This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.
Another 40 yarder into touch.
Have you seen the Oldham Athletic official site article involving Sean Gregan? The one where he says he thinks Leeds United will go up regardless of our slump and “we could put out 3 teams” with the size of our squad. Notwithstanding what that article must do for his team’s confidence before today’s game we should perhaps pause to note that piece of soft-soap for one of his old clubs and ask a couple of questions. Let’s start with can we put out 3 teams? Well certainly not credible ones, although we could do two good ones even after Huntingdon, Showumni and Prutton’s departure. As an aside, does anyone else think Prutton would have been exactly the kind of player we need during this bad patch to do a job for us until we recover our form? Begs some interesting questions does than one given how close Colchester United are to us and their form in games Prutton has played for them in.
The second question is why do so many others see us going up still? Well partly because they recognise the size of the club, partly because they are basing it on the Old Trafford and White Hart Lane performances and partly because they have picked up some of the OTT publicity given to Grayson since October last year. Personally I’m sick of reading stuff like that, the idea you praise a L1 club as if it was in a CL semi is not one I like. Equally it’s not exactly helpful when your garnering 7 points out of 24, when your Bosman seeking top scorer has drawn 7 blanks in that period and your defence has stopped doing clean sheets. I fear for the rest of the season if the players read that stuff, as if they haven’t has enough publicity already.
We need to knuckle down quickly and that involves taking praise with a massive pinch of salt. After all it wouldn’t be the first time we saw Sean Gregan play a long meaningless ball would it?
Put them out of their misery.
Boy it’s been lunatic week in Portsmouth, the 4th owner thinks putting the club into administration is “saving it”, something he intends to do before the D-Day Monday. The CEO, who has overseen the mess the club is in thinks he gets to keep his job regardless and thinks he has no responsibility for the £120m spent in wages over the last 3 years. The 2nd owner of this season has given away his shares to the Supporters Trust (who can’t decide whether to take them for “legal reasons”) and cut all ties, which is more than the 1st owner has, he is still sticking around waiting for £30m he won’t ever see (mainly because owner no4 has a grudge against his dad over a Swiss business deal). The third owner might still overturn the right of the 4th owner to run the club. The manager thinks no-one has noticed he can’t, the players are awful and the bell ringing book-keeper is appearing all over the place telling the world they can avoid relegation, administration or liquidation. I tell you what, makes you glad you weren’t born and raised in Leigh Park!
The highlight for me of this exercise in idiocy was when the CEO started using that phrase Bates used to use a lot “proof of funds”. Now the more perceptive of you know that the “proof of funds” tactic is in fact a signal you don’t want to sell, a device designed to ruin the deal. Notwithstanding the sheer idiocy of anyone opening up bank accounts to people they are buying something off, in this case it makes even less sense. If you own a £70m in debt business with a £32m wage bill, a massive tax debt, a massive debt to two ex owners, subject to being sued by ex players, have your transfer and tax arrangements subject to a court case (in which another ex owner is implicated), with a declining asset (membership of the PL) and a revolting supporter base (still relatively subdued but due to blow any minute), you don’t ask for “proof of funds”, you say “give us the £1, here is the 99p change, sign here, good luck” and run like the wind!
Whilst that last sentence might seen harsh to some all I can say is anything that means Chainrai, Kushnir, Al Fahim, Al Faraj, Gaydamak and most importantly of all Storrie are all gone from the club has to be a good thing whether the new owners are South African diamond smugglers with billions or the local Fratton butcher with only two pennies to rub together (although to be fair neither is stopping the inevitable).
The sound of bubbles bursting.
I do love it sometimes when people line themselves up for a fall in the style of Christine Pratt. Take the loyal supporters of Southend United, they steadfastly refused to believe a second High Court winding up threat in 3 months meant they were in difficulty, they absolutely were not going to believe Ron Martin was anything other than committed to the club and they were having none of it when people laughed at their belief in a stadium being built. Don’t you admire such faith? Hang on what’s this, it’s a juggernaut with the words “no wages paid” written all over it because, and here’s the kicker, it’s not February’s wages under threat for the players, staff and others, its January’s that is still outstanding! Now tell me I got it wrong Mr “Vince” and the rest of the Roots Hall numpties that kicked off after Sniffer’s Sunday Shorts of 14/02/10.
I should perhaps be a little less enjoying of this, after all Southend remains one of the country’s biggest conurbations without a decent football team (no fault of the manager), but in this case the face-rubbing in is justified. The sheer lack of any scrutiny by the fans of the club’s owner’s activities exposes what happens when they put ambition in front of reality. Southend United fans have walked blindly into a dull boring future, one involving decades of lower league football and Roots Hall remaining their base. They will continue to be the place where the younger brothers of West Ham fans go to learn about football and will continue to generate less interest than the local fairground.
Whilst the owners take heavy responsibility for this state of affairs the supporters, like Leeds United fans during Ridsdale’s reign, also take a chunk for being so stupid.
