Autobiography

That is not to say that they would not have
done so once the take-over had been
completed. However, we totally understood
Steve’s predicament and when Wigan made
their approach for him, and he expressed his
interest in going there, we took the view that it
was only fair to him not to stand in his way.
We accepted Wigan’s offer of £3 million
compensation and not the £7 million stipulated
in his contract.
One of the other financial clauses concerned an
advance image rights payment which had been
made to him when he joined Birmingham City
on the understanding that if he left, he would
repay the outstanding balance which was
£300,000. Although Steve’s basic salary at
Wigan was increased to £2 million, we did not
insist on him repaying the debt immediately.
Indeed, we suggested that he could do it either
from the £1 million bonus Wigan were
prepared to pay him if he kept them in the
Premier League that season, or if they were
relegated, from the £1 million bonus due to
him if he took them back up.
But Steve refused to accept that it should
come from his pocket. He felt that it had been
covered by the £3 million Wigan gave us, and
made it clear that unless we accepted this, he
was not going anywhere. We ended up
compromising and accepted £100,000 paid
over three years.
Steve’s move to Wigan came at a time when
Birmingham City had taken only one point from
our previous seven matches and were fifth
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