IN June 1995, Bruce Rioch walked out of Burnden Park, 10 days after guiding Wanderers to the Premiership. It was assumed the invitation to manage Arsenal had proved irresistible. Here, in an exclusive interview with BEN chief football writer GORDON SHARROCK ahead of tomorrow night's Worthington Cup clash with his former club, the new Norwich boss reveals precisely why he left Bolton. IF home really is where the heart is, it's a fair assumption that Bruce Rioch might still be manager of Bolton Wanderers today. He and his wife Jane might well be settled in a residence to the north of the town, not far from the spot where, throughout three successful but demanding years of commuting from Harpenden, he had used an apartment as his midweek base.
There is no telling where the team might be now; he too might have failed to keep them in the Premiership and who's to say he would have led such a record-breaking instant return? Things could easily have turned sour, football management being such a precarious profession.
Nevertheless, on the evidence of the way things stood three years ago, Wanderers and their 14th post-war manager had everything going for them.
So why, after three seasons of wall-to-wall success, the fairy-tale transformation of a club from lower division mediocrity to the Premiership elite with a team spirit widely regarded as second to none, did he leave it all behind?
Because he was offered the chance to manage Arsenal, of course!
Or so it was assumed. There had long been talk of personal, emotional influences being behind his decision not to sign a new contract, of wanting to be closer to his family at a time when his father-in-law was seriously ill and his son and daughter-in-law, who had newly-born twins. Some said he simply did not want to leave the South of England.
There was even a school of thought that they were just convenient excuses because he had already been lined up as George Graham's successor at Highbury, confirming fears that Bolton had simply been a stepping stone to greater things, a place to recuperate after his stormy time at Millwall.
But Rioch himself says the subsequent years and, more specifically, the recent events of his move lock, stock and barrel to Norwich, explain that it was one factor and one factor alone that made Bolton the right place at the wrong time - his father-in-law's failing health.
"Had it not been for that, I would still have been manager of Bolton Wanderers going into that 1995-96 season in the Premiership," he says categorically.
"We were enjoying what we were doing and I've said before and I'll say it again, Gordon Hargreaves and his board of directors were the best people I have ever worked for.
"Had circumstances been different, it would not have mattered if Arsenal had come in.
"But there is always a moment, a time in your life when things get in the way of football. In my case it was family.
"My father-in-law had been bed-ridden since '94 and he was dying. We felt we owed it to the family to be closer to him. I didn't want to get to the stage of looking back on my life knowing I wasn't there when I was needed for a man I loved.
"I had already made my decision. I had fulfilled my contract.
"It was a coincidence when, after the play-offs, Arsenal approached me. I had already decided I was leaving, now I had somewhere to go.
"It was a difficult decision but it was an easy one too . . . I'm sure people can understand that."
Rioch's reign at Arsenal was an eventful one - a "one-year adventure" as he describes it. They reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, finished fifth in the League and qualified for Europe, beating Wanderers in the season's final match.
When I sat with the former Bolton boss way up in the deserted Highbury stand after that Sunday afternoon game, he appeared to have the world at his feet - at least he was ready to take on Europe with Bergkamp, Wright, Overmars, Adams, Seaman, Dixon . . ! But on the eve of the new season, after reports of a running battle with Gunners' vice-chairman David Dein, there was, as Rioch puts it, "a change of fortune." He was sacked.
Personal priorities were continuing to dictate his professional decisions - hence his agreement to work as No 2 when his former Highbury assistant Stewart Houston became manager at QPR.
"Ordinarily that would not have been a move I would have made because I am a manager not an assistant but I still needed to be working close to the family," he explains, "and Stewart is such an honourable man I was happy to work with him.
"Unfortunately it turned out to be the wrong club at the wrong time. For Stewart to go into his first job as a manager, he needed to be working for the right people.
"When we lost our jobs, I read it on Ceefax . . . that tells you everything."
Rioch spent eight months out of work before he was appointed manager of Norwich in the summer. Without a second thought, he sold his house in Harpenden and bought a place on the Norfolk Broads.
"My father-in-law passed away in February," he explains. "From then on we were in a position to make our move. We'd lived there eight years but when I was offered the chance to work for good people at a club with potential, we had no hesitation in selling up. We're in our 18th home now!"
There's a certain irony that tomorrow, the man who led Wanderers on so many giant-killing adventures and, in that exciting 94-95 season, to a triumph over Norwich en route to the Coca-Cola Cup Final, should be plotting their downfall in the same competition.
He'll offer no favours, of course, and he's too long in the tooth for sentiment. But that doesn't stop him having the fondest of memories of his Bolton days, especially the big cup ties that saw Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal, Aston Villa and West Ham put to the sword.
"They lifted the profile of the club and created a situation where supporters and players bonded in a fantastic way," he recalls. "I will never tire of the vision of the players pouring out cups of tea for fans as they queued in the rain for tickets! Priceless!
"My ambition was to get people away from their firesides and down to Burnden Park. We achieved it with the help of that terrific bunch of players.
"The chairman and board are responsible for the new stadium, in terms of the finance, but it was the players we had through that three-year period who were the ones who lifted the town and brought the people back.
"You'll never take away those memories."
Only four players - Keith Branagan, Jimmy Phillips, Gudni Bergsson and Nicky Spooner - survive from the Rioch days. But football has always been a transient industry, illustrated by the fact that in leading Wanderers out of the wilderness Rioch conducted no fewer than 40 changes in personnel.
He recalls: "There were some 22-24 out and 16-18 in but we had to keep pace with the times.
"When you jump up divisions, more money has to be spent and better quality players have to be brought in. The problem comes when you come back down.
"Sometimes you lose your best players. They get the taste for top flight football - playing at Old Trafford, Highbury and Anfield - and when you come down you are likely to lose them, as Bolton did with McAteer, Stubbs and Thompson.
"One of the last things I said before I left - and it should be in the minutes of a board meeting - was don't part with your best players. But it isn't easy when a player is determined to go and agents are involved."
Norwich fans have suffered more than most the consequences of selling star players. Four years ago they were in the Premiership and playing in Europe - now, after finishing 15th and 16th in consecutive Division One seasons, they have asked Rioch to steer them back to the top flight.
"Bolton were in a worse situation when I went in there," he recalls, encouragingly for his new Carrow Road bosses. "The crowds were down to, what 6-7,000, and they were in a division lower.
"Gates here were still at 12-13,000 last season and they're currently about 16-17,000, which is not bad. But there is still the same amount of work to be done. The big thing is the time factor - we achieved things very, very quickly at Bolton. More players seemed to be available for us to purchase at good prices; Keith Branagan on a free, John McGinlay for £100,000, Gudni Bergsson £65,000, Jimmy Phillips quarter of a million, Owen Coyle £200,000. Players like that aren't available at those prices any more."
The fact that Norwich bounced back from a 5-1 drubbing at Crystal Palace two Saturdays ago to win 1-0 at Ipswich three days later, has already put Rioch on a pedestal - the first manager in Norwich history to win his first derby. It was a landmark success.
"I was at a dinner in the city on Wednesday night and people were in a good mood," says the man who knows from experience that being in the right place at the right time can play a big part in shaping a man's destiny. "Thank goodness it hadn't been planned for the Monday!"
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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