Lenny Rider
Well-known member
- Sep 15, 2010
- 6,020
My copy of 'the book' has arrived in the post from the publishers this morning in preparation for my Ashes trip in a couple of weeks.
My inclusion in the book has been brought to my attention by the author, the reference to the phone in is fairly accurate,having supported the Albion for a long time, sold in excess of 100,000 fanzines, I did know most of the people who phoned in.
However Mr Knights recollection of the fallout from Micky Adams sacking is somewhat different to how I remember it.
On the day we played at Millwall, I initially received a call from a parent of player no longer at the club who told me she had been phoned by her son and told that the coach hadn't picked Micky at Hickstead as previously arranged because he had been sacked the previous evening.
BBC SCR broke the story on the Paul Ross morning show and when I got to the New Den I was tasked with getting some audio from the chairman.
In our interview he stated he had gone to the Little Chef on the Friday and had no intention or steer from his fellow directors to sack Adams. It was only during the conversation, we didn't establish whether this was before or after the Olympic breakfast, that he decided to dismiss Adams.
I asked him on air, and it remains to this day on tape, "How could you sack the manager without the approval of your other directors?"
To which I replied he didn't need it.
This isn't specifically mentioned in the book, its merely skirted over, but I have always wondered if this attitude only re-iterated to the rest of the board that there was a clear cut case for change at the top, which happened at the end of that season.
As a club we will always be indebted to what Dick did for the Albion, and I look forward to reading the book from cover to cover, and yes I will be helping to fund his retirement by buying sufficient shares to cover the cost of my copy, but I wonder if this small example is a recurring theme in the book?
My inclusion in the book has been brought to my attention by the author, the reference to the phone in is fairly accurate,having supported the Albion for a long time, sold in excess of 100,000 fanzines, I did know most of the people who phoned in.
However Mr Knights recollection of the fallout from Micky Adams sacking is somewhat different to how I remember it.
On the day we played at Millwall, I initially received a call from a parent of player no longer at the club who told me she had been phoned by her son and told that the coach hadn't picked Micky at Hickstead as previously arranged because he had been sacked the previous evening.
BBC SCR broke the story on the Paul Ross morning show and when I got to the New Den I was tasked with getting some audio from the chairman.
In our interview he stated he had gone to the Little Chef on the Friday and had no intention or steer from his fellow directors to sack Adams. It was only during the conversation, we didn't establish whether this was before or after the Olympic breakfast, that he decided to dismiss Adams.
I asked him on air, and it remains to this day on tape, "How could you sack the manager without the approval of your other directors?"
To which I replied he didn't need it.
This isn't specifically mentioned in the book, its merely skirted over, but I have always wondered if this attitude only re-iterated to the rest of the board that there was a clear cut case for change at the top, which happened at the end of that season.
As a club we will always be indebted to what Dick did for the Albion, and I look forward to reading the book from cover to cover, and yes I will be helping to fund his retirement by buying sufficient shares to cover the cost of my copy, but I wonder if this small example is a recurring theme in the book?
