‘Every PL boss sponsored me over £1k for marathon – but one tight-a**e did £25’
A former Premier League boss who ran marathons for charity obtained a donation of simply 25 quid from some of the well-known bosses within the sport.
John Gregory ran his first marathon again in 2000, when he was in cost at Aston Villa, to lift cash for an Alzheimer’s charity after seeing his mother-in-law move away following a battle with the illness. To drum up assist, he wrote to his fellow top-flight bosses to focus on the trigger and ask if they might be concerned about sponsoring him.
Most managers had been extremely beneficiant, with Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson stumping up £1,000. However, Ferguson’s arch-rival on the time, Arsenal chief Arsene Wenger, donated a paltry sum.
READ MORE: Matt Le Tissier blames ‘conceited’ referees with ‘horrible perspective’ for VAR cock-ups
READ MORE: John Terry mocks James Maddison after tequila-fuelled Chelsea vs Spurs celebration
“Out of 20 managers, 19 replied and they sent cheques through,” defined Gregory on the Under The Cosh podcast. “Over the months main as much as the marathon, cheques began to reach from the Premier League managers.
“I’d come within the workplace in the future and my PA would say that Sir Alex [Ferguson] had despatched a cheque and I’d instantly wish to know the way a lot it was. She mentioned he’d despatched £1,000. I used to be like ‘oh, that’s improbable’.
What do you concentrate on Wenger’s pathetic donation? Tell us within the feedback part under
(Image: Arsenal FC through Getty Images)
“Various other managers sent £1,000, £1,500, £500. Then one day I walked in the office and my PA, Debbie, says ‘we’ve had a cheque come in from Mr Arsene Wenger’.
“I said ‘how much is it?’. She said ‘er, it’s 25 quid’. I said ‘how much? He’s missed a couple of noughts off here’. So Arsene had really splashed out!”
(Image: Under The Cosh)
Gregory ran the London Marathon shortly after main Villa to the FA Cup closing, the place they might meet Chelsea, managed on the by Gianluca Vialli, who was additionally participating within the marathon. Early within the race, Gregory noticed the Italian, who sadly died at the beginning of this yr, and tried to catch him.
“My thought process was ‘if I don’t catch him, we’re not going to win the final’,” recalled Gregory. “And I never did catch him. I tried and tried and tried, but I couldn’t catch him, then they beat us 1-0 in the final.”