MY EARLIEST memory of Jim Smith is a blurry childhood image of him on the touchline at St James’ Parkin 1991.
Smith, who died this week aged 79, wasn’t exactly popular on Tyneside. Relegated from the First Division, then defeated by Sunderland in the play-offs. All against a backdrop of empty coffers and a boardroom at war.
Sacked a few months later, he would later remind everybody just what a good manager he was by turning Derby County into one of the Premier League’s most entertaining upstarts.
I met Jim ten years later. As it happened, the first three mont...