You know, I needed a big reason to awake me from my close season can’t-be-arsed-to-update slumber. And today it came : the seemingly inevitable departure of Joe Sheerin to Croydon Athletic has now become reality.
I say seemingly inevitable because the guy had become an injury nightmare for AFCW. As last season proved pretty much from the off, we have some pretty formidable strikers netting regularly, people like SS and the not-much-maligned Richard Butler. And the longer JS kept being only two weeks away from fitness the less chance he would get in an increasingly professional-looking outfit.
The big significance of his departure is of course his part in the beginnings of AFCW. I’m pretty sure that up until today, he was the only player still at AFCW who played that first game against Sutton United. We all know how ironic that his first (and I think only) professional game for Chelski was against us at Shitehurst. We all thought we’d got a bargain with him – and it’s probably the most telling thing of all that had he remained fit, he would have been in the Conference at least. It is, in short, the end of a chapter for AFCW, and it does prove the old adage that at the end of the day, only the fans remain with a club.
Of course, looking red and knackered even during the warmup was never going to prolong his career, and constantly failing to prove your fitness won’t help. But I’m sure everyone will wish him well : not only will quite a few Wombles take a spare day to go down to Mayfields to see him in action, but he also gave us a good opportunity to reprise the John Harley special of “He used to play for scum, but now he’s Wimbledon….”.
Of course, I won’t be cruel to suggest that the main reason why JS is going to CA is due to the proximity of their ground to the Mayday hospital…
Elsewhere, and you all know this by now, but in probably the worst kept secret since Chelski’s interest in Ashley Cole, we will be playing the newly reformed FC United of Manchester at KM in a PSF.
The story of FCUM is quite well known, and it makes good copy. Few things though : firstly, what a shame it wasn’t in Manchester. Would have been kewl to do those long trips from Euston again. Secondly, while many comparisons have been made between them and AFCW, it’s still difficult to see what sort of long term success it will have. With us, we had literally nowhere else to go. With FCUM, they do have OT and they do have their club still intact. Granted, there is a straw/camels back situation here, which is why you can’t write off the FCUM project before it gets off the ground. Didn’t we all think that AFCW would get 500 when we first started?
As we all know, fans everywhere are basically expected to lie down and have their flabby arse cheeks pulled apart, so the likes of Glazer can over-zealously drive his tube of meat inside their fudge freeway. So maybe the setting up of clubs like ourselves, FCUM, AFC Telford etc can act as a lubricant if nothing else.
As a moneymaking exercise, the FCUM friendly is a goodun, though I would prefer an additional one against a “better” team as well. DA seemed to hint that there were too many PSFs last season, though as half of them were reserve teams I think last season’s build-up helped us get off to a good start. With the contractual obligation ones taking up a couple (one in particular I don’t think should be played), preparation opportunities will be at a premium.
Speaking of PSFs, my sources in Leipzig tell me that a testspiel between the yellow/blues of London and the yellow/blues of the Saxony was planned for this month but got pulled…
While I’m here, couple of other thoughts. The Commercial Executive role hasn’t been filled and indeed has been readvertised as a sort of junior sales role. Go figure. Also, the club journo position is again up for grabs. Some interesting observations on both those positions, but you’ll have to wait until I get my arse in gear and finish the article I’m writing off 🙂
And I think we’ve made a couple of signing as well. But like you care……