How is this 24 years ago on monday!! still my favorite season at Rangers as kid beating all them massive clubs.
Fantastic read I had never read or heard the interviews before, Thompson really was a grade c*nt, feel sorry for Gerry really, still recovering from selling Les, thanks Clive.
In an interview with Ron Norris for LFW, Richard Thompson said recently: “I'll be honest, it's years later so if you want the truth I can probably tell it now. I was in a position where I had just had enough of the situation with Gerry. I said to Gerry 'can you help me out here, can you maybe write some programme notes or be a little more supportive of me?' and he bluntly said 'no I can't, I can't help you, you're on your own'. I appealed to him, I mean we had been working together for nearly four years, maybe you could just write some things to say I'm not all that bad and he said 'no, absolutely not'. So of course I got resentful and that led to me ringing up Rodney.
“I was thinking Rodney was so popular at QPR that if I brought him in as a director of football role that might be good, the fans might like that. I sat down with Rodney and he said 'you do understand of course that Gerry can't stand me?'. I honestly didn’t realise it was that bad, I knew they weren't close but Rodney then tells me Gerry absolutely hates him.
“Then Rodney says 'is this because you want Gerry out?'. I said if that was the outcome I wouldn't mind that really, I've just had enough right now. So Rodney says 'don't tell him then, let the whole thing build up and Gerry will either storm out or accept it'. So I didn't tell Gerry and I figured that if he accepts it with Rodney on the board it’s a good move for the club but if he leaves, he leaves and it it’s probably better for me.
“The day after it came out Gerry came to me and made it crystal clear how he felt about Rodney Marsh, it’s fair to say he wasn't happy at all.
“It was a hell of a few days. I honestly didn't know things were that bad between them. I didn't understand how much Gerry didn't like him but at the same time I didn't mind much because I thought Gerry wasn't helping me maybe Rodney can. But yeah basically Gerry was right I never asked him his view.
“Ironically at that time Alan Sugar then called about the Spurs job and Gerry wanted to go there. When Gerry left all the people around me and all the non exec directors like Tony Ingham said they didn't want Rodney at the club, so he then didn't come on board. Everyone got really upset with him and it just wouldn't have worked. I wanted a legend from the past there, I needed help, I needed help with the PR and communication with the fans and I really thought Rodney would be the best man for it.”
Gerry Francis told the Fulham Chronicle recently: “Liverpool was my last game at home. Rodney Marsh, who the board knew I didn’t get on with, was parading around, and I felt I had to resign. I was fuming. We’d already had had the chairman’s car turned over just before because the club wanted to sell Les, and I didn’t. After finishing fifth previously and selling players for the last two years like Andy Sinton, Paul Parker and Darren Peacock, wanting to sell Les was frankly, a kick in the teeth. They wanted me to resign so they could sell Les whenever they wanted to, because earlier they promised me they wouldn’t. It was emotional. I was having to leave a club I didn’t want to after 20 years of effort - and disappointed was an understatement. I didn’t want to go to Tottenham particularly. I didn’t want to go into management after that. Two weeks before I got a call from Wolves, but wanted to stay in the Premiership at a club I love, but the board forced my hand.”
Rodney Marsh, for his part, told Ron at QPRNet: “A lot of people were anti Richard Thompson at the time but I always found him to be an extremely astute businessman and a very clever man too. I certainly didn’t see the demise of QPR, all I saw was potential success. QPR’s collapse coincided with Richard Thompson leaving the club and Chris Wright taking over. I did take a battering yes but I’ve always looked at life as being relative and what I do, what I’ve always done and what I continue to do on television that gets me into trouble is I tell the truth. I told the truth at the time, I told it in the book and I’ll tell it to you again now: the first thing I said to Richard Thompson was before we do anything I want to meet with Gerry Francis. That was the first thing I said, so how in the world that ever got misplaced I don’t know.” |  |
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