Ollie
Page 19
She said, “I’d live in a cardboard box in the middle of a motorway with him if he’s the person he should be.”
He said so many things that made sense and ended with, “Your determination is fantastic – your anger is a problem. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve gone through about four months of counselling in four days.”
It was enlightening, yet exhausting but I believed the things that happened in the next few months wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t changed. The team were doing great and, ironically, it was us, Plymouth and Bristol City who looked most likely to go up going into spring. Both Kenny Jackett and I were out of contract at the end of the season and Ken said to me, “Something’s going on here, Oll. We’re doing what we’re doing and we’ve not been offered new contracts. I’m not happy about this.”
So I went to see Nick Blackburn and I said, “I am strongly recommending to you that you need to get him a new deal because he’s asking me about it and because he’s bloody good at what he does.”
He said, “I can’t offer any new contracts out at the moment.”
“Fine, then Ken’s going to look for another job, then and I don’t want you to stand in his way.”
I didn’t want to lose Ken, but I understood his thinking so I recommended him to Bristol Rovers, which he appreciated, but they didn’t take him on. I said, “Look Ken, we’ve just got to get on with this regardless of what’s going on because I need a promotion on my CV and you need one on yours and I’ll try and help you as best I can.”
We had a bit of a wobble in the last few games, including a 1-0 defeat to promotion rivals Bristol City, which also turned out to be Ken’s last game before he went to take over at Swansea. We’d gone from three points clear of City to none, but with a game in hand which was Tranmere away. It proved to be an unforgettable game. We should have got a free-kick on the halfway line, but didn’t get it. I was leaping around and screaming for that foul and then they pump the ball forward and their striker is offside, but that’s not given so when he’s fouled in the box, they get a penalty and we’re down to 10 men because my lad is sent off, I’m not the happiest man, am I? Talk about a travesty of justice! They score, but the ref orders a re-take. This time he hits the post and Lee Camp makes a fantastic save from the rebound and we come away with a 0-0 draw, which puts us a point ahead of City. I looked back at the game later and wondered, ‘did something happen there that day?’ The luck I was bemoaning had changed and we were back above City by a point. Then it was away to Plymouth at a packed Home Park and it was during this game that my anger management therapy really kicked in. We were probably slightly the better team and it was 0-0 when Mark Bircham suffered a nasty head injury. My physio went on and told me I had to bring him off because he was suffering from double vision so I brought Steve Palmer on. Mark didn’t want to come off and was giving me stick as he came off and our fans didn’t know why I’ve taken him off so when they go ahead a few minutes later, it looks like a terrible substitution. Not long after that, they make it 2-0 and it’s game over. Their fans are celebrating because that win was enough to make them the champions and it’s going to be that much harder to go up automatically now. Then, on the coach going home, I get a text on my mobile from a QPR fan who hadn’t put his name on the message, saying ‘Yet another inept performance, why don’t you fuck off? You’re ruining QPR.’ His number was displayed so I call it and this guy answers.
“Who’s this?” he asked.
“It’s Ian Holloway and you know it is, too, because my number will have displayed on your phone. Thanks for your criticism, but I actually don’t agree with you because I still believe we are going to do it, but thanks for making me stronger in my belief.” Even if we didn’t go up, I would have still believed we’d made progress from the previous season, but we still had two games left and a great chance of going up. Bristol City had also lost that day, so two wins would be enough to win promotion. I kept the same team from the Plymouth game, something I would have never done prior to the stress test experience, and Martin Rowlands scored in the first minute – enough for us to win 1-0 against Swindon Town. City had won, too, so it was all on the final game against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. I’d already decided I was going to tell the lads how well they’d done regardless of whether we went up or not but I was struggling for something to say, so I decided to dig out my old Bristol Rovers league champions medal and put it in my top pocket. It’s always difficult to know what to say in a pressure situation like that, but I had an idea and just before we got on the coach at our Sheffield hotel, we were waiting in the reception among quite a few Rangers fans who were coming up and wishing us luck. I sat down with our lads and invited the fans to come and sit with and among us as I did what I hoped would be my pep talk. Steve Palmer had asked if I thought it would be OK because the fans were there and I just told him not to worry because I knew what I was doing. We’d been over our tactics in training so this was purely aimed at getting something in their hearts and minds that might just edge things our way. So the lads and some of the Rangers fans were all sat around in front of me and I began. “I’ve had some special times in my life and it was the people I was with at Bristol Rovers that helped me win this medal – my team-mates. I don’t know if we’re going to get promoted today, but I just wanted you to hear what these supporters think of you regardless of what happens.”
I asked a young kid to step up and say something to the lads and he smiled, took a deep breath and said, “You’ve been brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!” I asked a bloke to step up and he said how proud he was of how hard we’d battled. I said, “As long as we come off that pitch today and we couldn’t have done any more, I won’t have a problem. I’ve cherished this medal all my life, and I hope you have the chance to cherish something with a group of people because for me, you’ve earned the right to do that and you couldn’t fail me if you tried today because you’re already a success.” It was emotional stuff, I admit and I had no idea whether it would help or not. It hadn’t been about football, it had been about people and I wanted them to understand how everyone felt, no matter what.
So we start the game and after 10 minutes their scoreboard flashes up that Bristol City are 1-0 up. I couldn’t believe it and felt it was absolutely scandalous to do that while my lads were still playing. I couldn’t give a monkey’s what happened at half-time, but that wasn’t right. Then, a few minutes later, it flashed up that Bristol City are 2-0 up, so as it stands, we’re not going up automatically. I got up and told Steve Palmer to calm everyone down and it took another 10 minutes for us to stop wobbling. Their fans were singing that we weren’t going up and I was fuming inside, though outwardly calm. Then, finally, Kevin Gallen puts us 1-0 up and my lot finally settle down. There wasn’t much that needed saying at the break and in the second half Furs, born again bad, makes it 2-0 – but Wednesday pull one back and we’re all on pins again. That’s when I went into slow-motion mode and when I get nervous I need the toilet so I end up going back and forth three times in the last 10 minutes and just as I go back out for the last time, Martin Rowlands hits a ball across and it takes a deflection, wrong foots the keeper and we go 3-1 up. Time seemed to go backwards and I thought there were still a few minutes left when my keeper coach Tony Roberts grabs me and I tell him to get off because it’s not finished. He says, “We’ve done it! He’s gonna blow any second!” And then he grabs me again because the ref actually blew and four or five others joined in, jumping on top. I’d been told by officials we had to get back in the tunnel in case of a pitch invasion so, still in some kind of weird mental haze or disbelief and denial, I break free and trot down towards the dressing rooms and as I do, I glance up at a scoreboard that says ‘Owls 1, QPR 3’ and it starts to sink in. I couldn’t believe it. We pipped Bristol City by a point and their manager Danny Wilson called me up to say well done and shortly after he gets the sack. He’d progressed them four seasons in a row but was shown the door,
which is ludicrous. He goes, I get offered a new deal. That’s football, and it could have been the other way around. I feel that if I’d had an anger management course when I was at Rovers, I swear I would have taken them up, too. I’d finally put things right because when we’d gone down, I’d told myself that I was going to get them back up again and now we’d achieved that. We’d been through administration, had 51 pros and chopped it down to nine and now built it all back up again and most of the players and fans had all gone through it together and we all took memories from that season that will remain with us forever. The comment that the press picked up afterwards was when I’d been asked how I felt, I replied, “Every dog has his day and today is Woof Day and I just want to go off and bark somewhere.” The following day we held a party at my fitness coach’s pub – a fitness coach with a bloody pub! Ha! We let the supporters know about the party and where and when it was being held through various outlets, and we had an absolutely fantastic time. It didn’t get much better than that but it was to be the beginning of yet another turbulent period at QPR.
Chapter 19: The Italian Job
Six games from the end of the 2003/04 season vice chairman Nick Blackburn had called me up and asked would I mind if he came down and introduced somebody to me and that was the first time I met Gianni Paladini. Nick said he was a new board member and I knew nothing whatsoever about him. It turned out that we’d been on the verge of going bust again and as we wouldn’t have been allowed to under FA rules, Gianni, who fronted a Monaco-based consortium, joined the board after paying £500,000 to save us from going under. We needed the money and I don’t think Nick and David were that particular where it came from and had no idea they were in fact sealing their own fate. The board that had backed me fantastically well by helping me reinforce the squad were effectively penniless – to such an extent they’d almost bankrupted themselves. I don’t think they realised just how involved the consortium wanted to be and it wasn’t long before Gianni was asking questions about bills and suchlike and was obviously intent on a hands-on role. He wanted to know everything and the consortium wanted to control the club’s finances because they weren’t happy with the way the club was being run.
For my part, I had a great day-to-day working relationship with David and Nick. We made a great team and if things could have carried on like that, we’d have gone from strength to strength, I believe.
We’d won promotion with the same board and Gianni was now a member, but I was still only offered a one-year deal. My agent, Robert Segal, told me as I was out of contract, in his opinion he thought it would be better if I found another club. he’d arranged for me to speak with the Burnley board, and after two interviews, their chairman Barry Kilby told Robert it was between me and another manager for the job, which carried a minimum of a three–year contract. On hearing this, Kim and I sat down and discussed the implications for our entire family, should I actually get the job, in particular the girls’ special educational needs, because the nearest deaf school would have been two hours away in Doncaster. Having weighed everything up, I decided to withdraw from the running to be Burnley’s manager, impressed though I’d been, and re-sign a one-year deal at QPR. I felt that I could build on the strong relationships we’d forged at Rangers during the previous three years battling adversity, administration and God what knows else. I could only see us getting better and stronger and I didn’t want to just throw all that away. I believed in my team and I believed in the people who were behind me. Little did I know that before the new season had even started, the whole structure of the board would change again.
Gianni had a massive row with David Davies who was very popular with the staff and basically everybody’s boss and it rocked the club’s foundations to the core.
Gianni, a hot-headed Latino when he had a ruck with somebody came out of his office one day shouting, “I’ll have you fucking killed you bastard. I’ll bloody kill you.” If Gianni fell out with somebody or didn’t trust them, he’d be totally unprofessional and let everyone know about anything he was unhappy with. It’s a Latin thing and of course it was all hot air, but for people who’d worked at Loftus Road for 20 years or more, and there were quite a few, it was incredibly unsettling to see and hear things like that. Everyone was comfortable behind the scenes and didn’t want things to change, and for Gianni to undermine the man they respected and trusted in such a way left them rocking and wondering what was going to happen next.
Afterwards, Gianni palled up with Bill Power, another board member, while David Davies, Nick Blackburn and chairman Ross Jones were all forced to leave the club. So in hindsight maybe my agent had been right, because I was in effect back to square one with a new board in place – again!
Within three weeks of the new season, my job was under threat. I’d got to know Gianni really well because I’d been travelling all over the place with him looking at various players, and he was terrific company, but I think the consortium probably wanted their own man. My advice to any board taking over at a club is, put in place the man you want whether the fans have a go at you or not. Have some balls and do the right thing for all concerned – it’s the only way to move forward.
Mark Devlin, who’d been at the club a few years before was brought back as the new chief executive. I knew Mark and thought he was a terrific bloke and had no problem with his appointment at all, but the fact was I’d lost not one, but two points of contact on the board, and as a manager you need at least one point of contact. Nick Blackburn, David Davies and I had made a hell of a team, and had I known they would be leaving, I’m not sure I would have signed the contract. All that I had done before had been smashed with a mallet and I now had to start building new relationships, and that’s why, after just six games of the re-start, my job was under threat and I’m expecting the sack at any moment. That’s how fickle football is!
Danny Shittu and Mark Bircham were injured and were missing for the first few weeks of the 2004/05 season and both were vital members of my team. I’d hardly added any new faces to the squad, but the momentum we’d been promoted with had gone and we took just two points out of 18 before we won away to Gillingham, but then lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday. It was the worst start imaginable and with Gianni’s extensive contacts in the game, there were rumours linking John Gregory and Jim Smith with my job. Something was beginning to build – I could feel it, and it wasn’t good. I’d somehow become Public Enemy No 1 in the press who seemed desperate for a new man to be brought in, and the speculation was almost unbearable. It was big news at the time and rarely a day passed without some story or other. Then a quote appeared in the Press after the Sheffield Wednesday match from a ‘QPR insider’, saying that the football was awful and had been for the past two years. It wasn’t in the tradition of QPR and the consortium weren’t happy with the football being produced by the manager. It was obvious to me who said those words, though I can’t prove it. The next day I asked my chief executive Mark Devlin to come to the training ground – I had a meeting in front of him with the lads and I asked him to explain what had been written and I was unhappy with his answer, so I demanded an immediate meeting with the board which he arranged. Tim Breacker took training and I went to meet the board with my agent within the hour, by which time I was absolutely fuming. There were also rumours that Ramon Diaz was coming to QPR to take over my job, along with John Gregory and a few others, all rumours started, in my eyes, by the comments of ‘the club insider’. Whether they were true or not, I didn’t know, but I got my agent to come along as well because I could smell a rat. Gianni represented the consortium and I think the owners picked up on a couple of whingers on the websites, blew it all out of proportion and rubbished everything we’d done over the past few years – at least that’s how it seemed from where I was standing. Bill Power and Mark Devlin denied the club had made those comments, but Gianni had been quiet until the end when he said in his Italian accent, “Well I don’t understand. If you are a manager and y
our team isn’t winning, do you expect to keep your job?”
I said, “Yeah, if I’m not able to pick my strongest team, if they’re all injured. You haven’t even seen them play yet and you’ve rubbished everything we’ve done, and you only saw the last six games of last season. You’ll see that we’re good enough, just admit you said it.” But he wouldn’t. The thing was, I liked Gianni a hell of a lot because he was such a likeable bloke. Charming, generous and terrific company – I just wasn’t sure I wanted him as my boss! He blew hot and cold and I never really knew where I actually stood with him. So I carried on and turned up for work the next day and the lads seemed quite relieved. We managed to win our first home game of the season against Plymouth in our next game, coming from behind to win 3-2 and I said to the lads afterwards, “You lot have ponced around worrying whether you’re good enough for this level and these people have rubbished everything you’ve done.” The fear I think the lads had been carrying with them, the self-doubts and lack of belief, had gone. They’d shown what they thought of me and paid me back for the way I’d backed them. Shittu and Bircham were back and the team had a totally different look about it, just as I’d thought it would. Then we beat Crewe and Brighton.