Optimism contagious as new era dawning
Remember New Year’s Eve 1999? Everyone was counting down tomidnight and there was a morbid fear that the computers were about to crash, the lights go dim, the planes would fall from the sky… thennothing; just fireworks, hoots and the obligatory alcoholic debauchery. Step forward to 2010, and those within the Red fraternity tried to stifle their yawns as the usual financial analysts blathered about debt, banks anddeadlines.
So there we were waiting for October 6 and … wow. I mean, just ‘wow’. We’d all of us erected some kind of cerebral barricade to deal with one disappointment after another, some more effectively than others, and now that we’ve been told the wicked witches may soon be melting those walls will not be dismantled any time soon. Ten times bitten, 11 times shy.
The central figures in what happens next appear to be the three men on the board now obstinately holding out against American deviousness to force the New England deal through. Funny really, because two of them are on a current Kop banner as part of the four horsemen of the apocalypse! It’sprobably just them as they onlyneeded two more for the set, and hardly anyone knows what the other one looks like anyway.
Broughton and Purslow have been demonised for numerous reasons; delays, cancellations and missed deadlines, promises not kept, risible quotes and our own (understandable) sheer blind panic have been cited as legitimate excuses for the abuse. Their role in the departure of Rafa Benitez has never been fully forgiven by a large section either, yet here they are the last men standingbetween the club and oblivion. I’d have prepared John McClane and James Bond, but beggary and choice rarely go together. A lot of this may of course be their own attempts at self-mythology and spin. Broughton will certainly profit from the deal. The full details could yet see them remembered as Moores and Parry Mk II, but cautious optimism is creeping to the surface.
As an admirer of baseball and a long-distance fan of Boston their recent history does hint at a genuine respect for sport and at least a nod or two in the general direction ofTradition, something that will always play well with the Kop of course. They’ve remained at Fenway, forexample, something I would dearly love to do at Anfield.
At least if they’re hopeless we can still keep one tradition; “Yanks Out!”
Hicks and Gillett hadn’t been here long before we started asking “why weren’t these people googled?” Ah, if only David Moores could use acomputer eh? There will be a legal challenge to the deal. There’s a real fear that this could be long drawn-out and exceptionally damaging, but it is to be hoped that RBS’s government ownership will lead to a swiftconclusion.
Will the new people just resort to more debt and carry on their predecessors’ predatory sleight of hand? Anyone of a certain age canremember the old, poverty-stricken Manchester City, when they’d had enough of Peter Swales. They also marched, leafleted and demonstrated; then they handed saviour status toformer player Francis Lee. Forward with Franny, they called it – justbefore dropping two divisions.
Whatever is in store for us, Hicks and Gillett were driving us to hell in a handcart. If this deal goes ahead, then the new chauffeurs couldn’t possibly be any worse. Could they?
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