I didn't believe that anything could be quite as surreal as Kettering Town playing their "home" games at Non Park. But this is the Poppies, and we learn from an early age to expect the unexpected. We now have the curious sight of club volunteers on tannoy and scoreboard in open defiance of the Club Chairman and players applauding anti-Chairman sentiment from the terraces. Could you imagine Pete Simcoe grabbing the microphone during Gyngell's reign and shouting out, "That's all well and good Cyril, BUT WHERE'S THE F*CKING MONEY GONE?!"
Yesterday the tannoy announcer brightly announced a meeting of supporters the following Friday, again seemingly in open defiance of Imraan. "Don't worry, it's nothing to do with Ladak!" He promised. Kind of makes you wonder the point of a meeting without the main player. He also, helpfully told us the meeting was to be in the Kimberley Suite. Great, Except that means nothing to me! I'm a Kettering fan. I have no idea where rooms are at Non Park. I don't care. It's just a pitch where we play our football at the moment. Nothing more. I'm sure it's in the main part of the big building usually restricted to we mere supporters, and I'm sure I'll be able to find it.
I'm just not sure I want to.
Do I really want to hear another group of smarmy businessmen tell me how they are going to do things differently? Another shifty bunch promising me the earth, or at very least, League football? More suits telling us that we're the best fans ever and they would give us the success we deserve?
It saddens me more than I can express that it seems to be the case that to sustain football at this level we need to give shady characters the time of day just because they have a few bob. "Investors" be buggered!
I surely can't be alone in hankering for a self-sufficient football club, free of self-important, untrustworthy blazer-wearers? Why can't a team which averages gates of 1400 - 1500 sustain itself? Why can't local business sponsorship from a borough of well over 100,000 people generate enough additional funding to allow us to kick out the shysters?
Couldn't a club with this backing, run by a handful of full or even part-time administrators and coaches, helped out by a small army of willing volunteers and 18 good, semi-professional footballers, survive by their own efforts? And if so, why can't that club be Kettering Town?
Or is better to always be in hock to any puffed-up suit with a smug expression and illusion of wealth, who is willing to temporarily push us up the table by paying players over the odds? (on the proviso that any money they spend is actually only a "loan" when they leave of course!)
Spot on - agree 100%. Due to a lack of leadership the football club has sadly deteriorated into this mess.Apart from the predictable financial calamity, there appears to be a blissful arrogance about the club that is not good for a survival. Everything apart from the current playing staff appears surreal.
ReplyDeletePeter Mallinger tried very hard for the club in a similar situation with a proper sense of values and a fresh start!
Sadly the pleasant experiences of supporting our team in the town are just becoming a memory.
Hi, I fully support your idea. It's clear the club at the moment is almost entirely being
ReplyDeleteKept alive by a handful of spirited volunteers, including the players.
I agree with your vision of a locally owned and run club, and I too am sick of our
Beloved club being highjacked. To your vision I would add the dream of nurturing
Local footballing talent to populate our club. It would be great too See Kettering Town FC
Investing time and money in growing our own!
It was so disheartening to see again last summer the Chairman throw together a team
Of players from everywhere and anywhere, in 4 weeks. And that only 2 players
Were retained from last season.
One thing I have learnt in this life is that we reap what we sow, and in the case
Of football development in the 1st team at the poppies, this has been very little.
This is particularly sad as the youth team set up seems so promising.
The common sense of nurturing and developing people from our locality seems as
Invisible on the pitch as it has been in running the club. I have always harboured
A dream of winning the lottery and then investing real money but most importantly,
Heart back into my beloved club. Bringing some common sense perhaps and
Community business sense to build the Poppies into the kind of rock it is in the
Heart of many of us. A beaming beacon in the centre of our community of which
We can all be rightly proud.