Cod Almighty | Diary

My dad will put your dad in the bin

27 April 2023

They made a documentary. But in the upcoming film ‘Wrexham FC: Slaying the Vanarama’, as told by Hollywood, who plays the villain?

It’s a question that’s troubled your West Yorkshire Diary ever since their return to the Football League looked likely. What adversity were they fighting against? Can you have adversity with pockets that deep? Once again, I switch on the TV to see lots of people congratulating the very wealthiest in society on their success, as if spending money in a way that totally obliterates the competition is a novel strategy and worthy of high praise.

A more impressive feat would have been to win the league without the injection of Hollywood cash. Devote the column inches and online pages to the plucky overachievers — not the overspending underachievers who bought back parity. I find it far more inspiring, for example, that Accrington have been competing in the third tier of English football for the past five seasons. I reckon we could learn far more from them than we could from Wrexham.

It's almost two years since 1878 Partners became owners of the town’s greatest asset. Any debt owed to the previous majority shareholder has been paid, and in those 24 months we’ve won a promotion and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 84 years. That’s your top-line summary.

And there’s plenty more to mention when you jog your memory, like completely re-turfing Cheapside, improving the players’ gym equipment, investing in a strength and conditioning coach, applying for B-corp status, partnering with forward-thinking local businesses and running an annual fan survey. We can’t hope to sustain success on the field if we’re not run properly off it. Without sensible foundations, there will come a time when we will once again crumble, no matter how many three points we earn on match days.

With Wrexham now pulling up a seat at the League 2 table, it means others will likely have to up their spending to compete in transfer and contract negotiations. You know how this goes: clubs will spend more of what they don’t have to compete, driving up prices, driving up demand, putting their futures in jeopardy. I’d rather us not be drawn into that gamble, which likely means we’ll lose out on some of our targets. Managing fans’ expectations and Hurst’s spending money is an unenviable balance 1878 will have to strike.

The cup money will help, but to be a sustainable club we have to spend within our means. Now is not the time to enter a dick-swinging competition. Sometimes you simply have to stand aside, let others spend silly money, and promise them we’ll be kind to them when the plug is pulled and they pass us by on their way back down.

Football is hard to get right. Take a look at the four teams that came down from the third division last season — we put nine past Crewe without reply in our three games against them; Gillingham could only score six goals in their first 20 games before getting it together in January; Doncaster looked completely out of sorts when we played them earlier this month; and Wimbledon have done nothing but sit in mid-table. We’re set to finish above all of them this season, and we’ve hardly been firing on one cylinder, let alone all of them.

Crewe have only won five times on the road across the last two seasons, and you could tell why on Tuesday night. We’re not the only team a bit blunt up front. I’m not attempting to use other underperforming teams to justify why it’s okay to sit 11th in the fourth division, but the hard reality is that, broadly speaking, most football clubs make bad decisions that impact their day-to-day performance. After a while, that’s reflected in their trajectory. We are on the up. And I’m quite happy if that remains a gentle rise.

Yesterday Liam Emmerson announced he was leaving his role at the club. Liam has done a fantastic job capturing so many memorable moments we’ve been given over the past couple of years. The response has been unanimous in its praise, but it’s also been used to discuss the turnover of staff at the club.

Now, as an exile living in West Yorkshire, I can’t claim to know anything more than the next Town fan. But for those who are desperately scratching around to make this into some kind of drama, it might be worth considering that Jason Stockwood and Andrew Pettit, despite their calm personas in front of cameras and microphones, aren’t here to mess about. They have talked about cultures and values relentlessly since becoming owners.

Change was (and still is) absolutely necessary. And yes, there has been a lot of it — possibly too much for some fans to stomach, especially when they see people who had almost become part of the furniture move on. They are recognisable names and faces, so of course their departures are tinged with some sadness.

But this is all part of the transition. As the owners have said on more than a few occasions, not everyone will want to be part of this journey. Some, like Liam, will use their time here to develop their skills and become a stronger, more employable person, with greater ambitions. So, they will naturally move on.

Talking of which, a win on Saturday will see Stevenage move on up into the third division. With a top-half finish and contracts to play for (even though Hurst has already stated that he’s made up his mind), I’d like to think we have enough about us to go there and put a nice dent in their promotion hopes.

We began by talking about absent villains, but there's certainly one involved now. I don’t relish the sight of Den Perry — sorry, I mean Steve Evans — celebrating on the touchline at full time, so let's do all we can to prevent it.

But, even a draw could be enough to see the Boro promoted, if Carlisle, Stockport and Bradford all fail to win their games. Our record at Stevenage is appalling, but not quite as appalling as the stewards the club chooses to employ. If they’re planning a promotion party and extra security checks that come with it, I sincerely hope the Town fans who make the trip are treated like human beings and not like the pyro-smuggling, pitch-invading, provocative deviants the power-mad Stevenage stewards almost want us to be.

No chance of the Grimsby Reaper making an appearance after this one, more’s the pity, but being a proper party pooper will be just as satisfying. UTM!