Player Profile: John Lukic

I can not remember John Lukic ever making a save.

Through the fog of the many mistakes that littered his career, Lukic enjoyed two spells at Arsenal and Leeds during his 23 years as a professional that saw him pick up three league title medals, twice as a Gooner and once with Leeds.

Not a show-off, he was a keeper who got the job done with the minimal of fuss, but when he got it wrong he did so with considerable commotion and this greatly overshadowed his abilities between the posts and unfortunately for him this was a relatively common occurrence.

My abiding memory of Lukic is of him being the epitome of the final straw that broke the camels back, as his mistakes and lack of fortune would often prove to be the nail in the coffin of an under whelming performance.

Examples that spring to mind is seeing him punching the ball into his own net during a Champions League game with Rangers in 1992 and also seeing him affectionately parrying the ball into the path of Villa’s Savo Milosevic for an opportunity even he couldn’t miss in 1997.

Faced with the task of beating Rangers to qualify for the group stage of the old format Champions League, Lukic did his team mates no favours by punching a first-half corner into his own net in the first leg of 4-1 aggregate drubbing.

Equally Lukic’s assist to a grateful Savo was a similarly impressive gaff and welcomed by the Serbian who was unfortunately maligned by Villa fans for his wayward shooting and fetching bandana. Giving Villa a 2-1 lead, the mistake could have been costly had it not been for the seven minutes of time added on that allowed Arsenal to grab an equaliser and me to experience an early taste of the cruel nature of football.

Having said this, the stopper did spend 23 years at the top of football and was a part of the Arsenal-of-olds imposing rear-guard, which included the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Nigel Winerburn, but unlike his team mates Lukic never made the step up to international level and had to make do with his solitary England B cap.

Signed by Leeds as a schoolboy in 1978, back when they were better than useless, he made his debut just a year later, but after requesting a transfer he moved to Arsenal in 1983 for £75k.

After the signing of his former understudy at Leeds, David Seaman in 1990, his opportunities in the Gunners first team were limited, so he moved back up to Elland Road for £1m, where he stayed for another six years and picked up his second league title medal.

Again replaced by a promising keeper with aspirations of playing for England, this time Nigel Martyn from Crystal Palace, Lukic was demoted down the pecking order at both club and international level. Seemingly accepting his lot, he moved back to Arsenal where he was content to be understudy to Seaman and Alex Manninger until he retired in 2001.

Before heading for the retirement home though, he did make a brief return to the first team in 2001 and was a month shy of his 40th birthday when he lined up against Lazio in the Champions League. An impressive achievement for a senior and even more so considering he was playing in the big boys European league.

Boasting an impressive draw-full of medals and a club career where he was the supposed bedrock of a many defences, Lukic was clearly doing something right, but forever etched on my mind under the joint heading of John Lukic and woopsy-daisy are beauties just like this.

“Where’s Lukic? He’s nowhere. He’s nowhere.”

For further footage of Lukic larking about at inappropriate times, have a Terry Butchers at this bit of fun and games

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Thursday September 3, 2009.
Tags: Arsenal, Leeds United