Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn has revealed he faced a mass exodus of players when he was made manager.
The former Republic of Ireland striker took over as chairman in the summer of 2006 and soon took charge of team matters.
He recalled to The Journal: "I ended up at the training ground on my first day with 24 professional footballers who had been relegated on a low points tally the season before.
"I had to do something about it, it was seven days to the first game.
"I then thought I was a manager - which was my first mistake! I decided I would see the players one by one and do it alphabetically.
"The first player who came to see me was goalkeeper Ben Alnwick. He handed me a transfer request. I was a little bit disappointed, as you can imagine.
"I thought very quickly, 'You only have two goalkeepers, you had better go and get the other one.' Kelvin (Davies) was the other one and I wanted to make sure he was OK, so I asked him how he was. He said, 'I am fine', then handed me a transfer request.
"I sent him to get Ben back in and told him, 'Ben, you have a new three-year contract, you are playing on Saturday. Do you want your transfer request back?' He took it back. I was so pleased because the next name was Julio Arca, who I played with for six years. He walked in and said, 'Quinny! I must go'.
"Things were tough, so I turned to the man I had brought in to help me, (assistant manager) Bobby Saxton.
"He walked into the players' communal area and the whole place went silent. He said, 'Right you lot, there is a rumour going around one or two of you want to stay at this club. Is that right?' There was silence.
"So I carried on down the list and everyone of them came in and said they were happy at the club. I was sacked four weeks later (by himself), but not before I worked out sometimes you have to know what you are not good at to be a good leader."
