7:00am Tuesday 17th February 2009
By Neil Meldrum
IN Saturday’s Echo, I penned a plea to the last man standing at Dean Court, Alastair Saverimutto.
And while, technically, Paul Baker reluctantly remains slumped in the chair at Dean Court, one thing is now clear: Cherries’ co-owners are now very much doing their own thing.
While the realistic Baker talks of time wasters, £1 bids and his desire to walk away from the club, the always-optimistic Savi continues to open the flood gates about deals of magnitude and his thirst to stay on for the long haul.
Here and now, though, quite how the intrepid duo plan to run the club in the short term when they are both trying to secure their futures both inside and outside the doors of Dean Court, is anyone’s guess.
They both seem to want very different outcomes in all of this and the only thing that will suffer due to the obvious deterioration in their relationship is the club.
And that is why Savi should hold his hands up, admit he has not ‘delivered’ what he promised and join forces once again with Baker in one last-ditch, desperate attempt to sell the club lock-stock and barrel.
“You can talk all day about what you hope to achieve but, ultimately, you will be judged on what you deliver. Delivery is my gospel,” he told the Echo last year.
The only thing Savi has delivered is the sacking of Jimmy Quinn and the appointment of Eddie Howe, which despite now appearing to be an inspired decision from the Cherries’ chief executive, will not help the club survive the rest of 2009.
The whole sorry saga of Cherries’ past year in existence was ‘embarrassing’ in Saturday’s column and it’s become laughable now in light of the £1 bid from Alan Pither’s Bournemouth Holdings.
Ironically (as things always are with this football club) Howe has performed a near miracle in aborting Quinn’s dire hoof-ball tactics in favour of football the Cherries way.
Young and inexperienced he may be, but respect is there in bucket loads and the results of late have given Howe’s men a real fighting chance.
So, from administration just over a year ago, via the bright new future promised by Saverimutto and Baker in August, where exactly is AFC Bournemouth now?
Not much further on, in truth. But if you were a buyer, what would you rather have? One hundred per cent of a football club and a chance to do things your own way, or a half-share in a quickly sinking ship?
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