Big Fry: Barry Fry: The Autobiography
This edition does not include images.Barry Fry was one of the most colourful characters in English football. His journeyman career took him to Old Trafford, where as a player he was one of the original Busby Babes, through to football management at Barnet, Southend, Birmingham and Peterborough, among other clubs.Wherever he went, ‘Bazza’ had a knack of making the headlines. His days as a youth apprentice for Manchester United saw plenty of action on the pitch as he came under the tutelage of Matt Busby – but even more off it as he joined the likes of George Best on ‘a binge of birds, booze and betting’.He quickly gained the reputation of ‘the has-been that never was’. Playing stints at Luton, Bedford and Stevenage failed to inspire a reckless Fry, and it wasn’t long before injury forced him to hang up his boots. His first managerial role was at Dunstable, where Fry recalls with sharp humour how the chairman had suitcases full of currency in his office with hitmen protecting them.He followed this with spells at Maidstone and Barnet, – where he joined forces with the notorious Stan Flashman and proved his pedigree by gaining the club promotion into the League – and Southend, where he was responsible for bringing on a young Stan Collymore. It wasn’t long before he was poached by Birmingham under owner and ex-pornographer David Sullevan and his glamorous sidekick, Karren Brady – about whom Fry revels in some marvellous stories concerning their love-hate relationship.Whether it’s tax evasion, fraud, transfer bribes or chicanery in the dressing room, Barry Fry experienced it all as a player, manager and club owner. He is ready to tell everything in his autobiography – ‘Enough to make your eyes water’.
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First published in 2000 by CollinsWillow
First published in paperback 2001
© Barry Fry Promotions Ltd 2001
Barry Fry and Phil Rostron asserts the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780002189491
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2016 ISBN: 9780007483297
Version: 2016-09-09
Contents
ONE Who’d be a football manager?
FOUR Bankruptcy and on the scrapheap
FIVE Cheeseman and the frilly knickers
SIX Backs to the wall at Barnet
EIGHT ‘You won’t be alive to pick the team’
ELEVEN ‘How many caps does that woman wear here?’
FOURTEEN A small matter of £3.1 million
SIXTEEN Play-offs, promotion and ponces
This book would not have been possible but for the support of my family. To my late mum Dora and dad Frank, thanks for all the sacrifices you made for me and your encouragement and understanding in trying to help me fulfil my dream. My wife Kirstine has been a rock, my best ever signing, while her mum Gisela and dad Andy have always been there for me.
I was fortunate enough to be at the birth of each of my six children Jane, Mark, Adam, Amber, Frank and Anna-Marie, and I can honestly say that the experience is better than scoring at Wembley! Since the days they were born they have all, in different ways, brought so much pleasure and enjoyment into my life. As have my three grand-children Keeley-Anne, Yasmin and Louis and the best son-in-law anybody could wish for in Steve. I count my lucky stars that I have been surrounded by such a wonderful group of family and friends through my rollercoaster career in football.
Finally, thanks to my publishers HarperCollins and the man who helped me put my thoughts down in writing, Phil Rostron. It’s been a privilege working with such professionals.
I am privileged to have been asked to write the foreword to the autobiography of a man whom I cannot bring to mind without the thought prompting a smile. This is not because Barry Fry is a figure of fun, but because of his larger-than-life character, happy-go-lucky nature and reliance upon humour to soften the blows which a life in football can inflict with uncomfortable regularity.
Barry is a man for whom football is a blinding passion, displayed in his every thought, word and deed. He is one of the rare birds in the game in that he is highly respected by almost all of his fellow professionals for his vast knowledge, unquenchable enthusiasm and unflinching adherence to the ideals in which he believes.
He is a very popular manager among managers. Barry may not have been at the helm of a Premiership club but that, in itself, is surprising in many ways because he has achieved success in one way or another at each of the many he has managed both in non-league football and in the lower divisions of the Football League.
A staunch member of the League Managers’ Association, he shows as much enthusiasm for its affairs as he does in his day-to-day club involvement. We operate in an industry which all too often does not meet its obligations when there is a parting of the ways between clubs and managers, and there is a real need for voices as powerful as Barry’s to be heard if an equilibrium is to be achieved. Some managers are fortunate enough to walk straight into another job once they have been shown the door, but there are many others who do not enjoy the same fortune for one reason or another. They need protection, with due and full severance pay a priority, and Barry, who knows a thing or two about such matters, works tirelessly towards these goals.
