Keith Andrews

And fair play to these guys.

They were known as the Drummobile Consortium.

And they gave me the go-ahead to go in and do it.

And before I knew it, I was, you know, part owner and chairman of the club.

And they went, go ahead, Niall, off you go.

But they were good because they gave me some help in areas that I would really have needed it.

But what I learned from it, Don, was the only things I could rely on were my instincts that I learned in the dressing room.

And having spent 20 years in a dressing room and understand the dynamics of a dressing room, I tried to copy that

uh in terms of you know every part of the sunderland um i suppose business at the time so for instance if you have a good right back i couldn't play right back i couldn't tell him how to play right back but i could gm up make him feel good and say hey you're a great right back you're doing great you do your thing and that's the kind of model i used from the cleaning ladies right up we first of all i brought everybody to the races in the first week we went up to hexam and everybody lost all their money and uh and got drunk

But that was the start.

And we connected from then.

And I literally went into every corner of the business and said, guys, I haven't a clue how to do this.

You know, what would it look right if you were in full flow here?

What do you need?

And it was really just what you'd say to any part of the dressing room.

That was my instinct.

And to this day, even with the work we're doing now and with the FAI, to get the best out of people, shouting and roaring or taking the limelight,

for work that's done never helps, never works.

And I found it was a natural place to go to allow the talent stand up and show for itself.

And that would be my advice to anybody who's leaving football to get into the administrative world.