Barry Silkman kept being told he was a Malcolm Allison player, and when the opportunity came to join Manchester City he jumped at it.
City were one of four clubs he had always looked up to growing up, and Allison - joint-manager of the Blues in 1978 with Tony Book - paid out of his own pocket for a second medical to bring Silkman up to Maine Road when the first one flashed up a knee problem. With a brilliant debut goal at Ipswich, it couldn't have been a better start.
Silkman was beginning to realise the reality of the club wasn't what he had been sold though: Colin Bell wasn't the player he used to be with injury, Peter Barnes was sold and Mick Channon was being pushed towards the exit door. The team that the former Wimbledon and Palace player had been promised he could star alongside was disappearing.
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Then came another compromising situation. Silkman knew Allison's wife Sally well enough that she asked him if he would move in with the couple to help them cope with a few issues as they were about to welcome a baby into the house.
"I told the lads what I was doing and that it was just for a short time because I didn’t want them to find out from somebody else," he said in his new book The Not So Secret Football Agent. "I explained why I was doing it, and they all accepted it. I’m not sure what they thought of it privately, because it was a bizarre situation, but I didn’t care. I was helping an old friend out and that was the bottom line."
Silkman had been living with the Allisons for a few weeks when City lost down at Crystal Palace and the joint-manager didn't make it to training the following Monday. Given he shared a house, it was Silkman who Book and chairman Peter Swales went to to find out where he was . . . only the player didn't know.
Covering for him saying he was ill, Silkman even shut the door on a suspicious Swales who went round to the house to see Allison for himself as he continued to protect the man who had brought him to Maine Road. He finally tracked him down in a nightclub, and picked him up at Piccadilly on the Friday morning ahead of training for a game at home to United at the weekend.
SIlkman had been on set-piece duty the day before the game, so was astonished when the team was pinned up in the dressing room before he went home and he saw he was on the bench - for the reserves. Not wanting to upset the coach who still wielded immense power at the club, Swales had made Silkman a scapegoat instead.
"Peter Swales needed a sacrificial lamb and focused solely on my role in the whole mess. He wasn’t going to take Malcolm on, but someone had to pay, and he said: 'Right, Silkman’s out. He’s a f******* liar!” In his eyes, he’d been made a fool of and even though everything I’d done had been to protect Malcolm," he said.
"In his eyes, I’d committed the bigger crime by being deceitful towards him. Peter Swales called me personally to tell me I wouldn’t be playing for City again. He said, 'Just to let you know, you’re down for the reserves tomorrow but after that, you are banned from Manchester City Football Club. I’ll find a club for you, but I never ever want to see you at the club again.'
"I couldn’t believe it. I’d only played 21 games for City, and I loved my time there. I felt I hadn’t done anything wrong, but in hindsight, I should have just got on with my football and left Malcolm to fight his own battles. It was too late for that, however. There was nothing I could do."
Silkman went from City on loan to Maccabi Haifa before going on to play for various clubs, including City's FA Cup opponents Leyton Orient. The 72-year-old has been asked to attend Saturday's game but turned down all requests because he says he will not be able to stop himself celebrating if either team score.
Despite his short time at the club, he has plenty of fond memories and there are still players he keeps in touch with. He is also in no doubt that he would do it all again if it meant helping out a friend.
"The problem I had from a professional point of view is can you imagine if you're a player and one of your teammates is now living with Malcolm Allison? It doesn't look too clever," he " target="_blank" class="link"> said on the Talking City podcast.
"But I have always put my life and friendships before me and my profession. The choice I had was possibly ruin my career by going there or not going there and letting down a really good friend. So there was no contest.
"My personal life is much stronger than my professional life so I went to live with Sally and it was the beginning of the end for me at Man City. Malcolm let me down badly."
The Not So Secret Football Agent, the story of Barry Silkman's life, is out now and available to buy here.
