Journeyman (16 page)

This was all really disappointing as we were challenging for a play-off place. I’d have understood it better if we’d been struggling, or perhaps floundering in mid-table, but we’d actually had a realistic chance of being in the promotion shake-up come the end of the season.

The club, as a result of sacking the coaching staff, had to pay off their contracts. It wouldn’t have cost any more money to keep them on and, if we hadn’t achieved promotion at the end of the season, they surely could’ve reassessed the situation then?

Thankfully I was having a good season so knew I wouldn’t have a problem getting a new club; others who had struggled with injury or form were not so lucky though. There was now a fire sale at the club and I was one of the main assets available for transfer.

I
T'S AMAZING HOW
quickly news travels. Within an hour of the Weymouth situation arising, before it had even become public, I was getting phone calls from other clubs and agents promising me the world.

Nigel Clough, the then manager of Burton Albion, was the first to call. I also had Stevenage Borough, Kidderminster Harriers, Grays Athletic, Rushden & Diamonds, Hereford United, Cheltenham Town, Macclesfield Town, Peterborough United and AFC Bournemouth all contact me within forty-eight hours.

In this instance I knew I was in a strong position and so I decided to do to the agents what they do to players all the time – I used them for my own gain. I told each one of them I would not be signing any contracts but I would pay them a one-off fee if anything they did secured me a transfer. They all seemed happy with this arrangement – I'm pretty sure any club would have paid them a fee anyway.

With this much interest it was not feasible for me to go and visit every club so I had to firstly rule out the ones I was not going to sign for. This time I was determined not to make a decision based purely on financial terms. I was at a stage in my career where I had to be playing week in, week out.

As there were five Football League clubs offering me contracts I decided
to turn down all the ones at Conference level. I rang every manager personally to explain my decision as I knew we may cross paths in the future. Some took it better than others. Mark Yates, the then Kidderminster manager, offered to match the £1,000 a week I was on at Weymouth and the length of contract as long as I did not publicise what I was earning because it was head and shoulders above what anyone else was on. He also understood though that I wanted to play in the Football League.

Grays Athletic were willing to offer me silly money. The club talked about a £30,000 signing-on fee among other things but joining them would have been a backward step. Justin Edinburgh, the then Grays manager and former Spurs player, understood but I ended up working as an intermediary for some of the Weymouth lads, including Dean Howell and Abdul El Kholti, into securing contracts there.

Neither Burton, Stevenage or Rushden & Diamonds could get near the money I was earning so I politely declined their offers,

I know lots of players who would just ignore a manager if they didn't want to sign for him and wouldn't even have the decency to explain their decision. I was determined to conduct myself with a bit of class, though.

Then it was a case of arranging meetings with the five Football League clubs: Hereford United, AFC Bournemouth, Macclesfield Town, Cheltenham Town and Peterborough United. I wanted to have a chat with each club about how they saw me playing in their team, as well as discussing the financial side of things.

John Ward, the manager of Cheltenham Town, seemed very keen so I met him first. As the club was relatively local to Hereford I also arranged to meet Graham Turner on the same day.

I met John at the Thistle hotel in Cheltenham. He signalled how serious he was about signing me by bringing chairman Paul Baker along with him. We talked about football and John said he saw me as an attacking midfielder who would have licence to get in the box. This was great but he
then admitted to not actually having seen me play. I knew Keith Downing, his assistant, had seen me play as he was a former Hereford player and attended many games at Edgar Street. John also said his secretary had been impressed with the two goals I grabbed against Forest Green.

I found that very disconcerting because, as I've mentioned, my style of play is not to every manager's taste and I was concerned I might not be John's type of player. We did have a good chat about football, however, and I liked him.

John and the chairman then asked the big question: what was I earning? I did what everyone does in this situation and told a little white lie. I said I was due a £5,000 signing-on fee and was on a basic of £1,100 a week.

They asked me if I could give them five minutes in private and, when I returned to the table, I got a lovely surprise. They said the club was willing to offer me a three-and-a-half-year contract with a £20,000 signing-on fee, plus £1,200 a week for the rest of the season (which would rise to £1,300 a week for the first full year, £1,400 a week in the second and £1,500 finally). There were also some bonuses included, such as goal bonuses and £5,000 for every year the club stayed in League One.

I managed to suppress a smile somehow and told them I would have to think about it. When I got back in the car I just laughed to myself. I was expecting Cheltenham to match my Weymouth contract at best, not blow it out of the water. Previously they had missed out on a lot of transfer targets and I think they saw me as a realistic signing who they wanted to grab.

I began driving up to see Graham Turner, convinced Hereford wouldn't be able to get anywhere near that offer. We sat down and, as usual, just talked about football. Graham explained how much he wanted me back in his team. I was comforted by the fact he knew my game well and was aware of exactly what I could and couldn't do.

Graham knew I had been talking to Cheltenham and when I told him what they were offering I think he thought I was being economical with
the truth. I had to show him the paper the deal had been written on, which on the opposite side contained a Cheltenham reserve-team line-up. At that point he had to accept I was telling the truth!

Graham explained Hereford would not be able to equal that deal, but would offer a two-and-a-half-year contract on £1,100 a week, match the £20,000 signing-on fee, give me £5,000 if the club got promoted, raise my wages to £1,400 a week if we got into League One, and pay £100 per goal and £100 per appearance. He also told me that his current captain, Tamika Mkandawire, was leaving at the end of the season and I would have every chance of taking the armband. That appealed to me as I'd really enjoyed being skipper at Weymouth and, despite my early reservations, felt it had helped raise my game.

Clearly the offer was not as lucrative as Cheltenham but, in my opinion, it was close enough for money to not be an issue – I was going to get paid well wherever I went. Graham also explained that if I turned him down again there would not be another opportunity to re-join the Bulls while he was in charge.

I felt really happy driving back to Weymouth that night; I could have easily joined either club and was confident I would be happy at whichever destination I chose. It seemed funny to me that only two and a half years previously Hereford would not, or could not, offer me more than £550 a week but were now proposing a package of more than double that.

The next day one of the agents who was trying to get involved in my transfer said how happy he was that one of the clubs he had spoken to, namely Cheltenham, had offered me a contract. I asked him how he had worked that out because they had rung me directly and I had gone to the meeting alone. He reckoned his firm had sent the club an email alerting them to my availability. I told him there had been no mention of this at the meeting and he could forget any slice of that deal.

As happy as I was with these offers, I wasn't going to rush into anything as I still wanted to consider the three other clubs on my radar.

My next stop was Dean Court to speak to Kevin Bond at AFC Bournemouth. I went down there early on a Sunday morning to have a chat and look around the ground. We had a good conversation and I liked Kevin but, much like Weymouth, Bournemouth was lurching from one financial crisis to another. Kevin assured me they were getting new funding in the near future but these off-field developments never happen as quickly as the on-field football people hope.

Bournemouth would have been a great move geographically as Emma and I wouldn't have had to relocate but, with the options I had, I didn't think I would've been looking after my best interests by signing there. In the end, they were put under a transfer embargo and Kevin rang to say the prospective transfer could not go ahead anyway. I said all the right things about how disappointed I was that the deal could not go through but, in reality, I had already made my mind up to turn him down.

Next I spoke to Peterborough United. They had an FA Cup replay at Plymouth and chairman Barry Fry wanted to meet me on the way down to discuss a transfer. Garry Hill seemed especially keen on me speaking to both Bournemouth and Peterborough; I imagine he would've been ‘thanked' if any deal went through.

At the time, Peterborough were buying up all the most talented players in non-League football. I was flattered that a club signing the likes of George Boyd and Craig Mackail-Smith was interested in me. However, I was also a bit concerned. Wherever I went I wanted to be playing regularly and I wasn't sure that would be the case at Peterborough. I had no doubt it would've made me the best overall financial package offer but I wasn't fussed about that. I was also troubled by the fact I hadn't spoken to then manager Keith Alexander. Dan Fletcher, one of my freelance agents, spoke to him on my behalf and reported that Keith knew me and liked me as a player, but didn't need me. That made my mind up about Peterborough instantly.

I called Barry Fry and told him that I was flattered by the club's interest but didn't think the deal was right for me. He promptly hung up on me…

At least one of us conducted ourselves with a bit of dignity.

That left Macclesfield Town. It's not every Sunday evening that an ex-England player rings you for a chat about signing for his team, but that is exactly what happened to me in mid-January. Cheshire was a long way from Dorset so Paul Ince and I had our first chat over the phone.

Paul explained he had seen me playing in our televised FA Cup game against Bury and was impressed by my performance. This surprised me as I thought my display that day was nothing more than ‘acceptable'. He went on to say how much he would like to sign me and spoke enthusiastically about where I would fit into his team.

I liked him straight away but was conscious of how well he was doing and concerned he would soon move on, leaving me stuck in Macclesfield – no offence intended. Paul was really the only reason I was contemplating the move there.

I told him this and he stressed that if he moved on, he would take me with him. That is easily said but not quite so easily done. What if he moved to a Championship team? I doubted he would take me there. Or what if the club he joined had an abundance of midfielders? Moreover, even if he did want me to follow him, there was no guarantee Macclesfield would let me go.

Due to these concerns, I decided to turn the move down – but who knows if that was the right move. Paul, as I expected, did move on, but only to fellow League Two club MK Dons, so maybe he would have stuck to his word and taken me with him – or maybe not. To be fair, he looked after people like Keith Andrews – a central midfielder who played for him at MK Dons and then went to play in the Premiership at Blackburn (although Keith was a much better player than me!).

After much deliberation, I decided I would join either Cheltenham Town
or Hereford United. If I were to join Hereford, however, they would have to improve their offer slightly.

As I had two acceptable offers, I went to Weymouth and asked them to release me from my contract. At the initial meeting, when Garry had explained the situation, we were told we could all leave for free. I made a mistake not getting this in writing as, when I spoke to chief executive Gary Calder on this occasion, he said the chairman expected a fee for me. I was really disappointed by the club's stance. I argued my contract was worth over £125,000 but I was willing to write this off. In theory, I could've either negotiated a settlement or insisted the club honoured my contract, which would've sent the club into administration or even put them out of business.

Obviously that was not something I wanted to do. Even though it was all turning sour, Weymouth had given me the opportunity to re-launch my career and I appreciated that. Unfortunately the club was refusing to budge and I was not sure where this left me. I was not willing to sacrifice anything from my future earnings but these new deals were agreed on the understanding that I would be available on a free transfer.

I spoke to both John Ward and Graham Turner and explained the situation to them. Thankfully neither of them seemed particularly fazed by the introduction of a fee and said they would be in touch if, or when, a fee was agreed. So now it was just a case of sitting and waiting. I didn't say anything to Macclesfield as I wanted to keep them on the back burner in case either of my preferred destinations could not agree a transfer fee.

On Tuesday 23 January, Weymouth were due to play Exeter City away. I was still suspended after accumulating my five bookings but travelled with the squad. Jason Tindall, one of our more senior players, had taken over the role of manager and this was his first game. We had already lost some important members of our squad and were fielding a much weakened team than the one that had beat Exeter on Boxing Day. We lost 4–0 and, to rub salt into the wound, Lee Elam, one of our former players, scored a hat-trick.

Before the game, Gary Calder pulled me to one side and said that both Cheltenham and Hereford had agreed a transfer fee of £20,000, so now it was down to me to decide who I wanted to join.

I woke up early Wednesday and rang Graham Turner. I told him if he could raise my wages to £1,200, honour the £20,000 signing-on fee, pay me £5,000 in the event of promotion, raise my wages to £1,400 in League One and give me a £100 goal bonus on a two-and-a-half-year contract then I would sign.

Hereford's contract offer was a year less than Cheltenham's so I was effectively sacrificing a guaranteed £75,000 to join them. As a result of this, I told Graham I also wanted a one-year extension written into the contract, which would be triggered if I started thirty League games in the last year of my contract. He agreed, but that was a big mistake on my part.