For those of us with sufficient bitterness and hatred to want Franchise (in Administration) to not only die but to die painfully and decompose horribly, this week has been a bit of a good un. In a way, it’s a shame that the club had to leave us before this could happen, but better late than never.
So, what’s the state of play? Firstly, the Administrators. You could approach their Koppelesque shrilling of why MK is the only way forward etc in one of two ways (or both) : firstly, they are Koppout’s stooges in all this. Grant Thornton have a branch in Milton Keynes, quelle surprise, and whilst checking out informal links between both parties could prove slightly tricky, it does seem a little too cheerleading. Now, while I will readily admit that my knowledge of finance is on a par with Tony Blair’s knowledge of how to successfully sell the Euro, I am sure that statements to the effect of “we will only consider MK bids” is just a little bit prejudicial. Doesn’t that totally go against the whole ethos of admin? What if somebody with more dough than sense had an offer of taking the club back to South London which could guarantee its survival and got turned down? I’ve heard that Grant Thornton are reputable. But then, so were BCCI.
The other way of approaching this is that Franchise (in Administration) are fucked. Totally fucked. In fact, the porn star who holds the world record for shagging most men in about half hour was less fucked than Franchise. So much so that the Admin people are having to put their reputation on the line to have somebody – anyone – come in for a bid. Time will of course tell the extent of their problems, but consider this : WFC Ltd is ultimately based in the British Virgin Isles, which is a good place to do dodgy company transactions. Especially in Hammam’s era, the WFC Ltd company was reportedly used to pass through money to other places. If the Admin people have any integrity whatsoever, these sorts of dealing will be made more public than ever before. There clearly have to be some twitchy people ATM – witness failed actor Vinny Jones selling the MK to the point of embarrasment. Work out who his football friends are….
The best news to come out this week was the announcement that Reg Davis finally got the elbow. Now, normally I wouldn’t cheer somebody getting redundant – been there, got the t-shirt – but I am prepared to make an exception for the individual who drives the least aptly-named car going (a Smart car). Davis to me was the epithomy of WFC Ltd : some may claim that he was there to keep continuity going, a bridge between the old and the new, and in an era of multi-bucks and shiny stadia, he was the genial link to WFC’s past. Actually, Reg Davis is the most obnoxious cunt I have ever come across, and that’s saying something. He was without fail always rude, arrogant and without any charm whatsoever. When you consider that he was the club’s PR bod for many years, is it any wonder the club got constant bad press?
Davis, like many others, hasn’t been paid, and I doubt if his pension would be that safe. He – stupidly – sold his house in Mitcham to buy one in MK and now will find it very difficult to pay it off. He will be worrying a lot about his finances : well, if his service to Wimbledon over the years is to be adequately repaid, I hope the smug cunt dribbles in his adult nappy about Wolves at the Pensioner Hardship workshop for many moons to come. No, I am not bitter. Or enjoying this. Honest.
Other major thing to happen was a BBC 3 Counties radio thing from the National Hockey Stadium The Stadium, Milton Keynes. The transcript of what went on will doubtless be available elsewhere, but the rub of it is thus : Wankelmann appears to be losing patience with the whole thing. He won’t admit it but he seems to have felt that Koppout has strung him along over this. There is no major campaign to help Franchise (in Administration) in MK because – reportedly said – “the locals do not consider it their team yet”. Which if that does not give an indication of how things are really going, I don’t know what will. Also, reportedly the local authorities don’t have to rely on Franchise (in Administration) being at Denbigh. So now they tell us? Christ, this whole thing is unravelling quicker than a giant unravelling thingy, and it seems like our entire efforts in all of this seem to be for nowt. OK, that’s not true, we got AFCW out of what we done, and there is no way that we weren’t at least partly responsible for the current plight Franchise (in Administration) find themselves in. That all said, I just can’t help feeling a little bit more bitter at this whole thing – why the fuck did we go through all this? Or perhaps our fight was not to stop Franchise but to bring to the public’s attention what was going on.
I want two things to happen. Firstly, I want Franchise (in Administration) to go bust horribly. Koppout to get his just deserts (ahem), the name and honours returned to us and the whole episode to end. Secondly, I would just like somebody responsible for all this just to say “sorry” to us. Just one little two-syllable word. It won’t erase half of the anguish, anxiety, energy and sheer and utter torture the entire thing has caused us, but it might help. Will I get such a thing? There’s more chance of Wankelmann saying that he doesn’t believe that Franchise (in Administration) have sold so many season tickets as they claim……