A Director's Tale

John Bond, Burnley and the Boardroom Diaries of Derek Gill

Dave Thomas

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781801502382
• Year: 2022

A Director's Tale is the story of Burnley Football Club in the early 1980s, a time of short-lived success and then turmoil. With special access to the diaries of director Derek Gill, Dave Thomas brings you the unvarnished inside story, revealing what went on behind the scenes amid conflict with chairman John Jackson and manager John Bond. These were torrid times involving, at first, a surprise promotion, then a relegation, then John Bond's departure and another relegation. This was a group of men who were all competent and professional in their own fields - Jackson was a barrister, Gill an accountant - but they became a toxic mix in the boardroom. The Bond season has gone into the Turf Moor history books as one of the most damaging. His name is much derided in Burnley today, but he was only a part of a bigger problem. The Gill diaries provide a unique opportunity to see - warts and all - the workings and machinations of boardroom politics. This is a story of failure and acrimony.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword by John Helm
• 1. The background
• 2. Meet the cast
• 3. A triumphant whirlwind season
• 4. What could possibly go wrong?
• 5. The trauma of relegation
• 6. How John Bond came to Burnley
• 7. Phil Whalley and Martin Dobson speak
• 8. Growing tensions
• 9. A warning of what is to come
• 10. Goodbye Mr Bond
• 11. John Bond states his case
• 12. What the papers said
• 13. A shameful relegation
• 14. The boardroom soap opera
• 15. A scapegoat is needed
• 16. Resignation and reflections
• 17. Four days from receivership
• 18. Saved from the brink
• 19. More from the press
• 20. Recollections
• Postscript
• Photos