If I remember right all the talk was about BFR, who was out of work at the time or possibly Dave Bassett taking over. I don't recall any talk of SGT before his appointment. It was quite surreal for me as he was appointed on the day I left school. I ducked into a newsagents to avoid a schools out forever eggs and flour rampage and saw the front page of the Evening Mail announcing his appointment. I was there for his first game at Ipswich, where we got to have a quick chat and autograph after the game (the joy and freedom that £28.50 a week YTS money brought) and his last game at Everton three years later and about 95% of the games in between, the vast majority of them with Nev. We also got to meet him and have a chat and a picture after the Nigel Spink testimonial forum, which was in Sutton Coldfield if I remember right.
Prior to this I thought we were in serious decline. There was a genuine malaise around West Midlands football. Wolves were in the bottom run having lost to Chorley I think in the FACUP. Blues and Albion had been relegated the season before and nearly fell through to the 3rd tier.