So, a new season begins. Usually, this is a great time for football fans. A combination of the summer sun, the promise of a clean slate, and all that alcohol you ingested on holiday, somehow convinces you that this is our year, that finally things will go right and your team will win the league/get promoted/sign Ronaldo/ sell Emile Heskey. But for Wrexham fans, not even a crate of Stella can shift the overwhelming gloom, and the realisation that success for the Dragons this year is about as likely as Tim Henman winning a Grand Slam tennis tournament.
No, Wrexham fans are spending the summer worrying about whether their club will be going the way of Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield Wednesday (and I thought Yorkshiremen were supposed to be fiscally astute?) and all the rest. While things are not yet so bad that the short-term existence of the club is at risk, the club lost a crazy amount of money last year, and the phone lines aren't exactly jammed by constant calls from Russian billionaires ready to pitch in. Much has been made of low attendances, and this is certainly a contributing factor in the club's financial worries. But a sudden increase of several thousand people per week is unlikely, and so those charged with rescuing things must find new ways of increasing income. Perhaps hosting Liverpool's reserve matches is a step in the right direction, but it has to be part of a series of measures. Historically, cost-cutting and reduced spending have not been popular with football fans, but when the future of a football club is at stake, compromises must be made. This is not to say that the fans should be the only ones reassessing their priorities, but they should play a major part. After all, whose club is it if not theirs?