Always Managing: My Autobiography Read Online Free PDF Page A

hit me on the chin again, when the judge announced that we had heard enough for one day. I felt like a boxer, saved by the bell.
    Once I was off the witness stand it all became much clearer. Very patiently and calmly, Mr Kelsey-Fry took me through what I was being asked. I had it completely muddled, all the wrong way round. I wasn’t really thinking straight by then. Jamie said it was like that moment when Henry Cooper had Cassius Clay on the ropes, and then he came out a different man in the next round. We came back to the Grosvenor House, went back to my room, changed, went up the road and had a bit of dinner and it all settled down. ‘We got you back in the corner, towelled you down, put some smelling salts up your nose, sent you back into the witness box the next morning, and you’ve knocked him out,’ Jamie said. He was right, apart from: for smelling salts read a few glasses of wine.
    It was midday when the judge summed up and, as I’ve said, the next morning before the jury reached its verdict. I just feel lucky to have had Mr Kelsey-Fry on my side. Put simply: he’s a genius. Loves Chelsea FC, great golfer, great character – it was my best day’s work, engaging him. In fact, if there was one positive from my time in court it was the privilege of watching Kelsey at work. He was razor-sharp, picked up on everything, and the court came alive when he spoke. I even noticed the press gallery gettingexcited. He had such charisma, a real aura, you felt the jury were with him because they listened so intently. I felt sorry for some of the guys he cross-examined, like Rob Beasley. It was a mismatch.
    And yet, for all the confidence and hope he gave me, when the tannoy announced that we were to return to court for the verdict, a feeling of dread swept over me. It was one thing for Mr Kelsey-Fry to believe in me, but twelve jurors had to, as well, and throughout, try as I might, I could detect no helpful vibes from anybody. What did they think of me? I simply did not know. Throughout, Milan had been extremely positive. ‘This will be OK, this will be OK,’ he kept telling me. Suddenly, he changed his tune. ‘What do you think?’ he asked, as we stood there. ‘I don’t know, what do you think?’ I replied. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. Then I was scared. We were just waiting. Guilty or not guilty. The head of the jury was Jamie’s girl, but what did that matter? If she said ‘guilty’ I went to prison just the same. I didn’t have a washbag on me, I didn’t have spare clothes. Where do they take you? Do you go straight there? Suddenly I realised I didn’t know the answer to any of these questions.
    Not guilty.
    I didn’t cry during the court case, but I did when I saw Sandra later that day. They had laid food on back at the hotel, and a lot of my friends and supporters were there, but it was too overwhelming for me. I just wanted to get home to her. I jumped in my car and drove south. I needed to be back with Sandra again. People think I must have had a big party that night, but I was in bed by nine o’clock. We had both been left completely exhausted by the ordeal. I hadn’t slept for fifteen days, and I wouldn’t have thought shehad, either. We felt like we had the flu. All we wanted to do was close our eyes and rest easy.
    Meanwhile, back in London, imaginations were running wild. Fabio Capello had quit as England manager, and, a free man, honour and reputation intact, I was the runaway favourite to be his replacement.

CHAPTER TWO

THREE LIONS
    On the steps of Southwark Crown Court, all I could think about was getting back to normality of some kind, but within hours my life and career were turned upside down again, by events completely out of my control. On the morning I was acquitted, Fabio Capello stepped down as England manager, and I was immediately installed as favourite for the job. Everyone said I was the people’s choice, the only choice, and I am still asked quite regularly about what went