Cherries: Punished for having to clean up the Sport-6 mess (From Bournemouth Echo)

Cherries: Punished for having to clean up the Sport-6 mess

7:00am Friday 31st July 2009 in

By Neil Meldrum »

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IT’S never a pleasant experience having to clean up someone else’s mess.

Especially when it apparently involves hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid tax and unpaid bills.

So you could forgive Eddie Mitchell and the latest incarnation of the Cherries boardroom for suffering a few headaches of late.

And anyone careless, or brave, enough to mention the words ‘Sport-6’ while roaming the Dean Court corridors should probably expect a tongue-lashing from Mitchell, Adam Murry or Jeff Mostyn.

As is always the case with Cherries, however, when one pressing issue is sorted, something else comes along to cloud the utopia.

So as Eddie Howe prepares to start the 2009/10 campaign on a rare even-playing field, the rookie boss’s nails are already down to the quick following a squad headcount that reveals just 18 players.

Howe is not asking for the world and if Mitchell’s sensible streak is anything to go by, he won’t get it, with the chairman insisting he won’t be paying for anything the club can’t afford.

And while Mitchell’s recent uncharacteristic silence over the club’s transfer embargo is both frustrating and ill-advised, until the Football League stops punishing a board for the mistakes of a previous regime, happiness will be in short supply up the road in Kings Park.

The league itself appears to care little about the level of disdain from supporters of teams in the lower divisions of English football and frequently chooses not to comment when questions are asked regarding punishments dished out to clubs already on the breadline.

Indeed, when asked by the Echo to comment on Cherries’ embargo, the league refused to confirm or deny an embargo even existed!

The simple facts are that, according to the board, the league’s demands have been met since the Murry Group’s takeover last month.

Indeed, it would appear that Mitchell, Mostyn, Steve Sly, Neill Blake and Murry have already achieved more in six weeks than Sport-6 managed in just under a year.

And that is why the league should now reward the new board by removing the barrier that is threatening to derail Howe’s first full season in charge before it has even begun.

Sure, if the finances start to go pear shaped once more, then re-instate the embargo to block any further deals during the January sales.

But one or two new faces, that could make the difference between mid-table mediocrity and a season that puts bums on seats and cash in the safe, is not asking for much and shouldn’t break the bank either.

History may well show that owners of AFC Bournemouth are incapable of paying the bills, so why should they make their situation worse by splashing the cash on new players?

But that is what it is – history. Mitchell et al appear to have, thus far, done everything asked of them.

And surely everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves. Don’t they, Lord Mawhinney?

You can do your bit by backing the Echo’s campaign to have Cherries’ transfer embargo lifted.

All supporters need to do is fill in today’s special back page petition and either drop it into the Echo offices on Richmond Hill, or send via post to Neil Meldrum, Sports Desk, Daily Echo, Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, BH2 6HH.

Comments(19)

stuarto says...
8:04am Fri 31 Jul 09

The Football League does nothing to support it's members. For that reason, not to mention the fiscal ones, is th reason it has no involvement in the highest strata of the game in this country.

It's always been an organisation dominated by coffin dodgers with no concerns other than lining their own pockets and what's for lunch.