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Pat Nevin new book


twistandshout1983
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Since it is the boring part of the season did anyone read about the Pat Nevin story about wee Billy Davies yesterday convinced his office was being bugged and wanted to find out if there was listening devices ? 
 

Don’t mind wee Billy Davies at all, but always striked me as being paranoid 
 

Pat Nevin , my personal opinion an interesting character ,  always will be associated with the Administration era but looking back John Boyle must have been pulling the strings , and Nevin was the guy everyone hated back then 

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Davies seems to have lost every job he had by falling out with the board and/or claiming they were in league with the media to conspire against him. So no great surprise there.

I don't hate Nevin, but he was definitely responsible for a lot of the issues at that time. He had no business being Chief Exec of any club.

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Nevin being our player/Chief Executive will never not be strange. And I liked him as a player too! His last minute winner against Hearts in a midweek game at FP was a memorable moment. 
 

His working relationship with Boyle obviously wasn’t the best, even if they were on good terms to start with. I’m sure he was the biggest vocal opponent to us going into administration in 2002 and he doubled down on that viewpoint last year on the 20th anniversary of that. But, how much of a part did he play in our overspending in the period leading up to that? Who knows? 
 

Billy Davies as manager with us was similar to Alex McLeish, albeit without the media darling status. He was an inexperienced manager given a significant amount of cash to spend by our standards and didn’t deliver as much as he should have in the circumstances. That said I was never convinced that the signings of John Spencer and Andy Goram - the two really high profile signings - were completely down to him at that time, even though Spencer was a relative of his. 

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30 minutes ago, MJC said:


 

Billy Davies as manager with us was similar to Alex McLeish, albeit without the media darling status. He was an inexperienced manager given a significant amount of cash to spend by our standards and didn’t deliver as much as he should have in the circumstances. That said I was never convinced that the signings of John Spencer and Andy Goram - the two really high profile signings - were completely down to him at that time, even though Spencer was a relative of his. 

and he signed his brother Jon- who was defo not the standard of John Spencer - Frank Spencer maybe :)

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Looking back to the late 90s/early 2000s we signed some amount of dross back then 

Along with the likes of John Davies , there was Holm Kraska , Jered Stirling , Andy Dow , Gunni Johnson I think his name was , Karl Ready , Sasa Curcic , Kevin Christie .  Sure there are many others 

For the amount of money invested that era , results over a 3/4 year period were overall quite poor with the exception of the 99/00 season 

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19 minutes ago, twistandshout1983 said:

Looking back to the late 90s/early 2000s we signed some amount of dross back then 

Along with the likes of John Davies , there was Holm Kraska , Jered Stirling , Andy Dow , Gunni Johnson I think his name was , Karl Ready , Sasa Curcic , Kevin Christie .  Sure there are many others 

For the amount of money invested that era , results over a 3/4 year period were overall quite poor with the exception of the 99/00 season 

Sasa Curcic was anything but dross. Completely off his head, but a brilliant footballer in his day.

 

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1 hour ago, twistandshout1983 said:

Looking back to the late 90s/early 2000s we signed some amount of dross back then 

Along with the likes of John Davies , there was Holm Kraska , Jered Stirling , Andy Dow , Gunni Johnson I think his name was , Karl Ready , Sasa Curcic , Kevin Christie .  Sure there are many others 

For the amount of money invested that era , results over a 3/4 year period were overall quite poor with the exception of the 99/00 season 

Derek Townsley...

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Looking back on that time when we were throwing money about,our recruitment was pretty dire considering what we were spending on fees and wages,we should have done so much better.im sure there was some decent names bring linked with the job at the time as well,it's still a mystery to this day why we thought going with davies was a good idea,he always struck me as a bit of an oddball so it's no surprise to hear a crackpot theory that he wanted his office swept for listening devices.

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5 hours ago, AllyMax said:

Sasa Curcic was anything but dross. Completely off his head, but a brilliant footballer in his day.

 

Was a great footballer like you say for the likes of Aston Villa , by the time he came to us I remember thinking it would be a great signing , though not the case 

 

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16 minutes ago, twistandshout1983 said:

Forgot about Derek the Postman , think his best game at Fir Park was in a Hibs Shirt when they beat us 2-0

I always felt he was hard done to by the fans, they were on his back immediately. He played really well in a 3-2 win over Celtic, tore Hearts and St Johnstone apart in December 2000 which coincided with his best scoring spell. 

I remember that game at Fir Park well when he netted a double for Hibs, he scored an early free kick which hit the bar and in, then proceeded to run the length of the East Stand celebrating.

5 hours ago, twistandshout1983 said:

Looking back to the late 90s/early 2000s we signed some amount of dross back then 

Along with the likes of John Davies , there was Holm Kraska , Jered Stirling , Andy Dow , Gunni Johnson I think his name was , Karl Ready , Sasa Curcic , Kevin Christie .  Sure there are many others 

For the amount of money invested that era , results over a 3/4 year period were overall quite poor with the exception of the 99/00 season 

Yeah we have had some amount of dross nip in and out of the club over the years, The bosman ruling was introduced a few years earlier but I think it started around Harri Kampman's time where it became common for a large portion of players to come and go.

Kampman wanted a clean slate and released a ton of players at the end of 1997/98 season then he signed the likes of Holm Kraska, Kai Nyyssonen, Jered Stirling, Jan Michels, Mikko Kaven, David White and so forth. Kampman didn't last long and then Davies started to shape the squad to his liking which seen the introduction of Spencer, Brannan, Adams, Townsley, Goram, J. Davies, Harvey, Thomas, Nicholas and Bacque, he must have spent like 1.5 million plus some obscene wages.

I remember Kampman also agreeing pre contract signings of a guy from the Faroe Islands who scored a late equaliser against Scotland and then Finnish international Harri Ylonen, both of whom had the contracts cancelled, I wonder if we had to pay out anything to compensate the players.

I actually fancy giving Pat Nevin's book a read, it would be nice to get some insight to the admin years, I have read Kevin Twaddle book and while it's mainly discussing his gambling addiction he does cover that period and what happened.

I'm pretty sure Pat Nevin tried to get John Boyle to invest another 3 million to try and get us out of the mess but Boyle wasn't for it. What is the general consensus on Boyle? He could have played a major role in our club dying but was installed as chairman again years later. According to many former players, he got the office staff to deliver the bad news about them being released immediately.

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30 minutes ago, pretzel said:

I always felt he was hard done to by the fans, they were on his back immediately. He played really well in a 3-2 win over Celtic, tore Hearts and St Johnstone apart in December 2000 which coincided with his best scoring spell. 

I remember that game at Fir Park well when he netted a double for Hibs, he scored an early free kick which hit the bar and in, then proceeded to run the length of the East Stand celebrating.

Yeah we have had some amount of dross nip in and out of the club over the years, The bosman ruling was introduced a few years earlier but I think it started around Harri Kampman's time where it became common for a large portion of players to come and go.

Kampman wanted a clean slate and released a ton of players at the end of 1997/98 season then he signed the likes of Holm Kraska, Kai Nyyssonen, Jered Stirling, Jan Michels, Mikko Kaven, David White and so forth. Kampman didn't last long and then Davies started to shape the squad to his liking which seen the introduction of Spencer, Brannan, Adams, Townsley, Goram, J. Davies, Harvey, Thomas, Nicholas and Bacque, he must have spent like 1.5 million plus some obscene wages.

I remember Kampman also agreeing pre contract signings of a guy from the Faroe Islands who scored a late equaliser against Scotland and then Finnish international Harri Ylonen, both of whom had the contracts cancelled, I wonder if we had to pay out anything to compensate the players.

I actually fancy giving Pat Nevin's book a read, it would be nice to get some insight to the admin years, I have read Kevin Twaddle book and while it's mainly discussing his gambling addiction he does cover that period and what happened.

I'm pretty sure Pat Nevin tried to get John Boyle to invest another 3 million to try and get us out of the mess but Boyle wasn't for it. What is the general consensus on Boyle? He could have played a major role in our club dying but was installed as chairman again years later. According to many former players, he got the office staff to deliver the bad news about them being released immediately.

Remember that 3-2 game against Celtic you mentioned , Townsley did indeed have a great that night , Fir Park was bouncing that game 

Think JB did have our best intentions, but at the same time lived in a bit of a fantasy world.  In hindsight we have done better as a club in the years since 

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1 hour ago, twistandshout1983 said:

Remember that 3-2 game against Celtic you mentioned , Townsley did indeed have a great that night , Fir Park was bouncing that game 

Think JB did have our best intentions, but at the same time lived in a bit of a fantasy world.  In hindsight we have done better as a club in the years since 

I think boyle really thought we could take it to the old firm when he took over but he had no clue in running a football club,putting nevin and davies in such important roles was a huge mistake,we needed experience in the dugout and behind the scenes.theres definitely been more enjoyable times following us when we were skint than shelling out fortunes to watch the likes of spencer and brannan.

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1 hour ago, wunderwell said:

No respect for a guy who couldn't face the players in administration and sent out someone else to face the music. No JB or PN in sight. Fact.

At that point he wouldn't have been running the club, it was Bryan Jackson, and the administrators would have the say on who was released, I'm not an expert on Administration law but I doubt Boyle would have legally been allowed to do it anyway.

I'm sure Bryan Jackson also ridiculed the players' claim that they were told by admin staff and it was a one of his senior CA's.

 

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8 hours ago, cambo97 said:

At that point he wouldn't have been running the club, it was Bryan Jackson, and the administrators would have the say on who was released, I'm not an expert on Administration law but I doubt Boyle would have legally been allowed to do it anyway.

I'm sure Bryan Jackson also ridiculed the players' claim that they were told by admin staff and it was a one of his senior CA's.

Thats 100% correct. It was indeed a senior CA who met with the players.

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16 hours ago, twistandshout1983 said:

Think JB did have our best intentions, but at the same time lived in a bit of a fantasy world.  In hindsight we have done better as a club in the years since 

After his success with his brother's Direct Holidays company sale, JB made several attempts at taking over the business world, all ending in failure and loss. His Motherwell 'experiment' wasn't unique.

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5 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Thats 100% correct. It was indeed a senior CA who met with the players.

That is correct. I should have rephrased. Let me say that the source was Eddie Forrest who is a taxi driver in Glasgow now.

He said that the issue was that Nevin nor Boyle - depsite being in the building spoke to the players, blanking them so to speak.

Karl Ready had just bought a house and moved his family up, and was really angry that those two were in hiding in the building that day.

So straight from a player who was involved that day.

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1 hour ago, wunderwell said:

Karl Ready had just bought a house and moved his family up, and was really angry that those two were in hiding in the building that day.

While I appreciated Ready's frustration at the time, I remember his public complaints making him sound like a spoiled brat. His message seemed to be that footballers were special and shouldn't be treated like other employees in other businesses when administration kicks in.

I'd imagine the vast majority of fans in Lanarkshire have been through redundancy at least once and didn't expect the special treatment Mr Ready was expecting.

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