However all is not exactly well down Brunton Park way. The potential loss of revenues from the collapse of the ITV Digital deal coupled with the marathon and apparently stalled takeover talks between Knighton and Courtenay leaves us facing a very uncertain future. This may sound a bit sombre after such good recent progress on the field but there can be no underestimating the very real and present danger to the continuted existence of Carlisle United as a football club. It is no time for complacency just because we've won a few matches, lifted ourselves out of relegation danger and have the makings of a half-decent team for next season. After all, we've been here before. Precisely 12 months ago, to be exact. Then, as now, the side had gamely battled for survival and the outlook was quite bright. But what happened next? as they say on a Question of Sport. Well no new money was made available to the manager, several takeover bids failed and just two weeks into the month of July Ian Atkins resigned a bitter and disillusioned man. If the same thing isn't to happen to Roddy Collins, the takeover has finally to be concluded and the sooner the better. There is talk of the thing being delayed until the end of the season. It would hardly be a major surprise seeing as its already taken over three years to get this far, but a deal should be driven by commercial, legal and financial reasons and not at all by the calendar. The deal could and should have been done by now and doesn't need to wait for the season to be over before going through. The players Collins has lined up look very useful additions to the squad and if all was to go well, I believe we would start next season as one of the top six contenders in the division. With a fair following wind and a good start with positive results, gates could double from their present level of just over 3,000 to something in the region of 6,000-6,500. However to get to that scenario from where we are now is going to take a fair amount of teeth-gnashing and a lot more burning of midnight oils by lawyers and accountants. The problem, if it wasn't already obvious enough from previous takeover sagas, is that Mr Knighton has built himself an entity which in legal and financial terms is bloody hard to get rid of. The studying of the fine print, the legal documentation pertaining to the ownership of land and buildings in the vicinity of Brunton Park and all the other gubbins associated with the football club and its parent company CUFC Holdings has taken 11 weeks so far to get through. The process isn't quite over yet, either. Add in the obvious assessment that Mr K is a man to drive an extremely hard bargain and won't miss a trick when it comes to squeezing Courtenay for more cash as the weeks drag on, and you are left with a situation that isn't the cast iron certainty it looked a few weeks ago when everyone was feeling very confident that the end was nigh. So much for the continuing pantomime off the field. On it, the players have produced some battling performances in recent matches, made all the more impressive by the fact that we haven't been at full strength. Ok, so Oxford, Halifax and Macclesfield are not exactly the cream of the division and I don't really think we played well enough to deserve the wins against Oxford or Macc but we still got the results and we got them in far from ideal circumstances, which bodes well for the future. That is, if we have much of a future. Your move, Mr K. |
