It’s now been ten weeks since I started this Substack, and every Thursday morning I send out a long read, usually on a football club in some sort of bother or other. But they only really ever send out a snapshot in time, so this morning I thought I’d revisit these with a brief update of where the clubs concerned are up to now that everybody has played a couple of games. They’ll have to be brief, since there are seven of them, but—and bearing in mind that early league tables are useless and early results are an extremely unreliable indicator of how a club’s season will play out—how are these clubs’ summer woes translating into the new season?
Morecambe, Wigan & the strange case of Sarbjot Johal
Well, Wigan Athletic are easy enough to tidy up. They had just come under new ownership at the time of this piece, and two wins from two leave them still bottom of the League One table, though it now appears highly likely that they’ll be off the bottom before the end of August. And it is, perhaps, appropriate that this is how this punishment should play out. After all, the new ownes aren’t responsible for the repeated messes in which the club found itself, last season.
Morecambe started their season with a 2-1 win against Walsall and a bumper crowd of 4,609, but were brought back down to earth with a 3-0 reversal at Mansfield in their second match. The biggest update from there this season is that there really is no update. Takeover talk has fallen silent, the club remains under the same ownership, which doesn’t seem to be putting any money in. Higher attendances help, and Morecambe’s next home match is against Bradford City, with the away allocation having already sold out, but the club’s future remains uncertain. Should Sarbjot Johal reappear, I’ll get back to him and his soft drinks empire. But until he’s a little more pro-active, I have a proposal to strike him off from my mental register.
The continuing misadventures of the owners of West Bromwich Albion
On the pitch, West Bromwich Albion have had a mixed start to their Championship season, losing 2-1 at Blackburn Rovers on the opening weekend of the season but responding to this with a 3-2 win against Swansea City. But if they were hoping to raise a little revenue from a run in the EFL Cup, well, that’s already done and dusted after a 2-1 defeat to Stoke City in the First Round North.
Off the pitch, well, The Price of Football’s Kieran Maguire noted that, “The £2m loan taken out by West Brom owner and business genius Guochuan Lai, which charges interest at 5% a month, will hit £10 million by March 2025 if it is not repaid...and his record for repaying loans is best described as ‘Bobbins’”, who was augmented by writer, journalist and West Bromwich Albion specialist Chris Lepkowski, who added ominously, “A reminder the Warmfront loan was secured against shares in WBA Holdings (the company that owns 88% of WBA)”.
If you’re staring at your screen blankly—5% a month???—then I do understand. Expect a further long read, trying to pick some of the bones from the complicated picture at this car crash of a situation, in the next couple of weeks.
Quite a lot of reading about Reading
Reading had their winding ups petition dismissed in the middle of July. The case had previously been adjourned to the 9th August, so unlike the last minute shenanigans that we so often see elsewhere with regard to this sort of payment, at least that’s resolved for the time being. But the club remains close to needing the support of a life support machine. The reasons for this are lengthy and complicated, summarised nicely here by Simon Coombs of BBC South Today, but the upshot is the same.
On the pitch, their league season hasn’t amounted to much, so far, with two 1-0 defeats against Port Vale and Peterborough United leaving them as one of six clubs with no points from their first two games. But there was a glimmer of light in the First Round South of the EFL Cup, where they went to Millwall and won 4-0. Some will arch their eyebrows and say, “First Round South of the EFL Cup, eh?”, but when you’ve had the sort of 2023 that Reading have had, you don’t ask too many questions if you win 4-0 away to a team a division above yours.
A sordid tale of squalid lies, greed and fraud
The imprisonment of ‘former’ Fleetwood Town owner Andy Pilley for fraud and money laundering during the summer will, if anything, most likely have a long burner of a tail. If Pilley’s involvement at Fleetwood is ever to become involved in the aftermath of all this, it will be a lengthy procedure.
Their season has not started particualrly encouragingly. They drew on the opening day of the season, 0-0 at newly-promoted Carlisle United, but have followed that up with defeats at Port Vale in the EFL Cup and at home against Cambridge United in the league. What’s striking from looking at their squad for this season is how young it is, with only three players aged 30 or over.
Scunthorpe United; the harder they fall
On New Year’s Day 2019, Scunthorpe United won 2-0 away to Peterborough United in League One. On the 12th August 2023, they were held to a 1-1 draw by Peterborough Sports in the National League North. They’d started their league season a week earlier with a 2-1 win at Tamworth. The Peterborough Sports result was a sharp reminder of how far they’ve fallen, and how quick that fall has been. Four points from six is a decent return from their first two league matches of the season, but the overarching story remains the same; Scunthorpe United shouldn’t be in this position in the first place.
The case for Coolsilk Property & Investment Limited vs Scunthorpe United Football Club Limited and Hilton, David has been filed, and is expected to be heard later this month. We shall see, whether Scunthorpe United are still playing at Glanford Park by the end of 2023.
Southend United & The Nonsense of Football
Similarly to Scunthorpe, the football being played by Southend United in the National League is in sharp contrast to the state of the team on the pitch. Southend remain in desperate trouble, with a further high court case over a winding up petition presented against them by HMRC yet to be heard. They usually pull something out of the bag at the last minute, but this is never guaranteed.
Under transfer embargo and limited to a squad of 16 players, though, the team has at least started the season with a bit of a bang. After two matches they are top of the National League with two wins from two and two successive clean sheets. If anything, it all serves as a reminder of what this football club is capable of, should they come under the ownership of individuals who care more about football than about land deals.
Crawley Town - what if we don't all make it?
Crawley have started their League Two season with a win and a draw too, against Bradford City on the opening weekend of the season, and then against Salford City. They’re also out of ther EFL Cup after losing 2-1 at Exeter City in the First Round South. Of course, the issue for Crawley is likely to be longer-term than any specific shock. That highly limited squad size will still be fresh at time point of the season, but they still have at least 44 more league matches to play. But this doesn’t look encouraging. And while I think of it, whatever did happen to the vast amount of money raised by that NFT shirt?