Tick Tock...

And so we all continue to wait for the announcement. You know, the big one. “All rumours will be laid to rest before Christmas”. What, all of them? The parentage of Prince Harry? The sexuality of Sol Campbell? The real reason Abramovich is so rich despite resembling an albino chimp with a double digit IQ?

Opinion is divided as to whether what we’re about to hear will be good news or bad. Optimists speculate that a deal has been done to extend the lease or buy the ground. Everyone else fears the worst.

Well you can’t blame us. It’s hard to escape the feeling that something unpleasant is brewing. Little clues here and there, like the new boss seeking to lower expectations, wages being slashed, players being offloaded and backroom staff departing.

Chancellor Ladak has conducted his own Emergency Spending Review and at this rate we’ll soon be kicking off at 2pm to save electricity.

Of course we’ve been here before in more ways than one. Mid season budget cuts are nothing new at KTFC. No season under Peter Mallinger was complete without an early winter spending cull. It became as reliable an annual tradition as the switching on of the Christmas lights – or switching off in our case.

And Ladak also likes to trail his big announcements in advance. This time last year it was “six weeks to save the club”. Never did hear how that ended. Still, at least it wasn’t “14 hours to save the earth”.

It’s not impossible that there is an element of egotism in this. If we really are up shit creek, why not just say so. Give it to us straight doc – how long have we got? Unless there is something going on which can’t be made public now but will be soon. The rumours which will be laid to rest. In no particular order:

Groundshare at Corby.
Merger with Corby.
Groundshare at Diamonds.
Merger with Diamonds.

Groundsharing would appear to be a plan with little future because Conference rules prohibit member clubs from sharing a ground outside their borough.

Peter Mallinger of course proposed a Corby merger over a decade ago, so we can guess where he stands on the issue. The recent Diamonds takeover might have ended any interest there in a merger, but who knows.

If it’s to be a merger with Corby or Diamonds or Rothwell bloody Corinthinians, it will amount to the same thing – the end of Kettering Town – one of the oldest football clubs in the country (and therefore the world) after nearly 140 years.

A merged club playing in Kettering would be hard enough to contemplate. A merged club playing somewhere else would just be utterly alien. It would mean nothing to the likes of us but maybe that’s not important any more.

Football clubs are just business commodities for the modern breed of owner. The owner of a business doesn’t care where the customers come from. Move the business to another place, get new customers. Doesn't matter if they’re different customers so long as there’s more of them. It worked for MK Dons and if your mind operates that way there is a certain logic.

Mallinger has switched his loyalty from Newcastle to Kettering to Corby, and once compared the football spectator’s choice as being similar to deciding to shop at Tesco rather than Sainsburys. Ladak bought us having considered numerous alternatives and it’s unlikely he feels any particular affinity for the town of Kettering – why would he, he’s never lived there. Plenty of people who do couldn’t give a toss about the place.

So whatever the news we’re about to hear, I’m not pinning my hopes on anything too sentimental entering the equation. It would just be nice to know so if necessary we can get on with ordering the flowers and sorting out the headstone.