Within a fortnight Michael Knighton could leave Brunton Park for good. There's an unmistakeable air of jubilation around the old place. Freight tycoon John Courtenay is ready to move in with a new board of directors, a supporters' representative and a new strategy of 'openness'. We appear to be building up a feel-good factor of incalculable proportions. Or are we? If we've learnt anything from the Knighton era it's not to hero-worship football club owners. The odd refrain of "JC is God" worries me a bit. He's not a God. He's a businessman who is here to help rescue our football club from the pit it has been trapped in for the last 4 years. He deserves our support and will undoubtedly get it but the club ultimately is ours, not his. We'll still be here when he's taken his cut and gone. It's a stark fact that you can count popular football club chairmen on the fingers of an amputee with leprosy. Courtenay is right when he says he can't succeed without our support. The reason Knighton ultimately failed was because that support was withdrawn. It would have been no different at any other football club, indeed at Carlisle Knighton clung on longer than would have been possible at many others. Courtenay was unimpressed by the 2,864 gate for the Rushden game. Well, had the match been played at Torquay, Halifax, Chester, Scarborough or Doncaster in similar circumstances (where the home side had been stuck near the bottom of the league for four seasons), that gate would have struggled to reach 1,000. In fact, the turnout of 2,835 from Carlisle (Colin Carter told us, rather too gloatingly, that 29 had come from Rushden) was far from disgraceful for a cold Tuesday night in January against mid-table opposition. However, the boycotters have made their point and rather successfully too, given that Knighton has clearly been pushed very reluctantly into this sale. Although United fans are supposed to be fickle, not too many had been tempted back just because of an upturn in results. They had stayed true to their principle of not investing in their club while it was owned by a man with no interest in its success. Although the gates have not dipped to sub-1,000 levels as has been seen at some grounds, they have been well down now for four consecutive seasons and I suspect this finally had it's desired effect on the current regime. Knighton had little choice. Now of course that boycott will be called off, pending a successful outcome to the negotiations which appear to be going to plan at time of writing. The new spirit of co-operation between supporters and owners will be given an early test when CCUIST enter into talks with Mr Courtenay about the terms of a deal that would give them substantial share ownership in return for an injection of capital into the club's coffers. It can only be hoped that once this is agreed, a lot more supporters will sign up to what is a truly important concept in the future of the club. All this, and no mention (yet) of a certain Mr Roddy Collins. While I sometimes see similarities between Collins and old big head himself, Brian Clough, I would hesitate to compare the two. While Clough was a bully who exuded an air of professionalism wherever he went, Collins still comes over as something of a thug who is simply busting to make an impression. However, unorthodox managers are pretty much par for the course. Like Ian Atkins before him, it has taken Collins half a season to find the right balance in the team. Unlike Atkins, he should now have a platform on which to build on that. Good luck to him - he'll need it. Al |
