300th Post - At last Imraan's Statement.....

...and it's pretty much as you were.

We aren't going to groundshare, or thank God, merge with the Scum or the Sweaty Socks. The fact that merger with the Scum was even considered tells us all we need to know about how little Imraan still understands about rivalry even after all his time here. It is a failing shared by a large number of Premier League supporters. Their league is the only important league in the world. By extension, their rivalries are the only real ones. I'm sure his attitude would be somewhat different if the talk was of Arsenal and Tottenham sharing a ground, or merging. I would also wager the strength of feeling between us and the Scum is stronger than the "more important" North London spat.

Although there is no definite news on the ground situation there appears to be some positive noises. We'll have to keep watching to see if any of these plans or phantom investors materialise.

Imraan's handling of the budget, the amended contracts, and staff turnover annoyingly shows up once again his rank amateurism when running the Club. Given the presumably good business sense he reserves for his day job, it's always struck me as odd how sloppily he runs the Poppies. Staff and players come and go, entry prices fluctuate, and an ever greater burden for keeping the Club afloat falls on volunteers and the Trust.

He hardly looks like the personifiction of evil,
but this man may have done more to kill
the Poppies than anyone else in the
last 139 years.

More interestingly, Imraan finally named and shamed Kettering Borough Council Chief Executive Dave Cook as the man who supposedly cost us a new ground in conjunction with Asda. It is difficult not to get angry the more one looks at this shameful episode. For a new ground and community sporting facility to be built on the edge of town all the Council had to do was nod. No money was asked for. No land. Nothing. Can you imagine any other council other than Kettering not jumping at this opportunity? Even leaving aside Imraan's unproven accusation that Cook not only knocked back this opportunity but tried to hijack it for the Council's own ends, we are still left with a shockingly bad decision by this, no doubt handsomely paid, unelected individual.

Cook supposedly turned down the Asda plan in order to protect the town centre. Bravo! All that happened was that Asda bought up Co-Op and still opened a non-town centre supermarket, and the town gained nothing by it. It's a pity that the Chief Executive wasn't so fussed about the town centre whilst it was divided up between phone shops, charity shops and kebab houses.

It would seem that we are to remain full-time until at least the end of the season. Whether Barwell's finest training a couple more times a week will be enough to keep us in this division remains to be seen. I guess Marcus will be earning his money between now and May.

Oh, and a Happy New Year to all!