Autobiography

again to sticking by measured judgements
made by a reliable and loyal board. You pick
your man, and he does not suddenly stop
being the manager you selected. Of course
managers do run past their sell-by date at
clubs, as Trevor Francis did with us. He was
worn out after five and a half years of trying to
get us into the Premier League, but Bruce was
a younger more vibrant man, with a great will
to win, and this was a time when we all needed
to pull together.
No matter what we chairmen think of
ourselves, it is still the manager who is the
boss, and it will be his job on the line if the
team fails. Unfortunately our luck ran out in
2005/06.
During the first half of the season we had six
penalties awarded against us, all of them
dubious, while not winning one. We had six
players sent off with not one of the opposition
sent off. In addition we lost Mehdi Nafti for
virtually the entire season through injury and
we only saw a fleeting glimpse of David Dunne.
Muzzy Izzet who despite playing for Turkey
was born in Vallance Rd, Bethnal Green London
E15, famous residence of the Kray Twins,
received an injury which ended his career.
Mikael Forssell, who had been injured for the
whole of the 2004/05 season, did not return to
fitness until Christmas 2005, whilst Damien
Johnson was suspended for the first three
games of the season. Neil Kilkenny, a young
central midfielder for whom I had great hopes,
also suffered an injury, as did Julian Gray, Stan
Lazaridis and so it went on.
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