Autobiography

ut more importantly I felt Trevor was too. I
thought the only thing keeping him going was
the near victory over Liverpool. Otherwise he
might well have walked into my office and
resigned.
Despite all the disagreements between David
Sullivan and Trevor, David persuaded me to
give him another season and against my better
judgement I agreed. If I’d had my way we
would have said our goodbyes during that
summer of 2001. But after we had an ordinary
start to the next season even DS realised
Trevor had run out of steam and that he no
longer had the will. It was a question of us all
looking in the mirror and admitting it was the
end. In October 2001, Karren and I asked
Trevor to attend a meeting to discuss his
future.
I hadn’t decided beforehand that we would
sack him, but as soon as he walked into the
boardroom and I looked into his eyes, I knew
the chemistry had gone. We agreed a
severance payoff, shook hands, and it was
over. Five and a half years came to an end in
twenty minutes, and all because I could see
that the passion had gone. It was big news, of
course, and Karren asked me to attend the
press conference with Trevor, fearing that he
was angry and would take the opportunity to
launch an attack on the board. I told the media
what a fantastic job Trevor had done for
Birmingham City, how close we had come to
promotion, and how the infrastructure and
procedures had improved. After making my
goodbye speech a reporter told me it sounded
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