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Bury, Bolton and hope…
As a follower of one of the big six, I’m not sure I should be commenting on Bury but hearing from some of their fans, as well as those of Bolton, really touched a nerve.
It reminded me of a scene in the film Bromley Boys where the main character gives an impassioned speech about the club he supports potentially going out of business and why they matter to him, which in return reminded me of an old mate that supports Dagenham, who have had their own troubles.
The cliche that a football club is the heartbeat of their community is a cliche for a reason as there is a ring of truth about it.
Bury has lost the heartbeat of their community and I can only hope that that club rises again. Maybe it’s time for the FA to step in with a fund to help communities build their club back up following a liquidation – it’s been done before with the likes of AFC Wimbledon so the blueprint is there – people just need to give the willing a hand.
Good luck Bury and all of their fans – hopefully the darkest day is just before the dawn of your club’s rebirth.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
…Like many others I’ve woken up to the news about Bury’s expulsion and Bolton’s likely liquidation this morning. As a Brighton fan who witnessed the club’s near extinction in the 1990s I find it difficult to comprehend how the EFL and FA have continually failed to support clubs and have time and again enabled unsuitable owners to drive clubs to the brink. Blackpool, Portsmouth, Coventry, Charlton and a host of other clubs fans have had to endure this since. We have phoenix clubs at Darlington and Chester because of poor ownership and yet again the EFL and FA have let this happen with their ineffectual fit and proper person test, which wasn’t even applied to Steve Dale’s takeover at Bury.
In dark times for Bolton and Bury fans the chance to build phoenix clubs may be the solution. It will be a long road back but the new club will not have the shackles of debt that the previous owners have allowed to fester. There is light at the end of the tunnel as my club Brighton proved, although we didn’t go down the phoenix club route. I had the chance to watch my team play in an enjoyable EFL Cup match last night where two academy graduates shone, with The Premier League 2 player of the season Aaron Connolly scoring and the excellent Steve Alzate setting up Glenn Murray’s late winner. Hopefully both players will have the opportunity to show what they can do in the Premier League this season, as they both proved they were good enough for the first team last night. This is something I could have only dreamed of in 1997 when the club were homeless and 90 minutes away from being relegated from the Football League.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, Bury and Bolton fans and all football fans stand with you to support you on the journey.
We are Bury. We are Bolton.
David Williams
…This is not a fun email to write. I live in Bolton, have done since the age of eight, but am a Man Utd fan (I’d say about 50% of people living here are). We’ve all got our reasons but I lived in Ireland when I started following football, chose Utd as it was the early 90’s and when I moved to Bolton decided to make the easy choice and stay as a Utd fan.
I’ve been to Burnden Park and the Reebok probably more than I have to Old Trafford just because tickets were easier to get and so I’ve always wanted Bolton to do well. After seeing what happened to Bury last night and from what I’ve read about Bolton’s take over or lack there of I can only see the same happening to them.
There are lots of people to blame in all of this but the biggest proportion of the blame has to lie with the EFL. They’ve allowed the guy at Bury to buy the club even though he never followed their own rules and prove he had the funding. They allowed a guy like Ken Anderson, banned from being a director of any company for eight years, buy Bolton and then make himself the 12th highest paid director in the EFL even though they were supposed to be cutting costs. They’ve allowed both clubs to begin the league season (I know Bury haven’t played a game but they were still “in” the league) even though they knew there was a high chance each club could go bust during the league season and ruin the league. If this isn’t the kick up the arse they need to change then God knows what is. The EFL couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery and if there isn’t huge structural change we are going to see more of this. Off the top of my head I wouldn’t be confident about Nottingham Forest surviving the next few years, Coventry look close to being f**ked and what happens if the lads at Salford get bored.
There isn’t really any coherent point to this email so to sum up if things don’t change football outside the Premier League is going down the swanny.
Bernard, MUFC
The greed of buying suffering clubs
This Bolton/Bury thing has me really conflicted. As a Manchester lad, I really don’t want to see Bury bite the dust. I’ve no views on Wanderers either way but, alternatively, have spent many a happy day/night at Gigg Lane where I’ve watched both the Shakers and FC United. (Half the family is Blue the other Red. What are you gonna do?). This whole thing has been coming for a while though. How many clubs have we seen saved at the last minute in the last 20 years? So, and I say this with a heavy heart, maybe it needs a team to crash out for effective change to be implemented especially across Leagues One and Two.
I’m no finance guru but it seems to me that Steve Dale buys Bury for a quid, does nothing to service the debt going with it, looks to cash in on the club’s assets and crosses his fingers that somebody out there will come in and spend a damned sight more than a quid to buy him out before the club is expelled from the EFL. If you sit in his horrible little scumbag shoes, it’s not a bad gamble is it? If you look at Bournemouth, Pompey, Brighton (amongst many others), that’s exactly what happened wasn’t it? I’m typing this at 9.15 pm Tuesday night and Sky Sports are reporting that, after C&N Sporting Risk (who the f*ck are they?) have pulled out, another three potential buyers are now in the frame.
Here’s the thing though. How can Bury supporters be confident that any individual or consortium that buys out Steve Dale isn’t going to do the exact same thing he’s just done. The whole ‘Fit and Proper Person’ is a crock of sh*t. You shouldn’t be clearing people like Dale to buy a club for a quid without some non-negotiable pre-requisites. First, that you the buyer(s) are not dodgy fly-by-night ars*holes with a known risky business/financial past. Second, and most importantly, you must be able to LEGALLY prove that you have realistic and substantial financial resources at your disposal to run a football club at base level. (An obvious ability to improve the club’s standing would be a bonus, natch) including a proven ability to service whatever debt you inherited. Third, you must be both willing and able to deposit a substantial sum of money either with the EFL or an agreed third party body which, in the event it goes t*ts up as at Bury cannot, and will not, be refunded under any circumstances but will be used instead to pay staff and player’s wages, ground costs etc until those funds have expired.
I can also understand the pleas of Bolton and Bury fans to have PL clubs’ step in but how will that help the root problem of the outright greed of the muppets running their respective clubs? City deliberately leased their previous PL Carrington training ground to Bury on very generous rates in 2014 and it is now, by all accounts, a right dump. Shysters like Dale are in this precisely because they believe somebody is going to act with their heart rather than their head and buy him off for a huge profit.
Ch execs of the PL are simply not going to give away money to League 1 & 2 clubs for nothing. If you followed the logic of a PL team being a saviour and Big Bruv to, say, a League Two club then what (perhaps inevitably) happens when Pep (who, by the way, would kill for a competitive league for his development/knocking-on-the-first-team-door players) and starts Phil Foden, Zinchenko et al in the ‘Bury FC’ starting line-up every week as part of the (ahem) arrangement? Are Bury fans watching “their” team or a City 3rd team? West Ham to the Mighty Orient, Liverpool to Tranmere, Spurs to Barnet, you get the idea. PL clubs fighting it out until their surrogate teams begin to, and I’m going to choose my language here carefully, eventually infest the Championship as PL 2. I’m a City fan and I don’t want to see this.
Ten years ago, I was privy to an EFL document that pointed out that most League 2 clubs needed an average of at least 3,000 bums on seats. Every. Single. Game. Just to break even in terms of staff/steward/electricity/Gas/ambulance/Police/and other costs. Anything less was an automatic loss and gives you, I think, an idea of the ultra-fine lines these clubs operated under. To repeat, that was 10 years ago but you can easily understand that the pressures on those clubs surely cannot have reduced in the meantime. It can’t keep going on forever folks. As football fans we don’t want to see any team go to the wall and particularly not those with the history of Bolton and Bury but, perhaps our current PL, Champs, EFL and NL structures are simply no longer sustainable in the 21st Century?
Mark (Fingers crossed for Bury & Bolton). MCFC
Harry Kane is the problem at Spurs
I know I’m late to this, completely out of sync with the bank holiday. Been reading a lot about Eriksen being the problem at Spurs and having him half heartedly playing, unsure if he’s going to be around this year or not is the reason why the team looks so disjointed. Eriksen is class, when he’s played he has created chances (maybe not run as hard as he could have but he’s never been the fastest) I don’t think its his fault spurs are in a funk – I think it’s Kane.
Don’t get me wrong huge fan, clearly he is amazing at football but something just isn’t clicking – without Kane, Spurs went on that unbelievable Champions League run, mainly because Son and/or Moura were willing to run behind a defence, the team just looked plain wrong with Kane back. He seems to be dropping back from where he should be (in the penalty box) almost constantly now, it reminds me of Rooney from a few years ago – not scoring goals, popping up at LB to win the ball and spraying a lovely pass to… nobody – because he should be the one receiving the pass.
Now I’m not saying spurs should get rid – clearly he’s the best striker (or thereabouts) in the league, but he’s got to play as a No9, if we see more of the Kane who has 10+ shots a game he’ll be back in the goals and Spurs back to winning ways. I’ve no idea how this gets fixed (pure moan of a mail) but wonder if this is something that he’s being told to do or just how he wants to play?
Mark (London, Spurs obviously)
Manchester United are becoming Arsenal…
So we are paying Sanchez 215k a week to not play for us? Ed Woodward has a background in finance but he is making the club a laughing stock with some of these deals. From Fellaini to Falcao, from Di Maria to Lukaku it seems that with every deal this guy negotiates we get the worst end of it. We are out of the Champions League, this squad on current performance is going to struggle to get Champions League football next season, so hasn’t this become alarming for the Glazers? The problem is that United make so much money from T.V and sponsors, the Glazers are turning a blind eye to Woodward’s disastrous record in the transfer market and recruiting managers.
I cannot believe i’m saying this but he’s turning us in to Arsenal, content just to be making money off the field and not showing any ambition to win the title. We are out of the title already (not that I had any hopes for that). The midfield is a shambles, Pogba doesn’t want to be here and the rest are just not good enough, let’s be brutally honest. You cannot keep promoting a false narrative that we are the biggest club in the world and serving up such a dire product. Football clubs are unique as businesses in the sense that fans are very loyal even when the product is substandard but does that mean they should take advantage of that? We are only a couple of injuries away from a 17 year old leading the line and we’ve wasted millions of pounds. United are mugging us all off.
Mason Wild
…I just saw the Alexis Sanchez transfer news and while I’m glad most Man U fans are overjoyed, I just wonder if Solskjaer is pandering to the fans instead of actually managing this team, and understanding the deficiencies that existed within the squad, and planned a careful surgery of the squad, he seems to have taken the fan cam approach to football management. We all know about those youtube fan cam videos, the most famous one being Arsenal fandom tv. They are quite hilarious but everybody knows to take the misinformed opinions as the humour perspectives they are.
I don’t know if Solskjaer listens to YouTube opinions and acts on them, but just analyzing how he has gone about butchering his squad, it’s quite coincidental how he seems to follow the popular opinion. The first thing he did was ship off Fellaini, whose was never a fan favorite, the next thing was dropping Lukaku for Rashford, another opinion of the rowdy crowd as opposed to evidence of how Lukaku was a far superior goal scorer. Fred and Matic, both Mourinho signings have been highly criticized and I’m not surprised they are both spending time in the dog shed. With Martial’s injury, you question why the sale of Sanchez was allowed. It seems to me, none of these guys were given a fair crack of the whip. While most may agree with the decision, this version of Man U was pretty mediocre with the likes of Sanchez in it, they are just sitting ducks now in my opinion. Forget 6th, they’ll be lucky to be in the top 10.
Dave (Gary Neville’s opinions these days belong in those fan tv videos, not as a sky pundit), Somewhere
Liverpool will be fine without Klopp
The problem DJ posed in the mailbox yesterday got me thinking: “If every Top 6 club were to lose their managers tomorrow, who would be the best placed moving forward?”
The answer is clearly Liverpool. The reason for this is that they are simply a very well run club. They have been so good over the last few years not just because of Klopp, but because their entire leadership team is world class. Everyone’s roles are clearly defined. For example, Michael Edwards’ job is to assemble the best squad of footballers, Peter Moore’s job is to fund the club by putting as many bums on seats as possible, and Klopp’s job is to hone the squad and lead them on a weekly basis.
The success of this well oiled leadership machine is evident to see. Liverpool are a big club, but they certainly do not have the resources to rival Man City, PSG or the Spanish giants. Yet they are the European Champions and achieved 97 points in the Premier League because they have a leadership team that has successfully built a club that is pulling completely in one direction.
It will be a sad the day Klopp leaves Liverpool and the Premier League. However with FSG, Moore and Edwards in charge I don’t think Liverpool will go the way of Woodward and Man Utd.
Oliver Dean
…I can’t answer DJ’s question as to who out of the top six would do best if they lost their manager tomorrow except to go the boring route and suggest probably City because they have basically infinite money, and (unlike United) owners willing to spend basically infinite money to get what they want.
However on his other question I can say that I strongly believe that when Klopp leaves Liverpool it will be planned for. Our upper level mob have gone through a process of learning about good decision making in football, going from Hodgson to King Kenny to Rodgers to Klopp in that process. To put it another way, they tried keeping the guy they inherited, then they tried a club legend, then they tried the fresh face with the hot new ideas, and finally they realised they had to go for a proven winner still in the prime of their career. Similarly their recruitment of players has evolved through trial and error – from listen to the manager (Hodgson, Kenny) through basic statistical analysis informing the manager (Kenny), then moneyball tactics using analysis in always trying to spot a bargain (Rodgers) and ending up at an incredibly advanced analysis department married to actual football experience with both departments willing to learn from each other and discuss player acquisition, with a recognition that paying for quality is sometimes just necessary (Klopp).
Based on this sometimes fumbling and often frustrating process, I am certain that FSG will have a succession plan in place. Frankly it would be negligent of them to not have at least the outline of a plan for the manager’s position. Of course, this is an article of faith. My only evidence is the club itself, managed by FSG at the executive level from nearly bankrupt to European Champions in 9 years. That’s not easy, and of course it requires luck, but I argue it suggests the key personnel behind the scenes are making the right decisions and that this bodes well for our future.
That’s essentially a long-winded way of saying FSG have systematically worked their way through every reasonable doubt about their ownership, and now I trust them to at least make a decent fist of carrying on after Klopp goes.
Matt, LFC
I’ve been so colourblind
Dom is spot on. It’s an issue for me, even to the extent that I struggled to watch the Liverpool v Arsenal game at the weekend. Thankfully I can identify the players (Liverpool were the ones passing, moving, pressing and scoring), but it seriously creates issues for me when the camera takes a wide view and it’s hard to identify players. Newcastle v Sunderland is a nightmare to watch.
We need more orange, pink or yellow kits. I experienced the same issue with PES on the PS4, much to my friends annoyance I have to change kits before kickoff.
Ace J (first-time mailer)
It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas…
Because I am thoroughly bored of reading Manchester United fans writing open letters that absolutely will not be read by anyone they are intended for, Arsenal fans trying to work out if Emery knows his onions, ANYTHING to do with Liverpool or god darn VAR (its hear to stay, it’s never going to be perfect, buckle up and get used to it), I thought I’d tell you all a jolly tale of chance and then ask to read yours in return, I’m sure there are some interesting ones out there.
I currently find myself enjoying some winter sun over in New South Wales, Australia. More specifically a tiny inland town called Scone, population around 3000, main function race horse breeding, in case you wondered (you didnt, but the population is important for my tale). Today our plan was to go out and do some hiking around the local National Parks, so I donned my trusty Bristol Rovers shirt to help absorb any perspiration from hiking around mountains in the 30 degree heat….Fear not dear reader, this is not a story of my overactive sweat glands, please stick with me.
With my trusty Bristol Rovers shirt being worn loud and proud, I stepped out of my hotel room to survey the heat, and before I could take more than two steps to the car was greeted by a shout of “Up the Gas” (for those uninitiated in lower league nicknames, we used to be based next to a gas works) in a harsh Australian accent. Naturally I turned to enquire how on earth an ozzy bloke in a tiny NSW town knew about a League One football club, “I used to live by the ground mate, I’m a Shit head, but I used to go and watch your boys heaps.” Shit head being Rovers fans affectionate terminology for Bristol City fans and I was of course delighted he happily referred to himself as one for my benefit. It clearly wasn’t enough that we had been in the same place at the same time in this moment, because I too used to live by the Memorial Stadium, and indeed about 200 metres away from him the entire time we both lived there and drank in the same pubs.
I arrived here from Sydney, where I could’ve worn this shirt for days amongst millions, and would only have attracted the interest of some lager lout junior on his gap year declaring “you’re shit and you know you are” whilst spilling his pint on my shoes, yet in a tiny town I find a man who shared breathing space with me from time to time even if he did make the daft decision to support our bitter rivals before he even left his home. It’s a ridiculously small world and I cant wait to hear your tales too, they’ll help whittle away some time whilst training or flying across states over the next few days. Show me what you’ve got….
Mark Danger Endicott, BRFC
