Steve Bone

We famously had...

Do you remember the story of Rory Allen, a striker that signed for a million pound in 1999?

Oh, go on, tell it again.

Looked quite good for a while, scored a few goals, then got injured, kept getting injured, was still at the club about two or three seasons later.

And then suddenly somebody realised that, well, not somebody at the club, but fans then started to realise that they hadn't seen or heard of Rory Allen for a few weeks or even a few months.

And it transpired that he'd gone down under, I'm sure with the club's blessing, or maybe even after the club had said, right, you're not wanted.

And he was spotted at an Ashes match down under.

Yes.

in the 2002-03 series.

You can imagine Harry's reaction, can't you?

Yes, Foreign Office.

That's a big change, isn't it?

Yeah, that's doing it in style, isn't it?

I'd love to have been the... I mean, I could have been, but I wasn't.

I'd love to have been the reporter that, after this became known, was the first to ask Harry, where's Rory Allen these days?

Because Harry would have told the full story.

Added a few twists and turns to it as well, wouldn't he?

And he would not have spoken kindly.

Right, that's probably a wise way to do it, because if you handed it personally, then Harry would think, well, you're part of the whole project.

You were involved in getting him out of there.