But, finally, Spurs had their man and the manager was delighted. ‘He is a quality player and a great acquisition,’ Graham beamed. ‘He is a team player and I have the philosophy individuals play, teams win Championships. He can play well with others but produce on his own as well, he is an ideal player for me.’
Although this was not quite a transfer in the Klinsmann mould, still, people seemed surprised that the Ukrainian had chosen to come to White Hart Lane, and Rebrov was asked why he had turned down the mighty Milan in favour of Spurs. ‘Maybe there would have been a better offer from Milan, but I dreamed of playing in England and the chairman and the club respected my wishes and so I am here,’ he said. ‘I know the team are going up and looking to win the English League and to be a part of that success would be a dream for me. I am confident about the future, I know the targets of the club. They told me they would like to bring more players in and I am very happy with that. Any club wanting to be the best must do that. I hope they will play in Europe very soon and I can help them to do that.’
However, Rebrov’s magic was obviously not enough to lift Tottenham straight into title contention, and it seems George Graham would soon be knocking on Sugar’s door wanting money for more players. ‘I would like to think if I targeted someone I could buy him, but we are not there yet,’ he said. ‘If you look at the bench it’s full of kids, but the youngsters we have bought are for the future.
‘There is a lot of hard work to do here. I don’t think you can challenge the top three for two or three years after avoiding relegation. The task of acquiring players to challenge is virtually impossible within that time. Right now the top of the League does not bother me. I’ve got to get us right and somewhere near that top six. The main problem we have had is long-term injuries. If I can get them back it will be a massive boost. But we still need new players. Without them I don’t know how far we can go.’
By the time that fans’ favourite David Ginola quit for Aston Villa, the writing seemed to be on the wall, as Sugar came under intense pressure to quit. And he eventually and uncharacteristically succumbed. ‘No jokes. No tricks. I’m off. And I will do it in a professional manner,’ he said. ‘The company has made an announcement to the Stock Exchange that we are in talks with various people. As soon as any of these become statutory and reportable, we shall comment on them. There are no deals right now. But, as they say, we are hot to trot.’ That trot came a step closer at the end of the year.
In December 2000, it was confirmed that leisure group ENIC, led by sports executive Daniel Levy, was buying 27 per cent of Tottenham chairman Sir Alan Sugar’s majority stake in the club, giving it a total of 30 per cent. It was reported that this was the third time that Sugar had offered ENIC the chance to buy him out. Sugar would have been justified in allowing himself a wry chuckle when fans began more or less immediately to question ENIC’s ambition. When it was revealed that ENIC believed it would take five years for them to turn the club’s fortunes around, Bernie Kingsley, of the Tottenham Independent Supporters Association, said, ‘If this means we are going to have to wait another five years before ENIC believes we’re going to be major players again, the fans will not be happy. This is exactly the sort of thing we’ve heard year after year from Sugar. The fans want to see something happening soon. We want to know what ENIC’s plans for the club are. We hope we’re not going straight from the frying pan into the fire. We’ve already waited ten years for some sort of success.’
It appeared to be a case of new owners, but the same old story.
Sugar, meanwhile, seemed to be well out of it. He had stepped down as chairman, but not before winning a libel case against the Daily Mail for an article that unjustly branded him ‘The Miser of N17’. He donated the proceeds of the case to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Citing the personal abuse of his family as the straw that broke the camel’s back, Sugar was relieved to be away from football. ‘It is a sad end, mainly because I have been stuck with a label. They will talk about Alan Sugar as a money man and that’s all down to people’s attitude. But that’s how I’ll always be remembered.’
His position had become increasingly difficult, as the Spurs fans continued to turn on him. ‘We want Sugar out!’ became a depressingly familiar chant at White Hart Lane. Hunter Davies joked in the Evening Standard, ‘The only solution for Sugar: Sack the Spurs fans and sign a new 10,000 crowd.’
However, the situation became far from amusing when details of a secret meeting of anti-Sugar Spurs ‘supporters’ was leaked to the media. A sinister three-point action plan was revealed:
‘1. Boycott of goods such as programmes, drinks, etc. and of sponsors’ goods like easyJet flights, Holsten beer – this would send the sponsors a signal there is a vote of no confidence in Sugar.
2. Demonstrate at every home game, win or lose, to embarrass Sugar.
3. Abuse his family.’
In addition, an anti-Sugar website, with his mobile phone number on it, was published on the Internet. No wonder Sugar, a man who has always put family well before business, had had enough.
After leaving Tottenham, Sugar seemed to remain bitter about much of what went on there, and took a swipe at George Graham, after the Scotsman had blamed Sugar for the club’s continued woes. ‘George Graham is very experienced at playing the media game, orchestrating the press with a clever quote or an easy headline. Unfortunately, many fans can’t see through this little trick unless someone like me spells it out,’ wrote Sugar. ‘But let me ask you something: Have you ever noticed nothing is ever George Graham’s fault? And I mean nothing. Now how can that be true? None of us are perfect, yet George has cleverly mastered the art of deflection and is very successful at diverting attention from himself and his failings.’ He joked that, even if footage was found of George Graham robbing a bank, it would be blamed on Alan Sugar and not the Scotsman. He concluded, ‘In my time at Tottenham I made lots of mistakes, the biggest was possibly employing him.’
Looking back over his up-and-down reign at White Hart Lane, Sugar was philosophical but blunt. ‘What went wrong was, I think, my persistence in thinking that perhaps I could make it a successful business and also successful on the football pitch,’ he said. ‘What went wrong is my poor reading of the situation. After year in, year out trying to do things that way, what went wrong was it took me too long to realise that I was pissing in the wind, literally wasting my time, banging my head up against the wall. That’s what went wrong. My fault.’ Having accepted his part of the responsibility – a very Alan Sugar trait – he fired a defiant parting shot at football, and looked to the future. ‘It was a waste of my life. I think a clever person, a clever outside observer who wants to do a commercial analysis on me, should track Amstrad’s results throughout the course of that ten years, then track them now. After I leave Tottenham and get back to concentrating on Amstrad, you start to see the profits rising again. And that tells a story. No one’s picked up on that really. The story is, I suppose, I’m a one-horse pony man, or whatever you want to call it. When I give my attention to something I tend to give it all and I think, in hindsight, that, apart from my losing ten years out of my life, Amstrad shareholders actually lost me for a while. I took my eye off the ball for a wasted, hopeless, ungrateful bunch of people.’
‘You could forgive Alan Sugar for renaming Tottenham’s ground White Hart Strain after his troubled tenure as Spurs chairman,’ commented Peter Sanderson on the BBC website.
And perhaps he thought ENIC should take that strain, as he moved, onwards and upwards, to his next challenge – and his next moment of glory.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ARISE, SIR ALAN SUGAR
The New Year’s honours list announced on 31 December 1999 had a special edge to it, as it was the Millennium year. Among those announced on the list were Sir Sean Connery, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Dame Shirley Bassey, Dame Julie Andrews, Henry Cooper, Stirling Moss, Richard Branson and Norman Wisdom. These were hallowed shoulders to be rubbing on such a prestigious list,
and an honour for Alan Sugar, the working-class boy from Hackney made good, to be included in this list. Indeed, it was a special list in another way too. The Prime Minister’s spokesman Alastair Campbell explained that many of those nominated fell into the category of being an ‘icon’, among which he included Alan Sugar.
Sugar was overjoyed and somewhat amused to learn of this news. ‘I’m tickled pink,’ he told reporters. He then explained that he felt the significance of this news went far beyond the personal. ‘It is a great honour and a wonderful sign of the times that a man that started his life in a working-class background should, through hard work and application, be honoured by his country. Young people should take this as a signal that in Britain today anything is possible if the will to succeed is strong enough.’ However, the moment of joy was tinged with a little sadness. ‘My only regret is that my mum and dad are no longer here to enjoy this moment,’ said the man shortly to become Sir Alan Sugar.
The response from the media was supportive. In modern times, an element of cynicism about knighthoods and other honours has crept into public discourse. However, it was generally agreed that the man who began in business by selling car aerials out of his boot and rose to become a multimillionaire was about as suitable a recipient for such an honour as it was possible to imagine. And even the mischievous lot over at the Daily Mirror’s ‘City Slickers’ finance column offered their congratulations to both Sugar and Branson. ‘Congratulations to our good pals Alan Sugar and Richard Branson on their long overdue knighthoods,’ they wrote. ‘What do we call you guys now? Sir, Sir Al, Sir Dickie? Let us know mateys.’ A few days later they followed up, cheekily claiming that a rise in Amstrad’s share value was in part down to them. ‘The City is going crazy over Sir Alan Sugar’s Amstrad, after we made it our top tip for 2000. The shares have already jumped 48 per cent so far this year to 311p. More to the point, our tip has helped make Sugar £22.3 million since the turn of the century. You know where to find us, Sir Al, and if you want our bank account details, just ask.’
Six months later, the Amstrad boss officially became Sir Alan Sugar at Buckingham Palace. He was only permitted three guests on the day, after a bit of family deliberation, he chose to take his wife Ann, daughter Louise and son Daniel.
‘I was only allowed three guests so the kids had to fight over it. But they managed to arrive at a peaceful arrangement.’ He describes the moment when he was knighted by the Queen on 13 June 2000, as ‘one of the proudest moments of my life’.
This phrase gives us a telling insight into his mind and priorities. Some men, on receiving a knighthood, will have regarded it as the proudest moment of their life. The man who built a business empire from scratch will have a host of proud moments during his working life, and, in his personal life, where marrying Ann and becoming a father and grandfather will also have been milestone moments. Although Sugar did not elaborate about the other proud moments that stand alongside his knighthood, it’s a safe bet to assume such precious family moments will have been at the top of the pile.
But he was naturally full of pride and joy at his knighthood. Beaming, he said, ‘It was a great day, a wonderful occasion. I seem to have come a long way and that is a great, great feeling. It shows how someone can start from a humble background and go on to be very successful. It shows the country that anything is possible. These honours certainly help break down the class barriers.’
It is typical of him to see the wider picture and to use his proud moment to offer hope and encouragement to others from his background.
As to how his relatives felt about his knighthood, he managed to express their pride but also maintain a refreshing slice of that Sugar gruffness, which none of his admirers would ever want him to lose. ‘I don’t think there were any tears shed but I know they were certainly very proud of me,’ he said. ‘It is just wonderful to get some recognition.’
As for the monarchy itself, Sir Alan showed a deep-felt appreciation of the institution. He said of the royal family, ‘They are something the whole world takes the mickey out of but actually they are fantastic – and really should be kept. We must start to appreciate that and leave them alone.’
Others to be honoured on the day included Auf Wiedersehen Pet actor Timothy Spall, who had fought leukaemia for four years, who received an OBE. He had flown in specially from America for the event. ‘They would only let me come back to the UK to come to this, otherwise I would still be working,’ he said, smiling. Actress Alison Steadman of Singing Detective and Abigail’s Party fame was also made an OBE and said, ‘I am absolutely thrilled, it is a great honour to be here.’
When Sugar was called forward for his knighthood, the announcer mentioned that the honour was being bestowed upon him for his work with computers and electronics. However, when he presented himself to the Queen, she told him that everyone would actually know him as a result of his involvement in football. Speaking of his work in the beautiful game, she said to Sir Alan that it must be a ‘a rather precarious business’.
Sugar smiled knowingly and replied, ‘Yes, it certainly is.’
So, would Sir Alan let his knighthood go to his head? Of course not, as he immediately showed after the event. As he spoke to reporters, he quickly turned the subject from his knighthood to the previous evening’s football match.
It had been a dramatic game, which saw Portugal come back from two goals down to defeat England in the first-round tie of the European Championships. ‘It was very disappointing,’ he said. ‘I really thought in the first fifteen minutes that we were going to win. But we are still in with a chance.’ A lot of men would have been too distracted the evening before a knighthood to watch football, and many would have been too excited after a knighthood to even think about the previous evening’s match. Not Sir Alan, who remained as down to earth as ever in the face of his newfound status. (It should also have shown those who, during his Tottenham Hotspur era, claimed that Sugar did not care about the game that they were clearly wrong.)
Cynics sometimes point to the fact that everyone has to use the ‘Sir’ prefix while addressing Sugar on The Apprentice and suggested that it is somehow bigheaded of him to insist on this. However, read any interview with Sugar since his knighthood and you will struggle to find any significant mentions of the knighthood, or his memories of his day at Buckingham Palace. While he has accepted the honour with joy and grace, he has also moved on, to write the next chapter of his life, a chapter that has included further honours. The man that left school at 17 with a mixed attitude, having been interested in part in furthering his education, was made an honorary doctor of science by City University, in recognition of his close involvement with the business school, including establishing the Amstrad Research Scholarship. He received his degree from Professor Andrew Chambers, the dean, at a ceremony at London’s Guildhall.
Five years later, he added another honorary degree to his collection, when Brunel University also made him an honorary doctor of science. He received the award on 12 July at Wembley Conference Centre. ‘I am delighted to accept this degree from a famous university that specialises in technology, a field that has been close to my heart all of my professional life. It is a great honour they felt my contribution to technology over the years has warranted this.’
‘You don’t need a degree to be great,’ said an opinion piece in the Daily Express on 19 August 2005. It went on to praise Sugar for making it big in business without a university education. ‘Sir Alan Sugar, the multimillionaire who started electronics company Amstrad and stars on TV, never dreamed of Oxford. His higher education took place at a market stall.’
It was nice that the article praised Sugar this way, but, by the time this article was published, it was not technically correct, as Sir Alan actually had two degrees.
Later that year, Sugar returned to give Brunel students a lecture. The evening, sponsored by HSBC Bank, took the form of ‘An Evening with Sir Alan’. ‘I enjoy being accessible, recognisable and perhaps a role model for the publi
c,’ he said, looking forward to the event. ‘It’s equally important to be able to have a rapport with a live audience. I’m looking forward to being in the hot seat myself for a change.’
It turned into an enjoyable and memorable evening. Sugar had been key in orchestrating the evening’s schedule. He dismissed the idea of simply giving a lecture, because he finds speeches – both giving them and listening to them – boring. Brunel vice-chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz, introducing Sugar, said, ‘It’s a Q&A session and nothing is really off-limits. If it is, I’m sure Sir Alan will let you know!’
As it turned out, nobody asked anything that he was not absolutely delighted to answer.
Joseph Baines, the president of the Union of Brunel Students, asked the first question: ‘Why do you think that nationally we are struggling to excite youngsters into a career in engineering? And how would you go about promoting engineering as a profession to the youth of today?’
Sugar replied, ‘Engineers are underpaid and undervalued in this country. Engineering needs to be made more attractive – at the moment people want to become consultants, as it is an easy route to put money in their pockets. In countries such as France, engineers are regarded much more highly, in the same bracket as doctors and lawyers.’
Later in the evening, Lady Kitty Chisholm, Brunel’s director of development, asked Sugar about his well-known dislike of schmoozing. He must have done some of it himself, though, she suggested.
‘I was told in my younger days that “this is what you do”, so I did wine and dine – it was dull and insincere,’ replied Sugar. ‘Younger people have to do it for me now as I don’t have the patience! Entertaining is now a big industry. It drives things like corporate hospitality at race days and football. It is now a deliberately prepared corporate expense. That’s how it is in business, people are used to the jollies. Take them away and people might leave.’
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