Buzaglo To Balis: Summers’ move for Ossie Ardiles proved to be a masterstroke

Buzaglo To Balis has been written by author Chris Lepkowski and will go on sale later this month. This week the Express & Star is publishing a series of extracts from the book.

The first details the appointment of Ossie Ardiles as manager at a time when the world of football was coming to terms with the creation of the Premier League.

New Baggies chairman Trevor Summers, meanwhile, wanted a piece of the action.

“We need to be back in this Super League as soon as possible,” he said.

“To play the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham, like we used to when we were at the top of the First Division, has to be our aim. I hope it won’t be too long, for everyone’s sake. We have to find a way to be part of it.”

So far, so good but first came the small matter of sourcing Bobby Gould’s successor. While Premier League fever grew during May 1992, Albion were still managerless. Effectively, it was a shortlist of two, with Ardiles as first choice and Wycombe’s impressive young boss Martin O’Neill as the fall-back option.

The Sports Argus mentioned Grimsby’s Alan Buckley while Bruce Rioch was also linked, the former Middlesbrough and future Arsenal boss ending up at Bolton.

Ardiles’ credentials were impressive, befitting of a manager wanted by a club chasing the Premier League dream. A World Cup winner with Argentina in 1978, he moved to Tottenham that summer and became the darling of White Hart Lane, barring a brief secondment to Paris Saint- Germain during the Falklands conflict.

He then led Swindon to promotion to the top flight, only for the club to be demoted due to financial irregularities from before his time there.

His spell at Newcastle was less successful, but his commitment to attacking football made him an attractive prospect for Summers. And, crucially, he was available.

The appointment was a masterstroke, not least as Albion secured him on a salary of just £50,000, compared with his £120,000 annual wage at Newcastle.

Again, it was Albion’s good fortune that Ardiles was tied into a deal with the Tynesiders that ensured he was still being paid by them for 12 months after his exit.

That arrangement propped up the Baggies’ wages of a celebrated football personality who was also an FA Cup winner and recognised as an elegant, stylish midfielder when pitched into the battleground of mid-80s English football.

He had even appeared alongside Pele, Sylvester Stallone and Bobby Moore in the Hollywood movie Escape to Victory.

Ardiles, be it the footballer, World Cup winner or film star, was the most unlikely saviour.

By 1992, Albion had let themselves go, yet here they were flirting with a legend. This was one hell of a coup.

Ardiles reveals that he was convinced by Summers’s ambitions for the club, rather than the financial package. “I remember it was a Tuesday and I’d agreed to play in the Bobby Charlton golf day on the Wednesday,” he said.

“I received a phone call from Mr Summers asking whether I’d be interested. I said: ‘Yes, of course.’ So I didn’t play in the golf and went to see him.

“I had the impression there was nobody else in the picture and I got the job. But, before I met him, I felt it would be a good job for me, so I already knew in my heart I would be accepting.

“West Bromwich was a big club even then. I had a bad time at Newcastle and appreciated that I may not get a job in the top division.

“West Bromwich was a big challenge for me. It should not have been in the Third Division, so I jumped into it. I had this feeling I would love it.

“It wasn’t the West Bromwich I had remembered. I was used to playing against Bryan Robson, Laurie Cunningham, Cyrille Regis – an outstanding team. They were in this ridiculous position. From their point of view and mine, I knew it would work. Our meeting at the stadium lasted no more than an hour and they told me before lunch they wanted me. It was all very quick. They didn’t need to sell the club to me. I knew what Albion was.”

The period leading up to the appointment was some week. On the Monday, Albion convened an emergency board meeting to discuss Gould’s future. On Tuesday, they announced his sacking, the resignation of chairman Tony Hale and the installation of Summers as his successor – all delivered by fax to key stakeholders, including the media.

On the Friday, Ardiles was unveiled and said: “I wouldn’t have joined any other Third Division club. This is a club where we can achieve success.”

Albion fans finally had something to grab on to.

Summers described the manager’s availability as the ‘biggest stroke of luck I’ve ever had, or am ever likely to have, in football.’

Ardiles’ first objective was to rid the club of the lingering, toxic stench of the Gould regime. Fans were desperate to leave behind the coffins of Shrewsbury for some champagne football. Perhaps now, they had the man to provide that change.