29 May 2009

Ah, the close season. Can't beat it

To be honest, it's been difficult updating this site. Firstly, because there isn't much news going about at this time of year. Secondly, because anything I do consider writing, Anon Don keeps beating me to it. Bloody upstart. Still, give it a couple of years and he'll be pissed off with people demanding updates when he'd much rather be watching telly.... ;)

Anyway, what's going on? Erm, not a lot. Paul Lorraine re-signed for us yesterday, which was one of the more obvious moves that was coming. Apart from Jack Turner signing up, and Elliott Godfrey and Jay Conroy signing terms again, that's really been it.

Yes, it's been that quiet. Last week, What's Happening At Kingsmeadow went on about full time versus part time, the rammifications etc. What it did also suggest was that we'll have to wait until the end of June before any more significant transfers, because that's when professional contracts run out.

Now, as we're about eight players short of a Conf squad, it's going to feel a little bit nervy and just a tad frustrating when the pre-seasons come closer and we haven't yet filled our squad out. One wonders if we'll have some signing pre-contract deals (ie committing themselves to us but waiting until their contracts run out), or whether we'll have some massive influx of players that will send the OS into a nervous breakdown.

Whatever it is, it's certainly a marked contrast to the last two pre-seasons, where getting in players early to bed them in was the order of the day. It's an implicit acceptance that this season is consolidation (witness what Oxford are doing right now as a comparison). Which unless we get a decent run of form and the players settle down to Conference life - and each other - well enough is probably as much as we should expect.

The bookie odds of between 14/1 and 20/1 seem to be on our name and size of crowd alone. I'd put us nearer 33/1. Still, if nothing else, it does show that our promotion has raised a couple of eyebrows, and an exclamation of "Ah, Wimbledon? Interesting..."

 

There is some bigger news about. Yesterday, the Evening Substandard published this. Alas, it turned out to be paper talk (and cue conspiracies as to why it was leaked, who the spokesman was and indeed why did it go through the Mail and then the Mirror first....), but it has re-ignited the whole issue of the ground and AFCW's future.

There does seem to be a bit of a brutal civil war conflict between the pro-Merton faction and the pro-Kingston lobby already. You can tell who the former are easily (I certainly count myself as one of them). The latter ones are the ones who proclaim themselves to be "realistic". Does have to be said though, a couple of such individuals do preen themselves whilst saying that.

The arguments relating to staying at KM are basically:

- Can we afford anywhere in Merton?

- Merton Council don't really want us

- Our community is as much Kingston now

- Getting anywhere in Merton will be difficult and would take ages to get planning.

 

I'm sure there's others, but those are the main arguments I've heard. So then......

Can we afford anywhere in Merton? By ourselves? Nope. But then, how many stadia across the land are actually bought and owned outright by the club who plays in them? Very few. There's always a leasehold option, which is what we do at KM (yes folks, we don't actually own KM either). Naming rights (again, we do that at the Cherry Red Volkstadion). There's grants from the football authorities, lottery, Olympic legacy funds, council assistance, "enabling development", etc etc. And even just the simple, big-picture approach of "selling" the move back to Merton. Never underestimate the power of "the big picture", especially in football. And especially something as emotive as this.

As an aside, too many of our fans seem to have an either/or attitude when it comes to this sort of thing. Unless there's 100% control of everything, some of our lot just don't want to know, be it stadium, or control of the club. Which is fine, the scars of seven-years-and-one-day ago are still fresh in our collective memories.

However, those pretty high up in the club have privately (if not publicly) admitted that the days of constantly asking the support to dip into its wallets have gone. A new share issue would certainly not raise nearly as much funds as it did in those heady early days. Could the practicalities of 100% fan ownership be coming to an end? Especially as the fans themselves can't afford to fund their club? We'll see, but as they always say in betting and business, follow the money. It will have a significant impact on anything we do from now on.

Merton Council don't really want us: Welcome to Hammam era WFC everyone. What a psychological legacy he left us, eh? Here's some interesting info - how many planning applications have the evil Womble hating Merton Council turned down since the ill-fated Wandle Valley proposal? None. Because how many planning applications did the poor, downtrodden, victimised Wimbledon FC submit to them? Er, none. The problem is, I expect a fair amount of the pro-Kingston faction want to "get at" Merton for perceived injustices...

The truth is, we don't really know what will happen if/when it comes to the crunch with LBM. Last night's meeting suggests there are about five potential sites around LBM, locations unknown as of yet, and the council are being pretty pro-active. Whether it's a cynical ploy to gain votes for next year's elections, or a guilt trip or - quite possibly - they rather like the idea of a high profile football club in its confines, remains to be seen. If ultimately nothing was to ever happen, because Merton let us down, at least we did the right thing. If Merton doesn't happen because we - yes, we - are responsible, we lose all credibility in calling ourselves a community club. Though doubtless some will continue to proclaim themselves as such...

Our community is as much Kingston now: Hmm, I thought Chelski was Kingston's local team. Judging by the amount of car stickers and flags about, anyway. Not joking here, but I see very very few obvious signs of Womble habitation around Kingston. Certainly not compared to SM4 and yes, SW19, where there's a lot more car stickers about.

This is always a bit of a strange one anyway. I believe we've started making overtures to the South Korean community, but nothing obvious as of yet. The sense I always get around Kingston itself is that those who support us supported us anyway. Every time I go there, it never feels like our community. The local paper will naturally favour Ks, and we'll still be the outsiders unless we were to change the name from Wimbledon. If I was to pick anywhere outside Merton that was more "us", it would in fact be Sutton. Which does at least tie in with our guilt-ridden uptight middle class liberal demographic ;)

For the record, I fully support any and all attempts to branch ourselves out to Kingston, Sutton, Wandsworth (an untapped market IMO), Epsom, even Croydon. Just remember though, the name and the colours and the heritage and the profitable mascot are all Wimbledon.

Getting anywhere in Merton will be difficult and would take ages to get planning: Fine, I don't disagree with that. Warrington's Halliwell Jones stadium took over 1000 days to get from start to finish. But anything we do or anywhere we go will have exactly the same issues, maybe more so. I wouldn't consider that a legitimate reason to abandon all work done so far with Crown House.

Let's flip the argument around now, and apply the same criteria to staying at KM. How realistic is it really?

Can we afford anywhere in Kingston? Depends if you want to be stuck with a 6k stadium or not. In the current KM footprint, that's basically as big as we could go anyway. The trouble is that next season we could hit 6k for some games if we had the capacity. So that projected capacity sounds a lot but ultimately isn't. It would still be one of the smaller ones in the division and is something we would outgrow PDQ on current progression.

So go much above that capacity and you'll basically need to flatten and start again. Which means - yup, you guessed it - a lot of money. Maybe as much as anywhere in Merton, even if you use the KM site. It certainly wouldn't be as "sellable" as a return to Merton would be, and there's the additional complication of what to do with the athletics stadium. I believe it's owned by Kingston council, and has been there since 1961. To move it elsewhere would be pretty costly, both financially and politically. The only way you'll ever keep the cost down is to have a 10k stadium with an athletics track around it........... There is some land behind both stadia, but they're being eyed up for housing and AFAIK have been for some time. Even if that land was available, the cost would still be pretty high and probably more difficult to raise than returning to Merton.

Kingston Council don't really want us: OK, bit of an unfair one here, because our dialog is the short-to-medium term is a necessary and pretty constructive one. But outside the KM complex (see above) would they be as willing to help out? At least LBM are dealing with a club that bears their name and with "history" behind it. What is really in it for RBK with us? Politically they'll be helping an "outsider", and I doubt if NIMBYism is a minor disease there. The other thing to bear in mind is that they are local councillors - they can fuck us up as much as LBM could. And they wouldn't have so much of a community duty to us either. Anyone who thinks their political representatives will welcome us with open arms and break their spines in bending over for us should smell the coffee. If we put all our faith in them and they say "no" at crunch time, then what?

 

I would answer the last two points but I've answered them already. I think the issue here is, what exactly do we want and what exactly do we need? The vast majority of the pro-Merton lobby would happily agree that KM needs some renovations to prevent the club getting caught out should it progress well enough on the field. Not to mention sorting out the shit view from the JS whenever more than 4 people stand on it.

Any constructon and planning of bigger stadia will take 5 years minimum. That's not necessarily a pro-Merton or pro-Kingston comment, it's just what we have to deal with in 2009. In five years time we could also be back in the Ryman and all talk of moving will be pointless. In all likelyhood though, we won't be. Doing up KM to about 6k will do us for now, but it will only ever be medium term anyway, for sheer size alone.

Personally, I'm all for pro-Merton agitation, simply because I remember the 1990s all too well. I certainly remember the likes of Xavier Wiggins and Lee Willett slogging their guts out when a large bulk of the fanbase just didn't give a shit (I expect some of those now involved with AFCW were part of the sit-down-and-shut-up brigade there). If you do remember the 90s and the Shitehurst era, you'd feel a sense of deja vu at times over all this. So you may have to forgive those there at the time for not wanting to abandon Merton for the second time in 20 years

And if you really do have doubts about all this, if after everything you still don't think returning to Merton is a good idea, consider this. AFC Wimbledon v Franchise cunts at the Winalot DoggyDome, Plough Lane, Wimbledon. AFCW need just a draw to gain promotion to League One, while Franchise need to avoid defeat to stay up and avoid liquidation. It's 0-0 in the 95th minute, and from a corner up pops our central defender to head past their goalkeeper......

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14 May 2009

Yes, SW19 is back from its tour of the Pacific North West and finally getting used to BST again. That's the excuse I'm making for not bothering to update since my return anyway. If you've ever wanted to know what Idaho looks like, click here. I was going to suggest it as a new home base, but it might be a little bit far for people. That said, it's slightly less out of the way than what Barrow will be next season.

The trouble is, everything I was going to mention has either been mentioned before elsewhere or simply drifted off into irrelevance. With that in mind, where to start? Oh yeah, it's the 21st anniversary of OUR cup final win today. Cue tales of drunken escapades involving double decker buses and a ham sandwich. And that was before the coaches left for Wembley...

Actually, there's a degree of poignancy that we're talking about such an occasion when we're looking ahead to the most exciting campaign in years. One could argue that the decline of Wimbledon FC started after that sunny day all them years ago. The team got broken up so that the Lebanese camel molesting cunt could further his bank balance everyone could push onto higher things and it was never quite the same again.

Yet the buildup to this upcoming season has meant that things have come full circle. In a way, we've taken the last seven years off as a much needed break, and we've now stepped back into that same intense arena that greeted us all back then. That buzz has returned, that excitement and trepidation of the unknown. Then, as now, we've hit what we consider the big time.

All this makes it strange that just over a week ago, we were intently tuning in on H&R vs H&Y. If 21 years seems like yesterday, then the BSS playoff game seems a lifetime away. It's funny that people have almost forgotten that H&R exist now, let alone somebody giving us real grief up until very recently. Guess it's like finally removing a piece of dog shit from your shoe - once it's finally prised off, and the lingering smell dies off, you forgot you ever had it on you.

I was going to do another load of sideswiping at H&R and their ground, but I'm finding it harder to, simply because it feels irrelevant to do so. What's the point? It's more than likely they'll do what other past nemeses have done - reached that pinnacle in doing battle with us then slid off back to the backwaters, never to be heard from again. Remember Walton and Hersham? Or Withdean 2000? Me neither. Apparently, they (the Axewounds) still list us never beating them (in the AFCW era, WFC beat them in a PSF around 2000) as one of their major honours though, so the inevitable FAT/FAC tie next season will at least have a bit of unfinished business.

But all our collective attention turns towards next season now. We're all glad that H&Y went up, simply because the alternative was far worse. And at least it's likely to be an Xmas or Easter fixture. Then there's Gateshead. Our first trip to the Toon since 1999 (actually, is Gateshead Geordieland or Mackemville? May be worth checking out in case it causes an international incident). It's going to be like a step back in time, though I think that's been applied to any trip to the North East since 1977.

Got to confess, I don't know much about the Heed as they're termed. I believe they might have links with Newk, so don't be surprised to see Michael Owen playing. He'll be the one making Inns look quick. Oh, and apparently they moved from South Shields to Gateshead in the 1970s, which if nothing else will give our moralising section something to drone on about for the next year.

Of course, it's all very well looking forward to such sojourns, but right now we haven't actually got much of a squad. In case you haven't seen it, the released list thus far is here. One reason I have delayed updating this week was to cover any more releasees (is that a word?) but as of now there don't seem to be any more. Anyway, nobody should be a surprise on there, even Finn and Davis. Or should that be especially those two?

Their fate was, IMO, effectively sealed at the Worcester game at KM. Finn turned up late, and TB was allegedly heard at half time that he was going to kill Davis. The man with the tan was also dropped for the H&R game at the Beaverdome because it was - again, allegedly - felt we'd be down to ten men pretty soon. In other words, could you have relied on both of them to make that step up to such a professional level? OK, I know that TB has gone on record and said that they have good jobs and better suited to part time football. One does wonder if that is the whole story. Or indeed, a code word or three....

The rest aren't exactly surprising. Seems that Peacock, Pigden and Dean Mason were just in the right place at the wrong time, and may eventually return. As for the others? Out of that lot we'll miss JG the most, but we did get him for a year longer than perhaps we would normally. Haswell is no great loss in all honesty, he didn't cut it against Wycombe and Chelmsford when given that responsibility, and we can and will get somebody who doesn't hoof it at the first opportunity. And as for Belal...

Typically, as I was about to publish it, Jake Leberl is on his way too. Again, no real surprise there, although it is a shame when a proper WFC fan leaves us. By the close of play today I expect a couple more to be out of the KM doors. Do wonder if Inns will be here next season. And there's a hunch that somebody you wouldn't expect is about to get his P45...

In situations like this though, I don't envy TB. There's a lot of sentimental attachment to this collection of players by the supporters, a lot of our fans do have quite a degree of romanticism in them. And I expect the management do too. Every manager says how hard doing this sort of thing is, and some noses will certainly be put out of joint.

The bottom line is this though. What was our hardest game last season that wasn't Wycombe? H&Y at home? Chelmsford? Welling? Whatever it was, that will be the easiest game we will face in the Conference next season. You can forget having a Bognor Regis or Fisher type fixture now, unless a team really goes pearshaped. People may hear the name Kezie Ibe and think that he wasn't much cop for us. Well, he certainly gave us problems when we faced him. And if I was to tell you that he'd be considered one of the lesser players in the division...

With this in mind, can you really say that releasing all these players is such a bad move? I may misjudge the standard of the BSP, making it out to be harder than it could turn out to be. But rather that than underestimating it. From what I've seen of BSP games, they are of a higher level than what we've been used to, and we'd be down the lower end of the table if we'd kept our squad intact. If one took Finn as an example - he just about got away with what he did against defenders who were quite poor. Against better back lines, he would have been anonymous. An impact player without the impact. So if you've had any remaining sentimentality, now might be a good time to finally let it go.

Of course, releasing players is one thing, getting replacements is quite another. The rumour mill is already churning, with Woking's just-released Matt Pattison making encouraging noises. Am I the only one who doesn't like this sort of thing when a potential player goes and says this in print? Not so much the "AFCW is a big club" type schpiel, but the come-and-get-me type comments. Although I did see he (or his agent) is covering his arse when he says that he might not be the only one on our list. Hmm. For what it's worth, I'll be happy to see him at KM next season, along with Quiche. We'll need their level of talent for starters...

The obvious long term aim is to go full time with younger players. Indeed, I can imagine that we will start signing a fair few rejects from the likes of Chelski, Palace, Fulham who want to remain in the game and in London, but are willing to take a second chance. Whenever the phrase "full time" is mentioned, it does start bringing on a cold sweat. But at least three of our players - Kennedy, Hussey and Hatton - are on something resembling full time status (how it works I've never quite found out), and you can expect more of those sort of signings, not less. Presume they get enough to live on...

One thing of note - we might be eligible to join the Football Combination now. For the uninitiated, it's basically the reserve league for tinpot clubs like, er, Brighton and Gillingham and QPR. And Palace. You may have seen the name of Lewes in there, too. Now, I don't think we'll join this season - we will need to play a certain amount of games at our home venue (ie KM), and some will be played in the afternoon, which will mean a committment by the whole squad to being full time. Or at least available for scheduled games at that time. And I think we're a year behind in that development. By the looks of it, Eastbourne Borough are in there and Crawley Town are looking to join it this season...

But if/when we do join (and we will tie up with them eventually), it could be as important to the future development of AFCW as signing Jon Main was. It has to be better for the development of our squad to be playing Palace in the Combination rather than (with all due respect) Wealdstone reserves in the Suburban League. It will certainly make the aim of TB to get in youngsters from higher up a lot easier to "sell" anyway. A released Palace youngster wouldn't drop down any standard while playing for our stiffs, and if he impresses will inevitably have a far better chance of getting into the first team. Ask Kennedy Adjei.

Anyway, we're now in football purgatory mode. Any single bit of information that leaks out will be devoured through sheer desperation. You may even find doing some work or, Satan forbid, watch cricket to get you through the upcoming months.

Trouble is, apart from the OS and WUP, there's precious little else to feed the AFCW part of your brain. I doubt if the SLP and Kingston Surrey Comet will have masses on us, at least nothing you won't have already known from the first minute it got leaked. You could go elsewhere for your fix - you could lurk on the Conference South forum, but that's pretty boring. The Conference National one feels like a crappy working man's club in some northern shithole. You know, where the ashtrays were made of tin, the telly is permanently on a mis-tuned ITV and you can't tell whether the smell of urine is from the toilet or the contributors. Some of the jokes, especially about us, show more than a smigeon of eccentricity...

Alternatively, you can read this place over the summer. Yes, it'll be going strong, and it'll even reach its tenth birthday this close season. I might do something, I might not. Funny how a lot has changed in the decade hasn't it? Back then, I was full of optimism at a new direction for the club after years of stagnation. Now...?