BEYOND the fact that your team has just scored a goal, there is something of a thrill in seeing your side’s name pop up on the Soccer Saturday Vidiprinter and knowing that Jeff Stelling will soon be talking about your club.
Whether you support Manchester City or Montrose, everyone gets the same treatment. Indeed, as now household names across the UK like former Gretna striker Kenny ‘The Good Doctor’ Deuchar will testify, sometimes it is the lesser lights that Stelling really brings into the spotlight’s glare.
One thing that concerns the man himself though is that some of the historic football clubs he currently enjoys speaking about on a weekly basis are not only sliding off of our television screens, but out of existence altogether.
Anyone tuning in for their weekly fix of the fraternal banter that has made Stelling’s show such an institution last Saturday, can’t have helped but be moved by his momentary departure from the usual joviality to deliver an impassioned response to Bury FC’s collapse into liquidation, sounding a note of caution to other clubs about the dangers of being seduced by wealthy owners and their promises of success.
These warnings apply just as much north of the border as they do down south, where clubs like Rangers, Motherwell, Dundee, Livingston and others have suffered at the hands of reckless stewardship.
The ownership of Partick Thistle, of course, is a live issue at present, with the Thistle For Ever group launching a bid for supporters to gain a majority shareholding during the week in the midst of a potential takeover by New City Capital, the investment group who currently have a controlling stake in Barnsley.
No matter which club is involved, Stelling believes the key thing to ascertain is just what any potential owners motives are, and whether they truly have the interests of the club at heart.
“It is something to be wary of, because you see examples of it everywhere,” Stelling said.
“Sunderland was a great example, where they had an American owner who totally lost interest. There have been countless examples.
“Just because they are overseas owners, it doesn’t necessarily make them bad, but I think you have to look at why they want to get involved. That applies to whether they are a Scottish owner or a foreign owner or whatever.
“You have to look at what the benefits are to them getting involved, and just why are they doing it? That’s the first question. There might be all sorts of genuine reasons, but that’s the first question you’ve got to ask.
“I look at things with a slightly jaundiced eye, because I’ve seen it with Bury, and with my club Hartlepool. There were a lot of charlatans and rogues who came in with an interest to take over the club, and there still are, by the way.
“Whether it be England or Scotland, a lot of teams have had bad owners, and if they are in there for the wrong reasons, then you’re always going to struggle.”
Stelling believes that a safeguard that could prevent reckless owners from taking clubs to the brink is a salary cap, ending the days of marquee signings on unsustainable wages.
“I think a salary cap is an absolute necessity,” he said. “Clubs are paying way above what is logical.
“I know that when I went in at Hartlepool and saw the salaries, at that stage we had 10 or 12 players who were earning around £1500 a week, so something like £75,000 a year, and we were a National League side. That is absolute insanity.
“A salary cap will mean that Bury couldn’t go out and spend five grand a week on players or whatever they were doing, when they are playing in front of 2000 people. That is totally unsustainable.
“I would argue that a sliding-scale salary cap is definitely the way forward.”
Stelling was speaking before embarking on his third walking challenge for Prostate Cancer UK, kicking off his 26th walking marathon at Hampden Park today before visiting Celtic Park, Ibrox, Hamilton’s FOYS Stadium and ending at Fir Park. It is the first of four such walks in four days spanning all the countries of the UK as he continues his quest to raise awareness of the disease.
“Each day there is probably 10 hours of walking, and during that people can come up and talk to me or talk to Charlie Nicholas or Irvine Welsh or whoever, and it helps everybody along,” he said.
“Most of the Soccer Saturday guys like Paul Merson and Matt Le Tissier, Franny Benali, Iain Dowie, Bianca Westwood and Kammy are getting involved too.
“The money this raises is a nice by-product, but the name of the game was always to raise awareness.
“Men are always reluctant, whether that is mental or physical health, to go and see their GP. We’re like that from my part of the world in the North-East and I think Scotland is the same. And if it is anything to do with anything below the waist, they are certainly not going to their GP!
“With prostate cancer, time is of the essence. If you catch it early, it is eminently treatable, but if you sit on your hands and don’t do anything, it can be a killer.
“So, this is to make people aware and encourage them to go and do the right thing.
“Somebody said to me that it isn’t the sort of thing that men sit around and talk about in the bar, but it should be. It should be.”
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