Post by QPR Report on Jan 19, 2010 7:11:57 GMT
The Times/Matt Dic-kinson
How long can the AFC Wimbledon honeymoon last?
The fear is with AFC Wimbledon's success that they might soon outgrow their current home at Kingsmeadow in Kingston, Surrey
There was a minute’s silence on Saturday so impeccable you could hear the birdsong; but then this was Kingsmeadow. Spend an afternoon there and you come away thinking only good things happen at the home of AFC Wimbledon.
Far from leveraged debt and bloodsucking owners, English football’s feel-good story basked in a warm, happy glow even on a dank, grey afternoon. Fans milled around the car park, all 3,584 of them, and you could feel their contentment. They own the club, the stadium, the team. They make the rules and they make a profit.
They have known only an upward trajectory since they stepped eight years ago into the void left by Wimbledon’s ugly mutation into Milton Keynes Dons. Now they are close to reclaiming a cherished place in the Football League.
On Saturday, a 2-0 victory over Mansfield Town kept AFC in play-off territory in the Blue Square Premier. Nathan Elder struck just two minutes into his debut to confirm the idea that some benevolent force is guiding this home-grown club, setting right the injustice of their identity being pinched.
The manager, Terry Brown, is another reason why AFC deserve all our goodwill. On Saturday, his programme notes were devoted to a brilliantly scathing attack on football’s leading managers and their contempt for the Respect campaign, in which he named and shamed Ferguson, Benítez, Wenger et al.
And Brown does not just talk a good game. He has taken it upon himself to educate his players, not least about the club’s unique history. Did Elder know the club he was joining, and what makes AFC so special? “If he doesn’t, we’ll tell him,” Brown says. “We have an indoctrination for all the players. We give them a book, a DVD.
“We explain how we were cheated out of our club. We tell them that if they’re asked, they must say, ‘We don’t like MK Dons.’ We tell them how much that matters to the fans. Because that’s what makes this place different.”
The question now, which seems to drive right to the heart not just of Wimbledon but of modern football as it wrestles with issues of ownership and debt, is whether AFC can stay different. Because the higher they go, and the tougher the competition becomes, the more money it will take to sustain their momentum. And that’s when the temptation to sell out to an investor may start nagging incessantly.
“If we double the gates, which we will in League Two, how do we maintain the culture and ethos? It’s a fair question,” Erik Samuelson, the chief executive, admits.
Already they wonder how long they can last at Kingsmeadow. With its space for 5,000, they are at 80 per cent of capacity and room to expand is limited. But how to pay for a move? And to where?
Samuelson jokes about the “fundamentalist” swath of fans still set on a move back to Merton Borough rather than their present home across the “border” in Kingston upon Thames. That hard core long for a return to Plough Lane by developing the greyhound stadium. But a new ground, wherever it is, would cost about £14 million just for the construction, never mind buying a plot in southwest London.
For a club still massively reliant on volunteers (Samuelson is paid a nominal guinea a year despite working all hours), the idea of expansion is exciting, but not without its perils. Or its unwelcome interest.
Already AFC have resisted a takeover attempt from Darragh MacAnthony, a property dealer who took his millions to Peterborough United instead. They have had other inquiries from rich men who say they want to buy into the uplifting story but may, of course, simply spy an opportunity to make a few quid.
Samuelson dismisses a controlling owner as a “last resort” and, still burnt by Sam Hammam’s decision to cut and run, most fans remain resolutely behind the Dons Trust. But will it always be that way?
What happens when the supporters, accustomed only to success during the heady climb from the Combined Counties League, become frustrated that progress has stalled, as it inevitably must?
Will they continue to delight in having a club at all? Or will they vent their frustration, and demand change and investment? The higher they go, will the happy camaraderie be put at risk?
It has, as Brown acknowledges, “all been a honeymoon so far. Compared to other managers, I work without pressure because they give me time. But so far we’ve only ever been near the top of any league we’ve been in. That can’t last for ever.”
Soon AFC will face the dilemmas, and strains, familiar to every club. How to reach for the next rung on the ladder? How much to risk in chasing the dream? At AFC these choices will carry a particular significance given the club’s formation, their spectacular rise and their present constitution.
To go to Kingsmeadow is to renew your vows with the game. It shows you how a club can be run, how they should be run, how they were always intended to be run. The place is full of happy fans, well-meaning staff, enthusiastic volunteers.
How long can it stay that way? How far can fan ownership carry them? Samuelson predicts they can reach the Coca-Cola Championship without selling their soul.
“I keep telling them to enjoy the journey,” Brown says. “Sometimes it’s better than the destination."
Gerrard adds to Capello problems
Gerrard ready to quit Anfield” screamed the headline and it would be odd if Liverpool’s captain and talisman was not considering his options.
Given the mess on Merseyside, Gerrard wouldn’t be human if he did not wonder every day if he would be happier, and certainly more successful, at Manchester United, Chelsea or Real Madrid.
The trouble is that we have been here before when Gerrard, twice, weighed up moves to Stamford Bridge. The first time, he became so muddled that he played like a drain for England at Euro 2004. So never mind Liverpool’s woes. Another should-I-shouldn’t-I-go saga for Gerrard is a headache for Fabio Capello. Add it to the list.
Lampard says it all, with great dignity
A few years ago Frank Lampard played a match for England and was jeered incessantly.
Filled with self-pity, he went home and turned off the phone for three days. He even contemplated walking away from his international career.
It was at that low point when his mum, Pat, tracked him down. She didn’t talk about Frank’s form or the boos from the terraces. She explained how she had watched the game on television and how, seeing her son in the England shirt with those three lions on the chest, she had been struck by how proud he must have been doing something that every boy in the country could only dream of.
Lampard told that story about his late mother as he was honoured by the Football Writers’ Association on Sunday for his contribution to the game. Many had asked, including Lampard himself, why he was getting such an award when he had not finished playing. One reason was to be found in his dignified speech.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matt_Putzinson/article6993078.ece
How long can the AFC Wimbledon honeymoon last?
The fear is with AFC Wimbledon's success that they might soon outgrow their current home at Kingsmeadow in Kingston, Surrey
There was a minute’s silence on Saturday so impeccable you could hear the birdsong; but then this was Kingsmeadow. Spend an afternoon there and you come away thinking only good things happen at the home of AFC Wimbledon.
Far from leveraged debt and bloodsucking owners, English football’s feel-good story basked in a warm, happy glow even on a dank, grey afternoon. Fans milled around the car park, all 3,584 of them, and you could feel their contentment. They own the club, the stadium, the team. They make the rules and they make a profit.
They have known only an upward trajectory since they stepped eight years ago into the void left by Wimbledon’s ugly mutation into Milton Keynes Dons. Now they are close to reclaiming a cherished place in the Football League.
On Saturday, a 2-0 victory over Mansfield Town kept AFC in play-off territory in the Blue Square Premier. Nathan Elder struck just two minutes into his debut to confirm the idea that some benevolent force is guiding this home-grown club, setting right the injustice of their identity being pinched.
The manager, Terry Brown, is another reason why AFC deserve all our goodwill. On Saturday, his programme notes were devoted to a brilliantly scathing attack on football’s leading managers and their contempt for the Respect campaign, in which he named and shamed Ferguson, Benítez, Wenger et al.
And Brown does not just talk a good game. He has taken it upon himself to educate his players, not least about the club’s unique history. Did Elder know the club he was joining, and what makes AFC so special? “If he doesn’t, we’ll tell him,” Brown says. “We have an indoctrination for all the players. We give them a book, a DVD.
“We explain how we were cheated out of our club. We tell them that if they’re asked, they must say, ‘We don’t like MK Dons.’ We tell them how much that matters to the fans. Because that’s what makes this place different.”
The question now, which seems to drive right to the heart not just of Wimbledon but of modern football as it wrestles with issues of ownership and debt, is whether AFC can stay different. Because the higher they go, and the tougher the competition becomes, the more money it will take to sustain their momentum. And that’s when the temptation to sell out to an investor may start nagging incessantly.
“If we double the gates, which we will in League Two, how do we maintain the culture and ethos? It’s a fair question,” Erik Samuelson, the chief executive, admits.
Already they wonder how long they can last at Kingsmeadow. With its space for 5,000, they are at 80 per cent of capacity and room to expand is limited. But how to pay for a move? And to where?
Samuelson jokes about the “fundamentalist” swath of fans still set on a move back to Merton Borough rather than their present home across the “border” in Kingston upon Thames. That hard core long for a return to Plough Lane by developing the greyhound stadium. But a new ground, wherever it is, would cost about £14 million just for the construction, never mind buying a plot in southwest London.
For a club still massively reliant on volunteers (Samuelson is paid a nominal guinea a year despite working all hours), the idea of expansion is exciting, but not without its perils. Or its unwelcome interest.
Already AFC have resisted a takeover attempt from Darragh MacAnthony, a property dealer who took his millions to Peterborough United instead. They have had other inquiries from rich men who say they want to buy into the uplifting story but may, of course, simply spy an opportunity to make a few quid.
Samuelson dismisses a controlling owner as a “last resort” and, still burnt by Sam Hammam’s decision to cut and run, most fans remain resolutely behind the Dons Trust. But will it always be that way?
What happens when the supporters, accustomed only to success during the heady climb from the Combined Counties League, become frustrated that progress has stalled, as it inevitably must?
Will they continue to delight in having a club at all? Or will they vent their frustration, and demand change and investment? The higher they go, will the happy camaraderie be put at risk?
It has, as Brown acknowledges, “all been a honeymoon so far. Compared to other managers, I work without pressure because they give me time. But so far we’ve only ever been near the top of any league we’ve been in. That can’t last for ever.”
Soon AFC will face the dilemmas, and strains, familiar to every club. How to reach for the next rung on the ladder? How much to risk in chasing the dream? At AFC these choices will carry a particular significance given the club’s formation, their spectacular rise and their present constitution.
To go to Kingsmeadow is to renew your vows with the game. It shows you how a club can be run, how they should be run, how they were always intended to be run. The place is full of happy fans, well-meaning staff, enthusiastic volunteers.
How long can it stay that way? How far can fan ownership carry them? Samuelson predicts they can reach the Coca-Cola Championship without selling their soul.
“I keep telling them to enjoy the journey,” Brown says. “Sometimes it’s better than the destination."
Gerrard adds to Capello problems
Gerrard ready to quit Anfield” screamed the headline and it would be odd if Liverpool’s captain and talisman was not considering his options.
Given the mess on Merseyside, Gerrard wouldn’t be human if he did not wonder every day if he would be happier, and certainly more successful, at Manchester United, Chelsea or Real Madrid.
The trouble is that we have been here before when Gerrard, twice, weighed up moves to Stamford Bridge. The first time, he became so muddled that he played like a drain for England at Euro 2004. So never mind Liverpool’s woes. Another should-I-shouldn’t-I-go saga for Gerrard is a headache for Fabio Capello. Add it to the list.
Lampard says it all, with great dignity
A few years ago Frank Lampard played a match for England and was jeered incessantly.
Filled with self-pity, he went home and turned off the phone for three days. He even contemplated walking away from his international career.
It was at that low point when his mum, Pat, tracked him down. She didn’t talk about Frank’s form or the boos from the terraces. She explained how she had watched the game on television and how, seeing her son in the England shirt with those three lions on the chest, she had been struck by how proud he must have been doing something that every boy in the country could only dream of.
Lampard told that story about his late mother as he was honoured by the Football Writers’ Association on Sunday for his contribution to the game. Many had asked, including Lampard himself, why he was getting such an award when he had not finished playing. One reason was to be found in his dignified speech.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matt_Putzinson/article6993078.ece
