Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 15:51:34 GMT
I spent fifteen minutes or so today in the city centre branch of Waterstone's reading the twenty-sixth chapter of Roy McFarland's autobiography. The book is so new it refers to Nigel Clough taking over at Sheffield United.
Chapter 26 is brief - only six pages; plenty of white space; large typeset - and it's entitled "Tough Torq". Apparently Peter Taylor once advised McFarland to grab any job offered on the south coast. Then one day Mike Bateson rang. McFarland informs us this was in the aftermath of a row between Bateson and Colin Lee.
Two characters come to prominence early in the chapter. Firstly, Bateson's pal Algernon who McFarland describes as "unnerving". Secondly, David Graham.
I don't know if there are many Clough and Taylor references in the book but McFarland enquiries as to whether Taylor would have seen anything in Graham. Or, indeed, would Clough have sent him packing with a one-way ticket to Edinburgh? McFarland describes Graham as lazy and lacking appetite. He sets Graham a challenge: "why waste your talent?" The response is a slow-burner because McFarland later speaks of "bollocking" Graham and Tony Bedeau placing both on the transfer list.
McFarland starts work. A couple of "nondescript Frenchmen" are paid off and verdict is passed on the racecourse training ground: "soft to heavy" in winter; "hard" in summer. The club, he maintains, has "fallen into a rut".
There's fair mention of the League Cup tie at Spurs when we played so well. This is obviously a highlight for McFarland and he speaks of our supporters singing "are you Barnet in disguise?"
But it gets tougher and, in the wake of the ITV digital collapse, Bateson asks for savings of £6,000 a week. David Preece must go. McFarland insists otherwise and argues that, if each player took a pay cut, Preece could stay. No deal; McFarland explains: "If the chairman believed I would stay at Preece's expense he was very much mistaken. That would have smacked of disloyalty."
Finally McFarland concludes:
"Torquay was the hardest job I ever had in football and I thought I did a respectable job, although it's not easy to convince people that the final table does have a tendency to lie sometimes. It was disappointing not to see all the hard work David and I put in bear fruit because Leroy Rosenior inherited a good squad and took them to promotion a couple of seasons later."
Chapter 26 is brief - only six pages; plenty of white space; large typeset - and it's entitled "Tough Torq". Apparently Peter Taylor once advised McFarland to grab any job offered on the south coast. Then one day Mike Bateson rang. McFarland informs us this was in the aftermath of a row between Bateson and Colin Lee.
Two characters come to prominence early in the chapter. Firstly, Bateson's pal Algernon who McFarland describes as "unnerving". Secondly, David Graham.
I don't know if there are many Clough and Taylor references in the book but McFarland enquiries as to whether Taylor would have seen anything in Graham. Or, indeed, would Clough have sent him packing with a one-way ticket to Edinburgh? McFarland describes Graham as lazy and lacking appetite. He sets Graham a challenge: "why waste your talent?" The response is a slow-burner because McFarland later speaks of "bollocking" Graham and Tony Bedeau placing both on the transfer list.
McFarland starts work. A couple of "nondescript Frenchmen" are paid off and verdict is passed on the racecourse training ground: "soft to heavy" in winter; "hard" in summer. The club, he maintains, has "fallen into a rut".
There's fair mention of the League Cup tie at Spurs when we played so well. This is obviously a highlight for McFarland and he speaks of our supporters singing "are you Barnet in disguise?"
But it gets tougher and, in the wake of the ITV digital collapse, Bateson asks for savings of £6,000 a week. David Preece must go. McFarland insists otherwise and argues that, if each player took a pay cut, Preece could stay. No deal; McFarland explains: "If the chairman believed I would stay at Preece's expense he was very much mistaken. That would have smacked of disloyalty."
Finally McFarland concludes:
"Torquay was the hardest job I ever had in football and I thought I did a respectable job, although it's not easy to convince people that the final table does have a tendency to lie sometimes. It was disappointing not to see all the hard work David and I put in bear fruit because Leroy Rosenior inherited a good squad and took them to promotion a couple of seasons later."
