The Man With The Keys to the Bank of Anfield

[gkmacca]

Just reading this book by Arthur Lowe - not THE Arthur Lowe - about his time as the club's accountant. Quite a readable little memoir. I thought I'd note a few bits and pieces from the book, most of which you'll already know but it's good to get it confirmed from an insider:

HITACHI: Proof of how sponsors can bring much more to the relationship than money. Lowe recalls the company helping to modernise the club in several ways whilst serving as shirt sponsors. They not only installed TV sets everywhere for the first time, but advised the club on financial matters: '[Hitachi's] idea was that we should send out all the cheques on the same day of the week - Friday. This provided for extra days before these would be debited against the club's account, which meant that several millions could be invested short term in Far East markets with seven-day access, accruing interest on amounts of anything up to £10m. Hitachi advised us which ones were best but certainly, at the time, interest rates might be anything between 8-10 per cent, occasionally even higher'.


LAUDRUP: 'We agreed a deal and the paperwork was all completed. I remember that we kept his contract in the strong room ready to be processed. As I recall, his father - who was acting as his agent - then came back into the club and more discussions took place which changed the situation. We couldn't agree terms and went our separate ways'.

ALDRIDGE: According to Lowe, the decision to sell Aldo came from the boardroom rather than Kenny.

HILLSBOROUGH: One of the first 'substantial donations' was from Jeffrey Archer, stipulating no publicity. One of the first players to send a message of support was Mark Hughes. The club doctor became alarmed about Kenny's health soon after and was monitoring him closely all the way through to his resignation.

TOSHACK: Toshack was in talks with the club to succeed Kenny and was very confident he'd got the job until he read about Souness.

SOUNESS: Very popular with most of the staff. Wasn't responsible in any way for the demolition of the Boot Room, which the board decided to lose in order to provide the media with a bigger area. Lowe was convinced Souness was stitched up by McKenzie, although he should have gone immediately after all the same.

EMBEZZLEMENT: A woman in the accounts department stole about £40,000 in 1991, mainly by 'spooning and ladling' from one game to the next. Police raided her home and found it was full of expensive items, including a £15,000 cooker she'd paid for entirely with bags of one pound coins!

PATRICE BERGUES: He would have stayed but his wife never settled and demanded he leave.

HOULLIER: Lowe confirms he never seemed the same after his illness and his judgement was shot.

ANELKA: He told everyone at the club he'd never been happier anywhere in his life and was desperate to stay. 'Gerard told me that he was uneasy about dealing with Anelka's brothers who were acting as his agents and had developed a bit of a reputation'.


That's as far as I've got at the moment!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Keys-Ba...=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347279593&sr=1-3

 

[Judge Jules]

Aldo went after having a pop at Paisley when the latter was quoted as criticising his signing, and I don't think that was any coincidence.

I remember the bit about Anelka being fairly common knowledge at the time. IMHO that decision was GH's first really serious blunder.

 

[tony]

Thanks for the heads up - just bought it and looks a fascinating read

 

[Holle]

The Hitachi thing is ridiculous.

You should think that a professional football club should not have to be told such things.

 

[gkmacca]

I guess most clubs were very slow to modernise, but LFC was always incredibly cautious and conservative. Peter Robinson had to be practically forced to allow for a few computers to be bought, and most players were still asking to be paid in cash as late as the 1990s.

 

[Red_Water]

The Hitachi thing is ridiculous.

You should think that a professional football club should not have to be told such things.

Yeah you'd think that would'nt you

 

[moron]

......
I remember the bit about Anelka being fairly common knowledge at the time. IMHO that decision was GH's first really serious blunder.

I wanted Anelka but I can fully understand GH's decision based on having to deal with his brothers - who were IMO just touting Anelka all over Europe. It maybe that GH based his final decision after getting some advice from Wenger who probably told him to stay away because of Anelka's brothers.

 

[Vlads Quiff]

Biggest mistake ever, apart from last week of course

 

[Vlads Quiff]

Book sounds interesting

 

[mark1975]

Thanks Macca, some good stuff there.

 

[gkmacca]

Something else I forgot to add:

TRANSFERS: Apparently up until recently the club relied mainly on software called BRX to evaluate transfer targets. I must admit I've never heard of it before, but BRX is supposed to collate data concerning such aspects as age, appearances and injury records, and deliver a recommendation in terms of a fee. It was mainly according to BRX, Lowe says, that the club pulled out of a bid for Damien Duff on the grounds he was being rated at £4m above BRX's estimate. [So it sounds like the club has always had a process like FSG now use, they were just more discreet about it in earlier times.]

The Dudek/Kirkland deals were a cock-up. When Kirkland looked unavailable, Ged went for Dudek, then Coventry agreed to sell Kirkland and even though Ged declared that Kirkland was his top priority the club felt honour-bound to go through with the Dudek deal.

TRANSFER DEADLINE: 'Decisions need only to be agreed in principle before the deadline. The FA will nearly always allow a couple of days' grace for the paperwork to be concluded'.

 

[Judge Jules]

We'd have ended up going for Dudek eventually anyway. Kirkland would have been injured in his first warm-up.

 

[gkmacca]

Ha ha! Yes. And there's ill-disguised contempt for Parry, whose decision to toddle off on holiday when Gerrard wanted a new contract sorting out was met with just as much amazement inside the club as it was outside.