OTHER SPORT

HERO TUEART DUMPED BY CITY'S EMAIL

HUMILIATION: Tueart was a former England winger

Sunday July 8,2007

By Paul Hetherington

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DENNIS TUEART last night revealed his “hurt and anger” after his 33-year association with Manchester City was ended by e-mail.

The City legend, who scored the spectacular goal which brought the club their last trophy in 1976, was on the board for over nine years.

But he was cruelly axed from his role as a non-executive director last month.

Former England winger Tueart said: “It’s not often that I am lost for words but that was one of the biggest shocks of my life.

“I got a call from my secretary saying we’d had a few attachments e-mailed through and one of them was my resignation letter.

“I asked her to forward it on and, sure enough, there it was with all the documents relating to the takeover of the club. I was stunned.

“I have been associated with the club for 33 years and it was ended by one e-mail.

“Immediately after that e-mail, I contacted Alistair Mackintosh (City’s chief executive) and said: ‘I’ve just been sent my resignation letter’. He blustered a bit, mumbled and said: ‘That’s where we are up to’. Then he added: ‘What can I do?’”

Tueart continued: “That night I got a very cold call from Alistair, telling me there were going to be documents hand-delivered to my house for signature.

“As my son, Mark, passed the phone to me, I felt my stomach churning and the phone felt ice-cold because I knew what was coming. My wife Joan even asked me what else Alistair had said, and when I said ‘nothing’ she was absolutely livid.

“That was because no one knows better than her how many hours I had put in over nine and a half years trying to give the Manchester City supporters, who I relate to, what they deserve – a fantastic football team.

“For the next 24 to 48 hours I was not a person to be with. But my faith in human beings eventually started to return because I got so many calls from virtually all the Academy staff, who were devastated because we were bonded in a team unit.”

Tueart believes he was stabbed in the back, adding: “I’ve thought long and hard about it, and I keep thinking there could have been an outside influence involved with his own agenda – someone with a personal vendetta against me, which has been suggested to me.”