Tuesday 26 November 2013

Two homes, two aways

That's what we face now and it's a crucial set of fixtures that could determine our season. Doncaster and Ipswich at the Valley followed by Reading and Yeovil away. 

It's a long time since we took six points from two successive home wins and given our difficulty in scoring, our relatively poor home form and the fact that we face a Doncaster side thirsting to put the record straight and an Ipswich Town team unbeaten in four aways (but spluttering at home), 3 or 4 points is probably a more realistic wish.

We need to see Yann Kermorgant back to full strength and more urgency from midfield to support him and whoever gets the other berth up front. I am assuming Chris Powell will still be putting a pairing out in spite of of failure to find one that's truly working this season. Simon Church gives his all although his limitations are clear. I still can't see what Marvin Sordell brings and I scratch my head to see how he ever got an U21 England cap. I really don't think he has much time left to show us what he can do before he joins a long line of flops we have tried up front in recent seasons. 

What is pretty clear is that anyone we might bring in on loan to get goals should walk into the starting eleven. The likes of Smith, Pigott and Azeez don't look like they will get another chance this season all the time we are desperate for points. The risk is too big for us and for them and I expect their loans or reserve status to continue until later in the season.

Funding is obviously the other issue and that brings me back to the ongoing takeover speculation. Desperation for information now has some of our more vocal internet supporters pretending to be in the know or speculating wildly about who the prospective buyer(s) are. We are even now at the stage where we are envisaging a battle between huge corporations to own us as part of a fantasy stadium development on the Greenwich Peninsula which will catapult us back into the PL and beyond.

I am not going to encourage the speculation here. However, what I am clear about is that ownership of any club likely to be able to fulfil any of that needs to be from someone willing to pour large sums of money into the venture for a prolonged period of time and that almost decrees that you need a wealthy investor with money to burn and probably an individual who can make decisions themselves. 

I am struggling to think of any large corporations who do this or who could do this (no doubt someone will tell me). Typically they are in public or at least wider ownership and their management Boards and Operating Committees are answerable to others ultimately for the decisions they take. The people at the top tend to be refreshed every few years and the strategic outlook is subject to change as a result. Most of this precludes any excessive or prolonged "gambling" with their funds, so investment in a risky venture like a Championship football club would need to be very well defined within their business case and that would almost certainly be limited in terms of funding and timelines. Unless they had the Midas touch, we would risk another bout of short-term ownership and the cycle that brings. That's not to say that they couldn't set aside a large enough sum to secure our immediate future and see us on our way.

1 comment:

  1. Like you Dave, I am always skeptical of all the "learned" opinions being fired around, but if indeed the prospective buyer is Comcast, they comfortably fulfill the criteria you are laying down for a desired owner.

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