Gomez The Mexican Cat ponders...
The above phrase entered the public sphere when Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin announced their separation, yet it could apply to me as I face the season ahead. If someone had told me I’d have fallen out of love with Hereford United on that magical afternoon at Aldershot, I’d have never believed them, yet this is now how I feel.
A friend, who fell out of love with his boyhood club told me that he’d gained a huge amount of time back in his life by abandoning his team, but I don’t want to do this. By now my social calendar should be full from August to April of trips to Hereford – day trips, long weekends back home - yet no visits to the city are planned. It is hard to think I won’t be going to Edgar Street this season, but at present that is the way it is.
Last season I, along with many, were so concentrated on the club retaining its Conference status, the details of the financial implosion almost seemed secondary. Money was raised to keep the club out of the high court and I certainly thought the cure for our financial problems would be maintaining our Conference Premier status. How naive that seems now. With the various and continued chaos over this summer I for one can’t financially support it at present.
That’s not to say I condemn anyone who plays for us or who goes along to Edgar Street to watch. It’s not an easy decision and perhaps it is simpler for me as I live in London. As I write today, the club’s transition to the Southern League seems to be going ahead, though as there doesn’t appear to be a current safety certificate, quite whether there will be a game at Edgar Street on 9th August remains to be seen.
Away fixtures – do I go or not? Even that’s a dilemma, but a level of curiosity and the inability to go “cold turkey” on the club I’ve followed for years, means I’ll probably go to games I can get to and from easily. The clubs we visit haven’t done anything wrong, why shouldn’t they benefit financially from what can be at times quite a substantial away following.
It should have been so different. If only the current ownership (whoever that is) had paid up straight away and kept us in the Conference – surely that was the absolute minimum required. Did they not realise that owning a football club is a financially dicey business and with that financial commitment comes a duty of trust? At any level in football, if you are incredibly lucky you might break even or make a small profit.
The likes of Roman Abramovic can afford to take the financial hits but the further down the leagues you go, the harder it is. But, do you ever “own” a club or do you take on the role in perpetuity, taking the reins for a period, and then handing it over to the next person never forgetting you are holding onto this role for something far more precious than just owning a club. Something that I think Graham Turner understood, despite his sometimes fractured relationship with fans, but that David Keyte missed completely, is that while the club isn’t “owned” by the supporters, the history and the fans that supported it in the past, present and the future are those who you are holding it in trust for. It is this trust that has been distressingly fractured over the summer.
As I log onto Bulls News more times daily than is really healthy, it is difficult to believe how far our club has sunk. With the eyes of the footballing world on Brazil and now on which stars are coming to Premiership clubs for eye watering amounts of money the plight of Hereford goes largely un-noticed. Credit to Midlands Today who have kept up the media pressure to a certain extent but I am sure there is a fantastic story there for an investigative journalist looking to make a name for themselves. It appears that the who’s who of those you seriously don’t want anywhere near your club have emerged around Edgar Street in recent months. How many of those currently involved would come anywhere near the “fit and proper test” which as far as we are concerned seems obsolete? And as for blaming the supporters and Bulls News for the problems – who exactly do they think they are dealing with?
We are not a bunch of country bumpkins who would roll over and just allow our club to be destroyed. What has been most heartening is how much people care about the club and particularly former players who have joined the Trust and who have turned out for the supporters team. With communication from within the club being handled so poorly, I worry for those new players who have now joined the club and can only hope and pray they will be treated professionally and with respect and those who are training the team are up to the job.
So for now, what do I do on a Saturday afternoon? Locally for me there are 3 options – Millwall, Charlton or Welling United. While I have nothing against the first two, I don’t want to spend a fortune as a neutral going to games so on 9th August, instead of being at Edgar Street, watching us kick off the Conference against Barnet, or even St Neots I’ll be down at Park View Road, watching old boys Chris Bush and Rod McDonald and Sam Smith kick off the season as Welling play AFC Telford. But I’d much rather be at Edgar Street, I’ve held a season ticket for the last ten years and a way of life has now vanished, hopefully temporarily, but I’m not holding my breath. Even saying “come on you bulls” sounds hollow now, and that is the saddest thing of all.
Gomez the Mexican Cat