David Fairclough's Swiss adventure:"I went to Switzerland to sign for Sion but ended up joining Luzern instead."

By John Hynes

Completing a transfer deal must be a hugely complicated situation. Satisfying all parties can't be easy. And then, what with football being a truly international sport, there is often a language barrier.

All of these elements were involved when David Fairclough was leaving Liverpool FC in the summer of 1983 and flew to Switzerland to complete a move to FC Basel. Then aged 26, he was sat on a balcony sipping a cup of tea in Zurich when Helmut Elp, the agent making the deal happen, informed him that the proposed transfer was not going to go ahead. Basel had pulled out.

“What am I doing here?” was the first thought that understandably entered Fairclough's head. Instead, another Swiss club had made their interest known: FC Luzern. He's honest enough to admit: “I'd never heard of them.” Despite this, David went along with Epp to meet the club's president, Mr Simioni. A conversation in German – which Fairclough didn't speak – took place about the potential deal before he was put through a rigorous medical and then given a tour of the local area.

“You could not fail to be impressed by the beauty of Luzern,” he says. A club with whom he was completely unfamiliar at first, suddenly became a tempting prospect. “They had a dream. It wasn't to win the Swiss league and get into the European Cup, but they did want to progress and grow. Financially their offer was good too.”

Fairclough returned to England with a loose agreement in place and a plan for Luzern officials to come to Liverpool to complete the deal. Before that happened, a few other clubs enquired about his situation, but only one of them was willing to match what Luzern had offered. “Bayer Leverkusen got in touch but the problem was their manager, Dettmar Cramer, was away for the weekend. I'd promised Luzern a definite answer by the Friday and didn't want to mess them around.”

So, despite the obvious appeal of the Bundesliga, his destination was to be Switzerland. But before he could depart for a new challenge, he had to obtain his release forms from Liverpool where – a loan-spell at Toronto Blizzard in Canada the previous year aside – he'd been since signing as an amateur in 1972. “Strangely, it just happened to be the Fourth of July, Independence Day, when the deal was going through. I went to Anfield to see Peter Robinson and he handed me a championship medal [for season 1982/83]. Getting one hadn't even crossed my mind. I don't know if it ever would have occurred to me. I suppose at that time we were all so familiar with success that we thought it would just carry on that way forever.”

But LFC and everything associated with it was now to be a thing of the past. Instead his focus was to be the Swiss Nationalliga. “I was familiar with a few of the teams there. Liverpool had played Servette in the Cup Winners Cup in 1971 and we'd faced FC Zurich in the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1977. But apart from that, my knowledge of the football scene there was very limited.”

David is in the middle row

A major difference from the English game was the fact that each team was only allowed to field one foreign player. This immediately made Fairclough a target. “They were like assassins,” he says of the treatment he received from defenders. “Most teams operated a man-to-man marking system – we even did it in training – and tracked me everywhere I went. I rarely picked up the ball to find myself with any space or time.

“Instead I'd have somebody right on top of me and it was a physical battle. If you are a wide-player you expect to be up against a full-back. In the middle I'd always been able to drop off, but even when I did that there was somebody right there. I found that very difficult to deal with and got into a few situations where I retaliated.”

Another aspect was the level of expectation that came with being a new arrival from the all-conquering Liverpool FC. People demanded a high level of performance whenever he took to the field. “There was no settling-in period, no thought of me needing some time. Instead they wanted me to be brilliant every week. I obviously wanted that myself. But – as I've come to realise later on in life – you can't be at your best every time you play. It's impossible for any footballer.”

David's new book and old shirt

One highlight of his time with Luzern was a hat-trick in a cup game against the side who had pulled out of the deal to sign him, FC Basel. “I'll admit it was satisfying to score those goals. I felt like I was making a point to them, although I'm not too sure if they were bothered!”

As well as having to acclimatise on the field, David also had to adapt to a way of living that was different to what he had grown up with in the UK. “There is a saying that goes: 'Every Swiss is a policeman'. And it was very true. There were rules and regulations for everything. If you parked in the wrong place somebody would quickly tell you or they'd leave a note to say you'd put your rubbish in the wrong bin. It was all organised to the last detail and took me some time to get used to.”

This meticulous Swiss way even affected his relationship with his then-girlfriend and future wife Jan. In the October after he'd arrived, they were both summoned to the local immigration office. “The officer, a Luzern fan, was friendly at first, chatting about football. Then the conversation turned. He wanted to know when Jan would be leaving the country. He informed us that she couldn't stay because she didn't have a visa. This had never been mentioned during my transfer.”

When the official explained that the only way Jan could be there on a permanent basis was if they were married, Fairclough thought quickly. “'Well, we are getting married', I blurted out. When I realised what I'd just said, I looked at Jan, unsure of how she was going to react. Thankfully she nodded in agreement. I wish I had proposed in a completely different way and took some stick about it later on. But I suppose it was unique to us.”

While issues like the visa were resolved quickly and Fairclough found himself ranked as the third-best player in the league at Christmas time, a change in manager was to be the beginning of the end for his Swiss adventure. “Milan Nikolic, a Yugoslavian, was sacked and replaced by a guy called Bruno Rahmen, who was a former Luzern captain. Immediately I got the impression he didn't rate me. By the end of the season I'd scored 16 goals, which wasn't bad. But the team had finished just one place above the relegation zone and the manager made it clear he wanted to make some changes.”

Around the same time as David's first season at Luzern was drawing to a close, Liverpool were winning their fourth European Cup in Rome, courtesy of a penalty shoot-out victory over AS Roma. The following day he looked out of his window to be surprised by the sight of a familiar man making his way down towards the house. “It looked like my uncle but I needed a second look. It was him and my cousins, just casually walking to our front door. They'd been over to visit previously and knew where we lived. So, on the way back from Italy, they had decided to call in unannounced to tell us about the game.”

That summer the playing staff at Luzern was overhauled, with senior figures moved on to make way for younger players. Fairclough was suddenly one of the oldest members of the squad going into the 1984/85 campaign. “That was completely new for me. My place in the side was no longer assured. I got sent-off for a nothing challenge and was banned for four weeks, so that didn't help a situation which wasn't going well anyway. During the winter break I returned to England and actually trained with Everton to keep fit.

“While home I received a telegram from Luzern saying they wanted to cut my contract and were willing to let me leave. Rahmen had accused me of attacking him in training. I'd smashed him in a challenge once, but to say I'd attacked him was completely wrong. The fact that I was about 11 stone and he had been a tough centre-half told you everything. But it meant my time there was over. By the end of February I was back home permanently and looking for a new club. It happened that quickly.”

Fairclough signed for Norwich City later that year before going on to feature for Oldham Athletic, SK Beveren (Belgium), Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Athletic. Looking back on his time in Switzerland now he has no regrets. “I'm glad I went there and gave it a try even if it didn't work out as I'd hoped it would. I went back to Luzern a few years ago to see a game and the reception at the stadium was brilliant. Even on the streets, people were saying hello and wishing me well. Hopefully they appreciated the efforts I put in.”

Living next door to Ottmar

The German striker-turned-coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, was starting out on his managerial career when Fairclough was in Switzerland. “He'd been at Luzern the previous season [as a forward] and I'd signed as his replacement when he moved on to manage SC Zug. So I wasn't sure how he would react when I ended up living next door. But he was great, albeit a little quiet because he didn't speak a lot of English and I didn't know any German. My wife became good friends with his wife Beatrice, as she spoke excellent English. After I left Switzerland we stayed in touch and I remember speaking to him on the phone when he was manager of Borussia Dortmund. It was great to see him go on to do so well in the game at Dortmund and Bayern Munich.”

This article first appeared in the LFC vs Sion programme on Oct 1, 2015