JIM Smith believes clubs will never again be able to do what he did in his first spell at Oxford when he took the team to two championships and up into the top flight with the help of quality players from higher clubs.

Although he admits John Aldridge, plucked from Newport County, was probably his best signing, a key ingredient in the team which won first the Division Three title and then Division Two in the 1980s were the players he brought in from leading clubs.

Among them were Trevor Hebberd from Southampton, Bobby McDonald from Manchester City, as well as David Langan and Les Phillips from his previous club Birmingham City.

Smith, whose 35 years as a manager in the Premier and Football League is being marked by a special celebratory dinner at Blenheim Palace tonight, said: "What I did here at Oxford you wouldn't ever be able to do ever again.

"The likes of David Langan, Bobby McDonald and Trevor Hebberd wouldn't come and play at this level nowdays. They'd have that much money, they'd retire and you wouldn't see them go down and play at the lower levels.

"You certainly don't see, like we used to do, serious players, good-level players, coming down the leagues."

The Bald Eagle will almost certainly not manage again after stepping down earlier this season in his second spell at Oxford, and he admits to feeling a "great disappointment" that he was unable to reverse the club's recent slide and win promotion from the Conference.

He remains a director, and investor in the club, and is working hard, along with owners Nick Merry and Ian Lenagan, to try to get the U's back into the Football League.

In all, he was a manager for around 1,500 games, a record bettered recently only by Sir Alex Ferguson and Dario Gradi.

He won the Fourth Division title at Colchester United, promotion at Birmingham City, albeit after relegation the previous year, the Third Division and Second Division titles at Oxford, reached the League Cup final with QPR and enjoyed success at Portsmouth, with Pompey just missing out on an FA Cup final place and then automatic promotion on goal difference.

Like many others before him and since, he found the task of managing Newcastle United a massive one, and felt the pressures of that job as much as anyone with Newcastle being relegated.

At Derby he probably moulded his best team, keeping County in the Premier League for five seasons, and later joined forces with Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth and Southampton before returning to Oxford, his adopted home-town club through living at nearby Woodstock.

More than anything in his five decades as a manager, he has been loved for his humour and joviality, and respected for his immense football knowledge.

"Football's in my blood," he says.

Among those marking his time and success as a manager at Blenheim tonight will be Sir Alex Ferguson, Steve McClaren, Harry Redknapp, Ron Atkinson, Trevor Francis, Sam Allardyce, Dave Bassett, Kevin Bond, David Pleat, Howard Kendall, Jon Sillett, Ray Graydon and Howard Wilkinson.

And with the January transfer window closing at midnight, many will have their mobiles with them in case they need to conduct any last-minute deals!