The Diary

09 May 2006: Some Sundry Post-Everton Thoughts.

So that?s that, then. Bye-bye, Premiership, hello Coca Cola. Thanks to all those wondrous dressing-up jollifications yesterday, at least we left the higher sphere in fine style, and, more importantly still, with a bloody great grin on our faces. And, hopefully, similar grins immovably etched on the faces of yesterday?s opponents, although I don't hold out that much hope of it happening. Relegation?s a shattering blow, irrespective of whatever form it takes, so it says bundles for our collective morale, still, that we were well able to go out with a supporting display that would undoubtedly ensure those miserable Scousers ranged behind the goal nearest our part of the ground wouldn?t forget Albion in a hurry. Just ask Blackburn Rovers the last time we took the drop; they were still talking about our Premiership fancy dress swansong a couple of seasons later, at our next post-promotion Premiership encounter.

Many has been the time I?ve been standing in a pub, say, and the topic for debate has shifted to the vexing question concerning which football club has the best set of supporters. By invoking differing criteria, you can make a pretty substantial case for quite a few exponents of the art; Leeds (their unwavering loyalty, not to mention non-stop singing, during the entire course of tonight?s second leg play-off semi, was truly inspirational); Liverpool?s Kop (both repertoire and reputation restored to delightfully-retro sixties and seventies decibel-levels during the course of last season?s Champions League winning run); Newcastle, even, on those rare occasions when they bother to stir from the almost-permanent state of mental torpor they find themselves in these days. But, passionate as they undoubtedly are, how many of those sides? supporters could you honestly see engaging in the sort of off-the-wall stuff we had going in that away end yesterday?

Never in well over forty years experience of supporting a football club have I seen crowd scenes even come close to matching those witnessed at Goodison yesterday. What made everything really special for us, mind, was the nicely-judged finesse with which our mickey-take merchants completely took the rip out of everything and anything to do with the beautiful game. Stewards; police; opposing supporters; the home side; our gaffer (away enclosure entreaties to ?start the (Mexican) wave?); all three match officials; both managers. And that was only for starters. Like it or not, these days, just about everybody associated with our wonderful football club now has very little option but to consider themselves fair game for a bit of a wind-up, come the last day. Having said that, I?m not altogether sure Everton?s followers would have found any of yesterday?s antics in the slightest bit amusing. What?s that phrase, again? Oh, yes ? ?Get a life??

Now here?s something for supporters of all levels of involvement ? both home and away, home/away only, exiles, only able to follow via the media, whatever ? to chew on. Looking back upon each and every one of our most recent three spells there, how many would now say, with hand on heart, their overall enjoyment of Albion games has been greatly enhanced by each of our brief elevations to the ?big-time?? True, whenever the likes of Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal hit town, it?s quite tempting to speculate about the possibility of at least one of that lot crashing and burning, but for the most part, our involvement at that level has only been a peripheral one at best. As I see it these days, followers of any club out there wanting a taste of the big-time has to undergo a pretty sweeping mental refurbishment. Dubious fouls, delaying tactics galore when taking penalties, so-called ?simulation? when in and around the box, vastly-inflated salaries and bonuses, a club completely in hock to the TV companies, with the end result kick-off times for live games most would consider a complete and utter joke, matchday ticket prices for the most part out of reach of the genuine working man, and players whose only loyalty to the club they play for comes packaged with the negotiation of a very fat salary cheque indeed.

Clubs at that level, those who?ve been in on the gravy-train right from the very start, at least, tend to do very nicely indeed, and as their Premiership position becomes even more entrenched, so does the gap that separates players from supporters become that much wider. All in all, some very good reasons why involvement in England?s top flight isn?t necessarily the right sort of thing one?s club should be getting involved in, right now.

You can call me unambitious if you want, but, as far as leaving the Prem for the Coca Cola is concerned, at least it gives us a half-decent chance to recall with pleasure times when the all-pervasive emphasis upon winning at all costs wasn?t quite so ?in yer face? as it is now. Less saturation media coverage, lower prices, minimal cynical behaviour on the park, a belated rediscovery of certain celebratory rituals, more approachable club people??Need I go on? It might just be me, but as far as I can see, there?s lots of highly-valid reasons why our chums should simply get on with the sniggering whenever their more opulent Prem cousins start bitching, which is often.

I?m genuinely of the belief that football?s massive boom, and the money currently swilling around and within it, can?t go on. If we carry on paying lip service only to the wrongness of what?s happening, then the game will surely implode. So in hock is the game to the TV monster, now, just how much damage would be caused if that happened, I wonder? Some supporters, sick to the craw of what the game?s fast becoming, have already exercised their right to say ?no more!? I mean, of course, those who formerly followed Wimbledon FC, and Manchester United pre-Glazers. When the London outfit left for the headier pastures of Milton Keynes, a section of their former following, sick to the teeth with the Football League for allowing it to happen in the first place, decided to take matters into their own hands. The result? AFC Wimbledon, currently ascending the middle rungs of non-league football, and generating gates in the several thousand whilst they?re doing it.

Manchester United? Well, we all know the background to that one. Not every Red welcomed the Glazers with open arms, did they? Firm in the belief that the advent of the new owners would result in the Old Trafford lot completely selling its soul to the devil ? witness the redesigned club badge that has the words ?football club? removed, and one Glazer?s recent reference to the club as a ?franchise? ? they too bailed out. The end result? AFC United, another middling non-league outfit, with their base at cash-strapped Bury FC. In fact, I?m given to understand that the FC United people have been instrumental in helping the parent Gigg Lane football club keep their heads above water. Have they actually got ownership of the place, now? Such are the gates for both clubs? games, they?re doing very nicely, thank you very much; at their current rate of progress, it won?t be all that long before one or the other gets Conference status ? and that?s when the fun will really start.

And things are happening elsewhere; nothing as drastic as cutting loose from an established League outfit, ?tis true, but ensuring supporters end up owning their local club. That?s the way more and more lower division clubs are going, these days; increasingly, club chairpersons, overwhelmed by the huge financial commitment such involvement often entails, are only too happy to hand over the reins of power to supporters? consortiums. I suspect it?s a trend that?ll increase dramatically over the course of the next few years, until we arrive at a situation where very few lower division outfits have to rely upon the benevolence of some local worthies or other just to keep afloat. I have a name for such revolutionary tactics: How does ?The Campaign For Real Football? grab you?

The concept?s hardly new; just think back to the mid-seventies, when both the brewing and baking industries were given one hell of a kick up the backside by prospective customers totally sick of the sight of the mass-produced, almost tasteless, preservative and additive-ridden muck-apology for bread/beer on sale in most supermarkets at that time. Thanks to pioneering marketing work by organisations like CAMRA (the Campaign For Real Ale), the big brewers quickly realised that unless they got their act in gear, and fast, a good part of their existing customer-base would disappear elsewhere. The same went for the bread industry, also, where an equivalent consumer organisation to the one above did sterling work in educating the public about the availability of varieties of bread that didn?t necessarily taste of soggy cotton-wool when eaten. Result? Independent bakers got a massive boost, and as a by-product of their efforts, the big supermarkets had little alternative but to raise their game also.

So how would that translate to football? Easily ? as I see it, as the game continues to suck even more of the very life out of those who go and watch it on a regular basis, so will the numbers of those disaffected by such things rise enormously. Chuck in also the possibility of one or other of the big media companies deciding there?s more brass to be found in other ventures, then the beautiful game will find itself in $%*& creek very quickly. The more successful supporter schemes there are when this finally happens, the more such involvement will appear to be a viable survival option for the club(s) concerned. Plus, of course, the bonus of the game?s very essence returning to something like the state it was in before the predatory likes of satellite TV started to sink their horny claws into the carcass.

Anyway, look on the bright side, when considering the short and intermediate-term future of our football club. Now we?re away from the bright lights and the almost constant media presence, we can all get on with being a football club once more, for at least one season, at any rate, although I do strongly suspect that we?ll find the task of returning to former glories far more onerous than we did previously. Front runners next time round will undoubtedly be Blues; after all, when you?ve got an owner worth nigh on half a billion (as per the most recent Sunday Times Rich List) having enough ackers to get you out of trouble is always going to be the very least of your worries! Also lurking in the shadows will be this term?s play-off failures, Preston, who have come very close indeed these last few seasons gone. The Dingles? Depends upon how badly the cessation of their parachute payments will affect them. Look on the bright side, though; at least we won?t have bloody Millwall to contend with. They got their marching orders down to the First just a couple of weeks ago. Nor Sheffield United, either, which will come as a bit of a relief to a certain Andy Johnson! What we will have, though, is a season of attrition, right from the word ?go?. Robson? Just like his managerial predecessor, he?ll get his chance to redeem himself, the honeymoon period lasting something in the region of ten games. Should he show little or no signs of changing things by then, he?ll be out, end of story. The good news? We get to play Colchester in the League for the very first time ever!

And Finally?.. Unless something really drastic happens during the close season, I guess that wraps things up for the next couple of months. Just like General McArthur in the Phillipines, though, ?I will return?, probably around the time of our pre-season friendlies, unless we decide to take a much later summer break this time round, of course. Hopefully, our favourite football club will, by then, have much more to offer on the playing front, coupled with the belated realisation that grass-roots supporters have just as much a part to play as corporate sponsors and marketing wallahs do in the ever-changing fortunes of their football club. I wish! Do have a lovely summer, everyone, and continue ?tuning in? next season. Until then tara.

 - Glynis Wright

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