Hoddle Enters Shearer Debate
Paul Ince Injury Fear
Wembley Heartache For Bergkamp
Wilkins and Bonds Sacked
Barmby's Faith In Chelsea
Spackman For Norwich?
Russell Anger As City Start Clear Out
World Cup
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Burley Named
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Friday 08 May 1998
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 News 3 
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WILKINS PAYS PRICE FOR EXPENSIVE FULHAM FLOPS
Three Division Two Bosses Go In Day Of Shocks
THREE Second Division managers are out of a job today with Ray Wilkins of Fulham the biggest name to be sacked, along with Millwall's Billy Bonds, while Neil Warnock also left Oldham.
Wilkins, who had been at Fulham for only eight months, will be replaced by Kevin Keegan for the Second Division Play-Offs, where Fulham play Grimsby over two legs. Wilkins, 41, took charge at Craven Cottage last September after Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed took control of the club and sacked Mickey Adams, who had managed the team to promotion from Division Three last season.
''When I came here we had a five year plan and that hasn't been changed by what's happened over the course of this season or events even more recently,'' said Keegan, the club's Chief Operating Officer.
''My commitment is total and it will be that way until we achieve what we're hoping to: to get into the Premiership within five years. I think it's a realistic aim.
''It will be tough but everything's possible if you believe. We have got Mr Fayed behind us and he's been very supportive and we're starting to get a good fan base here at Fulham which is also very important. We want to build on that and we want to take this club forward,'' Keegan added.
Despite spending amounts of money on new players considered astronomical by Second Division standards - the current team of experienced international and Premiership players cost around £8m to assemble - the management team was unable to guide the club to promotion. After lifting themselves from the bottom half of the table into the promotion race, the Cottagers only just held onto the last play-off place.
At Oldham, Andy Ritchie is favourite to succeed Neil Warnock as manager after Warnock and assistant Ron Reid left the club by mutual after just 15 months in charge.
Oldham hope to appoint their new manager within 48 hours, although they refused to reveal who that might be but Ritchie, 37, is a folk hero among Latics fans and he returned to Boundary Park as player-coach when Warnock took over. But Warnock, who has been linked with the vacant Stoke job, was looking ahead already.
''Dave Bassett has got his seventh promotion with Nottingham Forest. I've got five and I want to try and catch him - that's what my ambition is," he said. ''I'm just going back to Cornwall to do some fishing and I think I've deserved it after this season.''
Billy Bonds was the third manager to go on a day of shocks, almost a year after taking over at Millwall and two days after releasing nine players on free transfers.
"There was too big a gap between the Premier League and First Division football Billy was used to and the standard of players in Division Two," claimed Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis.
Both Bonds and Warnock were expected to lead their clubs to promotion after relegation last season but both finished in the bottom half.
Football365 predicted Wilkins would be sacked by Fulham so look out for the rest of our predictions coming true next season current players Paul Bracewell and Peter Beardsley to take over the management of the team. Remember where you read it first! We know these things.
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BARMBY CONFIDENT OF BLUES BATTLERS
NICK BARMBY refuses to believe that Chelsea will throw in the towel in their vital game against Bolton on Sunday. As the Toffees face up to the prospect of dropping out of the top flight for the first time in 44 years, the fear on Merseyside is that Chelsea, with their European Cup-Winners' Cup Final next week, will not field their best side against Bolton.
If Bolton win at Chelsea on Sunday, they will remain in the Premiership while Barmby's Everton side, even if they beat Coventry at Goodison Park, would drop into the First Division.
The fact that seven of Chelsea's star men have been on the treatment table already this week has heightened fears that the West Londoners will field a weakened side, or not put their backs into the crunch with Bolton.
But England international Barmby claims he expects to see nothing but a solid, professional performance from Chelsea, regardless of their Cup-Winners' Cup Final date in Stockholm against Stuttgart next Wednesday.
He insisted: ''I believe Chelsea can win and we can beat Coventry, and we will be safe. They are professional lads at Chelsea, and even if they don't have the regulars out because of the Cup-Winners' Cup Final they still have a great squad.
''They have been chopping and changing all season and it has not done them any harm. There are still European final places to be fought for and I'm sure there will be plenty of players there battling just to get on the substitutes' bench. There could even be players who may end up with free transfers at the end of the season and have not had many chances to show what they can do.
"This would be the ideal chance for them to prove their ability to prospective buyers. They won't know who is watching and they could convince someone to come in for them."
SPACKMAN FOR NORWICH JOB
NORWICH are poised to offer their vacant manager's post to former Sheffield United boss Nigel Spackman, snubbing ex-Canaries Steve Bruce and Dave Watson, who had both been tipped for the job.
Spackman led the Blades to the play-off zone and into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in his seven-month reign, before quitting just a week before the March's quarter-final clash with Coventry. The Canaries have had a dismal season, finishing just six points above the relegation zone in 16th place. They are now managerless after parting company with Mike Walker for the second time last week, sacking him two years after he took the job and four years after he last left Norwich to take his doomed position with Everton.
It is believed Norwich needed clearance from Sheffield United to approach Spackman because they he still had a playing registration with the club.
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RUSSELL HITS OUT AT ROYLE TREATMENT
MANCHESTER CITY striker Craig Russell's Maine Road nightmare is drawing to a close after being transfer-listed by Joe Royle, along with eight other pros.
Russell is available at £500,000 as his Manchester City boss begins a clear out aiming at boosting the club's accounts by £7m with wage cuts and transfer receipts after they were disastrously relegated to the Second Division last weekend. Ruthless Royle handed out free transfers to expensive signings Nigel Clough, Eddie McGoldrick, Paul Beesley, and Scott Hiley. Long-serving Ian Brightwell and keeper Martyn Margetson are also not wanted, and Ged Brannan has been transfer listed as Royle warned: ''I will finish with 18 to 20 senior players.''
Less than seven months after Frank Clark signed Russell in a £1m swap deal, with Nicky Summerbee moving to Sunderland in exchange, 24-year-old Russell feels it is time to come clean about his nightmare in the North West.
''Joe Royle never really gave me a chance to show him what I could do,'' he said.
''The fans haven't had a chance to see the best of me. They have been very fair to me because they appreciated I was always being asked to play out of position. Why wasn't I given a chance in my best position, up front, especially as we were in such a desperate situation?''
From the start Russell was being played out of position at left wing-back and was dropped when Royle took over, not even making the subs bench at times.
"When West Brom came in for me just a few days before the transfer deadline in March, Joe wouldn't allow me to go. I'm desperate for a chance somewhere. I feel he'd made up his mind even before he'd seen me play. He tried to get me to Bristol City on loan, to help them out, when we signed their striker Shaun Goater but I said no," contradicts Russell.
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