So You Think You Want To Be A Director of a Football Club

I had made new friends in Gordon McKeag, Stan Seymour and George Forbes. I admired their fight and tenacity in facing up to the Magpie Group. I felt if I could help in some way then I was keen to do so. It doesn't matter which club you talk about or at what level, my experience is there are a number of fans who never trust or have any time for directors. It is almost as if there are some written rules that say once you have become committed to your team then you must find fault with the board. And yet my experience of directors is they are equally dedicated if not more so than the average supporter. Most put thousands of pounds into their clubs to try to help gain the success everyone craves for, and yet the board are constantly abused and misunderstood.

Len Shackleton, in his autobiography, gave space to what directors knew about football. He left the pages blank. While this may cause a few laughs and smirks with supporters I would suggest Len Shackleton, great player that he was, knew very little about what went on in the boardrooms of Newcastle United and Sunderland.

There is no way you would become involved with a football club unless its blood ran in your veins. It is difficult to explain to a non-footballing person why we do it but I suppose it is equally difficult for people who climb mountains and row across the Atlantic to explain why they do it. I have found the game to be something of a drug. I get my fix on a Saturday afternoon and it just about lasts until the following Saturday. The real problem for me starts at the end of April and lasts until the players come back in July. Thank heavens for the European Championships and the World Cup.

It therefore might have been sensible for me to walk away from what I had seen at Newcastle as it was obvious John Hall carried a great deal more financial backing than the board. But even though I sensed my stay at Newcastle would not be a long one, the thought that I might help change things for the better and become part of the club that had played such a big part of my life, meant I would go ahead regardless of the consequences. I have never regretted the decision to join the board of Newcastle United, but like a lot of directors before and after me I found I could do little to influence what was happening on the pitch. Jim Smith tried everything to redress the situation but nothing seemed to go right for him as he attempted to reshape the side.

One player Jim had inherited who he had absolutely no time for was Mirandhina, the first Brazilian footballer to appear in the Football League. His full name was Francisco Ernandi Lima Da Silva and he arrived on Tyneside in August 1987. He cost United a record £575,000 fee from the Sao Paulo club, Palmeiras and was known locally as 'Mira'. Although undoubtedly a talented player he never fitted in with United's style of play although he became a favourite with much of the crowd. I remember seeing Mira taking himself off when Jim Smith was sitting up in the Milburn Stand at St James' Park. It was a bitterly cold night in the North-East and Mira had come out wearing gloves which did nothing to endear him to Jim and the majority of the watching fans. It needed at least three feet of snow in Newcastle before anyone would admit to it being a bit chilly. During the second half with United losing and the temperature dropping at every minute Mira decided he had had enough. Jim spotted what he was about to do and left his seat in the stand muttering, "The little s**t is going to take himself off." Unfortunately for Jim it was a long way down from the Stand and by the time he had made the tunnel Mira was already enjoying the warmth and seclusion of the dressing room. I was not witness to that meeting but I am told the whites of Mira's eyes grew as big as saucers with every word Jim spoke to him. It was hardly the attitude Jim wanted to see from his players who were staring relegation in the face. It came as no surprise to anyone when Mira, not long after, was shown the door and Jim Smith commented, "As far as I am concerned he can rot in Brazil," United received only £150,000 of their original fee back.