I sit here early-ish on my day off listening to England crack up against the Netherlands at cricket, but it's another sporting calamity that occupies my mind. Yesterday Plymouth Argyle of League 1 were deducted 10 points for, as I understand it, showing an intention of going into administration. I'm not entirely sure of the technicalities of the league rules regarding such things, but I'm sure there's a lot of good intentions of stopping clubs from getting into this kind of mess, and I'm not here to dispute that.
Frankly the way the club has been run in recent history it probably deserves everything it gets. As a former resident of the terrace on the old Devonport End back when we were in the old Division 3 (which was actually the older Division 4) under the chairmanship of the much-maligned Dan McCauley, with few hopes of the rise to the top of half of the Championship that soon followed under the excellent stewardship of Paul Stapleton as chairman, I wonder now if it we'd have been better off now had we stayed as we were with little ambition or hope of being side by side with any of the big boys 2 divisions above.
Well no, don't get me wrong - I wouldn't have swapped those Championship years for the world probably. That glorious victory at Wigan in their promotion year - I believe the only loss they would suffer all season at home, the FA Cup run where we could and perhaps should have beaten Watford & the imperious Ben Foster and gone on to a big money match up against Manchester United and the players that came and went - Ebanks-Blake, Halmosi, Buszaky, Friio, Mackie, Hayles, Gosling, Norris, Coughlan, Connolly, Barnes, Wright Phillips, Noone - all promised once that the 'sleeping giant' of Home Park might actually have what it takes to wake up. We had hope, and dreams. To others it might have seemed silly but when you look at the players who have come and gone and the results we got I don't think it was too far away for a moment there. It is now.
What's gone wrong? Some might say that the clues were there when Ian Holloway defected to Leicester - apparently the club didn't have the money to match his ambition... or maybe it didn't have the ambition to match his ambition. Or was it the decision to bring ol 'Luggy' Paul Sturrock back in? I'm not sure. I think from a financial ruin point of view it could well have been the Yasuaki Kagami takeover that broke the Pilgrims' back alongside his partners in the deal (with whom he seems to have little connection), the almost as distant Sir Roy Gardner and his buddy Keith Todd. While Stapleton still remains at the club it is as Vice Chairman and his influence on proceedings, once so positive, appears to have waned. Kagami saw a potential marketing opportunity of English football in Japan and Japanese players in the English league, and it looks like Gardner thought he'd piggy back along for the ride. And then of course there were Gardner's incredible, ill-advised and ultimately ill-fated World Cup ambitions for the city and club.
The World Cup bid was the latter's baby, and even if all had gone to plan would have been at most a temporary white elephant. Its failure represented a huge waste of money, time, resources and enthusiasm which could have gone into keeping the club afloat and the Championship. As far as Kagami was concerned, it appears that he eventually wised up to the facts that a) Plymouth are a small club with a limited attraction for those not from the south-western most corner of the UK, let alone Japan, and b) Japanese players even if good enough to play Championship football would be unlikely to be granted work permits to play. It seems as soon as this realisation came to him he decided to write off the sale as a loss and forget all about it, forgetting, or perhaps just not caring, about the thousands of loyal fans that effectively invested in the club on a weekly basis with a greater proportion of their own personal fortunes. Even the players aren't being paid, and Peter Reid's paying the heating bill!
So, the lesson here? If you're a small club with a smallish but loyal fanbase hoping for the big time don't rely on random foreign investors working with so called big businessmen. The reason we did well before was a sound and prudent running of the club's finances (which started under McCauley I should point out), some excellent bargain basement buying of players and some good management from Sturrock, Williamson, Pulis and Holloway. Then a disinterested foreign owner comes in, pays for the club but injects no money into what needs financing, including tax bills, and here we are. 10 points deducted, bottom of League 1 and a struggling side with no confidence or wages and a chance of going out of business. There seems no hope right now. It's depressing, don't know what more to say....
So, to tonight. I'm off to sit in the home end at the Withdean (I live in Brighton nowadays, for logistical reasons was tough to get away end tickets) and hopefully struggle to keep my mouth shut when the Greens score.... although given this is now top vs bottom my confidence isn't high. I may be back on dreckly to discuss further,,,,
Edit - a week late but given further news worth a poke
So I went, sat in the quite frankly awful Withdean for a half with the Brighton fans, saw nothing that cheered me up on the subject. Also with this being the first time I've seen Peter Reid's Argyle in the flesh I suddenly realised (/remembered from his days at other clubs) - he is not a footballing manager. There was not even an intention from Argyle to play any proper football. I'm not sure what they were trying.
At half time I had a text from a non-Argyle supporting mate who was in the away end saying he had a spare ticket on the gate, so I legged it round and saw the 2nd half from Portsmouth. Or at least it felt that far away. Anyway, not much better aside from better singing and banter from those around me at last. We brought Fallon on who gave some focus if very little actual ability. Hard to imagine he actually played in the World Cup. It finished 4-0 Brighton - fair play to the home lot though, in the Brighton stand there was a lot of sympathy to our plight being mumbled. They know where we are, in fact probably pulled themselves back from much worse. It gives us some hope. Although their fans do need to learn to sing up a bit.
That said, some more numbers have been published that don't make for clever reading. Given the measly amounts of money flying around lower league football at the moment £5 million just to keep us going until the end of the season seems highly optimistic. And just a ridiculously huge figure for such a small club. I can't even pretend to understand the financial workings of my own meagre existence, let alone a football club, but it just seems so big. And there's that much again owed still on top of it!
Pitifully I've never taken much notice of other clubs in similar troubles, thinking to myself "well they probably screwed themselves, they deserve it", which while in some ways true doesn't in anyway reflect on the heart of a football club - the fans. I don't put myself on any sort of pedestal as a fan - I've lived away from the south west for most of my adult life (and anyway am from 2 hours away from Home Park), and when I've lived down there have often been playing football on a Saturday rather than watching it, but from the first game I saw there (a thrilling 0-0 draw in the cup against Kidderminster Harriers) I've felt connected and I know there are tens of thousands far more worthy Argyle fans than me going through hell. The thought of there being no club is too much to consider for anyone.
Ok enough, back to listening to Half Man Half Biscuit...
What's gone wrong? Some might say that the clues were there when Ian Holloway defected to Leicester - apparently the club didn't have the money to match his ambition... or maybe it didn't have the ambition to match his ambition. Or was it the decision to bring ol 'Luggy' Paul Sturrock back in? I'm not sure. I think from a financial ruin point of view it could well have been the Yasuaki Kagami takeover that broke the Pilgrims' back alongside his partners in the deal (with whom he seems to have little connection), the almost as distant Sir Roy Gardner and his buddy Keith Todd. While Stapleton still remains at the club it is as Vice Chairman and his influence on proceedings, once so positive, appears to have waned. Kagami saw a potential marketing opportunity of English football in Japan and Japanese players in the English league, and it looks like Gardner thought he'd piggy back along for the ride. And then of course there were Gardner's incredible, ill-advised and ultimately ill-fated World Cup ambitions for the city and club.
The World Cup bid was the latter's baby, and even if all had gone to plan would have been at most a temporary white elephant. Its failure represented a huge waste of money, time, resources and enthusiasm which could have gone into keeping the club afloat and the Championship. As far as Kagami was concerned, it appears that he eventually wised up to the facts that a) Plymouth are a small club with a limited attraction for those not from the south-western most corner of the UK, let alone Japan, and b) Japanese players even if good enough to play Championship football would be unlikely to be granted work permits to play. It seems as soon as this realisation came to him he decided to write off the sale as a loss and forget all about it, forgetting, or perhaps just not caring, about the thousands of loyal fans that effectively invested in the club on a weekly basis with a greater proportion of their own personal fortunes. Even the players aren't being paid, and Peter Reid's paying the heating bill!
So, the lesson here? If you're a small club with a smallish but loyal fanbase hoping for the big time don't rely on random foreign investors working with so called big businessmen. The reason we did well before was a sound and prudent running of the club's finances (which started under McCauley I should point out), some excellent bargain basement buying of players and some good management from Sturrock, Williamson, Pulis and Holloway. Then a disinterested foreign owner comes in, pays for the club but injects no money into what needs financing, including tax bills, and here we are. 10 points deducted, bottom of League 1 and a struggling side with no confidence or wages and a chance of going out of business. There seems no hope right now. It's depressing, don't know what more to say....
So, to tonight. I'm off to sit in the home end at the Withdean (I live in Brighton nowadays, for logistical reasons was tough to get away end tickets) and hopefully struggle to keep my mouth shut when the Greens score.... although given this is now top vs bottom my confidence isn't high. I may be back on dreckly to discuss further,,,,
Edit - a week late but given further news worth a poke
So I went, sat in the quite frankly awful Withdean for a half with the Brighton fans, saw nothing that cheered me up on the subject. Also with this being the first time I've seen Peter Reid's Argyle in the flesh I suddenly realised (/remembered from his days at other clubs) - he is not a footballing manager. There was not even an intention from Argyle to play any proper football. I'm not sure what they were trying.
At half time I had a text from a non-Argyle supporting mate who was in the away end saying he had a spare ticket on the gate, so I legged it round and saw the 2nd half from Portsmouth. Or at least it felt that far away. Anyway, not much better aside from better singing and banter from those around me at last. We brought Fallon on who gave some focus if very little actual ability. Hard to imagine he actually played in the World Cup. It finished 4-0 Brighton - fair play to the home lot though, in the Brighton stand there was a lot of sympathy to our plight being mumbled. They know where we are, in fact probably pulled themselves back from much worse. It gives us some hope. Although their fans do need to learn to sing up a bit.
That said, some more numbers have been published that don't make for clever reading. Given the measly amounts of money flying around lower league football at the moment £5 million just to keep us going until the end of the season seems highly optimistic. And just a ridiculously huge figure for such a small club. I can't even pretend to understand the financial workings of my own meagre existence, let alone a football club, but it just seems so big. And there's that much again owed still on top of it!
Pitifully I've never taken much notice of other clubs in similar troubles, thinking to myself "well they probably screwed themselves, they deserve it", which while in some ways true doesn't in anyway reflect on the heart of a football club - the fans. I don't put myself on any sort of pedestal as a fan - I've lived away from the south west for most of my adult life (and anyway am from 2 hours away from Home Park), and when I've lived down there have often been playing football on a Saturday rather than watching it, but from the first game I saw there (a thrilling 0-0 draw in the cup against Kidderminster Harriers) I've felt connected and I know there are tens of thousands far more worthy Argyle fans than me going through hell. The thought of there being no club is too much to consider for anyone.
Ok enough, back to listening to Half Man Half Biscuit...
