GET WELL SOON TOMMY SAMPSON !!!

Monday 10th December 2007

Whilst I take the backwards step away from football whilst I recover from the flu, I have spoken to two football managers this evening, Jim Ward (Ramsgate) and Marc Seager (Whitstable Town) about some news that puts the game that we all love into perspective, writes Stephen McCartney.

Tommy Sampson, 53, a friend to many, and a highly-respected football manager, is currently in Maidstone hospital recovering from a small stroke that he suffered last Wednesday.

www.kentishfootball.co.uk sincerely wish him a full and speedy recovery and hope it won’t be too long before he returns to football management soon.

Currently managing at Sussex County League minnows Redhill, a man like Tommy Sampson should be managing a much bigger football club - and here in Kent!

Seager played for Sampson and in 2000 clinched the FA Carlsberg Vase for Deal Town at Wembley Stadium, and both speak on a regular basis.

And Seager informed www.kentishfootball.co.uk about Sampson’s situation tonight.

“Tommy had a small stroke last Wednesday evening, he’s in Maidstone Hospital on the start of his recovery,” he said.

“His consultant is confident that Tommy will make a full recovery and anyone who knows Tommy will know he will be determined to make a full recovery.

“Me and Tommy are very close and I think the world of him. Not only Tommy is a great manager, he’s a great man, and is very well respected in football.

“At times like this it shows that the sport of football is one big family.

“Tommy said everybody whose text and phoned him that he’s very, very grateful and it’s meant a lot to him all the well-wishers.

“And he’s looking forward to getting back in the dug-out soon.

“He’s lost feeling down the left-side of his body, but he’s had his first bit of physio today on his first day of recovery. He’s in good spirits in his bed, being positive.”