Terryfenwickatemyhamster
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As I have said repeatedly, doing something just for the sake of it is hardly progress. Nobody is able to illustrate a fan owned club that has achieved much more than we are currently doing. There is virtually no examples of investment in infrastructure. Certainly no significant examples of investment in players.
I’m not suggesting that we are lucky to have what we’ve got. Far from it. But at the very worse it is no different to what we have endured for decades. Every managerial appointment has been almost universally accepted. We certainly saw probably one of the best seasons most of us have ever seen. In addition to that, I can't see any evidence that we are any worse of than most of the lower league clubs in this country. we appear to be bobbing along as an ok led, solvent business. With the addition of a couple of decent signings, we could potentially push for the play offs.
So... What I’m saying will draw the usual derision for not being ambitious enough. And all I can do is agree with that. It isn’t. But anyone that advocates fan ownership as anything more than a nice change, is quite frankly talking rubbish. For us to push past the current barriers to change we don’t need good intentions, we need a cash rich investor.
The reason I suggest we canvass the support is obvious. Debate wise we have somehow managed to make Brexit look a doddle. On one side we have Beds an co, driving around a big red bus, with ridiculous figures on the side, with numbers that are laughable and the business equivalent of wetting your finger and sticking it in the air. Amidst that you have people who sit where I sit. Who aren’t mad on the current state of affairs, but want to see something better, but aren’t necessarily phased by the current situation. Believing that the club is up for grabs. And hopefully those that are interested, just get on with it. Then in the fan ownership camp, you have the well meaning greens/liberals. They believe that by being nice and remaining hopefull, things will turn out nice. They substitute hard cash with a plethora of optimism and pipe dreams.
At the moment there are no viable altertives to either the current owner, or at least one party that they are in discussions with. I am happy to attend the Trusts board, purely to be enlightened as to what they propose, and indeed what figures they are projecting. I'm interested to what extent they have looked at the figures etc. Like any interested party, they deserve a chance to prove they can progress us past the bottom two leagues.
A lot has been said on many forums about who runs our club. I spend a huge amount of time in two cities that for me epitomise the struggles of football. Portsmouth & Plymouth. Both sides that are definitely bigger than us. I spend many evenings in pubs and restaurants in both cities. A reasonable chunk of my work life is spent their. Plymouth's chairman James Brent took them from potential liquidation to a well financed solvent club over a seven year period. However, he is stepping down as chairman , to a backdrop of vitriol aimed at him from social media. Attendances and gate receipts are up, but the are looking like relegation fodder at the moment. The current development of their main stand is underway, but everyone is universally disappointed at the time it took to achieve, and what a lot of the support see as the knock on effect on the team. James Brent absolutely illustrates the damned if you do, damned if you don’t culture that prevails on social media.
Portsmouth... Well, an advert for fan ownership or not. Erm.. They are delighted with fan ownership, because it saved them. It didn’t do much for all the poor sods who were owed millions by PFC. But how often have any of us shed a tear for those that were screwed over by NTFC numerous times over the years. In general fan ownership was viewed as a safety net when the club was insolvent, but that’s where the gratitude generally ends. I don’t find many supporters that entertained the idea of progression under fan ownership. It will come as no surprise that Michael Eisner (Tornante company) he of Disney extract, is viewed as the second coming. In short... The fan ownership was seen as a period of well meaning babysitting and no more.
So after all of that. And I’m the first to accept that is only my view. I remain where I always have. Until something better comes along, we are where we are. However, in my mind at the moment, something better, is not fan ownership. But, I might feel different after meeting the Trust.
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