Popped down the King Power last week. A totally frustrating experience, much like a mid-season visit. I was going to make a quick enquiry on a season ticket but it ended up a drawn-out affair. At first, I struggled to park my car. The ticket office/megastore is a building site, can't park there. Outside the main entrance were the plush Bentleys and Land Rover's of the players. So right around to behind the corner where those resolute band of ultras, the Fosse Boys sit.
After walking around, dodging and weaving past the supercars I reached the temporary ticket office located in one of the concourses of the main stand. There was a queue of seven with just two assistance serving at the desk and this was all being delayed as the current customers were having to give their full personal details as they had never visited the Walkers before. They were taking advantage of the exclusive priority for all council workers on Real Madrid tickets. It seems along way from my earlier memories as a kid where we'd pick up a ticket for a little hole carved out of the Double Decker and then sit at the top with that awkward angle looking down on the Filbo Pitch.
I gave up after five minutes and returned to my work office to be told a £5 million bid for Matt Mills, Reading captain had been accepted. It dawned on me then that this season at least is going to be a bit different and we are 'going for it.' When the Thai's arrived last season with Sven not far behind, I was still partly enraged with Mandaric's decision to let Pearson and by the time Sven was appointed, I was in full football season mode. I wanted to us away from that relegation zone and towards the top half. If it meant spending a bit of money on loanees to ensure this, fair enough. However, now we are the target of a lot of venom from elsewhere in the division with excessive fees being spent and to be fair, it does look a rather reckless strategy.
Unsustainable financial assistance does not sit easy with the footballing traditionalist in me. I detest Crawley Town at the moment and was eager to point out to anyone who thought their recent FA Cup trip to Old Trafford was within the magic of the competition, they were very wrong. They had a bigger budget than the rest of the Conference combined. It would be naive to say that Football has never been financially-led despite that regularly been quoted; even before professionalism, a player has always joined clubs where he makes the biggest financial gain. It's the artificial injection of money which is unproven to be credited to an owner's wealth and sourced via a loan made the club (albeit their wealth or a bank loan) which annoys. I cannot complain if the sums spent are sustainable by the club's size or at the end of every financial year, the owner is willing to write them off but it's gutting to see clubs with little heritage and history of lower attendances suddenly become flushed with money when you clearly know that the expenditure can not be matched by the profit the club makes.
When a club hits that road towards disaster is forgotten who the real victims are too. With football's community links disappearing with the globalisation of the game, supporters remain of the last competent of a football club which has local attachment. Playing staff, coaching staff and now the boardroom have gone from local to foreigner as time as gone on in the sport. The supporters only suffer a quiet pain really. It's a bit of their livelihood threaten, not their job. Local businesses make up the majority of the creditors list when a club goes in administration. The coach company, the catering supplier, the St John's Ambulance all ripped off. Add to that the club cutting substantial numbers of staff. It's the local economy what feels it more.
The fans are immune to that. The club continues on providing it's weekly staple of football every weekend and in most case, pulls through the other end to find themselves back on an even footing as every club in their division. The example of Portsmouth is even more perfect than what happened to our club previously. I have two dreams for Leicester City, to watch us in a FA Cup Final and to watch us play live aboard in European competition (I missed first time around). Pompey achieved both these in their excess spending days and had a right good party whilst at it. A generation of their fans saw something they have never even got near previously. After a poor season and half (which still included two visits to Wembley), they now find themselves mid-table in the Championship and being able to spend £750k on a player.
Hardly any punishment hey? In the process if we were achieve something similar, I will have watched us achieve something I wanted us to do as a boy and something which impacts on our club's history. As a fan I don't feel the real harsh realities when the money dries up. After relegation and hurtful losses to Cardiff and Forest in recent years, I am ready for a season where I get to act the big I am and embrace the forthcoming bitterness of our rivals.
Ultimately, I am a contradiction on the matter. I don't like it but I will enjoy it. I cannot quit my club - it's my club, I have supported them through thick and thin. I am even more hypocritical really as there's a little part of me which believes King Power have invested too much money into areas like the training ground, the ticket office, the big screens; the non-necessarities. You could cynically say these are fan-winners but they will soon learn, you only fill stadiums on the back of victories. If they have no back-up plan, they are playing a risky game.
At the centre of it all though is still the same game it's been for umpteen years and the same emotion will surround it. The reactions, the happiness, the disappointment all enjoyed and felt before. That will never change regardless of money thrown around.
Yeah, Ben Mee gone - Burnley but I was just pointing out the lack of originality when it comes to transfer unveiling pictures.
