Skullduggery Pleasan
Vital Reserves Team
I was bought Bayo’s autobiography for crimbo. It’s an interesting book (I’d recommend it) and one which (I think) could have actually been a bit longer as there’s a few “important” bits that kind of get glossed over.
The following are a few extracts concerning his time(s) at Gillingham. I’m taking the information from the book, so don’t shoot the messenger. I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible. Apologies if I’ve mistyped some bits.
Ronnie Jepson tried to sign Bayo at the start of 2007/8 season and he had meetings with Ronnie and Paul Scally. However, as Bayo had just come off crutches and wouldn’t be playing until about September, the signing didn’t go ahead. Ronnie said “Well, if I get off to a bad start I’m going to get sacked, and I can’t afford to be signing players I won’t be able to use until a quarter of the season is over.” Bayo did however do some rehab and training at Priestfield but apparently he felt that the physio didn’t pay much attention to him (Bayo thinks that might have been because he wasn’t a contracted player).
When Hess signed Bayo at the start of 2010/11 “…our squad that season should really have dominated. We were far too good for league Two with the likes of Barry Fuller, Kevin Maher, Matt Lawrence and Jack Payne in the side. However, Bayo had trouble settling in to the style of play and in fact tried to arrange a loan move to Northampton (which he regards as his spiritual home club). What stopped him was the return to fitness of one Cody Macdonald. From that point, “…we just started tearing things up. We became a formidable partnership. However, missing out on the playoffs had consequences “…the Gills had to make cut-backs. They didn’t renew a lot of players contracts and the ones they did offer terms, the money was so bad it was an insult. In as attempt to avoid any confrontation they were sent out by post. I got my contract , and I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way I can sign this.’ Not when I knew I could get more money at another club. Who in their right mind would?”
His comments about his second time with us (2013/4) under Martin Allen are interesting too and I’ve left quite a few bits out to be honest. “My old strike partner Cody Macdonald was still at Gills, and they were being managed by Martin Allen who, hands down, is by far the craziest manager I have ever played under. He’s known in the game as ‘Mad Dog’, and believe me, he’s earned that title. The moment I arrived at training, he looked at me and said ‘I can see you like chicken.’…” MA had a habit of calling Bayo into his office to tell him what they’d be doing that day. However “…the Martin Allen that used to call me into his office every morning was completely different to the Martin Allen who would then be at training. It was so Jekyll and Hyde. Not long after I arrived, I started hearing rumours that he might be getting sacked. He’d just got the club promoted, so I thought that was a bit odd. But apparently there was certain behind-the-scenes stuff going on that the chairman and various other influential people at the club weren’t happy about.”
Also about MA “Another weird thing about Martin Allen is that when he talks, he takes off his clothes. I’m serious. He’ll start with a suit and tie, and by the end of it he’ll be sitting there with his belly hanging out”
There’s a bit more up until MA got sacked and the book is worth it for those bits alone.
On Peter Taylor replacing MA, Bayo remarks that he was “…a completely different character. He’s very quiet and strikes you as being quite shrewd…….Taylor is very measured and plays his cards close to his chest.” There’s some other observations, however “…he used to make us train against mannequins. There’s nothing wrong with that in principle, if it’s incorporated into a decent training routine. But you always look good against mannequins because they obviously don’t move. Under Taylor we started slow in almost every game………To most of the players, it was obvious. We spent so much time training against mannequins that, when we faced actual moving players, it took us a while to adjust.”
Bayo questions PT’s “…refusal to play me two games back to back. For some reason he had it in his head that I couldn’t play two games in a week and that was that. There was no swaying him.” “When the season finished he broke up the changing room and got rid of a lot of players. In fairness, he did offer me a new contract but I wasn’t interested. Too much had happened.”
The following are a few extracts concerning his time(s) at Gillingham. I’m taking the information from the book, so don’t shoot the messenger. I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible. Apologies if I’ve mistyped some bits.
Ronnie Jepson tried to sign Bayo at the start of 2007/8 season and he had meetings with Ronnie and Paul Scally. However, as Bayo had just come off crutches and wouldn’t be playing until about September, the signing didn’t go ahead. Ronnie said “Well, if I get off to a bad start I’m going to get sacked, and I can’t afford to be signing players I won’t be able to use until a quarter of the season is over.” Bayo did however do some rehab and training at Priestfield but apparently he felt that the physio didn’t pay much attention to him (Bayo thinks that might have been because he wasn’t a contracted player).
When Hess signed Bayo at the start of 2010/11 “…our squad that season should really have dominated. We were far too good for league Two with the likes of Barry Fuller, Kevin Maher, Matt Lawrence and Jack Payne in the side. However, Bayo had trouble settling in to the style of play and in fact tried to arrange a loan move to Northampton (which he regards as his spiritual home club). What stopped him was the return to fitness of one Cody Macdonald. From that point, “…we just started tearing things up. We became a formidable partnership. However, missing out on the playoffs had consequences “…the Gills had to make cut-backs. They didn’t renew a lot of players contracts and the ones they did offer terms, the money was so bad it was an insult. In as attempt to avoid any confrontation they were sent out by post. I got my contract , and I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way I can sign this.’ Not when I knew I could get more money at another club. Who in their right mind would?”
His comments about his second time with us (2013/4) under Martin Allen are interesting too and I’ve left quite a few bits out to be honest. “My old strike partner Cody Macdonald was still at Gills, and they were being managed by Martin Allen who, hands down, is by far the craziest manager I have ever played under. He’s known in the game as ‘Mad Dog’, and believe me, he’s earned that title. The moment I arrived at training, he looked at me and said ‘I can see you like chicken.’…” MA had a habit of calling Bayo into his office to tell him what they’d be doing that day. However “…the Martin Allen that used to call me into his office every morning was completely different to the Martin Allen who would then be at training. It was so Jekyll and Hyde. Not long after I arrived, I started hearing rumours that he might be getting sacked. He’d just got the club promoted, so I thought that was a bit odd. But apparently there was certain behind-the-scenes stuff going on that the chairman and various other influential people at the club weren’t happy about.”
Also about MA “Another weird thing about Martin Allen is that when he talks, he takes off his clothes. I’m serious. He’ll start with a suit and tie, and by the end of it he’ll be sitting there with his belly hanging out”
There’s a bit more up until MA got sacked and the book is worth it for those bits alone.
On Peter Taylor replacing MA, Bayo remarks that he was “…a completely different character. He’s very quiet and strikes you as being quite shrewd…….Taylor is very measured and plays his cards close to his chest.” There’s some other observations, however “…he used to make us train against mannequins. There’s nothing wrong with that in principle, if it’s incorporated into a decent training routine. But you always look good against mannequins because they obviously don’t move. Under Taylor we started slow in almost every game………To most of the players, it was obvious. We spent so much time training against mannequins that, when we faced actual moving players, it took us a while to adjust.”
Bayo questions PT’s “…refusal to play me two games back to back. For some reason he had it in his head that I couldn’t play two games in a week and that was that. There was no swaying him.” “When the season finished he broke up the changing room and got rid of a lot of players. In fairness, he did offer me a new contract but I wasn’t interested. Too much had happened.”
