Why drinking whisky is a bad idea ...!

Why drinking whisky is a bad idea ...!

Tomorrow night I shall be joining the football fraternity up in London for the PFA awards dinner.

This is a sign that the season is coming to its most crucial period and is the first of three big awards evenings.

The PFA awards has been on for many, many years followed by the League Manager's LMA awards, now held in Nottingham and a more recent occasion, but the sports journalists would argue that the Football Writers' dinner is the most senior.

This is always held on the Thursday evening before the FA Cup final. The football writers have their own player of the year and it is the oldest award around.

The players, of course, vote for their own choices and it was noticeable in the two categories, player and young player, that the majority were from the top clubs in the Premiership.

In fact, while the player's union covers all four divisions, there wasn't one player outside of the top half of the Premiership reaching the final list.

I suppose it's hard to argue when people like Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Drogba and co are seen so often on television.

But I think the difference with that and the League Manager's nominations are that Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho would not necessarily win, although they are naturally much admired by their fellow managers.

Back in 2001 our very own George Burley won, for instance, for his achievement in taking Ipswich to fifth place in his first season after promotion.

It could well be, for instance, that someone like Nigel Adkins at Scunthorpe could well get the LMA award for the fantastic job he has done after being the physio.

He has taken on the manager's role and guided the club into next year's Championship. For Scunthorpe supporters, it must be like winning the European Cup.

At one time there was a famous brand of whisky who sponsored the manager of the month awards and I was fortunate enough to collect a few gallons of the stuff.

But having had a very unfortunate experience as a teenager one New Year's Eve while first footing around Tyneside, I have never touched the stuff since!

And for anyone who thinks drinking too much whisky is a good idea, I'd point to a story I remember involving Jack Charlton.

After an awards dinner, where only whisky was served, we went back to our hotel room to have a sleep before an evening do ... single beds, of course!

The phone rang and I answered and it was reception who said they had a car waiting for Jack, and they were sorry they were late.

I don't drink whisky so I was fine, but Jack had indulged. I woke him up and, when I passed on the message, he sprung out of bed, threw his clothes on and ran out the door saying he was supposed to be on TV.

About half an hour later, I turned on the TV and there was Jack, eyes somewhat wider than usual and with a great lump of hair sticking up!

That is a reason not to drink too much whisky at lunchtime.

A lot of my gallons were auctioned off for local charities and I remember famously Stan Kelly, the top man at Ford's of Eastleigh, collecting a good sum of money via a raffle in the factory.

The winner got my gallon of whisky and the money actually paid for a guide dog for the blind, which we were able to name Saint!

Other happy memories are at the end of each season we attended the Bells lunch which was always held the day before the traditional England v Scotland game.

So one year it would be in London, the next year in Scotland.

On those occasions the guest of honour would announce the four divisional managers of the year.

I attended, along with Jim Clunie my Scottish trainer, the event up in Glasgow in 1976 and was genuinely surprised when the guest of honour, Sir Matt Busby, having read out the winners of the fourth and then the third said this next one hurts me a little' and then read my name out. Obviously we had beaten his team a week or two before.

The surprise was that Bob Stokoe had topped the second division with Sunderland. I was a bit embarrassed for him but delighted to receive the silver salver and the cheque, which was worth £250.

Bob Paisley, in one of his early seasons as manager of Liverpool, won the first division and overall manager of the year award.

I can remember both of us striding off, silver salvers under the arm and cheque in hand, to the telephone kiosks to ring our respective wives with the good news.

Bob Stokoe actually received a special award. I often thought it should have been the other way round, as winning a league in those days was spread over 42 games.

Ironically, as we speak, probably one of the main contenders for manager of this season would be another Sunderland manager, Roy Keane.

When he took over the team were second bottom. They are now top.

He has produced a team without too many big names who, as we saw on Easter Monday, works their socks off, cover each other, play decent passing football and do not know when they are beaten.

He has surprised many people with the way he has smoothly moved into management after a fiery career in midfield for United and his country.

One of the most significant things is the effect he and Niall Quinn together have been able to have on the community.

In my first management job at Doncaster, I was invited to speak to the local Round Table, a gathering of businessmen, and I always remember one of them saying to me that evening When your team wins, we all benefit'.

The man in the house goes to the game, brings his wife into town and she goes to the shops. They meet up afterwards, have a cup of tea, a drink or a meal. But most important on Monday morning productivity is up in the factories etc'.

I remembered this at Grimsby when I took the team down to the fish docks early in the morning and tried to carry it on in Southampton with visits all around.

Roy and Niall hit the ground running. Sunderland's crowds are now around the 40,000 mark.

I saw on television recently Niall Quinn visiting pubs and working men's clubs in the area. He has also been going around his native Ireland drumming up interest and Roy Keane has already announced they will be going for three pre-season games in Ireland.

The most amazing fact is that Ryanair have announced a ten per cent increase in people flying into the north-east on Friday nights before Sunderland play at home.

So how do you judge who should get the awards?

A lot of things have changed in the game, but one thing should always be remembered, as has been proved at Scunthorpe and Sunderland this season, is that the football club is an integral part of the community.

It belongs to the supporters and if you look after them and remember them, and they see you are trying your best for them, they will not let you down.