And you left not that long after Dave…
DAVE: Yeah, it was a weird situation. John Bond wasn’t around at the time and chairman Peter Swales came to me and asked if I’d do him a favour by moving to Cardiff to help his mate out for a while. Trevor Francis had joined City but was struggling with his Achilles, so it would have been between me and Kevin Reeves to cover for him, but with no agents at the time, you just sort of go with it so I went to Cardiff on the understanding I’d be coming back to City if things went well. Of course, it never happened that way and instead, the deal was made permanent.
Was it good to be back together at Cardiff?
GARY: We were going into the unknown in many ways, but Cardiff was fantastic for us. I went before my brother and the first few weeks, I just wanted to come home to Manchester, but I eventually found my feet, David arrived and we discovered there was a huge multicultural community down by the docks and we soon settled into life in the city. And just like we did at City, suddenly Cardiff had Black players Iin their team and before long, Black supporters were coming to watch us play, so I guess we were breaking down barriers there, too. In later years, did come back to City with Sunderland and scored at Maine Road, which was exciting because you always want to do well against your old club, but being released, as I say, was the best thing for me because obviously I enjoyed being at Cardiff and then went on to play for Sunderland for a long time, too.
DAVE: It goes without saying that one of the main reasons I was happy to go to Cardiff was because my brother was there and again, we didn’t understand the impact we were having on the local community, but I was back at the club on a visit a few years again and I met the BBC sports presenter Jason Muhammed, and he told me he got into football because of me and my brother played for Cardiff and it made him follow the club and feel comfortable enough to come and watch us play. So, as my brother says, we opened doors and broke down barriers in Cardiff as well, which obviously makes us proud.
Finally, what do celebrations like Black History Month mean to you both?
GARY: If I’m honest, Black history isn’t just about one month, it is there all the time. We celebrate Black History Month and all the events around it and both David and have a long time association with the charity Show Racism the Red Card, and celebrations like this allow us to educate and highlight issues in sport and society in general. That also allows us to open more doors, be role models and I’ve been lucky enough to gain some accolades along the way. Just look at the Sunderland side of today, with six or seven Black players in their first team, yet I was only the second Black player to ever pull on a Sunderland shirt. It goes to show you how far we’ve come, but also it makes you wonder where we’d be today of we hadn’t been the frontrunners all those years go.
DAVE: When we started out, we were playing down back entries – now we’re playing down motorways – I just hope that the Black players of today know their history and know the history of the Black players that came before them and what we went through to make it. That’s so important because they can also open the doors for the next generation and maybe in future we will see more Black managers and coaches, too. For me, it’s magnificent we have Black History Month and celebrate it, but as my brother said, it’s not only a month, it’s many years of history that we celebrate**.**
Feature: David Clayton