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They were Geoff Merrick, Gerry Sweeney, Trevor Tainton, Julian Marshall, Peter Aitken, Chris Garland, David Rodgers, Jimmy Mann.
Merrick, Sweeney, Tainton and Mann had been in the promotion side of 75-76 and throughout the First Division years. Garland had been the inspiration for their great escape in their first season in the top flight and Rodgers had been the replacement for Collier, whose transfer to Coventry was possibly the precursor to many of the problems.
The choice was clear. The eight players must leave or the club goes bankrupt. For a player such as Merrick this must have been a desperate position. A local boy who’d only ever played for the club. He was club captain in their greatest post-war years, yet here he was now being asked to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the club he loved. Goodness only knows what went through his mind when he first discovered the plight of the club. He had turned down lucrative moves in previous years out of loyalty for the club and the players he’d grown up with.
Interestingly it was the PFA who intervened to help rather than the Football League or The FA. The negotiations resulted in The Eight ripping up their contracts and thereby dissolving their debt from the club. Management now passed to a new company, Bristol City (1982) Ltd and this ensured the jobs of other PFA members and those employed by Bristol City were protected. During the longest week in the club’s history there were daily updates in the local press and on the radio.
Many supporters have spoken of the stress and pressure of never knowing whether there would be a club to go and watch at the weekend. The players came under increasing pressure too. Merrick later spoke of being bitter about his loyalty towards the club. “Loyalty is a complete and utter waste of time. Loyalty is a dirty word”, he said. The Eight were making the ultimate sacrifice in football terms, yet some of them received abusive phone calls and many fans accused them of holding the club to ransom.
It’s true you could argue they would’ve received nothing anyway as the club had nothing, but they would still have had a debt against the club and this would’ve caused the new company problems when they were trying to move on. According to Coller, The Eight walked away with £10,000 but they were unemployed and for a player of Merrick’s age he would never find another professional contract. Many of the other creditors had to accept much lower settlements just to make sure the whole deal went through with some of them taking as little as 10% of the amount they were due. But then had they refused that, then the club would’ve gone bankrupt and they would’ve got nothing.
The club began a massive advertising campaign to get people to invest in a share issue which would purchase the ground. They needed to raise £600,000 and everywhere around the city you could see stickers “Support Bristol City Football Club, Now or Never”.
Coller revealed
“at one minute past 12 on Wednesday 3rd February the club was going into liquidation if the players had not signed that document”
Coller and Sage found two other people willing to raise £12,500 each to come up with the £50,000 needed to set up the new plc. Coller later spoke of the stress he was under too, as he nearly lost his house and his wife who thought all the hours he was spending in meetings were actually being spent with another woman.
At the beginning of February 1982 the new BCFC (1982) Ltd was incorporated and set about buying the ground, making the club the tenant. They had to act fast as there were rumours flying around of other interested parties who would buy the ground and not necessarily for the benefit, or future of the club. The directors kept putting in money to get the project up and running and Coller admitted to funding the club to a personal total of £70,000 for the first six months. A sum which was all he had in the world.
6th February 1982 and the first match at Ashton Gate for the new club. Fulham were the visitors, who were sitting in 2nd place in the table behind Chesterfield on goal difference. Bristol City were a much changed side from the previous match.
30th January 1982 away to Newport County – Moller, Stevens,Williams, Aitken, Boyle, Sweeney, Tainton, Mann, Chandler, Harford, Musker.
Next match at home to Fulham – Moller, Stevens, Hay, Newman, Williams, Nicholls, Musker, Bray, Chandler, Harford, Economou, sub: Smith
In a strange coincidence the Fulham side that day contained Sean O’Driscoll, who is the current manager of Bristol City. It also contained Ray Lewington, who now works alongside Roy Hodgson with England, and of course Hodgson was the Bristol City boss that day.
Hodgson’s programme notes for that game are particularly revealing
“Last Saturday’s match at Newport came at the end of one of the most traumatic weeks in the history of Bristol City. The events off the field overshadowed the normal week’s training.
Everyone at the club was uncertain about the future and the game at Newport was played under the shadow of redundancies and closure of the club.
It was hardly ideal preparation and I must admit I was a little worried about how the players would react as we were going across the Severn Bridge.”
City fans have spoken about their team being “full of kids”, yet they received a rapturous welcome from a relieved home crowd of just over 9,000. The game was a goalless draw which, given the circumstances leading up to it, was a great achievement for City. In the week they were beaten at Plymouth but then travelled to Walsall, who were 6th, and came away with a 1-0 victory. It was their first win in the league since early November (9 matches) and was the start of a run of 3 wins in 4 matches.
But the optimism didn’t last and they went through March and April without another win, a run of 12 games where they picked up just 2pts. They lost 6 games in a row, scoring just once. Mick Harford was sold to Birmingham City and goalkeeper, Jan Moller, had moved to Toronto Blizzard. When City lost at Chesterfield towards the end of March they only had 12 available players. By then City were 2nd from bottom and another relegation seemed on the cards. 4th May 1982 they went to Huddersfield and were thumped 0-5 and this consigned them to a third successive relegation, which was a record at the time.
