The following article must be from 1988 and I think, appeared in ‘Shoot’ magazine:
‘To paraphrase the song, Danny Maddix, the 21-year-old Queen’s Park Rangers central defender, did like to be beside the seaside. The player who Tottenham did not want reckons his few weeks by the sea with Southend United two years ago were just the tonic his career needed.
“I was only on loan to Southend for a month,” he says, “but in that time I made my Football League debut, played with some good players and got the encouragement that I badly needed. It was so different from the years I had with Tottenham because I knew when I was there if I’d been given a chance I could of done better, but I had the feeling that they did not fancy me.”
“Even so, when I was at Spurs I had to watch other young players being given a chance while I couldn’t even get a regular place in the reserves. I wasn’t really bitter, but there was no incentive for me to work. That is why I was so grateful to be loaned to Southend. I was feeling pretty low and the time I had there gave me a real boost.”
Maddix was 19 when he returned to Tottenham, but he was released on a free transfer in the summer of 1987. “I was really miserable when I got the news,” he says, “but at the same time it made me more determined to do well elsewhere. I knew I had the potential.”
Luckily for Maddix, QPR manager Jim Smith, and his assistant Peter Shreeves, who was manager of Tottenham for part of Maddix’s four years at White Hart Lane, gave him the chance to prove it. And since he joined QPR, Maddix says: “I have been determined to grasp every opportunity that has come my way.”
Ironically Tottenham indirectly figured in his big chance of First Division football. It came when QPR sold their England central defender Terry Fenwick to Spurs for ¬£550,000. “I don’t want to sound big-headed, but I think the records of the two clubs indicate that I’ve done better with QPR than Terry has done with Tottenham,” says Maddix.
“Everyone at Rangers has helped me, especially my fellow defender Paul Parker. We get on so well together we fancy ourselves against any attack in the country. I rate Paul the best man-to-man marker in the country and I have learned an awful lot from playing beside him.”
“He has helped me positionally and passed on useful tips about how to cope with various forwards. We instinctively work very well together and now I feel I’m playing quite well and Bobby Robson saw our game against West Ham recently when I scored the winner. Surely that has got to help ?”
Danny Maddix made 347 1st team appearances for the R’s before being transferred to Sheffield Wednesday in 2001.
Steve Russell
Genuine QPR legend, the fittest player at the club during his time there