Amazing Mess!

So there will be no new International ground at the Maze, that is a surprise. First you've got a bungling I.F.A. involved and then you've got a bungling Norn Iron government involved as well, it's a miracle we ever got to this stage, never mind starting to build. Now we're back to square one, we need a stadium in the short term, but because we've been 'twiddling our thumbs' for the last few years, we are now further behind than ever. The 'alternative', is to pour more money into the bottomless hole that is Windsor Park, in the short term, or face the prospect of no International football in Norn Iron. This of course will be nothing new for the I.F.A., they have been pouring money into Windsor Park for years thanks to the ludicrous contract that's set to run and run and at the same time pouring loads of money into Linfield's coffers. This money of course enables the 'Fat controller' to but any player he more or less fancies, the only saving grace being that he won't go over a certain amount, which at the moment appears to be £35,000. That is what he is rumoured to have paid Dungannon for Mark McAllister and what he offered Ballymena for Kevin Kelbie last summer. Will the I.F.A. drag their heels after pouring money into Windsor Park to ensure International football continues here for the foreseeable future, of course they will, they've been doing likewise for years so why would they change now? As I've said before, why bother pouring more money into Windsor Park, which is going to be excessively expensive? Get together with the Glens and the Crues, who are both wanting to develop new grounds and build a stadium to house both of them plus Internationals, if nothing else, it would be great to see the look on the 'fat controllers' face when the 'gravy' train finally pulls out of Windsor Park!

Howard's (A)way!

What a fixture chaos we are having at present, but then the blame lies solely at the hands of the I.F.A. Who in their right mind would arrange to have the C.I.S. cup semi-finals three days after Irish cup matches? Never mind the five games being abandoned, that's something no-one can legislate for, but you have to cover yourself against the possibility of replays and if that weren't bad enough, next week there's a full midweek league programme, meaning yet another date must be found for 1st round games, never mind replays. Add to this is the need for all teams to have completed 33 games by the end of March, coupled with two more rounds of the Irish cup and the situation gets even worse. By my reckoning the only date available for Ballymena's cup match away to Ballyclare is week beginning Monday February 2nd on whatever night suits leaving time (weather permitting), for a possible replay the next week (week beginning Monday February 9th). This is of course assuming that Dixon park isn't played on between now and then, as it'll take about three weeks of inaction and drying weather or it still won't be playable. Whom at the I.F.A. is to blame for this utter amateurish fixture congestion? At the moment we seem to have the perfect scapegoat in sacked chief executive Howard Wells. Poor old Howard, he'll get the blame for everything from now on. Stand-in Raymond Kennedy may be a 'buffoon' but he's no mug, he knows whose door to lay the blame at. I can just hear him now saying to Stephen 'Baldy' Watson, 'I wouldn't have done it this way, but we're doing it Howard's way. There's an old saying that 'we shouldn't suffer fools gladly', but I'm afraid at the moment we have little choice!

Ulster Bank!

So the fat controller has finally got his cheque book out and bought a couple of players, in fact a couple of players who 'allegedly' are strikers. He reportedly made an approach to Ballymena about the 'injured' Neal Teggart, but as I thought at the time, that was just a smoke screen. When you really want to buy someone and negotiations are at breaking point, the smart guys pretend to be after someone else. This ploy worked with League of Ireland side, Derry City, who if truth be known were only too glad to get the high earning non-productive McHugh off their books. Dungannon Swifts on the other hand, were not going to be steamrollered into accepting a cut price deal for McAllister, they had already lost a potential fortune when he turned down a move to Glasgow Celtic two seasons ago. That meant the 'bigot' had to cough up £35,000, plus a player as well in order to land the under-performing Swifts 'alleged' hit-man, I say alleged as his goalscoring exploits are disappointing to say the least. This £50,000 which with signing on fees will probably stretch the total outlay to near £70,000, would seem like a vast fortune to most Irish league clubs. To Linfield, with their monopoly of International matches, it's only a drop in the ocean. The Belfast Blues are expecting to glean almost three quarters of a £million from the I.F.A. as Norn Iron bid to secure World cup qualification. That is in my opinion a ludicrous amount for one club to get from our governing body, surely their should be a ceiling set and set at a realistic figure, especially in light of the deep recession affecting all aspects of our wee country at the moment. The reality is that even if these two players don't set the scoring charts alight at Windsor, the Blues won't have to worry about financial implications, this outlay was merely 'pocket money' as far as they are concerned. I'll be watching intently over the coming months just to see what impact these two signings have if any, or were they just signed for the hell of it. After all, when you have 'loads of money', the sky 'is',the limit!

Nothing Doingt!

We waited with bated breath for the transfer window to open, there was to be so much business done it was mind boggling and now 8 days later very little has happened. Every season we wait expectantly for the transfer window, hoping against hope that some magic player will become available, who will help transform our team from a mediocre one into a world beater. This season of course is a little different, for a start we have a different league set-up and nobody, but nobody, wants to be in the bottom half at the end of March. Of course six teams are going to be in the bottom and six are going to be in the top, but it's going to be a mighty scramble over the next 9 games before we reach that final reckoning. So managers are trying desperately to come up with the winning formula and they all believe they need a few pieces yet before they can solve their respective puzzles. Then there's the credit crunch and it's rumoured that at least three teams have been told by their respective backers (the behind the scenes money men), that the gravy train has dried up and their wage bill needs drastic trimming. This then exacerbates the problem, managers not only need to bring in new 'blood', they also need to shed some dead wood (players no longer required, or earning too much money), but almost everybody else is in the same boat. Maybe this is not the best time to be delving into the transfer market, unless of course someone becomes available who is just too good to miss, but David Beckham has allegedly signed for Milan and few other players fit that bill. The best policy is probably to sit tight, keep what you have and live with it. I know it's not possible to make a 'silk purse out of a sows ear', but think of the fun you'd have trying. Let's not sign someone for the sake of signing someone, sometimes the best policy is to do nothing and that's how it should be for us!