Barry Fry Event Update
A few days ago we promoted the Barry Fry event.
It appears I was given an incorrect e-mail address for contact, I have now corrected this. So if you do wish to go, you can now e-mail Keith.
Maybe mention that you saw it here on Joys and Sorrows.
Cheers
Kev
Original article with corrected e-mail address here.
Joys and Sorrows Speak to Paul Devlin
We continue our interviews with ex-Blues players, and this time I spoke to Paul Devlin. This interview is sponsored by Zulumag! 
Obviously a you’re a Brummie Lad, where were you bought up Paul?
I was born in Brookvale Village and I was bought up in Erdington not far from Villa Park. My Dad is from Glasgow and we were all big Celtic fans, but my Uncle was a big Bluenose and started taking me down to St Andrews.
What was your first game?
I can’t remember for definite, but I’m pretty sure it was Ipswich. That great side of Wark, Brazil and Mariner etc. I remember Frank Worthington was playing for us.
What took you into professional football?
Well at school I never really wanted to be a footballer, I actually wanted to be a chef. When I left I trained at a hotel, went day release to college and got my catering qualifications. I got into football through Sunday football and non-league, and I got spotted that way.
Notts County was your first club wasn’t it? How did it go there?
Yeah I signed for Notts County from Stafford Rangers. It went really well. I’d had trials at a few clubs including Liverpool. I was up there for 6 weeks on and off.
Then Leeds came in for me. I went to Leeds for a week and played in a reserve game. When I got back I decided that would sign for Notts County and Neil Warnock. On the Monday, Howard Wilkinson phoned me up and gave me a rollocking for not signing for Leeds. Leeds ended up winning the league and County got relegated!
Having said that, I had four great years at Notts County.
What was it like working for Mr Warnock?
I’ve known Neil a long time, and I’ll always be grateful to him for giving me my big break. I played for him at Sheffield United too.
So when did the Blues start featuring?
I’d renewed my contract at County, although I know things were difficult financially there. One of my best friends in football was Michael Johnson and we’d kept in contact and as Blues were my club, I said to him if he could get me there that would be great.
One day they rang up to say that Baz was keen on me and would I come. I said I I’d jump at the chance. They signed Andy Legg in the same deal so Stafford Rangers got a smaller percentage apparently. However, it was great to get an opportunity to play there.
So you were one of Bazza’s last 432 signings?
Yeeaah, that’s right. (Laughs!). Baz was great.
I have to say I thought Baz was brilliant, got nothing but praise for thebloke – and I’d say most Blues fans would think of him fondly.
Yeah he was fantastic, he helped to bring the Blues back to life again to be honest along with the Gold and Sullivan who had saved the club.
Paul Devlin
I seemed to remember that there was a real team spirit.
Definitely. He was a larger than life character, but people liked him. I had 15 years as a pro and no one had a bad word for the man.
Do you have a Bazza story?
I remember when we were playing Grimsby away. During the night we were woken up by someone running down the corridor screaming and banging on the doors. We used to get that happen occasionally by opposing fans trying to keep us awake. When gone down to breakfast and the lads were a bit bleary eyed. Anyway, Baz comes in looking like he’d been to a nightclub the night before!
We all said, we shouldn’t stay here again gaffer, some nut case has been banging on the doors trying to keep us awake. Barry replied, “yeah that was me.” He’d been to a wedding or something and had got drunk.
Anyway it worked, because we beat Grimsby easily that day!
Eventually Barry was sacked and Trevor took over, what was that like for you being as Trevor was a totally different personality and character?
You said it, he was a totally different personality and character, in fact I wouldn’t say Trevor had either! He wasn’t my cup of tea. Out of my15 years as a pro, he was the one I didn’t get on with. I know that might upset some Blues fans.
I scored goals under Barry and then the following season was top scorer and player of the season, but that still wasn’t good enough for Trevor.
He bought in some big signings like paul Furlong, Mike Newell, Steve Bruce – and I don’t know if it was the fact that I was one of Barry’s signings – but we just clashed basically.
I didn’t think much of him as a manager and he didn’t think much of me as a player. He was always going to win that one. He sold me an to be fair I had four great years at Sheffield United, but I didn’t want to leave the Blues – I’d have happily stayed all my career.
It was just a shame that I was doing well when I left, and there was a lot of ill feeling too with the crowd getting on my back with Trevor being able to say his part and me not being able to give my side.
Still it was all water under the bridge in the end. It was nice to get back. To be truthful, the way I left the Blues was probably my lowest point in football.
Trevor didn’t want to offer me a new contract, I’d asked for parity with Furze and I’ll sign it immediately, (I got on well with Furze by the way), but Trevor didn’t want to give me that. He said that we’d paid several million for Paul and he’d come from Chelsea and that was that.
At the end of the day, he didn’t like me and I didn’t like him it was as simple as that. I thought he was a poor manager to be honest, which was a shame because to 99% of Bluenoses – he was a god. I wish it had never happened, but you can’t turn the clock back.
Have you seen him since?
I wouldn’t go out of my way to speak to him to be honest. I did see him at Selhurst Park once, but it was strained with just brief “hellos” from both of us.
You when to Sheffield United for a few years, and Steve came in for you on loan. What was happening there? Did you need a new challenge?
No far from it, I was player of the year and and runner up the following year and I’d just signed a four year contract, I was having a good time.
I got a call from Steve when he was at Palace and asked if I wanted to go there. Obviously I’d played with Steve at Blues and he was manager at Sheffield United for a spell while I was there, we were quite close friends.
Then the gardening leave thing happened, but he said when things got sorted he wanted me there. I was probably the main man at Sheffield United, and then Steve got the Blues job. Nothing happened for a few months so I got Johnno to ask him what was happening. Anyway apparently by the time Steve had looked at the present squad, he’d realised that there quite a few lads who were around 30 / 30+ it might not be the right time to bring me in as I’d just turned 30 at the time.
That left me in a bit of an awkward situation at Sheffield United but fair play to Neil Warnock, when it looked like the deal was dead – he put me back into the team. We played Norwich away. This was despite me being out of the team for a while. Anyway by the following Monday I was back at Blues!
You played 13 times that season and scored 1 goal and that was against Wolves when we drew 2-2. I felt that was a real turning point for the side as we put together a great run to get into the play-offs. What do you remember about it?
It was my last game on loan and it was on the television too, also being a local derby. I scored the 2nd goal Martin Grainger crossed it. It definitely gave us a new impetus to kick on. The following week the deal was done to bring me back permanently.
The following season you pulled on the shirt in the Premier League for 30 games, tell us about that.
Yeah, Steve was true to his word about giving us the opportunity in the Premier League. It was fantastic to play in the top flight with the club for the first time for a long time and also to get international recognition was also brilliant.
I also got my first Premier League goal in the First Home Premier League game at St Andrews, which was also the Blues first ever home Premier League goal, against Leeds United which was fantastic. Especially as at the time that was a really good Leeds side.
Paul Devlin After Another Goal!
What was your highlight of being at the club?
I think it has to be the play-off final in Cardiff. It was a great day and a great atmosphere and to score one of the penalties and see the club promoted to the top flight was fantastic, especially for the fans.
Whenever I see the shoot out, it still causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.
Yeah, I have to say though, that I was always confident going into penalties. We’d practiced them religiously in the weeks before the game.
We had some good penalty takers. I wasn’t sure it would go to penalties at one point – but when it did I was pretty confident we were going to go through.
Were they pre organised?
Yeah everyone knew what they were doing, it was all organised before the game.
You got picked for Scotland, tell us a bit about that.
I’d been told several times, when I was at the Blues the first time and then at Sheffield United, that I’d get a call up – but it never materialised. The big deciding factor was me getting to play in the Premier League, and playing pretty well in the Premier League.
My Dad was at the Newcastle game at St Andrews and was sat just next to Archie Knox. He’d heard Archie say nice things about me, anyway on the Monday I got the call from Berti Vogts to say I’d been called up. At 30 / 31 it was a fantastic opportunity, however I don’t think I was playing any better than previous seasons, it was simply that I was playing in the top flight.
How many caps and goals did you get?
I got ten caps, but unfortunately I never scored.
What about your disciplinary record?
(Paul laughs!). Yeah well, I think the first half of my career was appalling to be honest. I think I did get better as I got older. Neil Warnock gives me a mention in his book, that he didn’t realise when he signed me from non-league that I had 49 disciplinary points I was sent off 7 ot 8 times! I was a bit firey when I was younger and the red mist used to descend.
What are you doing now and what are your ambitions?
I’ve been involved in a building company for four or five years that I’m a partner in but I’ve just finished my personal training qualification and I’m looking to do something with Steve Froggatt. We’ve set up a company called XPROTRAINING to become a course provider for people to become a personal trainer or a gym instructor.
The fitness side of things always interested me more than coaching. I’ve been asked before about why didn’t I stay in the game to coach or a manager, but the fitness and nutrition side of things has always interested me more.
So what do you think about what’s happening at the Blues now?
Yeah I was at St Andrews in the Frank Worthington hospitality suite for the Chelsea game. The atmosphere was fantastic. A real change to things from a few weeks before.
Joe Hart made a few good saves, but Blues gave as good as they got that day. There’s a good vibe about the place which is good to see.
Do you agree that Alex has turned the doubters into believers!?
Yeah I think so. last year when we got promoted, there were people who were critical of the style of the football we were playing and that we were boring. But he has changed the formation and with the Chinese taking over, it is like a totally different club down there now.
The time under the old board had run it’ course and it was time for change. I know a lot of people are critical of them, however they did save the club and they did breathe new life into the club then. But with Carson coming in now, it is another new era and it couldn’t be much better at the moment.
If we get there would you go to Wembley?
I’d love to. One or two of the old players would be on the scrounge for tickets! It would be terrific.
If you have a spare ticket Paul, you know where I am!
I bet that won’t be the only phone call or request I might get Kev!
Well thank you very much for your time Paul, it’s great to speak to a player who as a Brummie knows what it means to us. Keep us informed with your new venture and we’ll do an update here.
It’s a pleasure Kev.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Mr Paul Devlin!
Images used with kind permission from Birmingham City FC.
An Evening With Barry Fry
I’ve been asked if I would promote this event.
AN EVENING WITH BARRY FRY” HOSTED BY TOM ROSS
THURSDAY 18th MARCH 2010
at
REDDITCH UNITED FC
BROMSGROVE ROAD
REDDITCH B97 4RN
From 7.30pm to 10.30pm TICKETS £5.00
(Available from the venue or 07785 774657)
or
keith.dixon2@virgin.net
proceeds to
BCFC – FORMER PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
Blues Down Under – The New Board
Hello London, this is Sydney(ish) calling.
I’ve been in Australia for about a year now. I’m happy to report that things are going well. To quote a balding sixty-something year old New York song writer “Things are okay with me these days, I got a good job, I got a good office, I got a new wife, got a new life and the family is fine.” We’re just coming into summer and daylight savings means that I get up every morning to live football on the telly and 20-25 degrees outside. Life is sweet although watching ‘Super Sunday’ games is a bit of a hassle if it’s a good un such as Chelsea Vs Manchester United since they kick off at around 3 AM on Monday AEST. Not ideal when one is due at work at 8:30 AM. That said, Blues kicked off as that time last Sunday so I booked the day off. It would’ve been worth it had we won although missing any day off work is never necessarily bad.
Super Sunday here in Aus consists of watching North Queensland Fury against Wellington Phoenix. It doesn’t really cut the mustard, really. Still, bless ‘em, they try. And Fox Sports certainly have their own Jamie Redknapp – winner of the ‘Pundit I’d most like to hit in the face with a frying pan because he never says anything remotely interesting nor controversial but does occasionally say something really stupid’ award in the shape of Robbie Slater. And there’s Mark Bosnich, who annoys me because despite the fact that, at a relatively young age, I was taught to dislike him, actually says some mildly interesting and amusing things. And he puts Slater in his place. Which makes me happy which makes me forgive Bosnich for all of his past demeanours a little bit.
Still, it’s not really the standard of local football that I’m here to blog about. I’m finally settled in Australia now and in some sort of rhythm as far as life goes. So I decided that, with Kev’s permission, I’d start to blog about what it’s like following Blues from the other side of the planet. So from this point on, I’ll blog weekly(ish) about the goings on at St Andrew’s from an ex-pats point of view as well as sharing tidbits of what it’s like to live in Australia.
The backend of last season was a bit of a nightmare here. Blues were on TV occasionally (when they were on back home) but coverage was irregular and a half hour round up of all action from the Championship and Leagues 1 and 2 every Tuesday night did not suffice. Online coverage was sketchy too. As quickly as footage was uploaded to places like YouTube, it was erased due to copyright issues. Which I suppose is fair enough but when you’re a homesick Pom, it’s a bit of a pain. Still, promotion was achieved via a dodgy online footy stream that decided it needed to buffer every 2 minutes or so. I’m sure that those at Reading saw it in a bit more High Def than us here in Aus. Still, the result is all that matters and promotion to the Premier League meant red button access. Fox Sports show five Saturday 3 PM kick offs concurrently at 2 AM (midnight when it’s not daylight savings) so there’s a good chance that Blues will be on live here every week. Which means I’ll see more of Blues here in Australia that I could afford to in England! So far, I’ve missed just one game – Blues at home to Bolton, which was not shown here.
Oh, and Arsenal. But that wasn’t down to the selection decisions of the Fox Sport directors. That was down to my cable box blowing up literally just as the game kicked off. By the time I had tuned into the service that is Blues World, we were already 2-0 down. My other half was not amused since she’s the TV guru in our household and naturally, at 2 AM, when the cable and TV weren’t working, it was her job to fix it. She failed and eventually went back to bed in a huff. When I flipped the PC on and found us 2-0 down, she thought that I should’ve been too busy being appreciate for her efforts to fix the TV rather than focussed on how Blues were getting on. Women, eh?
And speaking of Blues World (or whatever it’s called these days) I hope one of the upgrades to the club as a result of the takeover is to ditch the jokers that run it and try and find a better way to connect with exiled fans. The service is a joke and in my experience, rarely does what it claims to do – Ie. Give exiled fans commentary. I won’t bore you with the list of mess ups throughout the years, suffice to say, it’s left me very bitter at the fact that I have no other choice but to subscribe if I want to hear Blues live when we’re not on TV. I hope that Blues World isn’t the way that Yeung, Hui, Yu, Pannu, Dunford and co are hoping to win over the 5 gazillion Chinese fans that we now have.
So as far as coverage goes, I was really looking forward to this season. And then we made the signings that we did and everyone was optimistic. We didn’t start quite as well as we’d hoped and optimism quickly turned into despair. Meanwhile, Yeung had turned up again and decided that this time, he had the funds and Sullivan and Gold were ready to play ball. Things happened very quickly and at the back end of last season, who would’ve guessed that in January, we’d have a different board with different ambitions?
What I like about the new board is that they seem to realise that football is fun. The last board – and a lot of fans across the footballing spectrum – became obssessed with winning, with success, with moving the football club on, with not getting left behind, with buying a better player, making more money. It’s a depressing thought since football has always been and should always be about having a laugh, a bit of fun, destressing from the week. It’s a little bit of a worry when the stress of football is taking over from the stress of a working week! Maybe fun isn’t the right word and perhaps I’m not painting it in the light that I wish to paint it in, like Blues are just a bit of light-hearted fun to me. That’s not true and I can’t really seem to find the correct words. Still, on we plough…
One word that is not correct is entertainment. I hate the idea that football is ‘entertainment’. WWE Wrestling is ‘entertainment’. A Keanu Reeves film is ‘entertainment’ (comedy really, but still.) A choreographed TV programme is ‘entertainment’. Football should never be choreographed or predictable or entertainment. Entertaining, sure… but somehow, that’s different. Entertainment to me is something that is designed to amuse or engage using a certain angle or coming from a certain direction. Football should be unpredictable and you should get that feeling that anything could happen when you walk through a turnstyle or sit down in front of your TV (in my case.) I still get that but it’s becoming harder to find.
And that’s why the new board seem to be such a breath of fresh air. Without jumping on the bandwagon of absolutely slating the old board – a viewpoint I generally find to be a little bit disrespectful and unappreciative on the whole – the new board seem to have realised that you need to give the fans something to be happy about. And not necessarily a 40m budget for a transfer window. And speaking of that, that worries me somewhat… what if we spend 40m and get relegated? What happens? Assume we can sell players but will they go for as much as we paid? Probably not. The old board always budgeted for relegation very well, despite what some might say.
But back to the point about the new board understanding what is required. A sense of fun and occasion, a sense of everyone working together, a sense of respect for the fans, a sense of general oveall enjoyment. I have no doubts that behind the fun-loving, getting pissed at Chinese restaurants with the fans antics lie some serious and impressive people. But coming in and immediately banging on about progress, about success, about achievements, about what the fans need to do to make it happen is not what we want. It’s not what football wants – or needs. The fun needs to be put back into the game and dare I say the word that tends to, most of the time, make me cringe when I hear it… no sod it, I’ll say it – CHARACTERS. That’s what the new board seem to be.
No-one’s saying that you can afford to run a Premier League team whilst half pissed and not focussing on what needs to be done. But there has to be scope for a bit of lively fun and clowning around. Something to brings the smiles back to the faces when the roll of the ball may not be doing so. A director grabbing a microphone (a director, I hasten to add who is not Delia Smith) and yells “I love you all!” to an astonished St Andrew’s and then goes head-to-head in a drinking competition with a local Viler and then sings KRO with the fans is exactly what we need!
Anyone remember the Barry Fry days? Compared to the days of say, Trevor Francis, they weren’t terribly successful. Yes, we won two trophies but unfortunately, we had to be relegated in the first place to do so! Bazza got rid of the youth set up and bought so many bad players and caused so many arguments that often, we found ourselves – as a third tier club – unable to get OUT of the newspapers. They were great days and people loved them because there was that sense of amusement surrounding it all. A cloud of disbelief and astonishment hung over the club because literally, you never knew what was coming next.
Then Trev took over and took us tantalisingly close to silverware and the Premier League. Some of those games under TF – the atmosphere especially – will live with some ‘noses forever. But overall, was it more fun that it was under Bazza? I’d argue that it wasn’t. Trev sort of dragged the club up towards a more professional footing and layed a lot of the groundwork for when W’or Brucey took over. But they never quite matched up to the days of Bazza being in charge, did they?
This is how I sort of feel about the new board, I think. Whilst the old board may (and it has yet to be proven) have been more professional and responsible in the way they made sure that the future of the club was never in doubt, there’s a sense of curiousness, anxiety and excitement about the new board. They could literally do anything and I always have the feeling that when I get up in the morning, I could read anything on my PC screen regarding Blues. I mean, we literally could’ve signed Ronaldo to play on the wing… but backed this up by signing the Honey Monster as cover for left back. It’s that sort of silly scenario that makes me glad that the takeover has gone ahead.
I mean, I’m sure that none of the above will happen and I’m sure that in time, we’ll see a thoroughly slick and professional outfit emerge who ARE capable of running the club to the same standard – and more – than the last board. I sincerely hope so. But I always hope that there’s this rogue element to their ownership. The type of thing that could see literally anything come from the left field and blind sight us all. The old board lost that ability and it was always middle of the road stuff with David Sullivan’s broadsides at the fans the only really thing out of the ordinary – and even after a while, they became second nature.
The now have the keys to the kingdom, let’s see what they can do with them… this expat is excited about the future. Even if the future spells financial oblivion and relegation to the third tier to play against little teams like Leeds, Charlton and Southampton!
Yours in Down-Underness…
Aff
Ps. If you do not remember me or you’d like to read some of my stuff from the olders days of J&S, you can do so here.
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