“Angry Jewell blasts Owls” proclaimed the poster by The Star seller near the Town Hall. I bet he’s nearly all out on anger and explosives and the season hasn’t even started yet! Welcome to long-suffering Hillsborough mate. After yet another apparently dismal pre-season game our new manager is now well aware of the enormity of the task he’s taken on.
He can see for himself the passionless and amateurish garbage which we had the misfortune to suffer last season. Without the cash to replace those that can’t be bothered with those that can, Paul Jewell is left with the public bollocking as his principal weapon. Not that this is any bad thing; what wouldn’t we have given last season to hear Wilson say what we all thought rather than hear his ritual defence of the indefencible?
I’ve been watching Wednesday for 30 years, all through the 3rd division, but I am looking forward to this season with about as much relish as a visit to the pox clinic. And what makes it so much worse then? The truth is that I cannot think of a practical alternative to the current management of the club. Yes I can dream about major investors etc. but we all know it’s not going to happen. We can shout at Howard Culley but who is the real alternative to him? Just because your name is Bullas rather than Culley does not qualify you to run a football club – Wednesday or not.
The real facts are these:
- The club is deep in financial trouble
- We have to sell players to balance the books, yet we can’t sell the ones we want to sell because who will pay their inflated wages?
- When we do find a buyer they control the market because they know we are desperate to sell
- The club’s biggest share-holder, Charterhouse, are not investing in the club and want to sell but can’t find a buyer
- In the meantime Charterhouse will use their votes to support the existing board
- No one will invest money in the club because without owning the Charterhouse shares they could not influence what happens to it
- Who will buy the Charterhouse shares when all you would be buying is a club with financial problems?
Now you know why I’m so despondent and why I have not been to a pre-season game. It is all so predictable. This season is unlikely to be a Premiership Return Ticket as the publicity puts it. Howard Culley’s public comments were more near the truth and whilst it was depressing it was better than Richards’ pompous pretentions that we are something better than we are.
Yes, it’s going to be a season of struggle in my view, with a mid-table finish whilst we rebuild constituting a decent outcome. Not much to look forward to I know but there it is.
Without a major financial investor it takes a long time to turn round a big football club. Whilst I am pissed off now I will stick in there and suffer with the rest. Last season saw the end of the Richards regime and a few cracks in the permafrost around the board’s relationship with the fans. It also saw the demise of a loved but naive manager who was out of his depth. This season may just see a continuing thaw and the development of a manager who talks our language.
We live in hope.