Evans Knows We're Miserable Now Written by Diallo on Wednesday, 24th Oct 2012 08:55 As I stared towards a sea of yellow and green I laughed. It was going to be okay. While I did not join in plenty around me waved £5, £10 and £20 notes towards the Norwich fans. I remember thinking this is it. All those glory years under Robson and Burley. We'll have ourselves some more of that. Marcus Evans had arrived. Some called him the saviour. Some were not so sure. But whatever happened we had financial security now. We had a club. No more administration. No more Diallo and Santos types. The future was bright. I thought to myself that in a few seasons we'd be back amongst the elite. Norwich probably would not be. While football had moved on and the Ramsey and Robson days would likely never be seen again the Burley days were fresh in the memory. We'd have more Darren Bents come through. We'd buy more Marcus Stewarts. Hell we may even get Sixto or Hermann back. As I wake on another day of what is fast becoming a cross between Nightmare on Elm Street and Groundhog Day I wonder what next. Okay so it's not quite Elm Street. More Portman Road but Elm Street is after all only a few hundred yards from the scene of our fortnightly torture. We may not have Freddy waiting for us to fall asleep. But to be honest League One football couldn't scare me more if it was dressed in a red and black hooped jumper. For it is already running its nails down the Ipswich Town blackboard. We can all hear it. It's all we can hear. But you have to wonder whether while we fall asleep for another nightmare Evans has got the Bill Murray side of this rather odd analogy and is instead happily laughing to himself while wondering whether Andie MacDowell is actually fit or not. I never could work that one out. As inept as Paul Jewell appears to be I wonder how others would fare in his place. Jim went downhill and Roy was a disaster. When he left we all seemed to think it couldn't get any worse. It has. There are a number of constants during this time. Namely Marcus Evans and Simon Clegg. For all the coats of paint that are ordered to freshen up the Portman Road facilities none of us really know what Clegg does or does not do. He's clearly not an idiot, but a bright man with a successful career. Sometimes seemingly more of a politician. Some may say more of a puppet. There is no doubt that Keane didn't rate the man. He often eluded to Clegg being incompetent but given Roy Keane himself you have to wonder which of them whether he has valid grievances or is displaying the inner petulant child that seemingly had vanished when he took to management at the Stadium of Light. Leaving Clegg to one side, Jewell has failed. He is a beaten man. A man out of ideas. The players may have been the ones he brought here but they do not want to play for him. Possibly not this club. I can handle us being poor. I can handle us going down. I cannot handle the absolutely gutless, spineless, lack of fight that the players display. Under any circumstances, whether you want the manager here or not the players seem to have no professional pride. You have to wonder if they want the guy gone and if so how hard will they try? How much will they give? Jewell has to go. But what of the man who will choose his replacement. The man who owns our club. The single man who controls our destiny and there is nothing we can do about it. He's made two appointments that have taken the club backwards to the point where there is nothing. No star player. No wonderkid coming through. Gates down from 25,000 to 15,000, no emphasis on the fans. No dialogue with the club. Our Supporters Club to me seems to re-elect the same person every year without challenge and even today people are wanting to buy shares so they can go to the AGM unaware that they can go as a season ticket holder and a Supporters Club member. The Supporters Club has not liaised at all with the fans over the debt, the club's predicament, nothing. The head of the Supporters Club is now on the PLC board. A conflict of interest? If we all wanted the manager or the owner gone how much of a voice would we be given through the Supporters Club? I don't see what can change under Evans. Will he give a new man funds to bring in a whole new team? Because yet again that is what we need. Half the side are not even our players and we don't really know how good the rest are. Is Hyam good enough? I think so but we don't know. Will Chopra ever be that player? Maybe. Maybe not. Evans is worth close to a billion pounds and in the ME pond ITFC is not the biggest fish, not the favourite fish and I fear that as dark as these days are right now it is going to get even worse. We have every hallmark of a relegated side and with Financial Fair Play coming in we may well slip in to the third tier, crowds of 10,000 if we are lucky and what then? I don't care that Evans wants his privacy but it is clear he does not care what we think. We are the heartbeat of the club. All fans are. Yes with millions of pounds you buy the right to do what the hell you want. Football is a big business. But in many ways it isn't. They always say that you don't buy a football club to make money. I fear Evans did just that. A sleeping giant that can be awoken with a few million. However he gave those funds to the wrong man who bought the wrong players. But the good thing about this story is those players have sell-on values. So there is no chance that a £1.5m McAuley, £2m Norris, £2.75m Leadbitter can walk away for free is there? Or a £1.7m Priskin. That's not Keane's fault. That's not Jewell's fault. That is down to Evans and Clegg between them and should never have happened. At the start of this season Lee Martin was looking one of our better players. Still no new contract for him Marcus? I wonder how much he will even be worth in January. The blind are leading the blind. The lunatics are running the asylum. Well maybe 15,000 of us are loonies. But this is our asylum and we love it. It is dying before our eyes For all of this has become a nightmare. I for one want to wake up. But right now I cannot see anything but a man in sole control tearing away like my man Kruger until layer upon layer of everything this once proud club stood for has been stripped and torn away. Some of you don't know what Evans looks like. He looks a bit like Fred Barber did in that mask, which I always thought looked a bit like Kruger funnily enough! Evans knows we are miserable now. But does he even care that much and if he does then does anyone trust him to be able to put this right. I am afraid I don't. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
|
Blogs 295 bloggers |