Ashley Ward joins us on Live from Redfearn's Bar at 7pm Tonight!

Wish we had signed Ward pre season, could have been enough to keep us up..

 

Brilliant Ben, my fave so far. Makes me feel so lucky that i was there for all those matches, our first season in the Premiership with that electric atmosphere and such good football.

Its bugging me now though, which manager nearly brought him back to Oakwell!

 

Yes, another really enjoyable hour just flew by listening to his reminiscences. I really believe him when he says his Oakwell stint was his most enjoyable, especially as after he left he really didn't score that many goals (Blackburn, Bradford, Blades). If only he had stayed and developed dynamite partnerships with the likes of Bruce and Higgy. I think we would have won that play off final against Ipswich with him in the side.

But, as ever, money talked and we couldn't afford to turn down £4.5 million for a player who was giving us a clear profit of £3 million. And, of course, moneybags Blackburn could offer to pay him more, and it was more local for him there as well. You can't blame him but it still bugs me that the move to bring him back, from Bradford, collapsed.

 

What a great front three Ward , Dyer and Hignett such a shame it was only for one game. Another top interview Ben.

 

Ashley was at Bradford between 2000 and 2003. Our managers during that time were Bassett -May 1999 to Dec 2000,
Winstanley Dec 2000- Jan 2001, Spackman Jan 2001- Oct 2001, Hodges Oct 2001- Nov 2001, Parkin Nov 2001- Oct 2002,
Hodges Oct 2002- June 2003, Thordarson June 2003- March 2004.

Ash left Bradford to join Sheffield United in 2003, so the likelihood is that it was Gudgon Thordarson who tried to sign him.

 

No surprise to hear Ashley cite Barnsley as his favourite Club out of all those he played for.
It truly is a unique family Club with very loyal special fans. I bet many a former player has
regretted ever leaving.

 

I recollect a story that Patrick Cryne offered to fund Ashley coming back to Oakwell, but on condition that John Dennis agreed to the shareholder agreement being torn up. This would have allowed Cryne to take equity in the club, and would have presumably prevented the events leading up to administration, and the Doyle takeover. John Dennis either couldn’t or wouldn’t agree to this, and the Ward deal fell through. I may have imagined this, but I certainly recall something like this being rumoured at the time.

 

Great work Ben once again. Brings back great memories, it was only when Ash said it was 20 years ago you realise just how quickly time has gone by.

I’m sure that if we’d had him and Jan from the start we’d have been fine. I love the fact that part of his reason for joining us was seeing us the week before and thinking we were a proper footballing side.

Probably the best centre forward I’ve seen pull on the shirt.

 

Thank you Ben for that interview and Paul too, it was really interesting listening to what he said. As someone else has said, time has gone very quick, Ash has aged very well,better than me,at any rate.

 

Forget play offs think we would have gone up automatically with Dyer, Higgy and Ward up front. What a cruel glimpse of what could have been

 

I would go further and say once those three got us promoted automatically, they would have also helped keep us in the premier league the following season.

 

Probably the best forward line I've seen on the pitch at Oakwell for us. Had everything pace, power , guile , finishing ...

 

For me the quality of Bens interviewing credibility was confirmed, when Ashley said that if he had returned to
Oakwell and played under Steve Parkin, " I probably wouldn't have been invited to appear on your show".
That's the type of comment an ex- player might make regarding a broadcast on terrestrial television, so to me it
shows how much our ex-players appreciate and rate the professionalism of each stream that Ben and Co
provide for our fan base. Please keep up the good work Ben, it is greatly appreciated.

Incidentally just been reading a piece on Ashley and the wealth himself and his wife have amassed in recent
years. They are involved in building and interior design for the likes of Wayne and Coleen Rooney and they
themselves live in a £15 million valued property, plus they are heavily involved in the TV programme "the
Real Housewives of Cheshire". Ashley and Dawn have four daughters and one Taylor is apparently in a relationship
with the now single Sergio Aguero the prolific Man City striker.

 

Yep, it was the year we were relegated from the second tier, under Parkin.

The version of events I read was that Cryne would pay £2million - presumably all debts cleared including that pesky NatWest overdraft - and bring back Ward in exchange for Dennis leaving the club. I don't know how much, if anything, there was on top for Dennis and co, or whether the £2million cleared the debts and left a bit over for the existing board.

Apparently the two of them didn't get on well, though, and so Dennis wouldn't hear of it.