THE appointment of Paolo Di Canio was one of the reasons why Andrew Fitton decided to step away from the club.

Having resigned as chairman, after Town’s relegation to League Two, Fitton had initially remained on the board.

However, the arrival of the controversial Italian prompted his complete departure, but not for the reasons you might assume.

Having tried to run the club on a financially stable footing, Fitton could see such a model would not be possible with Di Canio demanding money be spent left, right and centre.

It is believed Di Canio sought a deal with new chairman Jeremy Wray for a commitment on how much money he could spend before taking the job. Something Fitton did not want to be a part of.

“Jeremy received the backing of Andrew Black to do that, but it is not the model I signed up to, so that is why I stepped down,” he revealed.

“Sadly I think what I feared might happen, happened and a lot of money was spent.

“I wrote an email when they were interviewing managers and I said to Jeremy: ‘Paolo is a lovely guy and he will be great but I think he will be too expensive for the club’.

“Jeremy went ahead and appointed Paolo. He was a lovely bloke, I had no issues with him and I would probably defend him against some of the allegations made against him.”

Fitton admits that even he would not have controlled Di Canio and he did not want to be boardroom naysayer, so he stepped away.

“In the August I rang Jeremy and told him that I didn’t want to be the person in the boardroom who is constantly saying I think this is a bad idea,” he adds “That was what was going to happen because Paolo was going and signing players and it wasn’t the model I signed up for.

“The model I signed up to was one that would run the club efficiently.”