MARTIN ALLEN
A great start... but it almost didn’t happen
WE’VE played three, won three and are second in the table but it very nearly didn’t happen. Ten days before our first league game at Ebbsfleet, my boss called me to say that my services would probably not be needed. I’ve been around a bit in this game, but that was a new one on me.
Three removals lorries had already carted most of our worldly goods to our new place near Melton Mowbray, an hour’s drive from Chesterfield, and my wife Lisa was about to join me there when I got that call, at 9pm on a Friday, to say that a Sheffield consortium had bid for the club. Their plans included a director of football and Alex Sabella, ex-Sheffield United, who was going to help bring players over from Argentina to train and play for us. They didn’t include me. I was devastated.
They’d have to sack me and pay up my two-year contract, so there’d have been security. But I think we’ve got something seriously special going on here. We waited a week for the consortium to produce their money — £2million or so, I think, with more if the club won promotion back to the Football League — and put our transfer plans on hold.
Lisa came to watch our pre- season friendly against Wigan because it seemed the only time she’d see me manage here. What an atmosphere that night. There were some rueful looks between us during that game. We did what we could to make sure we didn’t lose our previous house in Henley, so we could move straight back in.
It was the day after the Wigan game that my boss rang to say the deal was off. It seems the consortium hadn’t raised the money and I can’t begin to describe the ecstasy we both felt. So there’s the mad world of football management for you. You can be here today, gone tomorrow, before you’ve even played.