Perceptions and season ticket sales

That was a relief! Barcelona did the business in the Champions League Final to stuff Man Utd 2-0 and give those who believe the Premiership is the be-all and end-all of the beautiful game some pause for thought. And they did it the best way, by completely outplaying Ferguson's men over the 90 minutes with intelligent, passing football. The only way the result could have been any sweeter was if Barca had scored the four goals their domination deserved, but I'll take the 2-0 quite happily. There was a time - before the arrival of the Premiership - when I would wish each and every English or British team good luck in European competition and hope they would win, but not any more, particularly the so-called Big 4. The disproportionate amount of money they take out of the domestic game is nothing short of scandalous and in fact the sooner the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal fuck off into a fully-fledged European Superleague the better off the rest of us will be.

Grrrrrr. Anyway, back on planet Earth and Chris Weale is the latest of our former loanees to find himself a new club, flying Uncle Gary's nest at last to sign for Leicester City. Good luck to him there. I think he was probably the most important of the loan signings we made over the last couple of months of the season. He dominated his penalty area and gave the defence a huge boost of confidence after Josh Wagenaar's less than commanding displays and without him I think we could well have gone down, even with the injection of goals the Spurs lads gave us. He deserves the chance to establish himself as the no.1 at a genuinely big club and now he's got it. Good luck Wealey! And good luck to us too, we're going to need it if Josh really is our main keeper next season.

No news on anyone else. None of the out-of-contract three have signed up as yet, with Terrel Forbes in particular moaning in the Western Gazette that he's yet to receive anything in writing from the club. At the same time and in the same paper Andy Welsh says that he's agreed terms with club but - as with Forbes - he's yet to receive anything in writing. Business as usual then! I did have hopes when Martyn Starnes took over from John Fry as chief executive that decision-making would be streamlined. I always vaguely assumed that the club's general procrastination in business matters was due to Mr Fry having too much on his plate as chairman and chief executive leading to delay and obfuscation (what a lovely word! Obfuscation, mmmmm), but what we are finding is another level of bureaucracy added instead with Starnes doing all the negotiating and then reporting back to Fry. Who in turn reports to Hayward. All this takes time and in the meantime the real world moves on and we lose players we thought were ours, because other clubs aren't paralysed by inertia and are capable of making quick decisions. The more things change, the more they remain the bleedin' same.

On the positive side, season tickets sales are well up, having just gone over the 2,000 barrier compared to just over 1,000 at this time last season. I'm frankly astonished at this. Fair play to the club on this issue, they've obviously got the pricing right and not even the board's biggest critic can argue that the replacement of Russell Slade with Skivo wasn't popular with the majority of supporters; even if the majority of supporters may be missing the fact that Skivo's results, if extrapolated throughout the season would have seen us relegated. Perceptions are what count, and the perception is that Skivo's team plays attractive, attacking football, whereas it was the opposite under Slade's tenure.

It's not a perception I particularly share. The only difference I've seen under Skivo is that the team are attempting to play at a faster tempo these days, the football otherwise is similar. Before the arrival of the Spurs boys and (for one game as it turned out) David Noble we were losing and occasionally drawing - 2 points from 19 I believe - and had slipped into the relegation zone. The loanees literally made all the difference, and of course Skivo deserves big credit for recognizing where we were weak and filling in those gaps. Nevertheless, without those players the football being served up was just as dull and uncreative as anything served up by Slade's teams - the difference was that at least Slade's team won now and then.

Still and all, hopefully my worries are unfounded and we'll start the season all guns blazing. Judging by the season ticket sales most fans apparently believe we will!

Currently reading: Quantico by Greg Bear. I've really enjoyed Bear's previous books, such as ,The Forge of God, Anvil of the Stars, Eternity, Eon, Queen of Angels, Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children; so I was looking forward to this one. Quantico is science-fiction still, but sf set in the very near future rather than the far future. It's basically a spy thriller with a technological twist. It's a book that I nearly put aside on several occasions but eventually did finish, more out of a sense of duty than because I really enjoyed it. Can't really recommend it, it's not up to any of the above-named titles' standards.