Well, normal service WAS meant to be resumed tonight (or tomorrow), but your humble and esteemed editor was ordered off the platform at Wimbledon Station at 6.35pm (along with everyone else) because of a suspect package. By the time the game started, I was still at Wimbledon station knowing full well I was going nowhere near Hampton. Oh well, as I write it’s 5-1 to us and I feel very very depressed. Unless one of you kind people want to submit a report a la Sandhurst. I’d be eternally grateful….
Anyway, the other and probably more important news is the possible groundshare with T&M. Now, I’ve no idea how it all came about, but all parties seem serious about it. The reasonings behind it seem quite sound : it’s in Merton, and the Samosa Kings at Ks are currently shooting themselves in the foot over us apparently. Nothing has of course been finalised, which given past form almost certainly means it will fall through. But if my cynicism is unfounded and it DOES happen, it will be for the start of next season. AFCW will have its own offices there, plus merchandise outlet etc etc as part of the deal.
Sounds good, yes, but my only fear about it happening is if it becomes like SP was supposed to be a temporary-groundshare-turning-permanent arrangement. Granted, it’s better than being at SE25 and far better than Cokeman Wankelmann’s shitty town, but apart from the Merton factor it will be the same as sharing at Ks. Now, while playing in SM4 is almost SW19’s dream, I do worry if a great deal of our support plus the club itself doesn’t soften up over getting our OWN ground. Doesn’t think it would matter so much? OK then, psychologically we will be at somebody else’s ground. That is exactly the same mistake Hammam made. It was the mistake Koppout should have made (though he managed to do the option even worse than that). And now there is talk (and I don’t mean Kris Stewart’s words on the official press release) being informally made which worry me. You know, “it’ll be all right if we stayed there permanently”. Have we learnt nothing
Don’t get me wrong, I want us to be playing at T&M in far better conditions, but it MUST be only for 3 years while we find our own ground. Think of that old word, “civic pride”, that we would have if it was us owning all of it, a name associated with AFCW, not somebody else’s ground. Think about it, and let’s hope that we’ll be playing in Merton in the meantime.
And yes, I still haven’t forgiven that cunt for the suspect package in Wimbledon…