Football, My Life by Lou Macari

Football, My Life by Lou Macari

Author:Lou Macari [Lou Macari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407040806
Publisher: Transworld


17

HAMMERED

WEST HAM WERE NOT EXACTLY SETTING THE SECOND DIVISION alight in 1989–90, but I was delighted to reach the semi-finals of the League Cup. I felt that given time I could turn a cup run into a championship challenge and promotion. The club owners were fantastic with me, very patient. The board was incredibly supportive. What could possibly go wrong?

I don't recall the exact date – early January some time. At first I didn't pay that much attention. I knew the stories were rubbish. But in the end I couldn't ignore them. A newspaper had got its teeth into my old club, Swindon. First of all it ran a story about the Swindon chairman Brian Hillier betting on the team to lose in a fourth-round FA Cup tie at Newcastle in 1988. It followed that up with more about illegal payments to players. The football authorities did not handle the allegations well in my view. The response to the sensationalist claims made by the newspaper was disproportionate and ultimately brought about the end of my reign at West Ham.

Let me give you the background. First the Newcastle issue. The newspaper presented this as a huge scandal, an attempt by the club to influence events so as to make a killing at the bookies. In effect, match fixing. It was nothing of the sort. This is what really happened.

I had established the habit at Swindon of taking the team away for a few days before big games. This involved using army camps, which were cheap and out of the way. The army did us a favour. The going rate was £6 per day per head, full board – your lodgings and all you could eat. This would allow us to stay for three or four days. We'd do this all over the country, staying at different camps. I'm not saying the players looked forward to it. They didn't have a choice. I wanted them out of the way, getting plenty of rest and a good night's sleep. In my view, proper preparation meant a better chance of winning those big games. This was the mentality of Celtic and United too: get away and prepare.

For the Newcastle game in question, I tried Catterick barracks. For some security reason they couldn't take us in. In the end we had to settle for a three-day hotel stay. Brian asked me to cost it and report back to the board. It was the Gosforth Park Hotel. The price was about £100 a scalp for the three days; all told it was going to cost nearly £4,000. The board weren't that keen on it. One of the board members worked for the insurance company that sponsored the team, Lowndes Lambert. The chairman asked him if the company would insure the club for that £4,000. Every penny was a prisoner at Swindon. Insuring the club in the event we got knocked out of the FA Cup seemed like good business. The board member promised to come back with a figure.



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