Just think, in a little over 24 hours from now, it will all be over.
When the final whistle at Blundell Park goes tomorrow, we get three months** without AFCW ruining your weekend.
** – I thought it was the 12th August but apparently not. Come to think of it, the EFL haven’t actually announced the start date.
It’s going to be such a relief when you know you don’t have to check the score any longer.
Or indeed, if you’re making the 12h30 kickoff tomorrow, knowing the journey back will be the last you do this wretched campaign.
The post-mortems will come later this week, especially on SW19. I’m off to Luton v Hull tomorrow, so I’ve got better things to do.
I’m not expecting a massive cull to be announced on Tuesday. Indeed, I’m not expecting those being dumped to have to walk back home from Cleethorpes.
More’s the pity.
But I expect the bad taste from this season to be partially lifted when the first set of departures are announced.
Chris Gunter has already announced his retirement, something that was slipped in at the bottom of the OS preview.
I’m not sure what else you can really say any more about this current squad. It was finished back in February, and all we can hope is that our remaining players who can make a positive difference aren’t crocked.
OK, that’s guaranteed the Iraqi Scouser breaks his leg tomorrow, and you just know that will be the final twist to a shitty season.
As for what the result tomorrow will be – I don’t know, and to be honest I don’t really care either.
Those going up there for the game deserve something for their effort. But they shouldn’t hold their breath in getting it from this lot…
Indeed, it’s been a week where a few scales have fallen from a few more eyes.
It appears our squad went on the piss last Sunday, turned up late to the End of Season Dinner and continued to make arses of themselves.
Fitting, isn’t it? Especially as they’ve done likewise for the times of the week on the field too.
Hearing that reminded me of a story involving a team fighting relegation (Forest, I think) whose squad went on a “bonding session” before the season ended.
It didn’t even keep them up, which just gave more fuel to that particular fire.
This club is in a similar state – too many people taking the piss, and not enough being done about it.
This leads us neatly onto the Fans Forum last Tuesday, which is a classic example of AFCW’s comms at it’s finest.
Only we can record an open forum (note the bold bit) with pre-sent in questions addressed, then not broadcast all of it upon release and not even do a transcription.
The reason why half hour is missing is because it cuts out the Mick Buckley soliloquy beforehand, where he might have answered a couple of questions.
I say “might”, because by all accounts he came across so badly in the room that the club have decided to hide most of his contribution.
AFCW hasn’t heard of the Streisand Effect, though I don’t think it follows much of modern day communications.
Hell, I’m surprised the club doesn’t list its telephone number as WIM 1993.
If you want to read what he said, the Alex pub landlord has posted some stuff on Twatter, but that’s not nearly good enough.
This is one of Buckley’s websites, by the way. And here’s another of them. High level stuff, there.
When you read both of them, it makes the lack of transparency even harder to fathom.
Maybe somebody reading this should pose as an industry leader and book an appointment with him?
Especially to pick his brain on how to handle promising a near-as-full broadcast release of a shareholders meeting, and then how to backtrack when you fuck it up…
It’s both a shame and a deep annoyance that it’s overshadowed what should have been a good PR exercise.
Craig Cope, Danny Macklin, Andy Thorn and even JJ himself to an extent came across well, and in the case of the first three led to some legitimate sense of the right direction.
Our current manager didn’t win over all the doubters but he gained a lot more respect from those there.
But AFCW’s lack of interest in comms – and worse, not caring why it matters – makes it much worse than it needs to be yet again.
Suspicion that anyone wants information continues, because after all – somebody might then think the club is doing something badly.
And we certainly can’t have that.
I back 100% those continuing to fight for its full release, and it’s an awful decision to hold it back, even considering this club’s exceptionally low standards.
But put it this way. If even a recently departed DTB member is being stonewalled over it, then what hope have any of the plebs got?
One final thing on this – somebody afterwards likened Mick Buckley to Joe Biden, and not in a good way. And when you make that link yourself, you can’t unsee it…
Finally, assuming we’re in the EFL by the time 24/25 comes around – a big ask, admittedly, considering who makes the decisions – the new Sky deal kicks in.
I’ve just read it for the first time this morning, and a couple of initial thoughts.
The extra money is always good, but it does mean wages are going to go up again because teams will splash the cash.
Given the club’s apparent paranoia over spending any money instead of The Debt (TM), we either have to get over that or find ourselves even further behind everyone else.
No, I’m not expecting much different either.
Perhaps more importantly, and something I believe has long been a bugbear of L1/L2 sides, there’s more live games for us lower orders.
OK, that will mean some games get shunted around – Bradford away on a Sunday lunchtime, anyone? – but unlike some I’m not against it one bit.
So we’ll get more fixtures for the nation to ask how we do it. Five more per weekend, by the looks of it, though what the percentages between L1 and L2 are remain to be seen.
Let’s face it – a potential L1 clash between Derby and Peterborough will be more likely than AFCW versus Newport.
That said, if Sky’s EPL matches are anything to go by, they tend to show a lot wider range of teams at least in the beginning of the season.
Which assuming we’re in the Football League this next year should suit us fine. After all, you wouldn’t want any of our games post-January shown…