No vision

There are several things that trouble me about Bristol Rovers at the moment, not the least of which is why manager Joey Barton always seems to wear an outsize baseball cap. My guess is that he uses it to hide an outsize bald patch, as have many people who have suffered male pattern baldness. Another thing is how Gasheads seem to have meekly accepted relegation to the fourth division of English football. Perhaps it is because our expectations and ambitions have declined to the point where just having a team to support, no matter how crap they are, is enough?

I had half an ear on BBC Radio Five Live yesterday when the presenter announced that the Rovers were the first team in the EFL to be relegated following defeat at Portsmouth. Given that the team needed to win all three of its final games and had to reply on everyone else slipping up, this situation was inevitable. And, having spoken with some wise old Gasheads over a long period of time, yesterday merely confirmation of what we all knew: that the team was crap and so were the people running the club.

Where else but at Bristol Rovers would you find a fanbase to be not seething with anger at the bungling incompetence of its owner and self-appointed president Wael al-Qadi? The owner has presided over a disastrous series of managerial appointments, appointed directors who all appear to be on the payroll (when did that ever happen at BRFC?) and yet receives more praise than criticism. How can this be?

Standing outside the tent, I hear comments like,. ‘Wael is probably hurting more than us given he is putting so much money into the club.” No, he isn’t. In football terms, he has only been at BRFC for five minutes compared with supporters who have dedicated a lifetime to the club they love. If the club is losing record sums, whose fault is that? In 2006, four forward thinking directors had a plan to make the club sustainable, a plan that didn’t even reach the boardroom. Instead, the club carried on down the boom and bust route, culminating in three catastrophic relegations, one of which took the club into the National League. The new owner, a Jordanian banker with no experience of running a football club, has continued down that route.

Having sacked Ben Garner and Paul Tisdale, the club – incredibly – chose Joey Barton to take control for the final few months of this season. I have to moderate my comments here due to the litigious society in which we live, but did people really not know what he would be like? Bad-mouthing everyone, including his own players and blaming anyone and everyone for the failings of the team. Embarrassing doesn’t come close.

Wael al-Qadi says he is happy to carry on covering the losses occurring on his watch. If he has a bottomless pit of cash to piss away propping up a fourth tier football club, I suppose that’s a matter for him. And given that he owns the club lock, stock and barrel, I guess there is precious little fans can do about it. More relevant is the likelihood that fans don’t want to do anything about it.  “Always Gas”, I hear folk so. “We’ll always be there.” Well, let’s hope so.

Have the owners produced a vision for the present, never mind the future? My active supporting years, starting at Eastville, passing through Bath and ending up back at the other end of the Muller Road, were based on hope, hope that we would one day play in a stadium fit for purpose, watching a team worthy of the shirt. But, after coming up to 50 years of following the Gas, we are arguably in the worst place we have ever been.

The best the current regime can come up with is a deal with Ticketmaster to sell matchday tickets. In an article crammed with business-speak bullshit, the club attempted to explain how this would somehow benefit the matchday experience. Certainly, the process of selling tickets needed to be modernised but this doesn’t really change anything. The Memorial Stadium is still a shambolic mix of old fashioned terracing, permanent stands that don’t run the length of the pitch and embarrassing temporary structures. Compared with our hated neighbours across town – well, let’s not go there.

Where we need hope, we have hopeless. On and off the pitch, the club is a shambles. In the boardroom, there is not a single Gashead, just hired hands paid to do a job. I’m sure they do care about progress, or at least survival, because their jobs depend on it but shouldn’t supporters, who own the spirit, if not the bricks and mortar, be getting more for their money?

The jury isn’t out on Mr al-Qadi and his team. They’ve failed us all. We’re still at a ramshackle stadium with a ramshackle team. If the present is an accurate reflection of where this club is headed, there will be no future at all. And if Gasheads don’t demand better, then it’s unlikely they will get it.