"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 wer
e 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.
- So, will we ever find out if the Football League bought their fixture computer from a real-life Derek Trotter?
The Albion's 09-10 campaign is now mapped out, starting and ending with Withdean home matches against Walsall and Yeovil respectively.
The run of games from mid-November looks "interesting". Within the space of 17 days, the Albion have to play arguably the big four of League One, Southampton, Leeds, Norwich and Charlton, while the peace will be maintained in numerous households around the county as Boxing Day sees a home fixture against Orient.
But the computer clearly has said "no" when it comes to giving the Albion faithful a pleasant Easter. Yes, on Saturday, the Saints come to Withdean but two days later, with a strong southern contingent in the league and any number of potential attractive away fixtures, the Albion travel to Hartlepool. One word, farcical.
- The Football League chairmen always appear to be banging on about the "great divide" with the Premier League fat cats, and constantly seem to be issuing warnings of numerous league clubs going to the wall.
Therefore, I was a little shocked to see coverage of the annual Football League Chairmen AGM in Portugal.
For a start, things can't appear to be that bad if 72 of them can all jet off abroad for the annual get-together.
But, actually, far more important as far as I'm concerned with the whole country going through difficult times – why didn't they give a place in this country, Blackpool, Brighton or Torquay a shot in the arm by having the AGM there?
