My Favourite Blade (Number 10) - Mick Rooker

I have had this submission in my email inbox for a few weeks. It was always my intention to finish this run of the My Favourite Blade series with it, however holidays and other happenings at Bramall Lane meant that it was delayed.

 

Sadly that delay means that this post has taken on additional resonance. To those of you who are not Blades fans, the name Mick Rooker might not mean too much to you. However, to Unitedites, he is just one of many people behind the scenes who are the glue which keep the fabric of our club together. Sadly that is no longer the case. Following a series of redundancies, Mick is no longer working for United.

 

Whether that was voluntary or imposed we don't know; it is none of our business. What is has led to is an outpouring of anger and frustration (towards the club) and thanks (for Mick) on internet forums. Forums that Mick was one of the few Blades employees to visit, often with advice on away travel, helping someone out with a ticket issue, a raffle prize or just general everyday advice.

 

Former players such as Brian Deane and Alan Kelly have taken to twitter to comment on how sad it is that Mick has left United. To them he was not just a colleague, but a friend. For many it was a friendship formed as Mick took on a role best described as an unofficial concierge as they adjusted to life in Sheffield.

 

These are dark times at Bramall Lane and having been affected by redundancy myself, my thoughts go out to all those who have lost their jobs at Bramall Lane, through no fault of their own.   

 

Below is Giacomo Squintani's thoughts on Mick, unedited for recent events. Reading back the last paragraph, you can only wish that the executives at Bramall Lane had heeded his advice. Bramall Lane will be a lesser place in Mick's absence. I will add my favourite memory of Mick in the comments below. Feel free to add yours, it will only highlight what the club has lost - a little bit of heart and soul and a great deal of goodwill and personality. 

POSTSCRIPT: Shortly after this was posted, Mick took to the S24SU forum to announce that following a lengthy telephone conversation with Kevin McCabe he was to continue at the club "being Mick Rooker". A little bit of me would like to think that the fan reaction on twitter and forums played a little part in the club's about turn.

 

When Ian put out the call for Favourite Blade memories, my mind immediately went into overdrive. Edwards, surely? Or Colin Morris? Or Alan Kelly? Hmmm… somebody will beat me to them. Maybe Glen Cockerill, who showed me what it meant to make the ball do the running and the talking months before I saw Brazilian legend Zico take that art to the highest level? Not many Unitedites mention him, but Cockerill left his mark on me. Or maybe John Burridge, whose antics amused me as a kid in the Bramall Lane stand just about as much as his saves impressed me?

 

Within minutes, I’d decided not to bother. All bar Kelly were amongst the first footballers whom I’d ever seen and who deserve credit for me falling in love with football. But I only ever saw those guys in August, as between September and June I lived in Italy. I could not sit down and type away of special seasons or even of special matches, as those rarely take place early on in the season. As for Kelly, it was a given that someone would sing his praises, the top performer and gentleman that he was/is. So I’d just sit back and let the likes of @unitedite, @8LAD35 and @ThomasCarter83 sing the praises of Edwards, Morris and Kelly respectively – and I’m glad I did, given the top job they all did.

 

I asked my Mum to put pen to paper, if only for selfish reasons: I wanted to glean her view of who first got her heart pumping at The Lane back in the 1950s. Apologies for the assumption, by the way, that one’s “favourite Blade” is a childhood hero, but I think the evidence of this series supports it… Anyway, she said she found it hard enough to muster the willpower to write the shopping list, let alone a blog entry, so that plan went out of the window. In the meantime, Ian joked whether I’d asked my own Mum to write about me, given my stint in shirt and suit at Bramall Lane. And that got me thinking…

 

…you know what; my Favourite Blade is not Glenn Cockerill. Or Keith Edwards. Or John Burridge, enjoyable though his “Budgie” autobiography is (not much mention of his time at The Lane, mind!). My all-time Favourite Blade is not a player: it’s a shirt and suit chap. My Favourite Blade is…

 

Mick Rooker

 

 

 

Now, that is likely to prompt one of two reactions:

1. Who? Was he before the War?

2. Top lad is Mick!

 

Michael D. Rooker has never played for Sheffield United. He has the passion, but not quite the physique or technique. No doubt you’ve walked past the Pools Office at Bramall Lane, or Promotions Office as it’s now known (for a while Mick resisted the change, purely because he couldn’t see the point in spending money on a new sign!). Well, Mick is the Promotions Office Manager. “Blades Revival”, “Blades Superdraw”, “50/50”… all that stuff is Mick’s. He’s been drawing money out of your bank accounts for years! Most importantly, though, Mick is a true, lifelong Blade, fortunate enough to work for the Club he loves.

 

He is one of the unsung heroes of the “Family Club” – ‘unsung’ by those who haven’t met him, anyway! If you’ve ever needed something and have asked Mick, odds are he did the best he could for you. He understands what it means to be a Blade and treats fellow Blades as fans first, customers second. I’m sure @thecase1907 won’t mind me sharing that Mick helped him out with getting hold of a signed United shirt to promote sponsorship when he ran the Edinburgh Half Marathon earlier this year. Plus Mick does sing his own praises. Not a modest lad, our Mick. Nor should he be: for all his love for the club and his empathy towards fellow Blades, he’s good at what he does and delivers off the pitch. I know he does, because he’s told me. That’s why I sometimes use the hashtag #mickrookerismyguru on Twitter – one that Brian Deane, Alan Kelly and Tony Agana have all endorsed!

 

“But… didn’t he go to Hull and back?” I hear someone at the back object. Indeed. It was a time of turbulence at The Lane (not that that narrows it down!) and both Mick and Andy Daykin headed East to Hull City. Was that because his love for the Blades had declined? Not at all, it’s because he loved United so much that the only way to save that relationship was to step away for a while. I don’t know whether he expected to return as quickly as he did, but I’m sure he was delighted at the opportunity to do so and to find his relationship with his lifelong footballing love all the better and stronger for it. Ignore that little fling in Humberside and Mick’s been at Bramall Lane for twenty-five years. Think about what our club has gone through since 1987 (“Fit and Proper?” being a good place to start if you need reminding) and you soon realise that that takes something special… and Mick’s special alright!

 

By nominating Mick, I’m also nominating a torchbearer for all professionals behind the scenes. When clubs go up or down (and United is one example of a club that doesn’t generally hang around in any one division for too long!), we instinctively think of the players whose CVs have glory or disappointment added to them. As the EPPP takes hold, holding on to players on high wages becomes increasingly tough for relegated clubs, and our hearts often go out to those released. But if they’re good enough, someone will come in for them. What about what goes on behind the scenes, in the clubs’ offices? Budgets are often driven by what takes place on the pitch, yet they are not confined to those who take to the field.

 

In April 2011 at the Madjeski I bumped into a former Promotions Department employee, at one of the season’s strangest games: on the back of one point in thirteen away from home under Adams, we came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against one of the Championship’s high flyers. I have since felt guilty that I didn’t make a game or two earlier on, as clearly I was the key to our success that day… Anyway, that former employee of Mick’s had left following our failure to climb back into the Premiership. Those were the days!

 

It hit me then, albeit not for the first time, that similar tales affect hundreds of office staff at football clubs up and down the country whose clubs go down and up. Professionals for whom there is no public transfer window, who will only stay in the game if there is an opening within driving distance. It reminded me, once again, how critical the guys and gals behind the stage are in enabling on-pitch success, yet how dependent they are upon whose goal that football ends up in.

 

And that’s why my Favourite Blade is Michael D. Rooker, Esq. Because we’ve shared great times and because, once the adrenaline-rush of match day has calmed down, he’s a sensitive lad with whom you can have a reight good chat. But, beyond all my own personal reasons, rooted in the specific context of my personal relationship with him, because Mick exemplifies all that is good about working for your club; because he goes into the office every morning (well, most mornings) with the same fire in his belly as the likes of Vinnie Jones, Brian Gayle and Paul Stancliffe took to the field – only he’s been doing it for twenty-five years. Could you have put up with the shenanigans at S2 for twenty-five years? Trust me: if you could bottle Mick’s passion, his commitment and sell it to players who’ve just arrived at your club, you’d make a fortune.

 

There you go McCabe, there’s a plan… you could roll it out across the entire United family, from Hungary to China to… wherever. Any club, anywhere, needs a Mick Rooker. We’re just lucky enough to have The Original.

Interview with Steve Thompson (Part 3) - Tied Up In Notts

As we left Part 2 (which you can read here) Steve had missed out on the permanent manager's job at Bramall Lane. There followed a spell out of the game.

In late December 2004 Thompson was appointed as manager of struggling League Two side Cambridge United, but was made redundant the following summer having failed to prevent Cambridge's relegation to the Conference.

He then worked as a summariser for BBC Radio Lincolnshire before being appointed manager of Notts County in June 2006 on a three year deal which was extended by a year in May 2007.

A Notts County fan recently said to me that most managers have found it tough at Notts Co, because they are not Neil Warnock! Steve was not alone in finding it a fickle place to manage and was certainly not alone in having a difficult time. With no training ground, no centre of excellence, only a handful of players and a reduced budget, it is hard to see what the attraction of the job was.

The trouble with football is that people often live in the past, because that is how comparisons are made. It is very hard to get recognition at Notts County, but that’s the nature of the beast. The one thing about football management is that you are going to get the sack sooner or later. When I arrived there I had 3 players, no training ground, no youth team, a newly elected chairman who had brought Howard in. I had to sign 13/14 players and get them into shape very quickly. I got in there mid-June and we were starting pre-season training first week in July. 

They had been through such a hard time and the fans were all doom and gloom and then suddenly, as you start winning games, expectation levels rise. The playing budget was next to nothing and obviously we had no youngsters coming through that I could blood to fill the gaps.

When I went back Howard Wilkinson was Director of Football and he brought me in. They had just avoided relegation from the League by a point and we finished 11th and reached the Quarter Finals of the League Cup. We lost to Wycombe who went on to meet Chelsea.

Unfortunately, Steve was sacked at the start of the 2007–08 season after a disappointing start that saw the Magpies languishing near the bottom of the table. The turnaround achieved the previous season quickly forgotten.

Since leaving Notts County, Steve is yet to make a return to football and now works for BBC Lincolnshire as summariser on Lincoln City's games. 

It was a massive blow for Lincoln when they were relegated again and it is not easy getting back. Plenty of clubs in the Blue Square North are full time and it makes a big difference. Forest Green Rovers are going to be a force in that league this year, with the financial backing that they have.

David Holdsworth is the manager and he has a huge task, with no money to spend.  It is a tough league and I don’t see why it should just be one team going up automatic and another in the play-offs. For me it should be two automatic and another in the play-offs. When you look back to Doncaster, when they came back into the league they went straight through and Crawley, albeit another club with money, but another team that have progressed.

In the lower divisions if you can get two or three player in the spine of the team including a goalscorer you will do well.

We finish by talking about his first love and United's prospects for the new season.

I would never knock Kevin McCabe; he’s done a fabulous job, the way he stuck up for the club through the Tevez issue and relegation. I heard all the things about Danny Wilson when he went there, he’s a very good manager, an astute guy, he’s knows the division and he knows players. He probably got the job because he’s mates with Kevin McCabe, but he’s proved the doubters wrong getting United so close to promotion and the loss of Ched Evans so close to the end of the season was massive.

That play off final defeat was a huge blow, the expectation level has risen, but Danny is not daft. He’s been around the block, he’s got Frank Barlow who is a great right hand man and although they always sell their best players, the one thing United have always been good at is bringing their own players through. At one time United were a club that didn’t have to sell, or at least if they sold it was at a price that was right for the club, but with the Premier League it is just a buyers’ market now. In the past players knew that if they were at United they would be at a strong Championship club, or potentially a Premier League club. Now they have to leave to better themselves and earn more money.

The recession makes it hard for clubs and fans. Football has become the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is harder for lower league clubs to make money from selling players and if you produce your own player you know you are not going to be able to keep hold of them for any length of time.

It’s a great football club, with great supporters and Danny knows that, he knows what a great club it is to manage, and when you are winning there is no better place.

I have experienced both ends of the spectrum. I’ve been at clubs when you’re only getting 2,000 and you are losing and I have been at United with  20-30,000 and you’re losing. But when that Kop gets behind you at Bramall Lane it does make a difference.

With so many ups and downs in his football career, it would be easy to assume Steve has many regrets, however there is only really one and having spoken to him and understanding his passions for Sheffield and the Blades it is quite understandable.

The one thing I was never fortunate to do was play in a Sheffield Derby. I played in London Derbies for Charlton against Millwall and Palace, but it would have been great to have done it in Sheffield. It is superb as a supporter, but to have played in one……..

Whilst Steve enjoys his radio work, he still hankers after a day to day involvement in football.

I have had a few clubs in the last couple of years that have wanted me, but you think you can wait for the clubs that you think are bigger and more appropriate and as time goes on you think maybe I should have done that. I still have aspirations to get back into football as a manager or an assistant.

Having sat and listened to him speak passionately about the game for nearly an hour, I only hope that opportunity arises soon.

Thanks to Steve for the generosity of his time. If you want to follow Steve on twitter he is @TommoTweets