Johnny Giles - Reputation As A Hard Player

Reputation As A Hard Player

In the early part of his career Giles endured some rough treatment. This occurred when he suffered a career-threatening ankle injury at the hands of Birmingham City's Johnny Watts, and knee ligament damage sustained when tackled by Eddie McCreadie at Stamford Bridge. Being a creative and diminutive figure, Giles thereafter accepted he would have to become a tougher player in order to avoid being singled out by opponents. On later becoming a pundit, Giles at length wrote about how he felt he had to become "a lion rather than a lamb" on the pitch so as to help achieve his full potential. His primary reason for this was to avoid being labelled a hypocrite when the time came for him to give judgement on tough tackling by others.