Dirty Dave
Well-known member
"HELL hath no fury like a man scorned". Did departing Albion midfielder Tommy Fraser's outburst against former chairman Dick Knight really cause that much surprise?
All credit to the journalist who took the time and trouble to ring Fraser up and extract the quotes – perhaps the result of a slow news day – but it wasn't like he was re-inventing the wheel. Of all the criticisms levelled at Knight, none of them werADVERTISEMENTe something that hadn't been touched on before – aside from the player's exit from the club.
I'm made no secret of the fact that I felt Fraser deserved another contract. Clearly this was not the view of Russell Slade and, while regrettably I have to agree with a lot of the points that Fraser made, I would strongly refute the fact that it was Knight who made the decision for him to leave, rather than Slade.
As I understand it, Knight's tenure as Albion chairman was all but over when Tommy was still pulling on a blue and white shirt. So to say he still wielded that much influence is very wide of the mark.
Slade is very much his own man. A case in point is the saga of the pre-season friendly with Worthing. The Rebels even went as far as speaking to new Albion chairman Tony Bloom about getting the game on. But he backed his manager, saying that it was pre-season policy that he had laid down and even the club chairman cannot change it.
As for Fraser and Knight, it's a sad ending to their footballing relationship. And while it certainly sells papers, which is the nature of the business, perhaps in hindsight and with a few more years on the clock, Tommy will eventually wish he'd kept his own counsel, and got on with his football career.
Like John Sullivan at Millwall, Tommy now has an opportunity at Port Vale to prove the Albion wrong, and do his talking on the pitch is, in the long run, best for all concerned.
Pretty accurate there.
Also there's an article putting the friendly against Worthing not going ahead, in to conext. Last season they had a total of 8,000 through the gates. 2,000 would be expected for the Albion friendly so this would go a long way in helping the club out
All credit to the journalist who took the time and trouble to ring Fraser up and extract the quotes – perhaps the result of a slow news day – but it wasn't like he was re-inventing the wheel. Of all the criticisms levelled at Knight, none of them werADVERTISEMENTe something that hadn't been touched on before – aside from the player's exit from the club.
I'm made no secret of the fact that I felt Fraser deserved another contract. Clearly this was not the view of Russell Slade and, while regrettably I have to agree with a lot of the points that Fraser made, I would strongly refute the fact that it was Knight who made the decision for him to leave, rather than Slade.
As I understand it, Knight's tenure as Albion chairman was all but over when Tommy was still pulling on a blue and white shirt. So to say he still wielded that much influence is very wide of the mark.
Slade is very much his own man. A case in point is the saga of the pre-season friendly with Worthing. The Rebels even went as far as speaking to new Albion chairman Tony Bloom about getting the game on. But he backed his manager, saying that it was pre-season policy that he had laid down and even the club chairman cannot change it.
As for Fraser and Knight, it's a sad ending to their footballing relationship. And while it certainly sells papers, which is the nature of the business, perhaps in hindsight and with a few more years on the clock, Tommy will eventually wish he'd kept his own counsel, and got on with his football career.
Like John Sullivan at Millwall, Tommy now has an opportunity at Port Vale to prove the Albion wrong, and do his talking on the pitch is, in the long run, best for all concerned.
Pretty accurate there.
Also there's an article putting the friendly against Worthing not going ahead, in to conext. Last season they had a total of 8,000 through the gates. 2,000 would be expected for the Albion friendly so this would go a long way in helping the club out
to look forward to. Maybe next year Russell might lighten up and we'll get the friendly back, but who knows??
