‘Big’ Ron Atkinson enjoyed a modest playing career with Oxford United between 1959 and 1971, helping the club rise three divisions from the Southern League to the Second Division in just six years as captain.
But while he never reached the top flight, that didn’t stop him as a manager in the Premier League claiming to play in training like 1999 PFA Player of the Year winner David Ginola – a full 25 years after he had retired from professional football.
Peter Ndlovu got to enjoy the Englishman’s energy at Coventry City in 1995 and 1996. After taking over the relegation-threatened Sky Blues in February 1995, Atkinson managed to keep them up, and then once more, before moving upstairs to become the director of football in November 1996.
Ron Atkinson claimed to play like David Ginola in Coventry training sessions
While selecting the three managers he enjoyed playing for most during his time in England, which lasted 13 years between 1991 and 2004 as he turned out for Coventry, Birmingham, Huddersfield and Sheffield United, Ndlovu had no hesitation in selcting Atkinson.
“Ron Atkinson, at Coventry, was a good manager and a very funny person to be around,” Ndlovu tells FourFourTwo.
“He would jokingly refer to himself as ‘Ginola’ after the talented French winger David Ginola, who was in the Premier League at the time. Big Ron trained with us and he’d be the star of our sessions.”
The Zimbabwean also loved one of his first managers in England, Bobby Gould, as well as Neil Warnock, whom he spent multiple seasons playing for at Sheffield United at the turn of the millennium.
“Bobby Gould gave me the best advice,” Ndlovu adds. “He treated me like his own son and disciplined me if I misbehaved. At Sheffield United, Neil Warnock was like a father to me, and one of the greatest, most underrated managers I played under.
“Neil would say to the players, ‘Play football the way you were given the talent.’ And he used to emphasise that you must also play for the team when you don’t have possession.”
