Most supporters who get the chance to talk to John find it an enjoyable experience and him to be a down to earth bloke. I know I always enjoy having a natter with the chief. He can ring up at the oddest times but the crack is always enjoyable. In this job you don’t last five minutes if you start breaching confidences and while don’t think journalists will ever be on our chairman’s xmas card list he knows I’d not breach the trust of me own club's owner in a million years – being a lifelong United fan means whatever is said goes no further. And some of the things JC’s revealed about the situation at BP have been shocking, disgusting, bizarre and downright illegal at times (present board excepted of course) yet despite it all you always get a laugh having a bit of blarney with this Irish geezer some of us have become rather fond of. And the ability to have that laugh is important because despite working in professional sport for a few years now and knowing some of the things that go on, didn’t think there was much left to be surprise/shocked about yet even another piece of information involving Brunton might come to light or the chairman might let on about something that he's had to deal with since taking over, and proceed to make light of it and crack a joke, which is just as well as Im normally rendered speechless for a while by what I’ve just heard. But if you let John down once with an “off the record” bit of info that would be the end of those ‘enjoyable cracks’. Trust and honour seem to matter to our owner, that’s okay with us isn’t it, our national sport would be all the better if there was a lot more of it. As it is there’s precious little! But if your a CUFC fan and see John Courtenay, he'll always have time to talk to you. As long as its Carlisle United you want to discuss. One lad in town got short shrift from JC when wanting to talk about something to do with Manchester United! So even if feeling a bit awkward or shy about approaching him, be no problem, even if you have something to say that you might not both agree on, show the guy a bit of respect and you'll be given the same in return. He does swear a lot so if your sensitive to that kind of thing, be warned. To me though, it's not offensive but funny, humerous type of banter. Anyway it's part of the man's character, always has been and always will be I suspect. Personally I really do like the bloke anyway and then theres that other fact thats kind of hard to ignore, you know the one about Courtenay being responsible for this place we live in still having a football league team that exists. For some reason that does not make me like the man any less yet even now there are still some doubters. Please be assured , CUFC was being given its last rights, it was Courtenay – or it was the end! Fact! There have been times when I would have dearly loved to come on this board and let folks know the amount of crap the guy has had to deal with on a daily basis. Believe me you don’t know the half of it – and don’t think I’m claiming to know all of it either because there’s things that have gone on that I aint fully aware of where all the facts are concerned. And we are talking the sort of stuff that isn’t good news or simple to sort out. Courtenay’s dealing with all this bollocks and lots more besides and some fans are going on and on about what went on and what or wasn’t said one Saturday on the terraces at an away game. Fair nuff you thought it was important – surely getting on with saving CUFC was rather more so. Wouldn’t let it go drop boys either would ya! Maybe all the ‘other crap’ most of us don’t know about will come out one day. Certainly hope so! Sometimes I think JC should let on and reveal more about the 'problems' that he and now the present board of directors have had to deal with. Certainly win a bit more on the sympathy front (does he need more from most fans where thats concerened) but, and I've asked him why he doesn't, he'd say something like: "Well it's happened and moaning to the fans isn;t going to sort it out (nor cheer us up either he didnt actually say but am almost certain is also part of the reason). And of course, some of the issues that need to be dealt with take up a lot of time and you'd get that bit of humour mentioned earlier as the chief would add: "Anyway Mick it's taken me most of the hours in the day to sort the f....... thing out, if I start moaning on about it in public too, I'll have no time left to do anything else at all.” Look John Courtenay is not a saint, he's not perfect. But then I wouldn’t advise any of you to go on Mastermind and choose as your specialised subject “Football Chairmen who are nice guys, real gentlemen and actually care deep down about being more than being seen to be a chairman – AND actually ‘really’ give a toss about the people who support the team. Go on – name a few now! Name me ONE now! I blame JC anyway for daring to have the cheek to be CUFC owner and actually stand with the fans when the team are playing. Who does he think he is eh? He’ll be wanting to drink beer in the pub with us next and talk about football. Does not happen at other clubs – so why should we have to put up with it from our chairman? And the comments from Brian Hall recently along the lines of: “The majority of supporters would like to see Brooks Mileson team up with Courtenay” – well I must be in the minority because your not speaking for me there Brian. Don’t know the Gretna chief – sure hes an okay bloke but if I was Courtenay and had battled alone through all of the crap doubt id want someone teaming up with me now. Maybe as another director but as some sort of co-owner. No way! But the chairman has at least come up with a plan to keep us in with a chance of staying alive.Yeah it means having to rely on loan players and a few from higher up than our own division. This means of course that the directors (and the chief more than anyone no doubt) will have to cough up because to get even anyone to come A) this far north and B) to the team propping up the bottom of the league and a long way behind on points – will want an absolute fortune in wages to grace Brunton for even a short time. But may as well spend it now – because whats the alternative. If we can get some players to inject life and belief into the team, a few wins plus the fact that those sides above us are crap and despite most Blues fans being down in the dumps (putting it mildly) you know what we’re like, we’ll be there behind the team again and might just make a difference. It needs to happen soon though and Paul Simpson has been busy doing his homework. There’s one Premiership manager who has treated our club , we were interested in one or two of their younger players and were prepared to match their wages to get them on-loan, but this charming top flight boss has treated CUFC well was gonna say with contempt, like shit, would be a fairer description. Even so the deal is not totally dead yet so cant name the gentleman in question, some of you will be able to work it out. The guy is not known for his charm in general anyway but you could argue his club sort of owes us a favour! But cheers JC – stuck with United, saved the club, got us through this horrendous loan thing and now has a plan to try and keep us in the league. It may may not work but what it does do is give us a fighting chance – a few days ago we didn’t have a hope in hell of a chance. “They” tell me John’s been a bit down and quiet by his standards of late. If you come across him then you might want to let him know what he’s done for this club means to you . Never underestimate Courtenay, it may not look like it at times but he listens to every word and it all goes in! There’s one other significant change to come out of all this that makes a difference to my life and I suspect to many other Blues fans also. It was a first, and not a nice first for sure, but really didn’t know if I’d be spending this coming Boxing Day based around CUFC. No, I’m not proud but don’t tell me some of you reading this were not thinking and feeling the same. Well we’ll probably still be bottom but for some reason it’s all sorted and I know that most of December 26th will be spent in Bury. How about you? You gan? Yeah, course you are! See you there. Just give us us a sign of better things from the team before then and christ they won’t know whats hit em regarding the away support in that part of Lancashire. And if we win there and then beat Darlo - it's bloody well game on again! Respect Mick |
