Bramwell Speaks Out

BIG Ron Atkinson will be missed by English football like a leper misses his big toe.

My only worry is that his retirement from management will signal more hours in front of the microphone as the most predictable pundit in a decidedly bad bunch.

Mind you, Nottingham Forest may not be able to detect any difference in his depth of TV commitments.

Atkinson took over at the City ground with a mountain to climb.

Forest did not expect it to be the mountains surrounding Turin and Milan as Atkinson followed the fortunes of Manchester United's Champions' League campaign while his players toiled on the training ground.

It is hardly surprising those players surrendered their Premiership status so abjectly at Villa Park on Saturday.

Atkinson, apparently, was furious with their show of commitment to the club.

So much so in fact, that he pocketed a sizeable sum on the back of the Forest plight by selling the story of his retirement to a national Sunday paper.

Only hours before that paper hit the streets, Atkinson had calmly assured reporters that the "appropriate people" would be the first to hear of his decision. He then had the gall to criticise those reporters for creating the Flash Harry image of a career governed by champagne and gold.

It was certainly not a career dominated by champagne in silverware.

This is not the most impressive CV ever produced: Kettering Town, still wallowing in non-League doldrums; Cambridge United, deserted after reaching the Second Division; West Brom, deserted for the bright lights of Old Trafford; Manchester United relative failure considering the vast resources; back to West Brom before upping sticks again for Spain and a sun-tan top up; sacked at Atletico Madrid within months; gets Sheffield Wednesday relegated; sacked for failure at Villa; almost gets Coventry relegated; staved off another Wednesday relegation; gets Forest relegated.

I think you can tell a lot about a manager by the standard of his punditry.

I cannot once remember thinking that Ron had ever produced a gem of insight.

He was probably too busy counting the gems accumulated during his utterly mediocre attempts at football management but brilliant impersonations of a squashed cabbage patch doll.

Neil Bramwell is the sports editor

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.