'The real reason I left Aston Villa when Randy Lerner took over'
In his weekly column for BirminghamLive - Steve Stride comes clean about his Villa Park exit
There seems to have been a lot of confusion about my departure from Aston Villa at the end of the 2006-07 season. Some people ask why I left; others tell me Randy Lerner should never have sacked me. The truth is that he didn’t ask me to go.
By the time the Americans took over I’d been at Villa for almost 35 years, including 25 as secretary, and I was worn out. The job had taken over my life. Every waking minute I was thinking about the club.
When the new boys came it seemed a good time to leave. They brought in Richard FitzGerald as chief executive, and we agreed that I would stay on for 12 months to ensure a smooth handover.
The only thing that really annoyed me about my departure was that although Doug Ellis had retired, he kept an office at Villa Park. He came into Vila Park most days and it almost felt that he was still my boss.
Over lunch one day, I told him I was leaving at the end of the season, asking him not to tell anyone. I should have known better. The following day, the BirminghamEvening Mail ran the story – Randy gets rid of another one.
When I asked Doug why he’d told them, he denied it, but apart from my wife Carolyn he was the only person I had told. For years, I had never understood where the leaks to the press were coming from at Villa Park.
The biggest source of all was Doug. He did it to curry favour with local journalists and deflect criticism from him onto the manager.
