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[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

Whilst doing some research for a programme article, I stumbled upon the following in an interview with Graham Barrow published in the Lancashire Evening Post back in 2003, when he was the assistant manager at Bury:


"I was a heating engineer before I started out in football and I still see it is a privilege to earn my living in the professional game."

Barrow operates at football's sharp end.

Making sow's ears into silk purses has been Barrow's speciality, but at Bury it can be more like turning water into wine, with a mix-and-match squad in the bareknuckle scrap of Division Three.

A top Premiership player's yearly salary would have gone some way toward saving Bury from the arms of administration a couple of years ago.

"It's incredible when you think of it in those terms. The game has changed beyond belief and some of the things you see happening do really amaze me," he said. "There are kids at Premier League clubs who haven't kicked a ball in anger outside of the reserves and who have not had the challenge of a physical battle, yet they are earning thousands of pounds a week.

"I do find that astonishing. I asked about a kid yesterday and his manager told me he was on 5,000 a week. The lad didn't have a league game to his name.

"I got 500 in my hand as a bonus at Altrincham after we had played Liverpool in the FA Cup. I went out, bought a new stereo, and felt like a millionaire." 

[Mallorca Alty]

We could with a Graham Barrow type player in our midfield.