Oh! That's what he's got to smile about!

Bloody typical!

I miss one Poppies crisis meeting EVER, and it's the first one that proves to be successful!

• I left the Cornmarket Hall meeting in the early 80's fearing the worst.
• I left the Beeswing in the late 80's feeling that the supporters had a lot to do to save their club!
• I left the Ritz meeting hopeful due to the positive feelings, but worried we'd left it too late.
• I left the Working Men's Club hoping for the best, but unsure the Trust could save the club.
• I attended all the meetings at the Social Club with a sense of boredom and dread.  During these meetings I pondered such events as the Trust being reconstituted, a plan was hatched to ground-share with the local theatre (!), and the Asda plan was laid out, and almost instantly stolen by KBC!
• I left Wicksteed Park knowing we'd been screwed over.
• I left the Kimberley suite twice knowing the end was nigh.
• I left the Strikers Bar worried that George Rolls wasn't perhaps the right man to take us forward.....
• I even attended an earlier event at Northern Lights Club when Ritchie outlined his hopes for the future, and left thinking that this could never happen...

Now, when on holiday and with no way of attending a crisis meeting / fans forum (you decide) SOMETHING POSITIVE ACTUALLY HAPPENS!

Definitely won't attend the next one!

......Although I'm not sure what he's got to smile about!

You have to question Ritchie's sanity at times.  Off his own bat he has got us away from Non Park.  Kept us alive for most of last season at Steal Park.  Tried his damndest to get Lacklustre Park ready for next season.  Got Imraan to the point where all he has to do is sign his f*cking name on a piece of paper and we're rid of him forever.  Put HMRC in their place.  And now, when he might have felt that the great ship Poppies was finally responding to the tiller and starting to turn course, up pops Keith Cousins looking to whet his beak.

On the surface it looks a lot like Cousins has waited in the wings for the Poppies to achieve a modicum of stability before wading in and putting the big stick about.  And remember, this man has no interest in the Poppies whatsoever.  He let his own club at Non Park go to the wall without, seemingly, a second thought.  Why should he give a damn about us?

"Salute Poppies!"  Keith and friends
watch our fate with interest.

However, it could also be a ploy to force Imraan to sh*t or get off the pot.  Cousins is attempting to wind-up Kettering Town Management Ltd, which, as far as we can tell is Imraan and Ray & Jay.  As an unfortunate by product of sorting these shady sods out the Poppies as we know it could end with them.  But these days, what does "end" actually mean?  Ritchie has a ground and a team sorted out, along with a number of supporters who will still turn up.  All Cousins can actually do at the end of the day is stop us being called Kettering Town Football Club.  Hell, we've lost our ground, our position in the footballing pecking order, and most of our fans.  We are used to losing things, and I'm sure an AFC Kettering or suchlike could be just as sustainable in the short term as KTFC is now.

This move by Cousins could just as easily be a way of settling the ownership / Non Park position once and for all.  He knows that winding the club up means he gets nothing.  One suspects when he finished off the Scum he knew he had the gullible Ladak waiting in the wings to keep writing him big cheques.  Despite hopeful reports he must know that neither Coventry City or Posh aren't going to relocate to his pissy little stadium.  In a couple of years time he can plough the bloody place under the soil and build another stack of warehouses that are all this County seems to be good for.  He can forget about us and we can forget about him.

Hopefully Ritchie can give us a clearer indication at tonight's meeting of where we stand?  And how many more hurdles we need to clear before we are finally in a position to go back to simply moaning at our football team.

Ritchie....smile!

If Ritchie does indeed manage to pull the Poppies plums out of the fire and (A) Get us back in the Borough, (B) Fight off all the winding-up orders, and (C) Kick Imraan and his mates into touch he can truly be said to have worked a minor miracle.

If he also manages to re-engage the potential Poppies supporting public and properly involve the supporters in the running of the club he might well be on his way to Legendary status.

How unfortunate then that whenever Ritchie is featured in either the ET, or online or even on TV, they only use one of two photographs.  Perhaps he should get a few head and shoulder shots done and hand them out!


Photo One - the dodgy, red-eyed, blow-up one.  This photograph
was taken at one of the early crisis meetings where George Rolls
spelt out his plans for his Events Company, Exhibitions and
Weddings.  Oh, and perhaps a bit of football.  This photograph,
taken at Non Park seems to have been snapped with
an old camera phone from Finedon.


 

Photo Two - The Mobster one.  In the only other photograph
ever seen of Ritchie he comes across as some sort of refugee
from a Guy Ritchie turn-of-the-century Gangster flick. 
You can almost here him shouting for you to,
"Keep schtum, you slag", and then heading out with
a bunch  lags who are tasty with their mitts to
do a blag up West.  "No bastard copper's taking me alive!"

Ungrateful bastard!

I feel a bit guilty.

I know that a lot of people are putting in a lot of effort to ready Latimer Park for us to be able to use next season.  Trenches dug. Pylons erected.  Electricity installed. Lights shining out (which must be a shock to most Burton residents as they view proceedings from their wattle and daub dwellings.)

And yet, seeing the photograph of the pitch, barely illuminated by a few lights really brings it home to me just how far we've fallen in recent years.  Are we really getting excited by a handful of lights and a couple of yards of hard-standing in a tiny ground out of town?  I know, I know.  Ungrateful bastard!  And I do feel bad about this "bit of a wobble", particularly after gritting my teeth through the every home game last season.

My temporary "black dog" mood isn't helped by the fact that Rockingham Road is still sitting there, doing nothing whilst we scamper around the county looking for places to put down our jumpers for goalposts.

My ennui hasn't been encouraged to lift by trying to digest the news that KBC is putting their hand in their pockets again to continue to bribe lanky freaks to carry on playing at the "National Volleyball Centre" aka The Leisure Village Money-Pit".

The self, same council who HAVE NEVER LIFTED A FINGER TO HELP THE TOWN'S FOOTBALL CLUB seem content to fund this niche sport from the public purse, using the same reasoning that counted for nothing when the same ideas were applied to the Poppies.

If you can keep your dinner down, have a gander at this -

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/council-invests-thousands-in-national-volleyball-centre-1-5189988

Or if you want to see how important the so-called National Volleyball Centre is to Volleyball England, you might want to look here, but make sure you have a magnifying glass to hand!

https://volleyballengland.org/getintovolleyball

What is the footballing world coming to?

Owners of Macclesfield Town, and Macclesfield Borough Councillors - you should hang your heads in shame.  Have you not being paying attention to the situation at Kettering, with our owner and Council to see how it should be done?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22820285


How long do you think we would have to live to hear the leader of our council say something like this -

"Macclesfield Town Football Club is part of our heritage and we should not and cannot lose it," said Michael Jones, the leader of Cheshire East Council.

"We are incredibly proud of their achievements and it is unfortunate that they have succumbed to the financial pressures exacerbated by our current economy.

"It is in times like this that Council's can and should play a part, after all the club is incredibly important to the town's identity and adds to the visitor economy enormously, providing much-needed jobs and prosperity."

Has Imraan got rid of his old club?

With work continuing to prepare Latimer Park for the Poppies invasion force (if our header is anything to go by, this means shooing off the gulls and putting some sand down in the goalmouth) does this mean that Imraan is out of the picture?  Unless there is a deal either done or imminent you would question the sanity of committing money and man-hours to a project that could just as easily be popped at a moment's notice by our absentee supremo.

"I'm not really sure what I'm doing..."

Also. without knowing any specifics, it seems as though Non Park is becoming no longer our concern.  When it is discussed who might be playing there next our name rarely gets a mention these days.  I, for one, will miss the old place, with its host of good memories.  Such as beating the Direones there in our last encounter.  And seeing JP box the ears of Moses Ashikodi.  And...OK, so that's it!

But what if Imraan is still wavering over signing away the club?  Not that he's been involved for the past couple of seasons beyond trying to crowbar George Rolls into the equation.  Oh, and still dreaming of what might have been if we'd hung onto 1-0 against Leeds United.  Oh, and still leaving prissy messages on James Caan's mobile about the sponsorship money owed by DRC.  Or is his time taken up with his other "business interests?"  If so, our advice to Imraan is if it doesn't involve renting out doctors, don't bother as you're bound to come a cropper!

What can he still be waiting for?  Our thanks?  The magical, elusive payday?  For Ray & Jay to give him permission?  A big fat cheque and profuse apology from Caan?

Perhaps he is waiting for us to hit rock bottom before he accepts he f*cked us up?  I'd say that playing at Latimer Park in front of a few hundred hardy souls against the likes of Chalfont St Peter and Bidggleswade is pretty bloody rock bottom, wouldn't you?