Big Ron Manager
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Big Ron Manager is a television documentary series based on Ron Atkinson's efforts as a troubleshooter at the English League 2 football club Peterborough United. The series was screened on Sky TV in 2006.
Originally, the show was going to feature Swindon Town and Sky spent around 4 weeks filming there before being asked to leave by the Swindon management.
Peterborough United received a fee of around £100,000[1] from Sky TV for access to the changing rooms and for Ron Atkinson to assist the rookie manager Steve Bleasdale. Bleasdale was unhappy at Atkinson's involvement in the changing room and subsequently banned him and the cameras from the changing rooms on matchdays. However, later in the series Bleasdale relented after being overruled by Chairman Barry Fry.
Some scenes caused quite a stir in Peterborough when the show was aired, including a dressing room brawl between Mark Arber and Paul Carden and Bleasdale rowing with youngsters Sean St Ledger and Adam Fry.
St Ledger joked about suing Sky TV, after claiming the programme showed him as the team's bad boy, which he denied. The media alighted on this, and he was later forced to clarify that the statement was in fact, a joke.
There were several instances during the filming of Atkinson upsetting Bleasdale:
- Although the club were short of funds, he persuaded Barry Fry to hire a goalkeeping coach in Tony Godden
- Suggesting during an injury crisis to go for Queens Park Rangers striker Stefan Moore on loan. However Bleasdale overruled Atkinson and instead snapped up Lloyd Opara on a free transfer from a local team.
In April 2006, Bleasdale walked out of Peterborough United only 70 minutes before a game against Macclesfield. It was later reported that this was due to clashes with Atkninson.[2] Chairman Barry Fry put himself in charge for the final two games of the season.
