The County Crisis Curve

It’s heartbreaking - seeing my beloved Stockport County slip from the dizzy heights of the football league to the slums of the BlueSquare Premier.  But is it all that bad?  I think I’m now on my way out of the crisis curve - having started my decent following our horrible 4-1 home defeat to Macclesfield Town.  Probably the most embarrassing result since we lost 7-2 at home to Rochdale, and 6-0 away at the very same Silkmen! 

We all know that football fans are fickle, but are we all aware that we go through the crisis curve at every swing of the fickle pendulum?  As I said, I’m currently on my ascent out of this well known process, and I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that tunnel is the Blue Square Premier.  In my mind I’ve already left the football league and am looking at the away games that I can go to next season, how much my season ticket will cost, and more importantly, which other ‘big clubs’ are down there.  We’ll be keeping extremely good company as I count 9 ex football league teams.  All their fans most likely thinking that their ‘big club’ deserves a place in the football league because they were there first, they have history, they have a bigger fan base etc.  It doesn’t work like that - does it?

The way I see it we’ll be two divisions lower in the English football structure than we realistically can expect to compete at, and that’s pushing it.  The likes of Manchester City, Leicester, Norwich and Leeds United to name a few have been in a similar position and all recovered.  Some with more outside help than others.  But the ethos at County seems to be the belief that this club can run within its means, with no assets and still compete at a good level of football in this country - and I believe it can too.  The board have steadied the ship, on appearance.  There’s good communication coming out to the fans, and ok, the on field results have been far from satisfactory, but I think we’re running out of people to blame for that.  All County fans know that we nearly didn’t have a club to support a year ago, and if I’m right in saying, we only had 9 signed on players in July 2010.

We can only see it as an inevitability that should breed a better chance to compete on the field, although I’m sure I said that last season!  The board have commented that we will be a top 4 or 5 side in terms of wage budget, but that doesn’t guarantee you a corresponding finishing position.

So if you are feeling down about your club, well, going down - then do not fear.  Just remember that it doesn’t matter what division your club plays in, as long as you have a club……….oh, and are winning games!

Another worry for me personally is the impact that this situation will have on the town, but I’ll leave that for another blog.