Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning
(Stevie Smith)

I was very critical of the Icelandic owners when they first arrived with their “big wad” mentality and was accused of being a jonah for not buying into the dream of champions league in five years time. I accused the board of being naive and incompetent as the frankly ridiculous Eggert Magnusson did his impersonation of the great philanthropist.

So where are we after BG’s tenure? Before he arrived we took part and should by rights have won the best FA cup final in many, many years; we had a good young squad and an upwardly mobile manager in Pardew. We were playing good football and were regarded with a certain fondness by most football fans. We are now owned by a bank which is itself under financial duress to put it mildly, have admitted our culpability in the Tevez affair and not only agreed to give massive compensation to Sheff. Utd. but are widely regarded as a bunch of cheats who are getting their come-uppance.

“But the poor chap was the victim of a world wide recession”. If he delegated with the same naivety that brought us Eggert then it is hardly a surprise that his business went belly up. We have been left adrift at the mercy of the financial markets, owned by a company whose only objective is to maximise their investment.

And the business plan? A couple of years of ownership and then sell when the markets recover. Sounds fine, but what if the markets don’t recover, what if a new buyer does not come to our rescue? There has been one word for me that has summed up our club in the last three years and that is “naive”.

So as far as I’m concerned it’s thanks for nothing BG, whilst Mr. Magnusson was glad-handing it around the directors box, we should perhaps have been a little more concerned that perhaps he was not waving, but drowning.

Marty