4:38am Saturday 10th May 2008
By Gordon Sharrock
WHAT a difference a win makes. A week ago, Wanderers were sweating on Premiership survival. Now Gary Megson is fielding calls from players wanting to follow in the footsteps of Youri Djorkaeff, Jay Jay Okocha and Nicolas Anelka.
"It's surprised and pleased me that I've already had a couple of calls from the agents of high profile players who would like to come and join us," the Wanderers boss revealed.
"I think this club has already got an appeal. Some good players have come here in the past."
Megson had no need to add the rider that the Reebok would have lost its appeal had Wanderers been relegated. Some things do not need saying and certainly not when there is a risk of tempting providence.
Wanderers are still not mathematically safe and, while it is highly unlikely, they could yet be playing in the Coca-Cola Championship next season.
Megson is taking nothing for granted and was understandably irritated by the suggestion that his players were "celebrating" survival when they went out together last Sunday - not particularly unusual in itself but, in Sir Alex Ferguson's opinion, an issue worth raising in the build-up to tomorrow's title deciders.
But he has appeared more relaxed over the last few days and hinted that, once safety is assured, he will be ringing the changes in what promises to be a hectic summer of comings and goings on the transfer front.
"This club being down at the bottom . . ." he pondered. "We don't want that to happen again, but the first thing is to concentrate on staying up.
"This is not the right time, but if and when that's been achieved, we'll talk about the future."
Safety will be assured tomorrow, unless there is another dramatic twist in the tale of what has already been a traumatic season, When it is, "Ginger Mourinho" is likely to be one of the chants belting out from the 3,000 fans travelling to London in carnival mood - a far cry from the final nail-biting day of the 1997-98 season when it all ended in tears as Colin Todd's Wanderers lost at Chelsea and were relegated on goal difference.
It's been a roller-coaster ride for Megson since he took over from Sammy Lee in October: the coolest of receptions when he arrived; lauded for inspiring a revival that lifted them off the foot of the table and out of the bottom three; then vilified as they slipped back into the drop zone.
There have been other issues - the sale of Anelka and failure to sign a suitable replacement in January and the UEFA Cup selection policy - but at 48, Megson has been in the game long enough to know that managers are judged on results. And he fully appeciates what the supporters have had to go through.
"People react to what they see on the pitch, which I accept," he said.
"If they don't like it or they do like it, the focus is on the manager and the chairman, and the reaction to me and to Phil (Gartside) has been a reaction to the results we've been getting.
"We've had some bad results and some bad runs but, if we can stay up, it shows the results and the little runs in between have been quite good."
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