IT'S true! Michael Knighton DOES talk to strange green life forms who come down to earth regularly. But that's enough about Carlisle United in their dubious green away strip. Knighton won't have any time to blow up fireworks next week because he is too busy trying to explode myths about himself and his unique multiplicity of roles at Brunton Park.
Like the tall stories about his contact with extra terrestrial invaders . . .
Like his alleged orders for the coaching staff to evacuate the dug-out on match days . .
Like his appearance on the team sheet as substitute at a reserve match against Rochdale . .
And like his almost schizophrenic costume changes between manager's tracksuit and white collar boardroom attire - a polished act that would leave even Clark Kent feeling dizzy. Misunderstood, egomaniac, megalomaniac or just plain bonkers? Make up your own mind. But make no mistake, an audience with Michael Knighton is like no other in English football. Name another chairman/chief executive/manager who greets you with coffee and doughnuts, begins the interview in a tracksuit, nips out to finish a TV feature for BBC's Football Focus and returns to complete the interview in jacket and tie, tracksuit bottoms and flip-flops. As psychiatrist Dr. Abbott once said of Basil Fawlty: "There's enough for an entire conference there."
So where do we start? Well, it may surprise Knighton's detractors to discover there is no launch-pad for alien spacecraft in the directors ear park at Carlisle, just an R-reg. Ford in the chairman's reserved space. "It goes without saying I have never had the pleasure of speaking to Martians," says the 46 year old property tycoon who has pumped £3 million into the flub since 1992. "What I did see once, 20 years ago, as my wife and I were driving home late at night, was something very strange in the sky. I did not know whether it was something of this world or another one, but when I recalled the experience in what I regarded as a private conversation many years later, my remarks were blown out of all proportion."
"Suddenly it seems I'm expected to sit in the directors box peering through a telescope awaiting the next UFO to land in the centre circle. It's got out of hand - simply ludicrous.' Back on planet Earth, there has been a conspicuous absence of life as we know it in the Carlisle dugout at home matches since manager Mervyn Day's sacking Last month."
Naturally, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation which doesn't require the assistance of agents Scully and Mulder. "When Mervyn left us, I agreed with coaches John Halpin and David Wilkes that we should watch the game from the stands to get a more elevated view. We asked the players how they felt about it and one or two of them said they would prefer at least one of us on the bench for moral support. All this ranting and raving you get from the bench is not effective Coaching, though, so there has been a couple of home games where we've sat in the stands and dashed down to the touchline to pass on messages if necessary. It is very unfair and unjustified for Sky TV to focus on that aspect of our approach and give viewers the false impression that the club is rudderless and in a state of crisis. Of course it isn't."
Knighton's persecution complex has been further intensified by his nomination as one of Carlisle's subs for a Pontins League game against Rochdale."The notion is that my ego ran away with me and I picked myself on merit," says Knighton, spreading his arms in mock surrender as if awaiting crucifixion. "Complete rubbish. If I was going to let my self-esteem infringe on team selection, I can assure you I would pick myself to play centre-forward in a big Cup tie, not as substitute in the reserves at Rochdale. Yes, I was a substitute in name that night, but only because we had an unbelievable injury list and the first team and youth side had both played the night before. When we arrived at the ground, I was told we didn't have a full complement of 14 players with us. So we registered myself as a player with the Pontins League and put my name on the teamsheet - but I stayed in the stand, fully clothed in civvies, the whole match. I was never going to set foot on that pitch."
Of course not. Knighton saves his party pieces for the grandest stages, like that famous ball-juggling act in front of the Stretford End in 1989 during his abortive takeover of Manchester United eight years ago. Knighton is more preoccupied these days by his unique position at Carlisle where despite a dismal sequence of results either side of Day's sacking, he has the most unassailable job in football.
As chairman, he hires and fires the coaching staff; as a member of the coaching staff, he picks the team, dictates tactics and identifies possible new Signings and as chief executive, he sorts out all the paperwork. The only danger of a personality flash at Brunton Park is if Knighton walks headlong into the bathroom mirror. Again, his defence mechanism is well-drilled unlike Carlisle's back four, who squandered a 3-1 lead in the last eight minutes at York last Saturday to lose 4-3.
Knighton says: "I know what people are saying behind my back - he's got a toy, the full train set, and he's not going to let anyone else play with it. The ego has well and truly landed. In fact I was dubbed a 'tracksuit chairman' from day one when I took over in 1992. I was out on the training field every day with the players then, so the current situation is nothing new. And I refuse to be typecast as a cigar-smoking, champagne drinking chairman who only sets foot in the club once a fortnight. No, I don't have an F.A. coaching badge, but some of the finest soccer brains who ever lived managed to survive without going on a two-week course at Lilleshall. We don't even know how good Kenny Dalglish or Kevin Keegan are because they have always had huge financial resources available wherever they have gone. What I do know is that when I took over as Carlisle chairman, they were 92nd in the league, losing £6,000 a week, virtually bankrupt, no local businessmen were stepping forward to help out and the city council was silent. Since then we've enjoyed two promotion seasons, been to Wembley twice after never getting there for 90-odd years and built a new £3m stand.
"All that seems to be forgotten when you have a run of four or five defeats, but my resolve is steadfast. I'm the first to accept there is nothing worse than a meddling chairman interfering in football matters when he is clueless about the industry. If the players thought I fell into that category, I'm sure they would go public on it, but they don't give me that impression and we work extremely well together."
Knighton now frogmarches senior professional Warren Aspinall into one of the swish executive boxes for moral support, It smacks of stage management but if Aspinall resents his chairman's involvement in team affairs, he is reluctant to show it.
With Knighton out of earshot Aspinall even concedes: "I've worked with managers including Howard Kendall, Graham Taylor, Jim Smith and Alan Ball - and if you sat them round this table with the chairman for a technical discussion, he would cope very comfortably. He hasn't missed a game, home or away, in the five years he's been here. Last year we got back from a midweek trip to Exeter around 4am and he was back in his of fine before nine. You can't fault his commitment and the players respect him for that. I don't know if the fans are losing patience, but when we won promotion and he came on the pitch to do his juggling act, they loved it."
Day still can't work out why he was given the heave-ho although Knighton says we should look no further than five wins in 18 games for a clue. All the same, Day remarks sarcastically: "I'm delighted Michael now has the manager he deserves."
This afternoon, Knighton pits his wits against last year's F.A. Cup giant-killers Wrexham. Fortunately, they won't be wearing that green strip which appears to be modelled on cans of John Smiths Bitter - and, sadly, the dwindling Brunton Park faithful won't be expecting a performance that is out of this world. Know what I mean?
| RIOA Index |
Chairmen /owners |
Email the webmaster |