JOHN GIBBONS and Gareth Roberts have been in their little black book and dug out Daniel Gray, author of Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters, to discuss the key role football clubs play in communities and whether this is recognised by governments, councils and clubs themselves.
MIDNIGHT CALLER: FOOTBALL, OUR NATIONAL SPORT?
Excellent show, one of my favourites since TAW Player went live.
The thing I really like about The Anfield Wrap is every now and then you do a show that is slightly left field, like the interview with Rick Parry or the discussion on how football stories are produced by the media. I always end up learning something about a subject I hadn’t given much thought to previously.
As someone who’s not from Britain but been living here 10 years it was great to get a bit of an insight into a surprisingly hidden side to the culture here.
By hidden I mean rarely talked about in the official media or even mainstream entertainment. I’m often surprised by how little part football plays in soaps like Corrie or East Enders for instance, supposedly depictions of working class life. Obviously a lot less people would watch the soap if the characters were boring on about City, United, West Ham or Milwall all the time. You could still do story lines around I dunno, mad things that happened when your dropping the kids to footie training or something.
I suppose it’s like a lot of the day to day highs and lows of working class life these days, largely ignored by an establishment that can only see the potential for making money and fearing and despising all other aspects to it.
I wanna read that. Nice bloke. Complimentary about Chester too.
I don’t know what the book says about Chester’s demise but it’s one hell of a funny story. I kind of gleaned the paragraphs on them would start at Stephen Vaughan and go from there to the fans buying it. I’ll just share a bit of the story because it still makes me smile. People who think FSG are amateurs take note.
The club got into trouble in the 90’s and we announced we’d found a solution. Terry Smith the ex American football player was buying the club and promised us first division football in 3 years. He ran an American Football team in Manchester and had got in trouble for organising a match against Munich (bit of a coup getting the mighty Munich over. Problem was it wasn’t Munich it was a load of big lads he’d borrowed from the bar at Sheffield Uni. He told them not to take their helmets off but some had and they were recognised.
Anyway, Kevin Ratcliffe was manager and after meeting Smith a few times said, fuck this. So, who did we get to replace him. Well, no point paying for a manager when the owner can be the manager. Save on the wage. So he appointed himself. Then appointed 3 captains. One for the defence, one for midfield and one for the strikers. In pre season he said, listen lads, you don’t get good at football by playing football. What makes you better is playing American Football. So, he banned football and only allowed American Football. In the dressing room before each game players had to pray, then read a 7 page dossier on American Football tactics. One funny story was when the Chief Security Officer was trying to give a safety briefing and couldn’t hear because the music over the tannoy was so loud (by this point, Smith wasn’t manager and had appointed himself tannoy / music man on matchdays). Anyway, result was the security officer went to the tannoy room to ask him to turn it down and got done in.
So, needing a manager, he got his mate in. His cv was far better. 10 years previously he briefly managed Nova Scotia Clippers. The list of events is friggin incredible. He sacked the captain for standing in the wrong position for a free kick. Sacked the fans favourite player for saying it was out of order. Then in the programme notes at the final game declared he was leaving Chester. The fans were buzzing – until he turned round and said, aargh, I’ve changed my mind now. In fact, I’m appointing ex Stone Roses manager as Chief Exec (some would have a bad word to say about him but I don’t cos I knew him and from 88 onwards he got me on the guest list for everyone Stone Roses gig till they finished. I used to skin up for them after each gig while they were getting changed).
It was alright though because Smith eventually fucked off and he we got Vaughan. He pops up in Curtis Warren’s book ‘Cocky’ which was a clue. Smith hadn’t done any accounts but Vaughan didn’t like accounting either. Plus, he insisted on playing his son in the team. I’ve seen his son in the Echo recently but he’s more front page than back page now. Anyway, the journey got so ridiculous that the fans were forced to act. They encouraged the winding up order. City fans united.
Robin Crimes – undisputed No.1 commenter on The Anfield Wrap.
Haha