Source: Bournemouth_Echo
Anderton exclusive: Jimmy Quinn ended my career
DARREN Anderton has launched a withering attack on Jimmy Quinn's management style blaming the ex-Cherries boss for prematurely ending his illustrious career.[LNB] The former England international has claimed Quinn's odd methods prompted him to hang up his boots following an inglorious conclusion to his stay at Dean Court.[LNB] Anderton described as the final straw being relegated to the substitutes' bench without any explanation from Quinn for Cherries' basement battle at Luton in 2008.[LNB] He also labelled a trip to an Army camp under Quinn as the most ridiculous idea I'd ever heard of and boxing training as absolute craziness.[LNB] The revelations have been made by Anderton in his autobiography TakeNote, which is due to appear on the shelves this weekend.[LNB] Anderton, who was relieved of the Cherries captaincy by Quinn, brought the curtain down on his career with a goalscoring swansong against Chester at Dean Court in December 2008.[LNB] His axing for Cherries' trip to Kenilworth Road came just days after Blyth Spartans had held Quinn's men to a 0-0 draw in the FA Cup.[LNB] In his book, Anderton wrote: It was a Tuesday night. The day before, I went into the ground. I always worked with the physio rather than train on a Monday. If we had a midweek game, I'd go up and see the team working on their shape.[LNB] This morning, I watched with Lee Bradbury and realised from the manager's conversation with the team that I would not be playing the following night. Bradders turned to me and said: Has the gaffer said anything to you' I said: No.' He said: That's got to be the final straw, hasn't it' He knew how I was feeling.[LNB] I replied: You could be right.' I was furious and not because I wasn't playing. Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and George Graham all top managers had always told me if I wasn't playing and explained why they were leaving me out.[LNB] It really was the final straw and showed a complete lack of respect towards me.[LNB] Things had been building up for a month or so.[LNB] I'd promised myself if I wasn't enjoying it I would stop.[LNB] As I sat there watching the team play well for a 33 draw at Luton I was thinking: These are the two bottom teams in the Football League and I'm sat here on the bench. And the manager didn't even bother to tell me I was out of the starting line-up.' I knew there were players in the team more suited to Jimmy's way of playing football than me. I thought: That's it for me.'[LNB] Anderton added: I called Jimmy after mulling it over and told him: Saturday against Chester is going to be my last game.' He said: All right then.' Jimmy didn't try to talk me out of it, and I was happy he didn't.[LNB] There was a sponsors' dinner that evening. Jimmy and I both attended. As I was leaving, he came up to me and said: Just a quick one. I've had a think about it.' I thought: Oh, no'.[LNB] He carried on: Coops and Danny Hollands are on four bookings and if either pick up another booking they're going to have a suspension. Is there anyway you can stay around if one or both are suspended' I said: No, I've made my decision. It's not something I did lightly.' At training in the morning he asked me again. I said to him: I've made my decision, although you don't have to rip up my contract. I'm not going anywhere so if anything were to happen before the January window I'm not going away, you can pick up the phone. I'm not going to lose my fitness in two or three weeks.' I was being nice about it, but I was thinking: You cheeky ****.'"[LNB] ¢ Taken from TakeNote', Darren Anderton's autobiography with Mike Donovan. Published by DB Publishing and available this month.[LNB] ¢ More revelations in tomorrow's Daily Echo.[LNB]
