Observer Article

[Guest]

Urchins leave fans in lurch

 

Ian Ridley

Sunday November 7, 2004

The Observer

 

Some weeks back in these pages, we carried a feature about Hornchurch, who had become the non-League Chelsea, paying huge wages, transfer fees and signing-on bonuses in an effort to win promotion from Nationwide South.

 

Hornchurch were a pretty average Isthmian League club until recently, existing on gates of a few hundred. Along came a wealthy backer, in the shape of a company called the Carthium Group, and the goal became the Conference, then the Football League.

 

In the summer, they embarked on an extraordinary spending spree on 20 new players. The word at that level of the game was that their wage bill was £22,000 a week, about three times what the better payers in the league were forking out and more than many Football League clubs' wage bills. It was actually a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Promotion should be guaranteed on half that.

 

Naturally Hornchurch took exception to The Observer revealing all this. Not that anyone cared too much there. They had duly romped to the top of the league.

 

This week Carthium went bust, the figure or figures behind the company and the club still shadowy. Any potential buyer will have to deal with a host of lucrative contracts for players and manager. The Urchins, or what is left of their administration, are considering how to fulfil their fixtures, perhaps with a youth team. They are due to be on television on Saturday, away to Boston United in the FA Cup first round.

 

It is a sobering tale for any level of the game, from Manchester United down to Hornchurch. When clubs become the plaything of a person and/or subsidiaries of his company, they are hostages to his fortune, or the illusion of it. And as we know, fortunes can change so quickly in this business, this game.

 

The manager and players will probably be all right. They will find new clubs, even if they earn less. The real sufferers? You've guessed them.

[Guv]

So predictable that Ridley & Claridge (in the nlp) couldn't wait to have their say on the sad events surrounding the Urchins over the last week.

In response, picture the scene in the summer, Clardige & Ridley are trying to work out a formula to get Weymouth( who incidentally aint exactly been penny-pinching themselves) ahead of the pack in the NS, when in walks UU with a blank cheque: "Here lads have a bash with that, see where the rides takes you". Do you honestly think they would have done anything else but accept the offer with open arms? Jealousy and I told you so's from these two individuals are no surprise. Isn' it sad their employment was terminated with Weymouth, partly down to their inability to stay the pace with Urchins (at least up until now)