Ken Jones: Hollins the fall guy for penny-pinching club afraid of success

John Hollins couldn't find any terrific reasons for putting roots down in Rochdale but it was better than firing off job applications, waiting for the telephone to ring. With only five months to make something out of very little, Hollins got Rochdale into the Third Division play-offs, the closest they have been to promotion since 1969. Mightily pleased, Rochdale asked Hollins to produce a retained list while they worked on an extension of his contract.

Earlier this week, Hollins was told that his services were no longer required. He wasn't told personally. The news arrived by fax at his home in London. Fact is that Rochdale could not afford him. They could not afford an experienced manager who had been working for the equivalent of £60,000 a year, standard per month in the Premiership, a third of what David Beckham recently paid for a motor car.

Even when told of a £10,000 wage cut, Hollins was prepared to think things over, perhaps come up with an idea or two that would make Rochdale's offer more acceptable. "I was in work and I wanted to stay in work," he said when we spoke yesterday. "I thought if I lived in a small hotel – I only needed somewhere to put my head – instead of a flat, travelling up from London on Mondays, it would make it easier for Rochdale to pay my salary." Then, the fax machine chattered into life. "We have decided, etc, etc... Thanks for all your efforts," signed by the club's chief executive.

Immediately, Hollins called the Rochdale chairman, David Kilpatrick. "When did you get this?" the chairman asked. "Just a few minutes ago," Hollins replied. "It's news to me," the chairman insisted, "we had a board meeting but nothing was decided." "Well, I guess you aren't the bloody chairman," Hollins snorted.

He followed up this call with one to the League Managers' Association. Hollins was told that the matter would receive their urgent attention. "Don't bother," he said. "You couldn't do anything for me when I had a contract so what do you expect to achieve now."

Hollins was referring to the £250,000 he is still owed by Swansea City who fired him six games into last season, 15 months after winning the Third Division championship and being named divisional manager of the year. "Any fool could see that the squad wasn't strong enough for Division Two," he recalls, "but there was no investment and we came right back down again. New owners took over and I was swept aside, left to whistle for the balance of my contract. I'm hardly in a position to sue them and the LMA haven't got anywhere. I was watching Alan Hansen on television last week going on about a cash crisis in the game and I thought to myself, Christ, you don't know the half of it, you don't begin to know what managers in the lower leagues go through, struggling to make ends meet, dealing with directors who, in many cases, are terrified by the prospect of promotion."

The Swansea experience hardly makes Hollins unique. He can reel off a list of managers who are owed money, in some cases for years, by clubs in the lower divisions. "Will they ever get paid out, will I get paid out? I'm not holding my breath," he said.

Hollins has been in football for more years than he cares to remember. A model professional, admired for his cheerfulness and enthusiasm, he made more than 750 appearances in the old First Division for Chelsea, Arsenal and Queen's Park Rangers, winning one cap for England. Despite some disappointing experiences in management – Chelsea in the mid-Eighties was too soon for him – his passion for the game remains undiminished.

But what does the future hold? In their eagerness to keep clubs afloat, the authorities abdicate from proper scrutiny. Thus, some of us see clubs, teams even, run by men who wouldn't know a through pass from a can of beans. "I can see it coming," Hollins said. "A time when owners of smaller clubs will want complete control over who is signed, who is sold, what the team should be because they think they know better."

For their play-off semi-final against Rushden & Diamonds Rochdale drew 8,547 spectators, Spotland's biggest league crowd in years. The game provided record receipts of £77,000, enough, Hollins thought, to provide him with a decent wage. "After all, I wasn't asking for the earth," Hollins said. He should have guessed the outcome, really should.