The Crazy Gang's fight for survival: The toughest team in football history

The Wimbledon FC team of the late 1980s quite rightly earned the nickname "Crazy Gang." Players like John Fashanu and Vinnie Jones terrified their opponents time and time again. In the end, it was often a matter of pure survival for the visiting team.

There's a strange fascination surrounding this London team that shook up the English Premier League in the late 1980s as the "Crazy Gang." Then-Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher once said the following memorable phrase about this phenomenon: "If we can sell Newcastle Brown Ale to Japan, Bob Geldof can drive an entire nation to Hyde Park, and Wimbledon actually get promoted to the Premier League, then there's nothing we can't do."

A crude collection of tough guys from the southwest of the capital terrified an entire football nation. They declared the game a war and, every Saturday from 3 p.m., took to the pitch as "warlords," under pressure. Their leaders were called "the Axe" (Vinnie Jones) and "Fash the Bash" (John Fashanu). One still plays the villain in Hollywood films, the other hosted the TV show "Gladiators" on British television for many years.

An emperor as leader

John Fashanu grew up in a foster family after his parents separated. Many years after his retirement, he once said that Wimbledon was the family he never had. He was tough on himself and even tougher on his opponents – and his teammates. Vinnie Jones called him the "Emperor of Nigeria" because Fashanu was of Nigerian-Guyanese descent and made no secret of his natural desire for leadership. He was the commander of Wimbledon FC; he left no doubt about that, at any time: "If you want to be respected, and you want to keep it that way, then you need an aura of fear around you."

When John Fashanu looked back and asked himself whether they had gone too far, even many years later, he had only one answer: "No, I wouldn't say that. Nobody died. Maybe some people broke something, but that's part of it. So, again: No. We didn't go too far. We had to do it so we could survive!"

Gary Lineker hated Wimbledon

The opponents hated the matches against Wimbledon. Gary Lineker hadn't calmed down even after his playing career ended, as was evident from his private feud with Vinnie Jones in the mid-1990s. He hated the typical "Crazy Gang" mix of mindless kick-and-rush and unbridled brutality. Thus, the matches involving Wimbledon FC were usually not enjoyable to watch, as Gary Lineker recalls with a weary look: "Their games were better watched on teletext."

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Lebanese club owner Sam Hammam, on the other hand, still smiles enthusiastically when he thinks about those times: "We watered the pitch before every game, even if we didn't intend to use it at all. The ball was in the air the whole time anyway."

Dutch goalkeeper Hans Segers arrived in London in 1988, during the heyday of the "Crazy Gang." He still vividly remembers his first impressions: "At Wimbledon, I faced a team that was completely crazy. Vinnie Jones, John Fashanu, John Scales, Eric Young. All incredibly tough guys who really fought for every single ball. There were only bad things about Wimbledon in the newspapers back then. But the players loved getting beaten down. The worse the better, that was the motto. But it was also a really strong team. We wanted to instill fear in every opponent. Back then, we had the biggest boom box around – with over 100 watts of power."

Guest cabin defaced with great devotion

Segers continued: "We placed the device directly opposite the opposing team's locker room in the middle of the hallway so that everyone could hear it. Especially the opponents, of course. But the best part of all was when we passed the opposing team's locker room before the game. We always started a minute earlier than the opponent. And then we would bang on their door with our fists. We wanted to scare them. And what can I say? In the vast majority of cases, we were already practically leading 1-0 after this action."

No wonder, considering that the locker rooms had been specially prepared by members of the "Crazy Gang." Mold on the walls, no heating in winter, broken windows, and no toilet paper. Instead, the ceramic bowl had been used intensively beforehand, without flushing, of course, so that a disgusting odor hung throughout the entire locker room. A reception couldn't be more gruesome—you'd think.

But the Wimbledon FC players also poured salt into their halftime tea, which was, of course, undrinkable afterward. And when the opposing players sat down for a moment and stared at the opposite wall, they often read unkind greetings that resembled the battle cry the "Crazy Gang" loudly intoned upon entering the pitch: "Let's kill them!"

John Barnes is still afraid

On their way out of the catacombs, the Londoners couldn't resist firing their first barrage of the worst trash talk at the opposing players. At an away game in Liverpool, for example, Vinnie Jones said the following to the Reds' player-manager, Kenny Dalglish: "I'll rip your head off and shit down your throat." Jones had already painted the famous "This is Anfield" sign with a dark yellow snot.

John Fashanu and Vinnie Jones loved pre-match psychological warfare. They verbally passed the ball back and forth. Jones: "Oh, look, Fash, how about this one today?" And Fashanu: "Oh, yeah, Vinnie. That one's for you!"

Before the 1988 FA Cup Final against Liverpool FC, John Fashanu was particularly concerned about Liverpool's star midfielder, John Barnes. "Fash the Bash" viciously attacked his opponent on the yards out of the catacombs. Recalling those moments, Fashanu would later say: "I insulted him extremely. In a way only a black man could insult another black man." Barnes once said he doesn't remember exactly what words were used at the time. But a feeling of fear still overcomes him when he thinks about those moments.

"Our only chance to survive"

Vinnie Jones once said that no team enjoyed traveling to London. All teams dreaded facing the "Crazy Gang." During those years, the opposing clubs were never concerned with returning home with a good result. The players' only concern was returning home safe and sound. The pressure the opposing clubs were under is illustrated by a comment from Tottenham's Gary Stevens. In a match against Wimbledon, the England international kicked Jones even though he was already on the ground. When asked after the match why he did it, Stevens said: "It was our only chance of survival."

And indeed, back then, everything about this club was "crazy" – also a special idea of ​​Wimbledon FC owner Sam Hammam. He had every single one of his players' contracts written into it that if they lost by more than four goals, the team had to go to the opera together. The Lebanese still laughed his head off years later when he thought about this trick: "Just think about it: Vinnie Jones sitting in an Italian opera for four hours. An absurd idea. Completely impossible. Of course, they never lost by four goals!"