For once, nothing about stadia, match reports or what I’m up to. But the Coventry chairman was on Radio 5 this morning. I wasn’t up when it was on, but they were talking about the Lagered Up One. It goes something like this – Coventry could not get insurance for him and they’re stuck with him, because “any other club could not get insurance for him”. Which rather begs the question, how did we get insurance for him in the first place? I’m sure the person to ask is currently trying to flog off Ninian Park.
As for payment etc, this is where it gets a bit confusing. WFC wanted £5m for him. And believe me, we tried getting £5m for him. We all know what happened, and it transpires that after so many games, WFC get paid. The fee quoted is £1.7m. Now, I have no idea whatsoever if this refers to the entire fee that Coventry have paid him, or for just that block of games. Regardless, it’s a severe loss on our part but one totally necessary IMO. We basically had to cut our losses, and losing up to £5.3m on him was a price we simply had to pay. Look how many games we lost after he left. One. Had we gone up we would have regained that anyway, so it becomes an irrelevance. The only thing I will say about the whole JH saga is that somebody’s pockets bulged nicely afterwards….
Coincidentally, TB on the OS today said that his worst performance of the season was Pompey away. Hartson’s last game. Of course, nobody can actually remember the game, we were too busy playing Avoid The Psychotic Steward…
Yet more off-field culling. Carole Tilbrooke is gone, and I’m not shedding any tears. Like Reg Davis, she wasn’t exactly charming or brimming full of customer care, especially as she once threatened to ban me for life off the OSC coach for having a strong alcoholic drink called Kaliber (conveniently ignoring the fact that OSC members were swigging Becks). Some may well lament this passing, crying over yet another break from the past. As far as I’m concerned the quicker the old guard go the better…
One final thing about Reg Davis – he’s the Clubman of the year. Is that codeword for “retirement”? We can but hope.