by Ian Holloway
His agent, Johnny Mack said. “Shut up Ollie, we’re going.” But Jason said, “No, wait a minute. I want to come here and play.” That was what I’d wanted to hear. Jason thought he’d be replacing Barry Hayles and so would be the main man. He didn’t know it was Pete Beadle who was leaving. We had some great young strikers on our books already and if we could work out how to push Roberts’ buttons, we’d have strength in depth most Premiership sides would envy. Pen’s saying was ‘stack ‘em and rack ‘em’ because we both believed you could never have too many good strikers knocking around. He was my striker coach whereas I took the defence and midfielders and worked them in units. Pen would take two strikers at a time and work one-on-one with them every day of the week. He gave them the TLC they needed and it was working really well. Then, in November 1998, we played Fulham away and things started to get interesting. I’d told Barry that a lot of clubs were showing interest and Fulham might have been one of them, so if his heart was set on a big money move, he’d better impress. We lost 1-0 and he had an absolute stinker and I told him maybe he wasn’t ready to move on yet. Geoff Dunford travelled back on the coach with us, which was unusual to say the least. He said he’d been to a business meeting in London and I thought no more about it. The following day I got a call from Kevin Keegan telling me he was going to “buy my striker”. I told him he wasn’t for sale and he said, “Well I’m sorry, he is.”
“Who do you mean?” I asked, hoping he meant someone else.
“Barry Hayles.”
“Yeah? Well he’s not for sale.”
“Yes he is. I spoke to your chairman yesterday afternoon and he was more or less begging us to sign him.”
I finished the call, and seething, called up Geoff and started shouting and bawling at him and he agreed to meet me at the training ground where things got a bit nasty. He’d never lost his temper before, but he swore at me, so I knew I’d got to him. He told me we’d be getting £2m, all guaranteed in four payments of £500,000. I’d just signed Jason Roberts, had Guy Ipoua and Jamie Cureton and Pen could still play up front if I needed him to, so I had no real choice in the matter. Those are the facts of life at a lower league club and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. The club needed money to survive and at that stage of my managerial career, I had to take it on the chin. There was no way I’d wanted to sell him, but I couldn’t stand in the lad’s way. Before he signed for Keegan I actually called David Pleat at Spurs because Barry’s dream had been to play for them one day, but he didn’t think he was a big enough name for Tottenham. I said, “Well actually, I think you’re wrong about that. The lad’s a winner and he’d help your club because he’s desperate to play for you.” As it was, he ended up signing for Fulham and went on to form a great partnership with Geoff Horsfield. I was sorry to see him go because from day one of him arriving at Rovers he’d been our best player, and he wasn’t far off being one of the best players I’d ever worked with. He could do the lot and his attitude was always spot-on. He asked one day if we could switch from attackers v defenders so the strikers could have a go at defending against the defenders. Hayles was winning tackles and headers like a seasoned full-back and nobody could get past him! All I’d done at Rovers was give him a stage and within two years he’d gone for £2m, and though the majority of money went to run the club, I got some of it and decided to buy Nathan ‘Duke’ Ellington to give us another option up front.
Pen had spoken with Kenny Jackett, one of his good mates from his days at Watford, and he’d tipped him off about Nathan who was playing for Walton and Hersham at the time. The rumour was QPR had already signed him, but I called up Walton’s vice-chairman and he said that wasn’t true, so I went along with Pen to watch him play. I took Kim along too, because almost every decent signing I’d made had happened after Kim had come along to watch with me. He didn’t play that well in the first half, but my God, the kid had some raw pace and power. I went into the boardroom at half-time and saw the Walton chairman and told him I wanted to do a deal. He told me he would cost £150,000 which was fine and I knew QPR wouldn’t pay that much. I said before I did the deal, I wanted him to come to Bristol with his family and have a look around because he was only a young lad. I called Geoff Dunford and said, “I think we’ve got you another one, but he’s only 17 and will cost £150,000.” As I walked back to my seat for the second half I saw a head pop up from the paddock below. It was Pen, climbing up to sit with us and he said, “Ollie, you’ve gotta sign him! You’ve gotta sign him!”
I said, “Pen, I already have.”
“Have you? Great!”
His enthusiasm for Ellington was frightening and I knew we’d got a great prospect on our books just by the way Pen was. Nathan’s arrival was harsh on Bobby Zamora who’d been progressing well in the youth team. It meant he’d probably stepped a place down on the ladder and considering what he’s gone on to do, that was a misjudgement on our part. Bob was skinny and tall whereas Nathan was stronger, and I think that probably swung it, though I do think I treated Bob unfairly in some ways. I should have brought him into the first team squad along with Duke.
I met Nathan and showed him around our training centre at The Beeches. It was very relaxed and informal and I told him what Pen could do for him and what he had done with some of the other strikers, and he basically bought into us and agreed a contract, turning down QPR’s offer.
Jason Roberts was having a hard time settling in at Rovers and had only scored once in 14 games for us. Pen had sussed out what he thought the problem was, which I believe sums up what Pen is all about. It was annoying Pen who felt Jason could do a hell of a lot better. He came up to me one day after training had ended and said, “You’ve got to come out with me this afternoon, Oll, because I’ve realised what I’ve got to do with this kid. He’s potentially got what it takes, but if I can’t get him to focus, he’s never going to be the striker we want him to be.”
I told him no problem, and he added that it wasn’t going to be very pleasant, but I said I didn’t want to know what he had in mind and he should just go ahead and do it.
“I’ve got to do it, Oll and I want you to witness it.”
So we took out a few balls, our goalie, Andy Collett, who didn’t get along too well with Jason anyway and was very chirpy and self-opinionated, and it turned out to be one of the most inspired sessions I’ve ever taken part in.
Pen said to Jason as we stopped in front of a goal, “Your trouble is you can’t focus, son.”
Andy Collett piped up, “Yeah, that’s right. I’ll save whatever you’ve got.” Jason wasn’t having any of it and told him it’d be no problem. I started laying the ball off to him and he was hitting shots all over
the place.
Pen said: “Oh, you can focus then, can you? That’s rubbish, useless.” Jason soon lost his temper and Pen called a halt to the session. He came up to Jason and said, “I’m telling you now you’ve got no focus. Your technique is fine but you just can’t concentrate and I’m going to prove it. I’m going to shout some things at you and if you’re focused, as you claim to be, you’ll put most of the balls in the back of the net.”
We began again and Pen stood behind the goal and began. “You’re useless Roberts you fucking tosser!” Jason continued to shank his shots wide and Pen told him not to listen to him and ignore everything. “I was out with your mum last weekend” Eventually he blocked him out and started scoring, and scoring, and scoring. “Go on, that’s it,” said Pen. “Get your head over it, well done, that’s it, that’s focused!” By the end of the session, Jason was invigorated and looked a changed kid. From that moment on, he believed in himself once again and the difference in him from that day to this was amazing, and it’s all down to Pen’s expertise and it is also, as far as I’m concerned, the mark of his genius because I don’t believe there are many around like him.
I recalled Jason to the starting line-up for the FA Cup First Round tie with W
elling and he scored all our goals in a 3-0 win. He then scored in a 1-1 draw at Millwall and got another in the next game at home to Oldham. He’d end the season with 23 goals from 37 starts – not bad for a player who’d got one in 14 before that.
To give Bobby Zamora the experience he needed I loaned him out to Bath City and he scored a hatful of goals for them and from there, Brighton took him on loan and again, he did extremely well. The board were, around this time, trying to set up a structure whereby we paid a fixed wage to any youth or reserve player under a certain age who was up for a new deal. Bob wouldn’t sign for the amount they’d decided on, which you can probably guess wasn’t a great deal and I couldn’t really blame him because he’d done a lot more than anyone else his age at Rovers at the time. He continued to score goals elsewhere while on loan with Brighton and I feared we’d end up losing him because the board wouldn’t budge. We had some memorable days in 1998/99 and the two draws with Manchester City, who had slipped into our league for a year, were terrific results for us. We drew 0-0 at Maine Road and fielded the youngest ever Rovers team with an average of just 21. We also beat Reading 6-0 away, with all our goals coming after half-time – the ‘Madejski Massacre’ our fans called it – with Curo scoring four and Roberts two. So the promise was definitely there and on our day, we could be as good as anyone.
We finished 13th that season and I think losing Barry Hayles hit us harder than I’d imagined. Jamie Cureton at least walked off with the Golden Boot for our division after scoring 29 goals in 54 appearances – the second successive year a Rovers player had finished top scorer in the division. I knew I had the firepower, but we had to harness it to help us win matches, and with 12 games left of the season after that, of the 1999/2000 campaign, I thought we had. We were four points clear at the top and just had to keep doing what we’d being doing all season but with 10 games left, we hit a bad patch to end them all and we ended up even missing out on the play-offs on the last day of the season. It was the ultimate ‘what happened next?’ and people wanted answers. Why had we fallen away so badly? Why had we gone from first to seventh in 10 games? I’m not entirely sure, to be honest, but injuries to key players in key games cost us dearly, but I got blamed for the poor run and, as manager, you put yourself up there to be shot at and my ass had been peppered with buckshot.
We’d been on fire from the start of the season and I’d added Ronnie Mauge, Robbie Pethick, Andy Thomson, David Hillier and former Liverpool midfielder Mark Walters, who came about a third of the way through, and he was superb for us, a really class player. We needed a strong midfield because my forwards weren’t that good at retaining the ball from back to front and I needed one or two wily heads in there to make sure they acted like a net so the ball didn’t keep coming back at our defenders. Roberts and Curo were magnificent at running on to slotted balls from midfield. Hillier was, in effect, my replacement because I didn’t really want to play anymore. Pen was also nearing the end of his playing days so it was the end of an era for us both, but I found it an easy decision to make.
Marcus Andreasson, whose contract I tore up when he told me he was homesick for Sweden, asked if he could come back and play for me, and because I believed in him I paid £120,000 to bring him back to Rovers. He told me he’d be fine this time and I was convinced he’d want to do his best to repay the faith I’d shown in him, but he didn’t. He let me and himself down because he had the heart of a pea. The other lads could see it, but I couldn’t and I got that one wrong I’m afraid. You live and learn, don’t you?
So while we had a stronger, more experienced squad, it was my inexperience in management that cost us that season. We’d trained hard during the summer on certain moves that played to our strengths and it paid off for a while. All my lads could play a bit and pass it and we had one or two players with flair, and the fans were loving it. We were banging in goals left, right and centre and my team were getting a lot of plaudits, which was nice – it was Total Football Rovers-style. Then we had a few distractions and injuries that meant the formation options I’d had became more limited. I lost Pritchard for the season through injury – an injury that would mean he’d never play for us again. I also lost Simon Bryant, a brilliant combative midfielder who was only 17, for the season, with bone bruising to his knee. Then Ronnie Mauge was called up for Trinidad and Tobago, and he’d earned his moment in the sun, so to speak. Then Grenada wanted Jason Roberts to represent them and though I’d have preferred they stayed put, I wasn’t going to stand in their way. How could I? It was unlikely these lads would ever play for England so how could I deny them a chance to maybe even play at the World Cup one day? But the lads going away backfired on me in a number of ways, none more so when Mauge broke his leg while with Trinidad. Jason’s situation was entirely different. He missed one game, away to Oxford, so I put Nathan Ellington up front in his place, and he was superb. We won 5-0, a hell of a result, but Jason was back home in time for the next game. Instead of keeping the same team, which I should have done – and would most definitely do today – I put him straight back in. He should have been sub.
When my lads were looking for me to make a stand against him and be strong I didn’t, which was a mistake. There was a lot of political stuff surrounding Jason as we entered the final strait of the campaign. I think his family wanted him to move on because he was scoring goals and he and Cureton were constantly being talked about and linked with moves away. An old Rovers player had also unsettled them by coming to our training ground to tell them how much he was now on, which left me seething at the time. Pete Beadle was rumoured to be going to Bristol City, so I called him up and asked if he wanted to come back to Rovers, knowing full well I couldn’t match the wage City would pay him but hoping the success he’d enjoyed with us previously might just swing it. Besides, we had to match City’s offer because our fans wouldn’t have been too happy if we’d not even made the effort to bring him back. As it was, in his infinite wisdom he chose to go to Aston Gate.
The following day I arrived for training to find Beadle in our kit room talking to Curo and Jason Roberts. I said, “What are you doing here? Get out you stinking shit head pig! You’re not welcome round here anymore, get back to bloody Ashton Gate.” He thought I was joking, but I wasn’t. I was pissed off at him and I later found out he’d been telling Curo and Jason how much money he was on, which was considerably more than they were being paid. Unbelievable! I know it happens and players talk amongst each other, comparing wages and bonuses, but I wasn’t happy that someone had actually come to my training ground to seek out two young lads and tell them they were on rubbish money. From that day on, I think I lost a piece of both players and something changed. It was hard for them when they were playing at the top of their game and were being paid what they were. Then, when somebody who isn’t playing that well signs for your neighbours and gets three times as much, you’re not going to put up with it for very long are you? The other lads were getting a bit cheesed off with us being labelled a two-man team, anyway, and after a 0-0 draw away to Bristol City, I was left spitting fire again. I read the match report in the evening paper and I couldn’t believe what this guy had written. We hadn’t played well, had drawn 0-0, but my defenders had been magnificent, and then I see a line along the lines of “if only City had Cureton and Roberts up front, then Bristol would have a team to be proud of.” What? Was he having a laugh or something? I was livid and called the bloke up and asked him to come to the ground, which to be fair, he did. I got the whole squad together and asked him to explain his comments to them. I stood by Curo and Jason Roberts and said, “How dare you! I’m trying educate these two and they don’t play well, but you say they did in your match report and you don’t mention my backline or how well they played. These two were useless on the day and you’re telling them they’re great and by the way, when you’re making a statement about my home town, be careful what you say. I’m already very proud of my team so how dare you insult my club by saying ‘the
town could have a team to be proud of.’ Aren’t you proud of us when we’re working on the budget we are and still wiping the floor with you lot over there? How can you give him eight out of ten and him five? Because that’s what you did. Are you watching the same game? Are you watching the right game?”
I know I shouldn’t have done it and was bang out of order, but sometimes I think people should be held accountable for what they say or do. My lads loved it because I’d stood up for them and they were having me all day long because of the way I was with them. I just wanted to treat them the way I would want to be treated and I’d give my all for someone who believed in me when I was a player. After my rant, I said thanks to the reporter for having the bottle to come over and he went on his way. I was a stroppy little shite with the media and got it totally wrong at the time, but it’s not always wise to play and manage the club you support because sometimes you just let your emotions run wild.
So I’ve got a number of distractions, half my team missing and nearly all the midfield safety net I’d brought in to support my strikers, and with the transfer deadline gone, I was having to play players out of position and totally change the complexity of my team. Mauge’s loss hit us hard because he’d been one of the lads who’d been playing out of his skin, so it was a massive blow. Hillier picked up a few injuries and missed vital games and I was forced to play fancy-dan forwards and wingers across the middle – it was a disaster. The defence was constantly being put under pressure again and the team that had been flying in the early part of the season never played together again, and in the run in, I just couldn’t stop the lads wobbling. With four games to go, Preston beat us 2-0 at home and went above us. Burnley had come up with a stroke of genius by signing Ian Wright and they came galloping up behind us and eventually took the final promotion place. We’d taken just two points from a possible 18 – a bloody awful run – and despite beating Bristol City 2-0, we picked up just one more point from our last three games and after losing 1-0 to relegated Cardiff on the last day of the season, ended in seventh. A win and we’d have been in the play-offs, but our abysmal form had caught up with us in the cruellest way possible and I take full responsibility for that. I think we all wondered how we could pick ourselves up after that, me more than anyone I imagine. My dreams and hopes shattered for the club that was in my blood, I had to face the fact that I’d let the Rovers fans down that season. It broke my heart, to be honest.
