Quote Originally Posted by upthemaggies View Post
The rumour was that Walker told Pavis to F-off in front of the players, as a climax to a discussion about Kuhl, and that's why he was sacked. No idea how true or not that is but it is the sort of question I'd like to see posed to him by Paul Mace.

Mick was the last Notts manager to sit in (or stand against) the old Main Stand dug-outs and I think we can take it as read that we were not so well prepared for the 1994/95 season as a result of building the DPS. Behind the scenes it was said to be chaos. We ended up panic buying Nigel Jemson about or month into the campaign.

Some of the best memories I have of Notts were under Walker, but I think it stands to reason that he was probably not going to be a long term solution at that level (we did struggle away in particular) and that appointing Slade was the bigger mistake. Kendall arriving in the October rather than January might have made all the difference. Finishing 7th had flattered us in 1994 but we should never have been bottom four with that squad in 95 either.

I hope he is well. His contribution to Notts prior to being appointed as manager is enormous and it sounds as though people need reminding about that.
I didn't realise Mick Walker was now over 80 (born in Belper in 1940).

I agree with you that the behind-the-scenes situation must have been pretty turbulent when he was in charge at Notts.

I imagine this was the time when the penny dropped for Derek Pavis that he'd taken the club as far as he could and the crowds weren't suddenly going to start turning up even though we had, in effect, a brand new stadium. Ironically, it was Walker's earlier work with the youth team that had helped bring through the likes of Tommy Johnson and Mark Draper, which helped keep the club afloat at that time.

We did play some great football at Meadow Lane during his time in charge (the 4-1 drubbings of Derby and Leicester stand out, along with victories over the likes of West Ham, Sunderland and some team from across the river). I also have very fond memories of being in the home end at Selhurst Park with a Palace-supporting mate when we finally broke our (I think) 29-game streak without an away win with a 2-1 victory.

It'd be nice if the club did something for him in January 2023, which will be the 30th anniversary of his time taking charge.

And talking of anniversaries, this coming January will be 25 years since Big Sam became our manager. Despite the way it ended, it would still be great if the club did something to celebrate his time with us - maybe for the 25th anniversary of the championship win in 1997-98.