Lou Macari bids farewell to the Victoria Ground, and supporters, as his second spell at the club came to an end

Lou Macari’s life story of triumph and tragedy, laughter and tears, is evocatively told in his autobiography ‘Football, My Life’ published today by Bantam Press (£18.99). Martin Spinks has taken a sneak preview to re-live the anguish and happiness of his public and private life in Stoke-on-Trent.

LOU Macari remains adamant that Stoke City lost their way and spent another decade in the wilderness because they opted for the Britannia Stadium over the Victoria Ground in the mid-1990s.
He believes the rot set in when then chief executive Jez Moxey began to enjoy too much influence over chairman Peter Coates – and effectively began picking the first-team squad instead of the manager.
Macari was back for a second spell as City boss in 1994 after being sacked by Celtic and returning to the Potteries to take over from Joe Jordan.
And it wasn’t long before he was building a squad capable of chasing a Premier League place – only for events off the pitch to conspire against him and eventually prompt his departure from Stoke for a second and final time in summer, 1997.
“There was a sense in the mid-90s that change was in the air at Stoke City,” he now writes.
“I was OK with that as long as it did not affect my ability to do my job.
“On transfer deadline day, Birmingham came in for (Paul) Peschisolido with a £400,000 bid. Stoke needed the money. Selling teams do not win trophies.
“From a footballing perspective, we should not have sold Peschisolido.
“Indeed, I wanted to bring in another striker – Richard Sneekes from Bolton. Instead of coming to us, he went to West Brom for £400,000 – the same amount we got for Pesch. That is the position the club was in.
“Sneekes scored 10 goals in 13 games in the remainder of the season for the Baggies.
“I was dead against the move to a new stadium. But as I was beginning to find my voice at the club it was starting to lose its influence.
“Moxey was the man to whom the chairman gave an ear.
“As far as I’m concerned, the manager should always be the most important figure at any club. The moment people stop listening to the manager, it’s over. Without a successful team on the pitch, the rest falls apart.
“Though he (Moxey) was brought in as chief executive, it was clear, as time went on, that he had a view on the kind of players we should buy and on the lads already on the books. I was not overly happy with that.
“If you are there to build a stadium, fine. But keep your gob shut on football matters. Moxey didn’t do that.
“The penny soon dropped on why he was so interested in the playing side of things – it was because the trade in players formed part of his scheme to finance the new stadium.
“He needed money to build it and he saw the sale of Stoke’s top players as a legitimate way of generating the cash.
“I got a tip-off from Stewart Houston, who was manager of Queens Park Rangers. QPR were interested in (Mike) Sheron and contact had been made between the two clubs. I knew noting about it until Stewart let the cat out of the bag.
“To break up the team that almost got us into the Premiership the season before, in order to pay for a move to a new ground that the club could not afford, seemed to me to be inviting disaster.
“Sheron duly left for QPR and Andy Griffin was sold to Newcastle, which brought in around £4m. Unsurprisingly, the club went into decline.
“Yes, they were playing at a new stadium, but on the pitch they were struggling. And a club struggling on the pitch is struggling everywhere. As time went on, I felt Moxey was more important to the club than I was. At the same time, my court case against Celtic reared its head. With that going on, and the club more bothered about the ground than the team, I felt my time would be better spent taking care of my own business.
“Had things at Stoke been different, I might have felt differently about leaving. It was Moxey’s growing influence that made my mind up for me. Not even the prospect of seeing my two sons, Michael and Paul, coming through Stoke reserves could change my mind.
“It was disappointing, in a way, that I was no longer the foremost figure at the club in the eyes of Peter Coates.
“The chairman was convinced he was taking Stoke forward. I thought they were going backwards.
“I always had a good relationship with Peter, so it was a shame the way it ended.”
Macari would also fall out with long-time sidekick Chic Bates after accusing his one-time assistant of deserting Michael and Paul once their father was out of the door.
“They were both progressing well, but earning peanuts. Chic told them they still had to prove themselves. I could have knocked his head off.
“He was the one, along with the chairman, telling me that the boys were coming along. And this was the fella I had taken from club to club with me. I got him a pay-off at Celtic when I didn’t even get one myself.
“I didn’t want him to do my boys a favour. I just wanted him to do the right thing by them. I was livid.
“They were earning next to nothing under me and Mike was a first-team regular by the time I left the club. They deserved proper money.
“On reflection, I blame myself. I should have disregarded the nepotism issue and put them on the decent wages they fully merited. Unfortunately we all make mistakes. This was one of my biggest.
“I can only assume that Chic, or the chairman, were influenced by someone else at the club.”