I made a decision over the last few days not to bother writing about the takeover situation. It probably wouldn’t have been any help to anyone except for whatever clicks this website gets, and nobody will have really learned anything.
Whatever way it was to end up going, Paul Appleton’s statement on Monday morning, whether he really would have threatened to put the club into liquidation or not, seemed to force an end game. Just over 48 hours later, it did reach end game, and with a positive outcome as Football Ventures came in as owners.
It was also a perfect statement in some ways, as the outgoing administrator seemed to go in two-footed, studs up, on Ken Anderson, putting the blame for the deal not been done sooner at his door.
However close we were or were not to going into liquidation, we can finally put to bed all of that sort of chat, and move forward, starting to rebuild and become a normally functioning football club. The stadium could do with a lick of paint in some parts, season tickets need to be sold, players need to be brought in, with just under a week left of the transfer window. A new manager wouldn’t be a bad thing either, although some may prefer some sort of Jimmy Phillips or David Lee option.
On a more basic level, we can go down to Gillingham on Saturday, and not have to worry if it’s the last game we’ll ever go to. Hopefully, Football Ventures won’t lead us to those or predicaments ever again. Don’t mess it up.
While all of football will see this as a happy ending, the whole structure of English football still failed spectacularly this week. We now don’t have a game next Sunday because Bury were expelled from the league. It’s not because of just one or two ‘megaclubs’ down the road, not just because of a certain broadcaster whose ‘sports news’ channel has a tone deaf production team. The entire system enabled Steve Dale and it enabled the now almost inevitable end of Bury Football Club as we know it. It’s easy to say something has to change, but it does, because it will only happen again, especially when those in charge seem to give a constantly decreasing amount of s***s about the have-nots.