Tuesday 27 October 2015 09:58, UK
In September 1998, Paolo Di Canio was responsible for one of the most shocking moments in Premier League history.
Here, Adam Bate talks to former Owls defender Andy Hinchcliffe and ex-Hammer Trevor Sinclair to get their take on events and discover what life was like alongside the fiery Italian...
"We actually won the game and Lee Briscoe scored a brilliant goal," recalls Andy Hinchcliffe with a chuckle. He knows it's an afterthought. From the moment it happened, it was obvious that one thing would overshadow Sheffield Wednesday's 1-0 win over Arsenal. This was the game in which a Premier League player - Paolo Di Canio - pushed a referee to the ground.
Sixteen years on, some of the humour of the situation has endured. There was the manner in which Paul Alcock stumbled to the ground -- "a bit theatrical," according to Hinchcliffe -- and the "very funny" decision of Arsenal defender Nigel Winterburn to confront Di Canio only to flinch when the Italian motioned in his direction. "That was an odd thing," he adds.
But most of all, it's the fact that the incident remains unique in the history of the Premier League. As a result, Di Canio's push retains its ability to shock. "Nothing even remotely similar has occurred since," says Hinchcliffe, a former England left-back. "There was nothing to compare it to. It was a complete one-off.
"My kids saw Paolo play a few times but they were very young at the time and yet they still watch it on YouTube. People do find it fascinating. You see it in South America where people come on the pitch and chase referees but you just don't associate it with English football. That's what made it so alarming."
Di Canio already had a reputation as a livewire and Hinchcliffe had a close-up view. "I actually got changed in between Benito Carbone and Paolo Di Canio. I'd come from Everton where I'd grown up with a lot of young lads and now I was with these star foreign players talking Italian around me. I didn't pick it up by symbiosis, unfortunately, but they were fantastic.
"Paolo as an individual was absolutely phenomenal and there was something happening every day. He was a bit crazy but that was part of his charm and just one aspect of his genius. Paolo was arguably the most talented player I've ever seen in terms of his technical ability. Some of the stuff he did in training was just beyond what I've seen."
Another England international, Trevor Sinclair, later played with Di Canio at West Ham and was similarly impressed. "After just one training session, you realised how much quality he had," he tells Sky Sports. "He was a genius." Perhaps more surprisingly, given the events of that day in 1998, Sinclair points to Di Canio's professionalism as one of his key qualities.
"He was a leader. He always had something to say. He was a brilliant character with amazing professionalism. He was always the last one to finish in the gym, getting his body prepared with massages and knowing how to eat. For a young player like, say, Mark Noble who was at West Ham at the time, they must remember how professional that Paolo was."
It's a contradiction at the heart of Di Canio's character. He was a man prone to extraordinary lapses, but one who demanded everything of himself and others. "He was an unusual character," agrees Hinchcliffe. "When you hear about him, you get an impression of what he's going to be like but in the dressing room he was as much of a team player as anyone."
So was there any way this could have been anticipated? "I think Paolo played up to the crowd at times so he was always on the edge of something happening. He was so passionate and that really touched a nerve with the Wednesday fans. Maybe if you'd been asked to pick five players in the Premier League who might react in this way… But even then…"
You could be playing a game of five-a-side in training and a throw-in decision would go against him and he'd kick the ball away and walk off.
Unlike Hinchcliffe, Sinclair was not there that day. But with what he knows now, he doesn't regard it as out-of-character. "You could see why Paolo would do that because he's such an emotional footballer. He had his flaws. You could be playing a game of five-a-side in training and a throw-in decision would go against him and he'd kick the ball away and walk off."
Hinchcliffe has similar memories. "He'd do it a few times in training. If he got kicked, he'd just say, 'Right, I'm off' and he'd walk in. If you upset him, he really would just down tools." But the events of September 26th 1998 were different. It was a match-day. There were 27,949 fans and one 44-year-old referee, who would become the target of his ire.
Just before half-time, Di Canio had reacted angrily when Arsenal's Patrick Vieira appeared to aim a punch at Wim Jonk. Both Di Canio and Martin Keown were dismissed in the ensuing melee. Vieira escaped. The Hillsborough crowd were angry and their advocate on the pitch felt compelled to act. "I think he just reacted instinctively," says Hinchcliffe.
"Sitting in the dressing room, it was so strange because you have to come to terms with it and try to get the game won. After that, we'd done the job and we had to try to make sense of what had gone on. Part of me found it really funny. But then you think, hold on, they're clearly going to clobber him. What will happen to Paolo? What will the ban be?
"I remember Paolo still being around after the game. He was asking us, 'Do you think I'll be banned?' We were telling him, 'Paolo, nobody has ever done this in the history of the English game'. You could see him thinking, 'Well, why haven't they because referees make some awful decisions'.
"His attitude was that the referee was getting it so wrong and this needed to happen. He thought that people would look at him and maybe not pat him on the back but say that we completely agreed with what he'd done and that it was the right thing. So it was difficult for him to come to terms with."
He was asking us, 'Do you think I'll be banned?' We were telling him, 'Paolo, nobody has ever done this in the history of the English game'.
With sections of the media and public outraged, Sheffield Wednesday and their manager Danny Wilson found themselves at the centre of a scandal. "It was all anyone was talking about," says Hinchcliffe. "Danny was someone who liked to keep things ticking over under the radar. Suddenly there was this big explosion and it was very difficult to manage."
Di Canio was banned for 11 games. Wednesday decided not to appeal the suspension. "The problems really kicked in after that. I think the rest of the players saw it as a one-off and wanted to move on. We hoped Paolo would feel the same because we needed him. I don't know what Paolo expected, but he started to train separately and he brought his own fitness guy in with him.
"I don't know why he felt that the club should have done more because clearly when you do something like that, of course the club wasn't going to appeal the ban. There was no moral grounds on which to do it. Paolo seemed to think the club could've done more and it petered out. He went to West Ham."
It was a huge blow for Wednesday's fans, but for West Ham boss Harry Redknapp, it was an opportunity. "That was one of Harry's great assets," says Sinclair. "People say he wasn't the best coach on the training field but what he could do was see a player who could reach great heights and wasn't getting there for whatever reason. More often than not, he'd get it right."
Was he not apprehensive? "We were excited because of the qualities that he brought. I didn't realise before he came to the club, one, how mad he was, and two, just how much quality he had. He was a charming gentleman, Paolo. Even to this day I say he was one of the best players I've played with."
Not that Di Canio's appetite for confrontation ever left him. "I remember there was a debate away to Birmingham and there was a heated discussion going on," says Sinclair. "He ended up squaring up to David James's waist. It was hilarious but, by the look in his eye, he fancied himself.
"You do see players who can't back it up with performances who are just setting themselves up for a fall. But when someone brings so much to the table, you're prepared to let a lot of flaws go just to get him out on the pitch. As a group we made a conscious decision to let that go. Because of what he does on a match-day, you can live with that."
There were plenty of highlights too. In particular, Sinclair recalls another run-in with an old rival from that day at Hillsborough that went rather better for Di Canio. "I remember him dismantling Arsenal single-handedly at Upton Park once. Martin Keown won't appreciate me saying it, but he tied him in knots that day. He was unplayable."
It was a common enough occurrence. In his first full season at West Ham, Di Canio was voted Hammer of the Year and, with his scissor-kick volley against Wimbledon, scored one of the great Premier League goals. "It's great to play with a player who is at the top of his game and Paolo was certainly at the top of his game when he came to West Ham."
For Hinchcliffe, this subsequent success was no surprise. But Di Canio's departure remains a source of regret. "We always knew that wherever he played, the fans would take to him. That's the player he was. You want circumstances to allow a player like that to stay as long as possible. But circumstances took over and it was a downhill slide towards him leaving.
"It was a shame because you don't get to play with players as good as that very often. I enjoyed being around him and playing with him so you felt you'd been deprived of this great player. I just thought he was a class act and, looking back, I think what happened just adds to his mystique. He was one of the Premier League's greatest ever players."
Sheff Wed v Arsenal is live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 7.30pm on Tuesday
