I feel totally vindicated this morning. Three years ago, I made a principled stand to never again attend a Bristol Rovers game when the chairman Nick Higgs banned a former director who happened to be a friend of mine. My friend, who I shall refer to only as Kevin to protect his identity, was banned for “consistent criticism” of the club. Today, in the Bristol Post, manager Darrell Clarke confirms what we all knew: that criticism was entirely justified.
Speaking at the Supporters Club AGM, Clarke, who is as honest as the day is long, said: “I have sensed a bit of scepticism amongst supporters over the stadium. I can understand that because they have had to endure a lot of broken promises through the years.” Later in the article he added: “Bristol Rovers is a well-supported club but it has never been a big club behind the scenes. In terms of infrastructure we are 10 or 15 years behind and until that is addressed we won’t be able to become a sustainable and established Championship football club.”
You don’t need to read between the lines to work out what Clarke meant when he said, “(Wael Al-Qadi has) allowed me to build a very professional backroom staff and has made money available for players.” Under the previous regime – and I use the word regime advisedly: dictatorship is my own word – it is clear that Clarke was not allowed to do these things and it is to his enduring credit that he took Rovers out of the Conference with one hand tied behind his back and never complained about it. Doubtless, if he had made the same criticism of the way the club was being run, he’d have found himself facing a lifetime ban from the stadium, which would have made it very difficult to then guide the team into League One.
I hadn’t intended ever to refer back to the dark days of Nick Higgs’ clueless decade in charge of Bristol Rovers, but if Darrell Clarke can do so with impunity, then so can I.
I will never again be involved in any aspect of what some refer to politics at the football club. It just causes pain and misery and, eventually, you lose the very reason you went to the Gas in the first place. I believe that in Darrell Clarke and Wael Al-Qadi we have men of vision and ambition who genuinely understand what Bristol Rovers is all about, incomers who know far more about the club than the local millionaire supporters who ran it into the ground.
Allow me to close with some fine words from a tune called Yesterday Has Gone by the 1960s popular beat combo outfit Cupid’s Inspiration:
Hey baby, yesterday has just departed
And tomorrow hasn’t started
All that really matters is right now
And you should live a lifetime in each minute
Take the sweetness from within it
Yesterday has gone without a sound
Exactly.
