They say “history is written by winners” – ‘they’ being embittered losers, probably. And accounts of Southampton’s decline from FA Cup finalists to near-extinction have read like winners’ histories, despite the total lack of winners involved.

The Southern Daily Echo has recently told “The Untold Stories” of Saints’ fall, a series which could as accurately have been entitled “The Same Old Stories”, variants on “It wasn’t me” from directors who have led Southampton from UEFA Cup to Johnstone Paint Trophy in six years.

Even Annual Reports have been written thus. In 2006, then-Chief Executive Jim Hone wrote: “Attributing blame for the (Company’s) decline…would be of dubious value.” That didn’t stop him.

The Echo didn’t offer its own perspective, leaving Saints’ three majority shareholders to offer theirs. Rupert Lowe, Michael Wilde and Leon Crouch have been in various forms of ‘charge’, with supine backing (especially in Lowe’s case) during those six years. And they dominate the tale. Anyone “attributing blame” need look no further.

Southampton’s 2004/5 accounts warned of difficult times. Saints were relegated and although most of the resultant financial impact was still to come, the figures were grisly.

Losses were avoided thanks only to one-off profits from property sales. And despite a whopping £20m of broadcast revenue, club debt spiralled from £15.9m to £21m.

There was also the ‘Redknapp effect.’ People still say ‘Arry was never a more effective Portsmouth manager than when he was Southampton’s. And his legacy was, as per, an unsustainable wagebill.

Lowe, chairman since the mid-1990s, was, in some ways admirably, determined not to overspend Southampton’s way back. To his credit, he’d inserted ‘relegation clauses’ in most players’ contracts, shrinking Redknapp’s legacy. But despite £6.3m in ‘parachute payments’, they finished miserably mid-table in their first Championship season.

Lowe still paints pretty pictures of Saints’ finances in 2006, mostly because there was “money in the bank.” But his regime set the financial trend towards administration. Losses were £3.3m, the debt increased again and - “winners’ history” or no – you couldn’t dispute Hone’s view that finances were “unacceptable and unsustainable.”

Without significant investment, Saints’ Football League future would stretch far beyond parachute payments. This investment was promised by Wilde – though he now denies making specific claims. He became Saints largest individual shareholder and drafted a ‘Manifesto for Change’ challenging Lowe’s leadership.

Rather than be ousted at an EGM, Lowe and his cronies resigned en masse – displaying a unity of purpose which might have served Saints well if better directed.

The ‘manifesto’ was a jargon-heavy statement of the obvious, e.g.: “the need for a ‘football first’ philosophy to prevail.” Even Lowe had to ask “Can you imagine a club where football didn’t come first?” (though critics imagined Lowe’s Southampton as just such a club).  Lowe also criticised the manifesto’s “omission of firm financial commitments.” Few listened. But they should have.

Inheriting England’s Rugby World Cup-winner Clive Woodward as “performance director” seemed ideal for Wilde’s regime. But, like most of Lowe’s football appointments, Woodward was hopeless. A Championship club was no place to experiment - a mistake Lowe repeated.

Wilde’s board immediately spent what he now admits was “money we didn’t have,” backing new manager George Burley, himself fresh from financial basket-case Heart of Midlothian.

Burley mounted a promotion challenge. But with new investment still hypothetical, Wilde told Saints November AGM of “on-going negotiations” with parties whose names he cannot divulge” and “long-term refinancing”, which jarred with admissions that failure to win very short-term promotion would produce “substantial” reductions in income, meaning “It would be prudent to plan accordingly.

The board split on this issue, between its full-time paid ‘executives’ and ordinary ‘non-executives’ such as Wilde. And although all were elected at that AGM, there were only 22,000 shareholder votes against the executives and…two million against Wilde.

Within three months, and without any investment in sight, Wilde resigned, a club statement noting tersely that “the lack of new investment is the only reason behind his resignation and the board’s willingness to accept it.@

Wilde now says that he regrets not becoming an executive himself and all-but-says he was “only obeying orders.” How this change of status would have produced any new money (beyond a salary for Wilde himself) wasn’t clarified.

In September 2006, Hone warned that Saints finances were dependent on “faith” in investment assurances and “hope” of promotion. They got neither.

The executives took charge of the begging bowl and the summer was dotted with local and national press reports of potential investors. Reported interest from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen merely produced a boost to Saints share price. Reported interest from various other sources, mostly cinema owners at one stage, didn’t even produce that.

But in early autumn, hedge-fund SISU Capital Limited had emerged. Fronted by footballer-turned-high-financier Ray Ranson, SISU had expressed interests in any number of clubs before alighting on Southampton. But their promise of £10m investment in return for 55% control was a good one – considering it was the only one.

As a hedge-fund, financed themselves by borrowings, SISU’s offer was always going to be as ungenerous as circumstances allowed. But 40p was only about 10p short of market value, which SISU rightly pointed out was still artificially expensive as a legacy of Paul Allen’s reported interest.

Small shareholders in far-more-desperate Coventry City ultimately accepted 0.01p per share, promoting disquiet among those losing their democratic rights for a song. However, self-interest, not the club’s interests, dictated Saints’ directors’ responses.

The offer required 75% shareholder approval. So Lowe, Wilde and Crouch had it in them to down any proposal. Unfortunately, such was Lowe’s and Wilde’s unpopularity that their support for any proposal could down it too.

Lowe had spent much of his time since his resignation rejecting near market-value offers for his shares, and those of his still-subservient chums, which he claimed he wanted to sell. So SISU’s offer was no temptation. And Lowe had willing anti-SISU allies.

Crouch was reluctant to offer support without ‘further discussion’ – despite being party to all its details as a director. And fellow ‘non-executive’ board member Patrick Trant spent the relevant board meeting arguing over minutiae which a properly-prepared director could have solved elsewhere. A propos of nothing, SISU’s proposed board structure diluted the power and influence of directors such as…Crouch and Trant.

Executive directors favoured the deal, having brought it in. A propos of nothing, SISU’s proposals would keep them in a job and offer them six-figure bonuses on promotion back to the Premier League.

The vote at board level reflected these divergent outlooks, the executives voting yes, the non-executives having the courage of their convictions…and abstaining. And with SISU tiring of various personalities faffing around, the proposal was withdrawn and SISU quickly turned to Coventry.

Crouch said of SISU last December: “Look where Coventry are in the table. They haven’t done a lot there.” And indeed SISU have had mixed fortunes there. Coventry recently posted £8.5m losses. But long-term creditors were paid-off. And look where Coventry finished in the table.

Bereft of SISU’s money, Crouch struggled, paving the way for Lowe’s and Wilde’s return in disturbing tandem last summer. They promised cost-slashing and an ‘Ajax-style’ football structure under up-and-coming (i.e. cheap) Dutch duo Jan Poortvliet and Mark Wotte.

However, respected football opinion was that Saints lacked the required leadership to avoid relegation. But Lowe was too busy trumpeting the Academy (his idea, he kept reminding everyone) to notice that the team’s “attacking brand of Dutch football” was leading to plucky defeats most weeks, in front of ever-dwindling crowds, income plummeting as fast as costs.

Yet the last “untold story” told the story. At first glance, Crouch’s offer to Lowe and Wilde last October was straightforward, “I’ll put £2m in if you do”, enough to extinguish Saints’ overdraft. But there were stings. Lowe could stay if he didn’t interfere in the football (actually…). But Wilde had to go AND, alongside Lowe, pay his share of compensation to a departing Poortvliet and Wotte, out of his own money.

Given Lowe’s record of personal investment in Saints (a blank sheet of A4), he wasn’t about to accept. And offering Wilde a compensation bill…AND the sack, wasn’t going to rush him to a pen. Lowe and Wilde’s counter-offer, Crouch could take over entirely for the whole £6m, was made knowing well that Couch didn’t have £6m.

A compromise, £2m each, with everyone on the board, would have been of short-term use. But it didn’t suit THEM. So it didn’t happen.

The worst of the three? Wilde’s list of achievements matches Lowe’s investment record. And Crouch simply had miles better PR, with only a few seeing through it (“some…who spoke out against SISU are now asking fans to put their hands in their pockets,” it was recently observed).

But Lowe wins, even if for no reason further from the school playground than “he started it.” Significantly, only Lowe wasn’t prepared to defend his record to Echo readers.

Whoever buys Saints, though, would start well by saying to all three: “**** off…and stay away for ever.”

‘MotorMurph’ is written by Mark Murphy

Chelsea go back to the top of one table as they have been involved in the most Right Result incidents this season. Number 16 came up just before they took a 2-0 lead against Blackburn Rovers when they should have been awarded a penalty. Caught slightly out of position, Rovers’ stand-in right-back Keith Andrews grabbed at Ashley Coles’ shirt to stop the England left-back reaching a tempting cross. In the world of the Right Result, it was a significant goal for Blackburn as they drop in to the bottom three below Hull City on goal difference.

The Right Result is a 3-0 win to Chelsea.

Despite closing in on another away win, the red mist appeared to descend on Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher as he angrily clashed with team mate Alvaro Arbeloa late in the game at The Hawthorns. An angry mist of the navy blue variety seemed to effect Baggies defender Jonas Olsson in the first-half. With relegation staring them in the face, the Swede was fortunate not to be dismissed when he chose to barge into Fernando Torres in an off-the-ball incident. With his frustration growing, the centre-back then clumsily flattened Steven Gerrard in the penalty box with such force that it would surely have resulted in a free-kick if committed outside the area.

The Right Result is a 3-0 win to Liverpool.

Manchester United duly clinched their 11th Premier League title with a goalless draw against Arsenal. The late nervy finish at Old Trafford could have been avoided though as Cristiano Ronaldo was shown to be played onside by Bacary Sagna in the immediate build-up to Ji Sung Park’s second-half ‘goal’ that was disallowed for offside.

The Right Result is a 1-0 win to Manchester United.

The home defeat to Fulham has thrown Newcastle United’s Premier League status back into grave danger but the Toon could be on the verge of safety had a second-half ‘goal’ not been controversially disallowed. Mark Viduka’s header was ruled out because ref Howard Webb deemed that Kevin Nolan had fouled Mark Schwarzer although it appeared that the United midfielder did little more than stand his ground. Indeed, it could be argued that he was pushed by the Fulham keeper. Popular consensus suggests that Mr Webb’s decision was influenced by the common practice of blocking-off that was highlighted in Newcastle’s first goal, involving Nolan, in the crucial win against Middlesbrough earlier in the week.

The Right Result is a 1-1 draw.

With their Premier League status ensured with time to spare, Stoke City moved further towards mid-table security with a win against Wigan Athletic in front of their vociferous Britannia Stadium crowd. They saw off the Latics with two second-half goals but the victory should have been less comfortable. Before the break, the visitors should have been awarded a penalty when Paul Scharner was tripped and impeded by City skipper Abdoulaye Faye.

The Right Result is a 2-1 win to Stoke City.

I listened to and read about Chelsea/Barcelona before I saw it. And I wasn’t surprised when what I saw wasn’t what I’d been led to expect, especially from what I’d read.

Radio’s Alan Green berates continental European referees so regularly that he’s long-lost any impact (which those who defend him for his ‘honesty’ often overlook). So his diatribes against Tom Henning Ovebro at Chelsea were meaningless. Immediately after Barca’s equaliser, though, he was much more resonant: “Chelsea will rue those two penalties now.

By the time the Mirror hit the news-stands, there’d been five penalties and a Uefa conspiracy. Fortunately, for those in need of perspective, other issues competed for headlines, notably Drogba’s post-match ranting, which had everything but the sex; action, “bad language from the start”- as per TV warnings – those white, wide-eyes &, for comic relief, those flip-flops.

Technically, Ovebro’s worst decision was Abidal’s sending-off, although the defender might have gone earlier for pulling Drogba’s shirt had Drogba not been shouting “wolf!” as he fell. But despite the best efforts of such as 606’s Issy Clarke, playing devil’s advocate to insufferable Blue Tim “Barcelona aren’t all that” Lovejoy, this was lost in the storm.

It had a chilling effect on conspiracy theories, thankfully. Not everyone would be stupid enough – not even every Chelsea fan – to believe a conspiracy to prevent an all-Premier League Champions League final would involve sending-off Barcelona’s remaining credible defender, with them one-down after 65 minutes. If Barca could be trusted to reach the final from there, they deserved to.

Nonetheless, the theory seeped through. Leeds defeat to Milan and the ref in the 1973 Cup Winners’ Cup Final has been exhumed, thanks to a vote-desperate local MEP (though I’d argue Leeds were just as sawn-off in the Champions’ Cup Final in 1975). And an all-English Uefa Cup final (Spurs v Forest) went west in 1984, thanks to pro-Anderlecht influences on the referee, admitted years later.

But the ‘dodgy foreign ref’ was more-often cited. A ten-year-old interviewed on the BBC’s ‘Newsround’ showed admirable football awareness in bemoaning a Norwegian ref’s lack of domestic big-match experience. But this was only admirable for a ten-year-old, not Jamie Redknapp, well-paid by Sky TV to know better. And where did John Terry get the idea that Ovebro had only ‘done’ ten Champions’ League games (he’s ‘done’ 22)?

We’ve progressed little from a recent World Cup when an Egyptian referee was similarly-berated for ‘lack of big-match experience’ having refereed a number of Al-Ahly/Zamalek ‘Cairo derbies’ – imagine an SPL-title-decider in front of twice the crowd, with twice the historical enmity…and keep going.

Much, too, was made of Ovebro’s Euro 2008 mistakes, bizarrely including a linesman’s error (albeit the same error which saw Graham Poll depart Japan/Korea 2002 early). Yet they weren’t even the worst mistakes of the tournament by a bald ref, as those who witnessed a chap called Webb ‘handling’ Austria v. Poland could testify.

Still…five penalties!! Well… “Pique: It was a penalty” screamed one headline. Pique said: “The ball touched my hand but it wasn’t deliberate”, which suggested “Pique: It wasn’t a penalty” might have been a touch more suitable (though admittedly, Pique ‘would say that, wouldn’t he?).

Daniel Alves’ foul on Florent Malouda was just outside the box…the six-yard one. So that was a penalty, unless Alves dives when he’s fouling too. Ovebro clearly shaped to make a decision before the pertinent foul but should have taken that extra second – perhaps blowing his whistle a bit longer – to toss a proverbial coin in his head between free-kick and penalty. We’d have waited. No-one was going anywhere.

Samuel Eto’o’s late block was only handball in the mad, staring eyes of Michael Ballack – who, had he shown similar determination to close down Andres Iniesta, might have obviated the need for articles such as this. Redknapp was convinced too, naturally. But by then he was displaying all the perspective and restraint of his Dad in a transfer window.

Thankfully, we were spared 1,000+ Martin Samuel words blaming Platini. Instead, the Mail reprinted Samuel’s words before Chelsea’s last-16 tie against Juventus. Platini, an ex-Juventus Champions Cup-winner, said he’d “love to give the trophy to Juventus” which apparently put mind-altering pressure on the tie’s referee.

Ovebro’s performance “gives the issues renewed relevance”, which was the paper’s way of accusing Ovebro and Uefa of cheating, without having the balls, evidence or, I suspect, legal team, to do so openly.

(Samuel, to his immense credit, made only dismissive references to “wild conspiracy theories” & his conclusion on events, “the better team is going to Rome but the best team lost” is, currently, unsurpassed).

Chelsea should have had two penalties, either of which would have put them two-up if converted, meaning they would very probably have won. And Barcelona’s coming from behind - referee-assisted or no – with ten men for 25 minutes was the stuff of champions, although with the defenders available for Rome, they won’t be this year (had Chelsea done likewise in a Nou Camp second leg, that would surely have been the line).

That was pretty much Alan Green’s take, even in the intense heat of the moment. And if Green offers truer perspective than great swathes of the media, great swathes of the media need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

FUN AND FROLICS IN THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE. AGAIN.

The summer’s big question, or possibly just May’s, might be “which club will go bust first?” A company called ‘Cash-strapped’ appear to be sponsoring about half the clubs in the Football League. And precious little money will be arriving in the close season – which means gate receipts are only marginally down at Darlington.

Yet the League has decided to re-distribute Premier League-bound Birmingham’s second-year parachute payment, £11.5m, among Championship clubs (all of it), Division One clubs (none of it) and League Two clubs (the rest). £155,555.55 to each club would solve a lot of problems. But that would be doing the right thing, betraying knowledge of what ‘league’ is supposed to mean.

Darlington appear in direst need. A charity fund-raising match to pay staff over the summer raised nothing like enough - most non-playing staff lost their jobs three days later. Meanwhile, the list of potential bidders is headed by HG Wells’s Invisible Man, with his twin brother the only other interested party.

Former chairman George Houghton still owns the ground and won’t let go, throwing numerous spanners in the administrators’ works, as no serious bidder would want him around. The much-maligned administrators themselves had something of a Gordon Brown week, culminating in a badly-drafted statement which (mis)led to a newspaper headline “Quakers get the boot” (itself widely-criticised for bad taste). And while everyone plays a protracted game of ‘he said, she said’ Darlington FC is dying.

Darlington was on the edge of a web of intrigue woven by Bournemouth and Chester, who were fighting over owners and League Two’s final relegation spot, until Bournemouth strode clear towards the end (for which 31-year-old Eddie Howe should be manager-of-the-year).

Lifelong Chester fan Paul Baker still controls Bournemouth, so had to watch as his club were relegated by…er…his club. He’d agreed to sell to, naturally, “a conzzzortium of local businessmen”, headed by local good-egg Adam Murry but backed by local bad-egg Jeff Mostyn, whose broken investment promises immediately pre-dated Baker’s.

It seemed Baker would be freed to take Chester off Stephen Vaughan’s hands, allowing Vaughan to, reportedly, takeover…Darlington. But Murry’s conzzzortium were annoyingly ‘due’ with their ‘diligence’ and continually unearthed financial skeletons, winding-up orders mostly. Ergo, all deals were off.

Baker and Alastair Saverimutto were the clowns who bought Bournemouth last summer, which begs the question what sort of clowns the unsuccessful bidders were. Up-for-sale Southampton may find out.

One of two bids for them is backed by ‘God’, aka Matt Le Tissier, whose precise involvement is unclear but whose name could sell ANYthing to Saints’ fans. The other is a “conzzzortium of…guess what” apparently involving Marc Jackson, one of the afore-mentioned Bournemouth undesirables.

Jackson was derided by Bournemouth fans as a Southampton fan, which should be a plus this time. But having reportedly ‘worked’ at Southampton recently, he is “known to” Rupert Lowe, the root of all Saints’ evil, which is enough to strike fear into Southampton hearts.

Every press report – local or national – of potential Saints bidders has either highlighted links with Lowe, however tenuous, or reassured readers that there are none. Lowe remains just one of many Saints ex-directors responsible for their current plight. But fans fear his return to the point of paranoia.

Meanwhile, despite being run by a supporters trust, a recommended rescue-package model elsewhere, Stockport are a late entrant in the race for extinction, proving that the right system still needs the right people, however financially transparent it is.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has called for redistribution of the ‘big four’s’ Champions League wealth, believing the gaps within the Premier League more damaging to ‘English’ football than the canyon between Premier League and Football League. Fans, from north-east to south coast, may beg to differ.

‘MotorMurph’ is written by Mark Murphy.

Middlesbrough could have forgiven for thinking that it just was not going to be their night as, in the build up to the game that would effectively determine their Premier League future, their young squad was hit by a key injuries. Boro eventually lost the crucial game at Newcastle United by a 3-1 margin. However, the game-changing second goal should not have stood as United’s Kevin Nolan was offside in the build-up to Obafemi Martins strike. It is the 11th Right Result ruling in Boro’s favour this season.

The Right Result is a 2-1 win to Newcastle United. 

Despite the bluster and, at least, two other words beginning with ‘b’ from Martin Samuel, the All-Party Parliamentary Football Group produced an inoffensive little document, distinctive only as an example of politicians keeping a promise.

Launching the inquiry last April, chair Alan Keen said it would “provide a platform for those who care about football to contribute their views in open debate…(inviting) a limited number of speakers to make presentations” while “anyone wanting to prepare a written submission” could do so. And while the report was promised for last autumn (they’re politicians, they can’t be totally honest, apparently), that is exactly what they’ve done.

Apart from surprisingly strident support for “Blatter’s 6+5 proposal” to, according to Samuel, destroy the Premier League by making half its players English, the report is hardly radical. Likewise the Premier League’s arrogant dismissal of it (though they rightly noted that “6+5” wasn’t within the group’s initial remit, upon which they’d based their written submission).

The APFG have called for beefing-up of the Football Regulatory Authority, “Fit-and-Proper-Persons” regulations and the FA’s and Premier League’s corporate structures, in line with the current fad for non-executive directors. Plus elected supporter representation on clubs’ governing bodies.

Much of this was in the APFG’s 2004 report on English football’s finances. The most fervent recommendation has, possibly thankfully, garnered less media attention: “The FA should regain its role as the governing body, single voice and overall regulator…the two main professional leagues should simply liaise with the FA as governing body.@

The Group felt this recommendation necessary in the light of the Premier League’s written and oral submissions to the inquiry. The written submission echoed Chief Executive Richard Scudamore’s mantra on “complex tripartite arrangements” between the FA and the leagues – a man trying to avoid the obvious, that the Premier League, however, rich and famous, is constitutionally, just another league.

The need for the FA to re-assert its role is clear even from their own submission, where they talk of “the significant proportion of work centralised through the FA” without once referring to their governing status.

The need is even clearer from the Premier League submission, especially on the issues of club ownership.

Their “fit-and-proper-persons” regulations are lauded as going further than general company legislation on directorships, which highlights the weakness of general company legislation and ignores the complete lack of restrictions on ownership in their regulations.

And the section on club ownership simply deals with the issue of dual ownership of clubs, merely noting that “there is no prohibition on foreign ownership of English private or public companies”, which, as they surely know, isn’t the point at all. This is another echo of Scudamore, responding vigorously to criticisms which aren’t being made so as to avoid the real issue.

Sadly, the APFG didn’t pressurise Scudamore sufficiently when he came among them in December. Newspapers had, somehow, got wind of what Scudamore was going to say to the inquiry panel, a move designed to dictate the course of his cross-examination. It worked.

It has been a ‘blood-out-of-stone’ process even to get a poorly-regulated Premier League, let alone a properly-regulated one. So it is down to groups such as the APFG to keep plugging and picking away.

Their report is a part of that process, albeit an inoffensive little one. It’s a dirty job that someone has to do. And that someone won’t be the arrogant, megalomaniac Premier League.

THE TIMES THEY HAVE-A-CHANGED

There are parallels between my club Kingstonian, about whom I bored you recently, and Ipswich Town; fifth in their respective top-flights in 2000, relegated and in administration within 18 months. And with Ks embarking on their return journey, Ipswich have made the move which suggests they’ll follow suit, under the ownership of reclusive “secondary marketer” Marcus Evans, who reportedly ‘recluses’ in Kingston-upon-Thames.

(Ipswich’s last FA Amateur Cup game, before turning professional in 1936, was a 4-2 defeat at Kingstonian. Fascinating, eh? No??).

Evans’ anonymity is guarded with chilling efficiency. He could have crossed the road to avoid me on my occasional trips to Kingston Hill’s ‘millionaires’ row’ (where he has Jimmy Tarbuck for a neighbour, lucky man) and I wouldn’t have known.

The very old school Cobbold family, who guided Ipswich through its glory decades of the 60s, 70s & 80s, were largely to be found in the background but were Madonna-esque exhibitionists compared to Evans.

Under the Cobbolds, Ipswich twice gave their successful manager to the nation – Alf Ramsey leading them to the 1962 title, Bobby Robson all but leading them to the 1981 title. The Big Match Revisited recently featured the Frank Worthington wonder-goal (those of a certain age need no further explanation) but Ipswich won the game.

And so big were Ipswich that they provided an inordinate number of players for the “”””classic”””” 1981 film Escape to Victory – John Wark, Russell Osman (his character joyously named ‘Doug Clure’),  Robin Turner (one for the completists) and others denied a best-supporting actor Oscar by some ham called Gielgud.

The Cobbolds may be remembered for “a crisis is no white wine in the boardroom” clichés. But they successfully married tradition to trophies – a combination all but ruled out of modern football and one which ultimately proved beyond their heir apparent, David Sheepshanks.

Sheepshanks once actually said he’d bleed blue and white if cut. Blue, certainly, his politics stereotypical of the Old Etonians he and the Cobbolds are/were. One post-administration investor was lauded for ‘charitable’ work, including donations to a local Tory constituency party. Evans is a relative ‘pinko subversive’, linked to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Ipswich’s search for post-administration investment was initially as unsuccessful and undignified as anything by Liverpool and others recently. Having derided share-issues as “sticking-plaster” solutions, Sheepshanks was often forced to consider them, especially after their brief encounter with American pharmaceutical executive Michael Anderson in 2006 (a director of all-too-many companies, it transpired.

Anderson was a rarity indeed – unable to pass a fit-and-proper-persons’ test after involvement in financial car-crashes at Aldershot and Kettering in the 1990s, which slipped his mind when interviewed by Ipswich directors.

When this was exposed by the Mail and his ‘unconventional’ company history was exposed by supporters, the board handed his investment (£500,000) back – only woolly coats and regular baa-ing could have made them more sheepish. Anderson protested innocence of wrongdoings. But, as with Rotherham’s Denis Coleman, two insolvency events & he was out, regardless of non-culpability.

Evans emerged, 18 months later, buying Ipswich’s £32m debts at cut-price – creditors, including Norwich Union of all firms, weren’t likely to get paid otherwise. His well-documented ‘entrepreneurial’ past made him seem like a 21^st-century Stan Flashman, with his “knack of getting tickets” for corporate sporting venues. But his Ipswich deal was a masterstroke. They must repay all £32m to him, but only when they reach the Premier League’s TV-millions, when Evans will be in situ to make many millions more.

His determination to get Ipswich there was evident long before the very public statement of intent that was Roy Keane’s appointment. Aware that he couldn’t ride roughshod over club traditions, he eased Sheepshanks out along the non-executive directors’ route, with Sheepshanks’ friend, Chief Executive Derek Bowden making way for Evans’ friend Simon Clegg, whose British Olympic Association success, ability to overspend and enjoy the limelight make him ideal Premier League material.

Three years ago, Evans announced a “Premier League in three years” plan. And as soon as it was clear that manager Jim Magilton wasn’t going to deliver, he was toast. Magilton sounded like an Ipswich traditionalist – as much as anyone could in a Belfast accent. But Evans is a man of few words and a man of his word. Ergo, a more southerly Irishman.

There’s as little doubt as is possible in football that Keane will replicate his Sunderland promotion success. But if Keane’s ill-mannered ‘warnings’ to Evans not to interfere are a guide, he’ll replicate his swift Sunderland departure too. If Keane doesn’t deliver, Evans will ‘interfere’, fundamentally.

Those with Ipswich at heart must concentrate now on ensuring Evans leaves behind a sustainable club. Play-off failure last season brought £5.5m losses. “Wholly predictable”, apparently, but damaging nonetheless. Outside Norfolk there’s still goodwill towards Ipswich. But it’s for an Ipswich long gone. And it may not last.

CAT FOUND UP TREE

I’m a staunch defender of local newspapers – they’ve provided valuable research material for these columns (which, yes, are researched). But sometimes they should stick to ‘local.’

The much-maligned Southern Echo ran a web-site story claiming Southampton wouldn’t start 2009/10 bottom of League One, even with minus ten points, as Stockport had entered administration, would also lose ten points and were behind Southampton on…alphabetical order. Cute story. But b****ks.

Stockport would only lose points next season if, like Southampton, they were relegated anyway this season – which would leave them in League Two. Web-warriors speedily noted this – though, in inimitably dim fashion, some still defended the paper – and the story vanished.

Football finances can be complex. But not always. The Echo should stick to ‘Cat found up tree’ stories, if they’re not sure.

‘MotorMurph’ is written by Mark Murphy.

]]> http://www.rightresult.net/all-party-poopers/1208/feed/ http://www.rightresult.net/chelsea-v-fulham-4-4-2-makes-four/1205/ http://www.rightresult.net/chelsea-v-fulham-4-4-2-makes-four/1205/ Mon, 04 May 2009 09:13:55 +0000 The Right Result Latest Incidents http://www.rightresult.net/chelsea-v-fulham-4-4-2-makes-four/1205/ Saturday 2 May 2009

In preparation for possible tactics required for matches to come, temporary boss Guus Hiddink changed Chelsea’s tried and trusted formula and sent the Blues out in an attacking 4-4-2 formation for the West London derby against Fulham. It certainly produced a thrilling performance as Chelsea stormed forward and their winning margin should have been extended to 4-1. It was a close call but Didier Drogba’s ‘goal’ in the first half that was disallowed with the score at 2-1 should have stood as he did beat the offside trap.

The Right Result is a 4-1 win to Chelsea.