When Peter Ridsdale says you are in trouble, you are in trouble « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
When you hear that Peter Ridsdale says your club is in real trouble then you probably are in trouble. Having left Cardiff City and now seemingly refused to help (I use the word lightly) Plymouth Argyle, he is now making comments about Blackburn and saying that he worries for their future.
Just in case you are out of touch with the madness of football Ridsdale came 5th in the Daily Mirror’s top ten list of bonkers club owners. OK I don’t normally quote the Mirror, but it does have a lot going for it – in that it is not the Sun, the Sport, the Star, the Mail or the Express.
This is what they said in their top 10 of Ridsdale
Known by football agents as ‘Father Christmas”, Ridsdale oversaw a period of largesse at Leeds that was so over the top the club is still paying the price today. During his reign at Elland Road the club was coughing up for 70 company cars (at an annual cost of £600,000), ran up a £70,000-a-year bill for directors’ travel in private jets and paid off sacked managers David O’Leary and Terry Venables to the tune of £5.7million. He eventually left with the club £79m in debt. Including a £240 bill for the goldfish in his office!
To me that reads like something that has been heavily edited by the lawyers, but it gives you a clue – a tiny insight – into the world of Mr R.
The actual top ten the Mirror ran was…
1: Former safe cracker and tax evader George Reynolds at Darlington (a real fit and proper person according to the FA)
2: Terry Smith who owned poor Chester. I personally think this inclusion is unfair – when you look at what has happened to them since. Just because he would take players to fast food restaurants before the game and then read them the Lord’s Prayer. It could have worked!
3: Spencer Trethewy who as a 19 year old appeared on TV to say he was buying Aldershot for £200k and was then jailed for fraud after failing to pay his hotel bill. Seemingly now owns or owned Chertsey Town FC
4: Simon Jordon. I don’t know about this one either – was the Palace man as bonkers as the rest on this list? His view of David Gold seems ok to me: “I was sick and tired of reading about David Gold trotting out his story about being a poor East End boy made good. We have heard it enough times now David! You were a poor boy, and now you’re sitting on a big pile of porn with loads of money. I said if I had to hear that story again I would impale myself on one of his dildos.”
5: The Ridsdale
6: Sam Hammam I liked Sam too – in fact I like anyone who says to his staff that if they don’t perform well enough he will force them to sit through Wagner at the Royal Opera. And anyone who locks Robbie Earle in a room can’t be all bad.
7: Martin Edwards, who as Man U chair was cautioned (ie charged – and he accepted the charge) for looking under the cubicle door to watch a woman he was after in the Mottram Hall Hotel
8: Michael Knighton – who bought Carlisle and nearly bought Man U for £20m. He still owes me £150 over some work my company did for a private school he owned.
9: Ken Bates – who wanted to put electrified fences around the pitch at Chelsea. Now at Leeds. If ever there was a match made in heaven it was Ken Bates and Leeds.
10: The wonderful Freddy Shepherd, who personally I would have had much higher up the list. Visited brothels, denigrated local fans of the female variety, called Alan Shearer “Mary Poppins.” Actually maybe he wasn’t that bad.
But back to Blackburn. This club, you may remember, is now owned by a company whose chair said, on taking over the show, that they would not be buying any new players. Why buy new players, she asked, when you can lease them?
About chucking Sam the Slug out she said, “We want Blackburn Rovers to be fourth or fifth in the league or even better. We wanted good football, wanted the games to be interesting and of course wanted to win and to have good players. This is a major step but it was needed. We thought: Why delay?”
The current boss Steve Kean got the job because, “he works long hours.” Actually so do I but they didn’t give the job to me.
Oh and if they were to come in 5th they would not be able to play in the Europa League because their finances don’t allow it. Not enough people at the matches, too much put in by the previous late owner and his trust – a no-hoper for the Uefa rules.
It is also said that Sam the Slug wanted to buy David Bentley which I suppose is a good enough reason to put him in the top ten of mad managers. And there’s a thought – must do that list some time soon.
Now let me see…. Top ten bonkers managers
David O’Leary (I know he was a star for us – but really his time at Leeds was… well), Ruud Gullit at Chelsea, some of those people at Tottenham (including the present one)… oh this could be fun.