The link provided by rjd, showing the smart modern tractor on the Plainmoor pitch, and showcasing the expensive improvements being undertaken to help with the high quality of football and therefore adding to our enjoyment, does, as Register makes clear, once again highlight what is now possible under the careful guidance and oversight of our Chairman.
But additional credit to Chairman Osborne is deserved for sanctioning considerable further spending on Plainmoor as we head into the 2019/20 season, when we bear in mind the flexibility in approach that’s been required on his part.
Mr.Osborne was like a broken record during the first year or more of his tenure. Did he ever utter more than a few sentences, or reveal his vision for the club without mention of
‘sustainable success’ ? It was clearly his preferred route from the start…..and didn’t he half bang on about it.
However, the opposition to that approach from a number of supporters, and possibly even more importantly from local politicians, has I think, given him a clear insight into the short term thinking that is so prevalent and favoured on the terraces...and in the Council chamber,
‘If you are determined to frustrate what’s needed to underpin a sustainable path to success, but just want money thrown at it now…..then we’ll do it that way’ seems to have been Chairman Osborne’s response.
No sensible Bank would be loaning money to a loss making business to the extent that Chairman Osborne is. Particularly with a notoriously belligerent local authority, possibly just waiting for it’s chance to permanently derail the ‘sustainable’ first choice option, should Chairman Osborne seek their cooperation in breathing new life into such a strategy in future.
Playing to his audience by piling in the loans now, rather than banging his sustainability drum. So for the moment we’ve got what they wanted. Throw cash at it now, and shut up about making the business sustainable rather than loss making. And from Chairman Osborne’s perspective, it has pretty much muted the unrelenting criticism that he was subjected to by The Militants on an almost daily basis. They’ve been very quiet this season.
Like most, I’m thrilled to witness the professional approach and magnificent work being done on the pitch at Plainmoor, and a cold shiver goes down my spine when I reflect what we’d most likely now be seeing instead, had a more politically driven ownership group of ‘progressives’ seized the club, rather than Chairman Osborne in late 2016.
But we must not pander to them forever. Nor to local politicians whose inclination might be to block business initiatives to bring substantial new revenue streams to the club, preferring instead to curry favour with activists and Militants locally.
The sorry state of local government finances is a reflection of our willingness to too often elect politicians of this irresponsible mind-set. Neither they or the Militant obstructionists can be allowed to prevail for much longer. Kicking the can down the road is an overused political game. Chairman Osborne must be allowed to take the necessary major measures required to put the club on a proper business footing, and to stem the substantial losses.
As the lush new pitch grows, wouldn’t it be nice to think that as we head towards season 2019/20, the seeds of a more cooperative approach with the club might also be detected among those who have so far done most to obstruct it from embracing a sustainably successful future ?
