Paul McGrath: Amr Zaki should be treated like I was at Aston Villa by Big Ron

Apr 9 2009 By Paul McGrath

THERE’S only one way to deal with Amr Zaki after he walked like an Egyptian and went awol from Wigan.

And that’s to treat him like Ron Atkinson treated me when I infamously went missing ahead of a Villa FA Cup tie at Exeter.

The day before the game I found myself in some pub somewhere, my memory’s still a bit hazy to be honest, and was faced with a difficult choice.

Football or another pint. It’s no secret the pint won that time as it did on a number of occasions.

It was the days before mobile phones were popular – and I was one of the last to get a mobile anyway because I didn’t like to be at anyone’s beck and call.

I missed the match and I knew that eventually I’d have to face the wrath of Big Ron, so I was dreading what he’d do.

Actually, Ron was quite straightforward about it. He just got the kitman Jim Paul, a lovely fella who has sadly passed away now, to drive me to the nearest bank.

He frogmarched me up to the counter – even though he actually felt quite sorry for me – and made me withdraw £5,000 in one go.

He took the money off me and handed it over to Ron, who put it in a kitty for a break to Marbella for the rest of my team-mates while I stayed at home.

Fortunately, the lads won the cup tie at Exeter 1-0 with a Dean Saunders goal and because of that I thought the other players would give me some of the cash back because it was a lot of money to us back then. No chance!

Steve Bruce is a strong character at Wigan and I think he will want to discipline Zaki, so why not escort him to the cashpoint and dock 10 times that amount from his pay packet?