Why I was reduced to tears by my No 2
THE stadium was rocking to the noise of 5,000 fans as we beat Aldershot Town 3-0 on Tuesday but last week was one of those that put football in perspective. I don’t mind admitting I was in tears for some of it. Three hours before that game, my modest, unassuming friend and assistant manager, Adrian Whitbread, who is always organising and influencing in the background while I get all the praise, was lying on the sofa in my office with headaches so severe that they frightened him. He’s been my assistant for 10 years, on and off, but after he’d been transferred to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, we feared he’d suffered an aneurysm and would need brain surgery. In the long hours of waiting on Thursday morning, I walked outside to talk to some of the fans queueing across the car park for tickets, when one of them approached me to say he was thinking of Adrian. Those words hit me like a train. There was I, reflecting on my relationship with a new set of fans at a new club, never for once thinking that he’d been quietly getting to know them, too. It was just before midday when Adrian’s brother, Neil, called me to say it was a bleed to the brain, surgery wasn’t needed and he might be back with us in six weeks. In all our years together, I’ve never once marched Adrian on to the field and introduced him to our fans. I’ll be putting that right.
A FRIEND of mine messaged to say I was ‘trending’ on social media because of the matter-of-fact press releases which I’d been dictating to our brilliant media officer, Nick Johnson, signing off with the words, ‘Take care, Martin.’ We called Michael Nelson, who I’ve signed from my last club, Barnet, ‘very old and fit as a butcher’s dog’. Which he is. I’d love to say that doing things low-key and not bigging up the players was all part of some smart, elaborate plan. When fans are surprised to see you saying ‘take care’, you really do know that this game is getting too big for itself.
TRENDING ON TWITTER... THAT’S ANOTHER DEBUT