The Summer break from football is always an arid time for Poppies news. A vacuum invariably filled by our online conspiracy theorist community, who get to hold sway with a collection of outlandish conjectures. Some end up being true, but more through luck than judgement. Throw enough rumour and innuendo and eventually you might hit a bullseye.
Mix into this online brew the second group that get more of a hearing when no football is being played - the "I know something you don't, but I can't say anything" brigade. In many ways these guys are worse than the tinfoil hat wearers. They post just enough detail to highlight, in their minds, how important they compared to you, because they know something you don't. As if having the inside track on the comings and goings at a small non-league football club actually matters to anyone. A player is about to leave. A player is about to join. Another player has told you in complete confidence he hasn't been paid since 2012.....yawn.
Given that this year's Summer hiatus started in mid-March and isn't due to end until an undetermined date in the future, we supporters are being left to fester in a quagmire of online rumour-stew far longer than is safe for us!
Enter Ritchie and his latest endeavour, where he puts together a weekly YouTube video showing us what is ACTUALLY happening behind the scenes at the Poppies. The link is here.
Obviously having updates from the horse's mouth still doesn't quite quell those looking for problems and conspiracies completely. Nothing would of course. But as the close season drags on for a second millennia it's great to be kept in the loop with news from our club, and Ritchie should be applauded for this initiative.
If nothing else, it's fun to see, during the Board's online Zoom meetings, how the curtains look in the homes of our betters! And to realise Dave Mahoney has the same curtain pole as we have! Not a sentence I ever thought I'd write.
Such openness is still difficult for my generation to grasp. Like an East German citizen stepping, goggle-eyed through a broken wall into West Berlin us fans from the 1970's / 1980's are more used to Chairmen and Owners treating supporters as a horrid inconvenience. We weren't necessarily shot at by twitchy border guards, or had our papers checked every time we left our homes, but there was certainly No "look behind (or at) the curtains" for us lot back in the day.
If you're not already watching these videos we heartily suggest giving them a punt. If only to see which members of the Poppies board have had access to hair cuts at home during the past few months.
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