The Third Summer Of Aargh!

Back in the dim and distant days of early last August I made a wish-list for the upcoming football season:

1) To have a bit of a run in one of the cups
2) To go more than four games unbeaten for the first time in years.
3) To avoid relegation

The first two items on the list were crossed off reasonably early while the third, despite a week or two of worry around February, was settled much earlier than it was the season before.

If I'd limited the list to just three things then it would have been a clean sweep. However it wasn't because I'd been silly enough to add a fourth:

4) Avoid a summer of turmoil where there's only rumour and no news.

I mean, what were the chances of that ever not happening?

After two successive summers of upheaval off the pitch it appears we're heading for a third. I say appears because all we have to go on at the moment is a raft of rumours, none of which make for happy reading for a Mossley supporter.

Any neutrals reading this will undoubtedly be wondering why Lilywhites are mithering over gossip and tittle-tattle. Well there are two reasons.

The first being that despite the troubling nature to the rumours there's nothing in response coming from the club. No news at all. About anything. The second is they worryingly seem to have a great deal of substance to them. It all began when a supporter mentioned they'd heard the clubs Presentation Night had been cancelled. A few days later the club announced that it had indeed been called off due to circumstances.

That's where the trickle of real information ends though.

This was followed by the rumour that the Commercial Manager was leaving. He is but officially - nothing. Then came the story that the Chairman had quit. Again this has apparently turned out to be true and again, no word officially from the club despite it being a relatively important development.

Similarly you'd assume the departure of the club secretary would be worthy of a mention in dispatches but no. That another man had gone from the top was only discovered when I looked at the clubs entry on the Company House website. Which coincidentally is also the same site I went to a day later to find out that we'd appointed a new secretary. You won't be surprised to hear that it's an arrival that hasn't been announced officially yet.

Frankly I've no idea why I'm acting so surprised at all the secrecy because it's the Mossley way. It's been the M.O. of the club for so long that we should be having harsh words with ourselves for expecting anything different. But is it really too much to ask for a bit of information?

I don't expect the club to comment on every rumour that starts doing the rounds but when some whispers suggest that the club is teetering on the brink of an abyss, surely some kind of response would be wise - even if it's only a curt yes or no.

Crowds dropped significantly last season and they'll continue to drop if those that still bother to come are treated like mushrooms. If there's a will to halt that trend it's got to start by telling those who still turn up what's going on because once you start losing what's left of the hardcore support you might as well start rustling up some closed signs to hang on the gates.

Not only that but the longer rumours continue to circulate the more damage they can do if they're false, so it's surely in the best interests of the club to try and put and end to them.

So please, just tell us something. Even if it's bad it's better than the information vacuum we're currently in.