season and netting in each of the last three games of the campaign. There were 55 further appearances in 1993/94 as they retained the crown.

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But by 1995, he was gone - sold in his prime as Ferguson's United showed they could win everything with kids. Paul Scholes eventually emerged as Ince's long-term replacement and eclipsed the senior man. But, for some, the rise of the Class of '92 only emphasises the legacy he'd left in his six seasons at Old Trafford.

"Incey, despite his reputation for cockiness, would offer helpful advice," said Neville. "I was sad to see him go. A lot was said about his self-styled reputation as the Guv'nor. He could be brash, but what did you expect? He was from the south. He'd been encouraging us young lads and looked after us on the pitch. He was a fantastic midfielder for United."

He was a top-class player and a great guy as well. He was my favourite player to play with.

After making an impression in Serie A with Inter, during which time he represented England at Euro '96, Ince returned to the Premier League with Liverpool of all clubs. It added to the idea of Ince as a singular figure in the game. But much like Neville, Jamie Redknapp, his midfield partner for two years at Anfield, remembers a player who helped coax the best from his team-mates.

"He was my favourite player to play with," Redknapp told Sky Sports. "Out of every midfielder I played with, he got the best out of me. We were very different as players but he would get me at it. He would wind me up and we'd fly in to tackles together. He brought something else out of me.

"I had my best seasons as a Liverpool player with him. I really enjoyed it. He was the perfect foil for me - he'd get after people and tackle and almost say 'go on Jamie, there's the ball, you go and play'. We very rarely lost any games when we played together, our record was really good. We got on well, too. We roomed together and he was good fun."

Trophies were not so forthcoming during what was a period of transition at Anfield and some would say they had too much fun. But Ince continued to impress with England. Having already become his country's first black captain in 1993, he led Glenn Hoddle's team with distinction against Italy in Rome to help England qualify for the 1998 World Cup.

That tournament ended soon after Ince had a penalty saved in a shootout against Argentina. But Paul Merson, another of England's penalty takers that evening in St Etienne, has only respect for his old international colleague. "He's an absolute winner, and would run through a brick wall for you," Merson told Sky Sports.

"But not just that, he would score goals, make runs, he had skill, he could tackle, track back. He was one of those complete midfielders and there are not many of them about. He could put his foot in, beat players, score goals. He's a leader, and there aren't many out there. He is the all-round package. Another Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, definitely. Hugely underrated."

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Redknapp agrees. "He was a top-class player but he never got the credit he deserved because everyone just thought he was a midfield enforcer. He could play with his left foot, his right foot, he could dribble, he could score goals. He was all-action. I couldn't imagine how much he'd be worth now."

Each of his old team-mates come up with that phrase 'complete midfielder' independently. Underrated would appear right. For Ince doesn't have United fans championing his cause as they would for, say, Robson, and he can't count on the Liverpool lobby to leap to his defence as they do with Gerrard. But maybe that's appropriate. After all, the Guv'nor always could take care of himself. 

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