After all, this really was a highly embarrassing moment for the club and its maverick owner George Reynolds. Unfortunately, having built the man up to be the saviour and a player who would light up Division Three and put North Eastern bums on the new seats of Darlington's new all-seater stadium, Reynolds was quite literally left in the lurch. Reynolds had met his match. He is the most controversial of the remaining lower-division chairmen - but Asprilla can outpunch him comfortably when it comes to eccentric behaviour. It would be really funny but it does still highlight the dangers to lower league football of blustering buffoons like Reynolds and those of his ilk. Take a close look at the experiences of former high flyers like Asprilla who drop down the divisions and there are few if any tales of glittering success. Only this weekend we were reading of Lee Sharpe's sudden departure from Exeter. The former Manchester United and Leeds hero scored on his debut but evidently wasn't ready for the rigours of a Third Division season and he's hardly alone in failing to make the grade at this level. Talk of Eric Gates and Clive Allen to CUFC supporters and they'll know what you're talking about instantly. Gates managed a very solitary season in the early Nineties when he got more boos and brickbats than goals. Allen managed to play three games without scoring and then quietly left. Ian Rush finished his career at Wrexham a few years back with barely a whimper. Wherever you look, there are fading stars who do little down in the basement but, well ... fade. Amongst former top flight stars there is a temptation to think they can drop down the leagues and still command the sort of salary they enjoyed in their glory days. Asprilla was apparently going to be offered 20% of Darlo's gate receipts, which would have gone down marvellously in the dressing room I can imagine. There was speculation on how much he would actually earn with £17,000 a week apparently the likeliest figure. Can you see a £17,000-a-week footballer really blending in with his £600-a-week team-mates? No, not me either. Darlington fans may not all agree, but I think they are better off without the expensive Colombian. As several of their supporters pointed out after his rapid escape to the Middle East, Darlington could have signed five or six good up and coming players and paid them out of a mere fraction of Asprilla's wages. A ridiculous waste.
Whatever any Darlo fan says, and in spite of our disappointing 2-0 loss there last week, I'm glad we have John Courtenay and not an obnoxious, odious individual like Reynolds. Courtenay understands where fans are coming from. Reynolds wouldn't know the difference between a supporters' trust and a supporters' club. More likely than not he'd try to take them both over and build them in his own image. I'll be very surprised if more than 5,000 attend home games in Reynolds's white-elephant stadium which is due to open after Christmas. As much as the former safe cracker would have us believe, Darlington have never been and probably never will be a big club. They'll almost certainly never even reach Division One, let alone the Premiership. However at Brunton Park, that target is within our grasp. It may have been a stuttering start for the Cumbrians under the new regime, but it will soon pick up and I can see us being well above Darlington by the finish, which will no doubt make George very unhappy. Al |
