STAR GAZER
Glimpse of Hollywood for Day’s ‘galacticos’
SPENCER DAY put together the greatest side the world has ever seen. Better than any hotchpotch XI on parade in Qatar.
On paper, Farnborough boss Day’s dream team should have had the rocket fuel to climb miles higher than 15th in National League South, where they sit now.
Gordon Banks, Cafu, Franz Beckenbauer, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, Lothar Matthaus, Johan Cruyff, Paul Gascoigne, Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and Gary Lineker would normally be expected to wipe the floor with Concord Rangers or Dulwich Hamlet.
But managing all those galacticos is not as simple as arranging them in a 3-4-2-1 formation and sending them out to put Tonbridge Angels to the sword.
In truth, Day’s all-star cast didn’t quite live up to the legends on the back of their shirts after Farnborough’s players and coaching staff changed their names by deed poll in a £100,000 stunt with bookies Paddy Power to stop the club going bust nine years ago.
But when Farnborough go to the Racecourse Ground this afternoon, Day wishes he could confront Wrexham’s Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney with more stardust than they’ve ever seen on Sunset Boulevard.
“One of their players’ wages is my total budget for a week,” said Day, or Jose Mourinho as he was briefly known in 2013.
“Have you seen their home record this season? Played 12, won 12, average 3.7 goals per game.
“Barnet went up there a few weeks ago and scored five – no problem, Wrexham just went out and hit seven.” Day’s deed poll gimmick was marketing genius which saved Farnborough – and it was not his first brush with changing names.
Before he adopted his mother’s maiden name 24 years ago, in a previous incarnation he was Spencer Trethewy, the teenage tycoon who was branded a false messiah when Aldershot were heading for meltdown in the early 1990s.
Then, at 23, he was jailed for breaching the Companies Act after his airline company was suspended from trading, but his redemption has unfolded in tandem with football management.
Now 51, Day is a successful asset fund manager and property developer.
For the last 11 years he has been in charge at Farnborough, where he has presided over two promotions.
They reached the fourth round in 2003 and 11 years earlier they held top-flight West Ham 1-1 at Upton Park before losing narrowly in a third-round replay.
They were known as Farnborough Town 30 years ago. But what’s in a name?