RFC: If The Price Is Right

Written by D'Artagnan

There is a saying within comedy circles that “timing is everything”. However for us forlorn Bears there seems to be nothing comical about events at our club. The feeling is now that, despite Walter’s rhetoric about only fringe players being for sale, any player will be moved in true Leslie Crowther fashion..."If the price is right". The announcement that both Boyd and Ferguson were available has cemented many Bears current state of gloom and has caused near consternation amongst many Bears, in particular the significant weakening of the team and the squad, should these two depart for pastures new. The fact we are hot on the tails of our rivals in the title race, suggests the moving of Boyd and Ferguson is not good timing. Yet funnily enough perhaps there was a time when the sale of these two players would have been good timing. If we rewind back to the PLG era when it was Barry vs Paul Le Guen—a 12 round contest fought through the press, then was the time to offload these two players. Boyd had already demonstrated his allegiance for Ferguson with his six fingered goal celebration. Eventually PLG told Ferguson he was transfer listed, and the phoney war became a stark reality. Murray had to abandon his holiday to come back to mediate. It seems that the golden rule that “no man is bigger than the club” was forgotten, as PLG departed back to France whilst Ferguson remained at the club. If rumours are to be believed, some Rangers players were not happy with the strict training methods and diets of the Frenchman, his belief that footballers should treat themselves as professional athletes and act accordingly. It seems that Monster Munches are not in the athlete's Good Food handbook. But what if Murray had decided in PLG’s favour? What kind of message would that have sent out to both players and fans? Before anyone thinks I'm defending PLG, I'm not, I felt both he and Ferguson should have been shown the door for misleading the fans. Well it would certainly ensured we had no prima donnas or cliques at our club. It would also have given credence to the statement that no man is bigger than the club. Selling these two then would have been a real statement of intent and purpose for our club. It is my belief that it was an opportunity missed. But let's fast forward again to the start of this season. Perhaps someone should have told Walter that the “buy two get one free” offer did not apply to centre forwards as he attempted to get a market share of strikers. We all knew that midfield was the priority...well all except Walter. With an important European qualifier coming up, and a financial nest egg at stake we came face to face with Kuanas ill equipped, and paid the price for it. Utter humiliation. But following that exit we then plunged into the transfer market for midfielders! Talk about locking the stable door after the horse has bolted! The right action but at the wrong time. Is it not about time we got our timing right? But there is a source of amusement without good timing, unfortunately it's our club which is providing it. Mr chairman...We are not amused.