The Diary

16 January 2004: Peace And Friends Hold Public Pow-Wow.

Coo, what a lot I?ve got to cover tonight, what with the Jeremy Peace (plus guests!) thrash at the Throstle Club this evening, and other momentous happenings at our favourite football club. I reckon about the best was of tackling everything is to say a few words about our ?ins? and temporarily, at least ?outs?, then move on to tonight?s ?do?, so without further ado, I?ll kick off with the arrival, on loan, of Eire international midfielder ? 45 caps - Mark Kinsella from the fish-lovers up the road.

It?s funny how his path and ours have suddenly crossed once more after a period of about eight years. Those Baggie who remember the period not long after our promotion from the Second might care to cast their minds back to the time we played Colchester United in a League Cup tie, at their place, circa 1996. We won the first leg there 3-2, but come the second, at The Shrine, we somewhat embarrassingly met our Waterloo courtesy of a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Layer Road club. The player who did most of the damage? Yup, you?ve got it. The annoying thing was, we could have saved ourselves a load of bother right there and then because he was available ? and at a very cheap asking price indeed. Unfortunately, we passed up on the chance, and Kinsella landed at Charlton Athletic instead. And did quite well for them as well; promotion via the play-offs in 1998, and as First Division Champions in 2000. And now he?s with us; better late than never, I suppose.

The other bit of news emanating from The Shrine today was that of Scott Dobie?s ligament damage. Not as a result of damage inflicted on the field of battle, but, would you believe it, in training, and at the hands of Artim Sakiri, of all people. Just what is it about our training methods that seemingly inflict more injuries on players than do the opposition when it?s all for real? Anyway, the upshot of all this is that Dobes will be out for several weeks, which, of course, brings us down to three fit strikers, and, curiously enough, all with surnames beginning with the letter ?H?. Depending upon the outcome of certain legal proceedings next month, that figure of three could even become two, so I can only assume that the club will be searching far and wide for another striker over the next week or two. Unless they plan to bring Deech back, which wouldn?t endear us to the Millwall coaching staff at all. Ooer ? if that happens, perhaps our board and backroom staff might be well advised to hire ?minders? when we play them at the New Den.

Right, then. Having dealt with what might be categorised as our domestic business, we?ll now proceed with a distillation of the happenings at The Throstle Club tonight. When I mentioned this event in previous offerings, I made mention of Jeremy Peace being the sole guest at tonight?s function ? but he wasn?t. There were no less than four guests on stage at tonight?s thrash, these being Mark Jenkins, head honcho of financial and human resources and, as of the 11th of this month, in charge of the Ticket Office, IT, and facilities; Doctor John Evans, the club?s secretary (his first appearance at such a function in a long time); Mark Ashton, who was head of the Football In The Community Scheme, and is now in charge of stadium redevelopment, and finally, Jeremy Peace, who, we all know, is our chairman.

Jeremy was the first to kick off, in response to a question about how he saw us progressing to date; his reply was along the lines of saying that thus far, we were doing OK. We were meeting the expectations of supporters, our relegation was well ?financed, and we had a good run in the Carling Cup, which partially offset the financial blow incurred by relegation. His summary? ?Manage things sensibly, and we?ll get our just desserts?.

In answer to the question, ?Are we buying as a result of the income from the sale of Jason Roberts?? Jeremy replied that thus far there had been ?3.6 million spent on transfers so the sale of the player to Wigan did go some way towards balancing the books, and we would be strengthening up front in due course; we would see how it went in the weeks ahead, but Jeremy regarded the best time to strengthen to be during the close season. As regarded our possible promotion to the Prem, even if we did get there, we?d just strengthen bit by bit, and not all-out. We would eventually become one of the Premiership ?elite? but it would take time. Incidentally, another snippet about Jason; there was another add-on clause involved in the transfer talks, and that would be triggered in the event of the Latics gaining promotion to the Prem.

Cue for The Fart to fire away, in the interrogative sense. The question? Well, two, actually. The first asked if we were to go up this season, were we going to get anywhere nearer the metaphorical ?starting line? this time; the second was a query about Brendon Batson. Why did the club dispense with his services?

As far as the first one was concerned, Jeremy stated that we were in a better position to cope with the Prem than we were 18 months ago, but there was still a lot of work and adjustment to be done should we do it again. Off the field, this process has been completed; on it, all the club could do was try and strengthen as often as we could. The second? Apparently, this was prompted by an article in the Evening Mail I hadn?t seen. We did get the impression that Jeremy was disappointed by the article in question; he told us it was felt at the time Brendon was appointed that he would serve as a good link between both camps, playing side, and backroom side. When we were relegated, though, Albion looked at the overall cost of retaining Brendon?s services; it was a big one, but, as Jeremy told the audience, ?we settled up honourably.?.

Next question, then. How difficult was it to get a balance between the expectations of people at all levels? Jeremy replied that there was a tremendous gap between the top of the Premiership and the bottom. It was true that clubs got the benefit of Sky revenue when promoted, but there was a limited time in which they could reap dividends from this money, and that was what made it so difficult. It was a difficult balancing act to pull off; spend too quickly, and there was a danger that if the club got relegated, it could go bust, and that, of course, could be a source of unrest. Mark Jenkins then took up the theme; he emphasised the huge difference between the Prem and the rest of the Nationwide. In terms of TV income from televising games alone, the difference was ?600K in the Prem down to around a tenth of that in the Nationwide. What Albion were trying to do was look at least three years in advance when budgeting, but when there was such a disparity in levels between the two leagues, it was very difficult to achieve.

Mark Ashton then took up the cudgels by emphasising the difference between the two leagues in terms of revenue streams. As far as the three newer stands were concerned, revenue was limited, but the Halfords Lane Stand was the biggest problem of the lot. The place was definitely deteriorating, the club had studied ways of increasing income to the levels required from there, but the only alternative seemed to lie in the construction of a new West Stand (the Halfords as was). Later in the meeting, Jeremy revealed that the electrical wiring in the stand had only about 18 months to run, and therefore was of the opinion that irrespective of where we were in the League, the work would have to be done within 1-5 years anyway.

Now it was John Evans?s turn to ?bat?. Was the Premiership a good thing for the game? Quite an interesting answer to that one. John said life in the Premiership was a lot easier for administrators because there were fewer clubs, and things were done at League level in a less-bureaucratic way. John illustrated what he meant by making reference to the Jason Roberts transfer: in the Prem, a season-long loan is no bother, as their rules allow for this. In the Nationwide, though, the maximum period is three months. With Jason, the problem was, the loan had been conducted between two clubs, one of whom was in the Greed League, and the other wasn?t. The view the Prem took was that as Pompey had paid Jason?s wages up-front themselves, he was essentially their boy, therefore the Nationwide restrictions didn?t apply. If the Nationwide had been involved, there would have been much huffing and puffing about the small-print.

Dr. John did say also that at present, all but about six Premiership clubs were that hard up financially, they had to stay in the League; nowadays, when clubs were relegated from there, it was a disaster. It was for that reason that clubs at that level tended to field weakened sides for Cup competitions; the guarantee of revenue was paramount. In fact, there was something of a vicious circle operating throughout that League; at the summit, the overriding aim was to grab one of those important top-four places; by doing so, there would be guaranteed Champions League football the next season. This, however, created its own set of pressures; money earned in that League had to be spent on buying better players to ensure qualification next time round, and so forth, ad infinitum. Dr. Evans said it was quite sad things had got that way, and it was a pity the cash wasn?t more widely spread to make that league a little more competitive, and further opined that what he termed the ?sporting content? of professional clubs had gone down, and it was sad.

Jason Koumas? Jeremy, once more, in reply to a question about efforts to secure his signature on the dotted line, and also the length of contract of our manager. First off, there had been two contract offers, but he declined to sign either. Our chairman then pointed out he?d still got another 2 and a half years to go, and if he stayed put until nearer that time without signing then the club might have to make what Jeremy termed ?a financial decision? before the contract expired. Our manager? If he went of his own volition before the end of his period with the club, say, to another outfit, then we?d be compensated. If, however, we decided to terminate his contract, then he would be paid up, a state of affairs which was not only bog-standard in football, it was also par for the course in financial circles ? as Jeremy said, ?a law unto themselves?.

The departure of Mike O?Leary? He?d had another offer from elsewhere; ever since his departure, the club had been looking for a replacement, but then changed their minds, and decided to fill the vacancy by designating other people for duties formerly undertaken by our former director.

On to other topics, then, and this one concerned the Throstle Club. What was happening with the place after 31.5.2004, and, on a slightly different theme, what about the generator at the rear of the ground, built seemingly without planning permission, which was the cause of much complaint among the residents on the Albion estate behind the ground?

As far as the club was concerned, there would be development of the site, but to a specific timescale, and the assurance was given there would not be redevelopment until there was provision made in the plans for an alternative site. In the interim period, the Woodman might well be used as a temporary alternative. The club couldn?t see any work being done on the building for 7-9 months even looking at the best-case scenario, and in any case, planning permission had to be applied for. The generator? Unfortunately, because of a mix-up when the East Stand was being built, the contractors thought that because the generator was a replacement, and not a new structure, there was no need to get planning permission.

Another one, this time concerning Lee Marshall, and also a carry-on from the previous query; why not simply incorporate supporters? facilities into the school building proposed for the current club site? First off, then, Lee Marshall.

According to Jeremy, he was contracted with the club until June 2005, so until then, their hands were tied. Jeremy quite emphatically backed our manager on this one. Our manager had said he wanted the dressing room free of distractions, and Lee hadn?t helped himself; the club tried, and were still trying to get him a new club on a loan basis, to defray the cost of his wages and get his career moving again. More about Lee Marshall later, this time from Dr Evans. John categorically denied that our manager deliberately tried to ruin Lee?s Christmas, as first aired in the News Of The World; being a family man himself our manager had stated that was the last thing he would want to do, and in any case, the tale had been totally distorted since it was made public.

The Throstle Club? The answer to that one was it was totally impossible to mix alcohol and licenced premises with educational facilities; the problem was exacerbated by the fact that the facilities were going to be open almost 24/7, and for so many different functions. The community scheme, the youth academy, times when the place would be needed for the first team, access for groups from local schools ? there was quite a list, and a lot of users would be of an age not allowed to enter licenced premises. Once more, it was emphasised that in the design brief, there would be a place for a new Throstle Club. Mark Ashton then elaborated on this by stating that the people involved in drawing up the plans were the same ones who designed both Newcastle and Sunderland?s stadiums; a feature of those briefs had been provision of facilities for what might be termed working-class supporters.

Again there was disquiet at the fact that players were being prevented from appearing at outlying branch meetings. The reason for that was because our manager wouldn?t allow it. The club also wanted the players to use their time more effectively, and they felt the best way to do this was to participate in activities like childrens? half-term ?signing sessions?, on club premises.

So, there you have it ? well, as much as I could copy down with ease ? you have to remember, I don?t operate with the luxury of shorthand, when I was at school, I was told people who attended there didn?t go to learn what was disparagingly called ?secretary?s work?, so I never got the chance to learn. Never mind, though; there?s plenty to chew on in that lot, so have fun.

And Finally?. One. Some things never change! Check out this quote from a supporters? club publication for size: ?So far this season, I feel let down. The dreams have NOT come true. We have been knocked out of the League Cup, which was a bitter blow. The team has not been playing as well as expected, and their League position reflects this?..?

Some whinging supporter rubbishing our overall performance this season? Nope, believe it or not, that was a certain Terry Wills, aka The Old Fart ? but in January 1968?

Two. Who was the naughty Albion supporter tonight who, while his missus was earnestly engaged in chairing a smoking cessation session for the NHS, was seen puffing away on a cigar like he was trying to send signals to organise an Apache attack?

Three?. Hands up all those who knew next Monday was National Dishcloth Day? Yep, that?s right, and it all stems from World War One, when it was considered scullery-maids? patriotic duty to collect all surplus dishcloths in the big houses they worked at, and send them to the Front for the forerunners of the Army Catering Corps to use when washing up gash mess-tins in the trenches. Of course we at GD Towers will think of a suitable way of observing the custom. More in a day or two.

 - Glynis Wright

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