Source: Bournemouth_Echo
Anderton exclusive: Army camp was a shambles
THINGS got worse as Jimmy decided to take us to an Army camp to prepare for our FA Cup tie with Bristol Rovers.[LNB] When Jimmy mentioned this to me, I thought it was the most ridiculous idea I'd ever heard of.[LNB] Jimmy thought it was for team-bonding. I said to him: If that's the case, why don't we go off to Marbella' He insisted it would be good. I replied, less than sincerely, sounds great!' We got to the camp and straight away I was given the hump when I was asked by Jason Tindall whether I would collect all the players' mobiles so our bonding' sessions wouldn't be disturbed while we were there. I told him ****ing good one!' and explained I was waiting for a call from my mum about my step-dad Mike's condition.[LNB] Our first task involved a drill sergeant barking out instructions. As we marched left-right-left-right' around the courtyard with big rucksacks on our backs and kitted out in Army gear, I thought to myself: What the hell am I doing here' I'd been in the game for 20 years and had never seen anything quite like it.[LNB] Afterwards, I had a message from my mum and called her. She was in tears and told me Mike had been moved from the local hospital to the one in Seville. He'd had a massive heart attack. I spoke to Jimmy and said that I was going home to fly out to Spain.[LNB] Thankfully, Mike was fine and I flew back to London late on Friday and drove to Bournemouth the following morning for the cup game. We won 10, with the boys saying how the camp had turned out to be three days in hell.[LNB] They told me about how they had to do all sorts of tasks, like putting up tents and starting bonfires before sitting around them and then standing up one at a time to tell stories about their careers. I thought: How ludicrous, what a shambles.'[LNB]
