Classic Arsenal Players - Part 13 - Niall Quinn
DISCO PANTS
NOT MANY FOOTBALLERS have a UK hit single named after them. But Niall Quinn is not any footballer. When the Sunderland official fanzine, A Love Supreme, adopted the terrace anthem, 'Niall Quinn's Disco Pants' and released it as a single in April 1999, it reached No. 56 in the UK charts.
But it was not Sunderland fans who invented the anthem; it goes back to Quinn's time at Manchester City in the early 1990s.
City were on a pre-season tour in Italy during the summer of 1992. After some of the usual football high jinx turned a little more aggressive, teammates Quinn and Steve McMahon had an altercation in a Penola nightclub. Quinn removed his bloodied shirt, and wearing just a pair of cut off shorts, he moved onto the dance-floor with teammate Rick Holden.
Unbeknownst to Quinn at the time a group of City supporters had witnessed the whole event and the legendary song, chanted to the tune of 'Here We Go', was born:
'Niall Quinn's disco pants are the best,
They go up from his a'se to his chest,
They are better than Adam and the Ants,
Niall Quinn's disco pants'
But Quinn might not have become a footballer at all.
Niall John Quinn MBE was born on 6 October 1966 in Dublin. His father and uncles all played Hurling for Tipperary, but as a teenager Quinn played Gaelic football for Robert Emmets Club in Perrytown.
In 1983 at the age of 16, Quinn played in the All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championships and was later offered a contract to play Australian Rules Football. However it was association football where he would soon become a professional.
Playing for Manortown United in Dublin, Quinn had an unsuccessful trial at Fulham before joining Arsenal as an apprentice in 1983. The 6ft 4in Quinn had been signed as a centre forward although he did play a few games in the centre of defence.
After a great start to the 1985/86 season playing in the reserve side where he scored 18 goals in 18 games, the 19 year old Quinn was called into the first team squad for the match against Liverpool at Highbury on 14 December 1985.
Quinn started the match in place of Tony Woodcock and scored in a shock 2-0 Arsenal win over the team who would go on to complete the league and cup double.
Quinn kept his place in the team for the next nine matches, proving a good foil for Charlie Nicholas who scored nine goals in those games, although Quinn himself failed to score again for the rest of the season.
His form was recognised by Republic of Ireland manager Jack Charlton who gave Quinn his senior international debut against Iceland in 1986. Quinn was included in the squad for the European Championships of 1988, playing against England, and also appeared at the World Cups in 1990 and 2002, scoring against Netherlands in the former tournament.
Over a 16 year international career spanning three decades, Quinn made 92 appearances for Republic of Ireland scoring 21 goals.
When George Graham arrived as the new Arsenal manager in the summer of 1986 he placed his faith in the young players at the club so Quinn was installed as first choice centre forward.
He started 48 games in all competitions that season, scoring 12 times, and helped Arsenal win the 1987 Littlewoods Cup, beating Liverpool 2-1 in the final at Wembley. Again it was Nicholas who was the chief beneficiary of playing alongside the big target man, scoring both goals in the final.
However Graham was rebuilding his squad and over the summer of 1987 he signed a new centre forward, Alan Smith from Leiciester City, which meant Quinn's game time was very much restricted.
He started just eight matches in the 1987/88 season, scoring twice, and did not even make the bench for the Littlewoods Cup final defeat to Luton Town in April 1988.
The following 1988/89 saw Arsenal end their 18 year wait for a league title but Quinn played just three times, not enough to qualify for him for a medal, although his solitary goal against Everton in April 1989 did prove crucial as Arsenal won the title on goals scored.
Due to a lack of first team opportunities Quinn put in a transfer request over the summer of 1989, although it was not until March 1990 that Quinn finally left to sign for Howard Wilkinson's Manchester City for £800,000.
In total Quinn had made 94 appearances for Arsenal scoring 20 goals.
Quinn scored on his City debut, a 1-1 draw against Chelsea in March 1990, and in his first full season at Maine Road he scored 21 times.
It was not his goalscoring exploits that made the headlines on 20 April 1991, however. After City goalkeeper Tony Coton was sent off in a match against Derby County for a foul on Dean Saunders, Quinn took over in goal and saved the resulting penalty from Saunders. City went on to win the match 2-1 to relegate Derby.
Quinn continued to score regularly for City over the next couple of years until a cruciate injury against Sheffield Wednesday in November 1993 ended his season and ruled him out of the 1994 World Cup in the United States, where the Republic of Ireland would reach the last 16.
Quinn was popular figure among the City fans and they even made up the chant, 'Niall Quinn's Disco Pants', after him following that incident in the Italian nightclub in 1992.
After returning to fitness for the start of the 1994/95 season, Quinn found himself down the pecking order behind Uwe Rosler and Paul Walsh, and at the end of the season City tried to sell Quinn to Sporting Lisbon.
However the deal fell through due to Quinn being unable to agree personal terms and he remained at Maine Road for the 1995/96 season, scoring 11 times in 38 appearances.
In the summer of 1996 Quinn did finally leave City, signing for Sunderland for a club record fee of £1.3 million. In the end he had played 240 games for City, scoring 76 goals.
Having scored on his debut for both Arsenal and City, Quinn repeated the feat for Sunderland, scoring twice on his first appearance against Nottingham Forest.
But due to a recurrence of the knee injury that had plagued him at City, Quinn made just 13 appearances in his first season and was unable to prevent the club suffering relegation from the Premier League.
During the summer of 1997, Sunderland signed Kevin Phillips from Watford and it began a golden partnership with Quinn over the following five seasons which would yield a combined total of 194 goals between them.
Quinn had the distinction of scoring the first goal at Sunderland's new Stadium of Light in 1997 against his former club Manchester City, and then in March 1999 he was forced to play in goal again after goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen was sent off against Bradford City. Quinn kept a clean sheet in a Sunderland victory.
Sunderland won promotion back to the Premier League in 1999, winning the Division One title at a canter with Quinn scoring a career high 22 goals.
Quinn, now 33 years old, had become a popular figure in the North-East and was a regular in the Sunderland side over the next three seasons, scoring 28 goals, including one against former club Arsenal on the opening day of the 2000/01 season.
Quinn's last game for Sunderland was on 19 October 2002 against West Ham United before he retired in 2003 aged 37.
In total Quinn had made 218 appearances for the Black Cats, scoring 67 goals.
After retiring Quinn briefly took on a coaching role at Sunderland and also worked on Sky Sports covering matches involving his former clubs.
In June 2006 Quinn led the Drumaville Consortium of Irish businessmen who bought the controlling stake in Sunderland, and the deal was finalised on 27 July 2006.
Quinn was named as chairman and manager of the club but his managerial reign did not off get off to a great start as the Black Cats lost their first four matches.
Following a 2-0 League Cup defeat at Bury, Quinn sacked himself as manager although he stayed on as chairman, and appointed Roy Keane as his successor.
This was seen as something of a shock after the pair had fallen out following Keane's refusal to play for the Republic at the 2002 World Cup, but it proved to be a great success as Sunderland won the Championship title in 2007 to clinch a return to the Premier League.
In October 2011 Quinn was replaced as chairman of the club by Ellis Short and instead took on the role as Director of International Development.
However, in February 2012 Quinn cut his ties with Sunderland after six years leaving the club in much stronger position than when he had arrived.
Since leaving Sunderland Quinn has set up a satellite broadcast company in Ireland called Q Sat, and until 2017 he worked alongside Martin Tyler at Sky Sports.
In 2016 Quinn set up the Catch A Falling Star initiative which aims to educate athletes in their physiological well-being before they retire in an attempt to combat the onset of depression.
This is a cause close to Quinn's heart after he struggled with depression himself following his retirment from playing.
In January 2020, Quinn was named interim deputy chief executive for the Football Association of Ireland, a position he has taken without salary until the financial future of the organisation can be secured.
Away from football Quinn received the James Joyce award of the Literary and Historical Society in University College Dublin, while in 2010 he was named patron of the Bobby Robson Foundation.
Quinn now lives in Kildare with his wife, Irish model Gillian Roe who he married in 1992, and the couple have two children.
Like so many others before and after him, Quinn enjoyed the best years of his playing career away from Arsenal.
His awkward looking style and tendency to miss chances early in his career never really endeared him to the Arsenal fans, although he did seem to bring out the best in his strike partners, something that would serve him well throughout his career.
I remember his debut against Liverpool. It was a shock when his name was read out, replacing my hero at the time, Woodcock, but he scared the Liverpool defence to death that day and I thought we had a real star on our hands.
The following season Quinny scored a crucial goal at Tottenham in the Littlewoods Cup semi final and his windmill celebration in front of the Spurs fans will be my lasting memory of him in an Arsenal shirt.
Of course there was as well his crucial goal against Everton late in the title winning season of 1988/89. It did not seem particularly important at the time, sealing a 2-0 victory, but as we only won the title on goals scores it proved to be every bit as vital as Thomas' late title winner.
Alas it did not really work out for Quinn at Highbury in the end, but I was pleased that he managed to carve out a very successful career for himself in the game at City and then Sunderland.
Living in the North-East now myself I am fully aware of the great job he did at Sunderland and I know he is still spoken of with great affection in the area, with or without his disco pants!
Coming up next time I look back on the career of a teammate of Quinn's for whom injuries cut short a once promising football career; Stewart Robson. Keep an eye out for that coming soon.
NOT MANY FOOTBALLERS have a UK hit single named after them. But Niall Quinn is not any footballer. When the Sunderland official fanzine, A Love Supreme, adopted the terrace anthem, 'Niall Quinn's Disco Pants' and released it as a single in April 1999, it reached No. 56 in the UK charts.
But it was not Sunderland fans who invented the anthem; it goes back to Quinn's time at Manchester City in the early 1990s.
City were on a pre-season tour in Italy during the summer of 1992. After some of the usual football high jinx turned a little more aggressive, teammates Quinn and Steve McMahon had an altercation in a Penola nightclub. Quinn removed his bloodied shirt, and wearing just a pair of cut off shorts, he moved onto the dance-floor with teammate Rick Holden.
Unbeknownst to Quinn at the time a group of City supporters had witnessed the whole event and the legendary song, chanted to the tune of 'Here We Go', was born:
'Niall Quinn's disco pants are the best,
They go up from his a'se to his chest,
They are better than Adam and the Ants,
Niall Quinn's disco pants'
But Quinn might not have become a footballer at all.
Niall John Quinn MBE was born on 6 October 1966 in Dublin. His father and uncles all played Hurling for Tipperary, but as a teenager Quinn played Gaelic football for Robert Emmets Club in Perrytown.
In 1983 at the age of 16, Quinn played in the All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championships and was later offered a contract to play Australian Rules Football. However it was association football where he would soon become a professional.
Playing for Manortown United in Dublin, Quinn had an unsuccessful trial at Fulham before joining Arsenal as an apprentice in 1983. The 6ft 4in Quinn had been signed as a centre forward although he did play a few games in the centre of defence.
Quinn started the match in place of Tony Woodcock and scored in a shock 2-0 Arsenal win over the team who would go on to complete the league and cup double.
Quinn kept his place in the team for the next nine matches, proving a good foil for Charlie Nicholas who scored nine goals in those games, although Quinn himself failed to score again for the rest of the season.
His form was recognised by Republic of Ireland manager Jack Charlton who gave Quinn his senior international debut against Iceland in 1986. Quinn was included in the squad for the European Championships of 1988, playing against England, and also appeared at the World Cups in 1990 and 2002, scoring against Netherlands in the former tournament.
Over a 16 year international career spanning three decades, Quinn made 92 appearances for Republic of Ireland scoring 21 goals.
When George Graham arrived as the new Arsenal manager in the summer of 1986 he placed his faith in the young players at the club so Quinn was installed as first choice centre forward.
He started 48 games in all competitions that season, scoring 12 times, and helped Arsenal win the 1987 Littlewoods Cup, beating Liverpool 2-1 in the final at Wembley. Again it was Nicholas who was the chief beneficiary of playing alongside the big target man, scoring both goals in the final.
However Graham was rebuilding his squad and over the summer of 1987 he signed a new centre forward, Alan Smith from Leiciester City, which meant Quinn's game time was very much restricted.
He started just eight matches in the 1987/88 season, scoring twice, and did not even make the bench for the Littlewoods Cup final defeat to Luton Town in April 1988.
The following 1988/89 saw Arsenal end their 18 year wait for a league title but Quinn played just three times, not enough to qualify for him for a medal, although his solitary goal against Everton in April 1989 did prove crucial as Arsenal won the title on goals scored.
In total Quinn had made 94 appearances for Arsenal scoring 20 goals.
Quinn scored on his City debut, a 1-1 draw against Chelsea in March 1990, and in his first full season at Maine Road he scored 21 times.
It was not his goalscoring exploits that made the headlines on 20 April 1991, however. After City goalkeeper Tony Coton was sent off in a match against Derby County for a foul on Dean Saunders, Quinn took over in goal and saved the resulting penalty from Saunders. City went on to win the match 2-1 to relegate Derby.
Quinn continued to score regularly for City over the next couple of years until a cruciate injury against Sheffield Wednesday in November 1993 ended his season and ruled him out of the 1994 World Cup in the United States, where the Republic of Ireland would reach the last 16.
After returning to fitness for the start of the 1994/95 season, Quinn found himself down the pecking order behind Uwe Rosler and Paul Walsh, and at the end of the season City tried to sell Quinn to Sporting Lisbon.
However the deal fell through due to Quinn being unable to agree personal terms and he remained at Maine Road for the 1995/96 season, scoring 11 times in 38 appearances.
Having scored on his debut for both Arsenal and City, Quinn repeated the feat for Sunderland, scoring twice on his first appearance against Nottingham Forest.
But due to a recurrence of the knee injury that had plagued him at City, Quinn made just 13 appearances in his first season and was unable to prevent the club suffering relegation from the Premier League.
During the summer of 1997, Sunderland signed Kevin Phillips from Watford and it began a golden partnership with Quinn over the following five seasons which would yield a combined total of 194 goals between them.
Quinn had the distinction of scoring the first goal at Sunderland's new Stadium of Light in 1997 against his former club Manchester City, and then in March 1999 he was forced to play in goal again after goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen was sent off against Bradford City. Quinn kept a clean sheet in a Sunderland victory.
Sunderland won promotion back to the Premier League in 1999, winning the Division One title at a canter with Quinn scoring a career high 22 goals.
Quinn's last game for Sunderland was on 19 October 2002 against West Ham United before he retired in 2003 aged 37.
In total Quinn had made 218 appearances for the Black Cats, scoring 67 goals.
After retiring Quinn briefly took on a coaching role at Sunderland and also worked on Sky Sports covering matches involving his former clubs.
In June 2006 Quinn led the Drumaville Consortium of Irish businessmen who bought the controlling stake in Sunderland, and the deal was finalised on 27 July 2006.
Quinn was named as chairman and manager of the club but his managerial reign did not off get off to a great start as the Black Cats lost their first four matches.
Following a 2-0 League Cup defeat at Bury, Quinn sacked himself as manager although he stayed on as chairman, and appointed Roy Keane as his successor.
This was seen as something of a shock after the pair had fallen out following Keane's refusal to play for the Republic at the 2002 World Cup, but it proved to be a great success as Sunderland won the Championship title in 2007 to clinch a return to the Premier League.
However, in February 2012 Quinn cut his ties with Sunderland after six years leaving the club in much stronger position than when he had arrived.
Since leaving Sunderland Quinn has set up a satellite broadcast company in Ireland called Q Sat, and until 2017 he worked alongside Martin Tyler at Sky Sports.
In 2016 Quinn set up the Catch A Falling Star initiative which aims to educate athletes in their physiological well-being before they retire in an attempt to combat the onset of depression.
This is a cause close to Quinn's heart after he struggled with depression himself following his retirment from playing.
In January 2020, Quinn was named interim deputy chief executive for the Football Association of Ireland, a position he has taken without salary until the financial future of the organisation can be secured.
Away from football Quinn received the James Joyce award of the Literary and Historical Society in University College Dublin, while in 2010 he was named patron of the Bobby Robson Foundation.
Quinn now lives in Kildare with his wife, Irish model Gillian Roe who he married in 1992, and the couple have two children.
Like so many others before and after him, Quinn enjoyed the best years of his playing career away from Arsenal.
His awkward looking style and tendency to miss chances early in his career never really endeared him to the Arsenal fans, although he did seem to bring out the best in his strike partners, something that would serve him well throughout his career.
I remember his debut against Liverpool. It was a shock when his name was read out, replacing my hero at the time, Woodcock, but he scared the Liverpool defence to death that day and I thought we had a real star on our hands.
The following season Quinny scored a crucial goal at Tottenham in the Littlewoods Cup semi final and his windmill celebration in front of the Spurs fans will be my lasting memory of him in an Arsenal shirt.
Of course there was as well his crucial goal against Everton late in the title winning season of 1988/89. It did not seem particularly important at the time, sealing a 2-0 victory, but as we only won the title on goals scores it proved to be every bit as vital as Thomas' late title winner.
Alas it did not really work out for Quinn at Highbury in the end, but I was pleased that he managed to carve out a very successful career for himself in the game at City and then Sunderland.
Living in the North-East now myself I am fully aware of the great job he did at Sunderland and I know he is still spoken of with great affection in the area, with or without his disco pants!
Coming up next time I look back on the career of a teammate of Quinn's for whom injuries cut short a once promising football career; Stewart Robson. Keep an eye out for that coming soon.
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