Worries

It now appears that Pinnacle have pulled out of negotiations to buy Southampton Football Club. The group headed by Matt Le Tissier have withdrawn interest over an argument to do with contesting the 10 point deduction. With that, the club now have to find a new buyer by the end of the week otherwise it could well be Journey To The 91 after all. Of all the things to go wrong, a team dropping out of the league before we start our quest really would be catastrophic.

Here's hoping for a white knight...

Sometimes, it really is who you know and not what...

I spoke to a very helpful guy called Nick a couple of weeks ago. He toured round the 92 grounds for charity a couple of years ago and did a lot of the same things i'm doing. Letters to teams etc. I talked to him about teams i'd recieved negative responses from and he suggested sending the email to the football in the community (fitc) department at all the clubs including the ones i've already recieved negative feedback from. There's only 2 clubs that have really fallen into that category but thanks to Nick's advice, i've just been able to take one of them out of the 'reject' pile.
As i returned from lunch today I noticed an email from a League Two side that had earlier said no chance of any help and been very rude in the process. The reply from the FITC department said to just arrive on the day and come into reception between 10 and 4 and we'll be happy to let you into the ground. Amazing what sending the same message to a different person can achieve..

Better late than never!

As promised, here's a picture of the embroidered shirt i've had made. It's a lot better than this picture actually makes it look. Website designer I may be but amateur photographer i most definately aint..

The shirt is fantastic quality and is long as well which is always helpful if you're 6'5. I'll be ordering more tomorrow along with orders from a lot of friends and family. Despite the bad picture, you can make out the Journey To The 92 logo. I'm very impressed and really cant complain for £7.55! A Bargain.

Embroidery

Arrived home to find the embroidered shirt i ordered had arrived. It looks absolutely fantastic for the price i paid - £10 - so i'll most certainly be ordering a few more of those on Monday morning.

I'll post a picture of the shirt tomorrow!

Politeness costs nothing

I'm well aware that i wont get positive responses from each of the 92 clubs, but politeness isn't too much to ask for. So far all i've done is request a contact name to send the letters to and a few clubs have given very blunt, blanket replies that have nothing to do with my request. It's a shame that some clubs cant even send a polite email back explaining why they cant help.
One reply said that my email had been given individual consideration and unfortunately they were unable to donate at this time. My email asked about a parking space and having our photo taken in the ground. Nothing to do with any kind of donation. Very very poor and these clubs will be named after the tour.
Southampton on the other hand proved just how easy it is and exactly how a club should be. "Just come in to reception and we'll let you into the ground to have your photo taken". They even talked about donating. This is from a club going through a huge take over and suffering serious financial problems. A credit.

Elsewhere, it'll be interesting to see how the ESPN - Setanta takeover goes. If ESPN start trying to charge £12.99 like Setanta did, are people going to pay it? And if they do only charge that much, is it enough to keep them in profit?

Also, my local newspaper contacted me yesterday enquiring about doing a piece about our tour. Really starting to pick up on that front so it'll be good to get the shirts embroidered so any media photo's can have those in them. Very impressed with the company i've used for the shirts so far. The shirt i've ordered should be here in the next couple of days. I'll post a picture of the finished article.

Media

Yesterday was quite an exciting day. I arrived at work to find an email waiting for me from the editor of Kent News Online. Being big Gillingham fans, I guess he stumbled across one of my sites promoting the tour whilst looking for news to do with the Gills or the local area. Anyway, he asked one of us to call him as he'd like to feature us in the paper next week. I phoned him today and we had a long talk about what we're doing and why. The story will be in the paper Wednesday after next. I've asked him to send us a copy as it'll be the first piece of media interaction we'll have done towards the tour. I already have phone and radio interviews with Phoenix fm planned for September and expect a lot more to happen between now and then. I notice that i'm being followed on twitter now by a BBC news correspondent, the voice of West Ham United and another sports journalist.

It's exciting, and getting closer every day!

Is it me, or is it hot in here?

Last night I was lucky enough to go and see 'Oliver' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The show itself was fantastic and although the theatre let itself down by charging £2.20 for a small bottle of water and never having heard of a thing called air conditioning, it was still the setting for the best moment of the day!

My partner Terri and I were accompanying my Mum, Dad, Auntie and Uncle to the show as birthday presents to both Terri and my Dad. We were sat right in the middle of our row, which brought with it the obvious ups and downs. The upside being that we had one of the best views in the house, the downside, we had people sitting either side of us which meant it was tough to get in and out of the row without disturbing anyone.

The other downside, as my Uncle Jeremy found out, was that you may be unlucky enough to sit next to someone that's, larger shall we say, than you. The theatre was very hot and at the interval he turned to us and complained about sitting next to this person as it was making him even hotter than the rest of us. When the family to Jeremy's left returned, they'd switched places and now sitting just a few small inches away from him was a very attractive 18-19 year old wearing a mini skirt. He turned again and simply said "it aint getting any easier is it"..

The collar was loosened and the use of a fan was most definately required. Classic!

Well that's a bit .....

... annoying.

Fixtures will hopefully change between now and September when we set off but for now, we'll have to settle for the idea that we'll possibly only get to one game. England internationals rule out the first week but Saturday 12th September brings a few opportunities. Once Sky announce the live games it'll give a clearer picture but for now it's a case of facing the realistic situation that we might actually have to put up with watching late night american sports to keep us interested on the way round.. Here's hoping for lots of postponements and wednesday night replays.....

Excitement

The wait is almost over. The Carling Cup 1st round fixtures were released today and tomorrow at 10am the league fixtures are announced. There's always exitement surrounding their release but for me, this season holds special meaning. It's not just the normal pick and choose of a greedy school boy looking for the games to boast to his mates about going to see, it's the finishing touches to a trip that has been planned for a long time.
When the BBC website publishes the games, all else will cease to exist. For the 3 to 4 hours that follow i'll be glued firmly to my computer screen working out what's possible and what's not, which games we can see on the tour and which games we'd like to see. On top of that, we've got to take into account television scheduling and that's not announced until late July/early August i believe, but that wont stop tomorrow taking an eternity to arrive. And then going too quickly when it does...

Logo's and Addicks

In the header now is the logo that i'm settling on. The circular one was a very nice effort but as i'm looking at getting some bits and pieces embroidered it needs to be easily edited for embroidering.

The logo can be changed to all different colours as well and a few work colleagues and friends have already ordered a polo shirt with their teams colours on it.

In other news, Charlton Athletic have replied to my email about visiting the club on our tour round the grounds. They're the first team to grant us access to the stadium to have our photo taken inside. Only 91 teams left to respond...

Good news and crazyness..

We'll start with the good news. Accrington Stanley have been given a stay of execution after HM Revenue and Customs accepted an offer from the club to pay back £300,000 in outstanding tax money over the course of the next 12 months.. It makes things a lot easier for me thats for sure. Our tour around the 92 will rely on things going our way and generally going exactly to plan. We have a little leeway but not a lot. The hassle that could have been caused by them going out of business and another team being brought into the league could have been a disaster. An alternative might have been to not replace them for this season... I'd have had to change everything to be called 'Journey to the 91'.
Doesn't have the same ring to it...

And now the crazy news.
Kaka going to Madrid seemed like good business for all involved. Kaka moved to the 'Glacticos', Madrid got their man for £56 million and Milan got the £56 million. But it still seems like a lot of money doesn't it? Well it did, until news emerged yesterday of Manchester United accepting an £80 million bid for Ronaldo. Also from Madrid! Does the recession mean nothing to these people??
I'm just waiting for them to go back for pre-season training now. Imagine a collision between Kaka and Ronaldo resulting in both being injured for 6 months.. £136m down the swanney.....

It could happen.

2009-10 wish list

Although i'll be visiting all 92 football league grounds in September, the likelyhood of seeing many games is very minimal. Infact, the likelyhood of seeing inside many grounds is very minimal. In writing to all the clubs i'm asking about the possibility of reserving us a parking space and whether or not it would be possible to take any photo's inside the stadium.

Although i'm not sure of the reception that these letters will bring, i'm obviously hoping for a positive one. Any replies i do get will be mentioned on here.

However, away from the tour, i'm determined to see more games this season. With Gillingham getting promoted, the forthcoming season brings about many new opportunities and grounds to visit. And a lot of very high class grounds at that. My wish list for grounds to visit this season includes;

Charlton Athletic - The Valley

Southampton - St Mary's

MK Dons - stadium:mk

Leyton Orient - Matchroom Stadium

Millwall - The New Den
Colchester - Weston Homes Community Stadium

These are the main 6. I visited the Valley in 1994 and saw a dismal Southend side lose 3-1 but a lot has changed since then so i'm looking forward to going back. St Mary's will be good to see because i saw Southampton play at their old stadium, The Dell, on my 10th birthday. The down side to the visit was that Southampton won 2-0 against...... a very dismal Southend side...

Any grounds i get to visit next season in excess of this will be a bonus. Infact, with 2 holidays to save for and a wedding in the planning, getting to any of the above 6 might just end up being a bonus....

An issue with no reasonable resolution..

The Mrs birthday went down without a problem. Only trouble is, she's making me take her out tonight (brute force) which means i'll miss the England game... So once again, i'll have to make do with the final of the tennis tomorrow... Roll on August 8th.

I had suggested going out on Thursday (which we did) and then again yesterday (which we did again) but she still seems keen to go to Chelmsford today. I think it's a cruel plan she's been hatching for a while..

£73m ??

I sit and listen to the news most evenings (not through choice) and hear more and more stories of companies and individuals struggeling to cope with the current economic climate. Then, i wake up this morning to revelations of a bidding war between Chelsea and Real Madrid over the services of Brazillian, Kaka. Madrid were favourites this morning having tabled a bid of £56 million and this evening news that Chelsea have made a £73 million bid to kazump Real...

What recession...

I think back to the collapse of ITV digital in the early 2000's. They weren't puting a huge amount into each club but when they folded, they came very close to taking multiple teams with them because of the loss of income. I think Gillingham missed out on around £1m and it certainly contributed to their down turn in form over the following few years. Makes you realise just how huge the gap between the top of the Premiership and the bottom of the Championship is. Let along the gap between the Prem and the teams in League 2...

Missing it already..

It's been a week without football and withdrawal symptoms are already starting to creep in. Yes we've had the Fa Cup final and in the coming weeks there's England games, and the U21's European Championships but with those exceptions we'll have to put up with cricket and tennis for the next 50 days. They'll soon pass i'm sure, but the excitement of the fixtures for the new season being released brings a feeling on par with your team winning in the last minute against the side thats top of the table.
I'm sure i'm not alone in doing this, but every year when the football fixtures are published, i sit down and mark all the games and grounds i'd like to get to see in that season. Very rarely do i get to see one tenth of my wish list, but it's something i'll continue to do nonetheless.

The rise in ticket prices and in general costs involved in getting to and from games means that unless you're pretty wealthy or in a well paid steady job, it's impossible to go to more than a handful of games, if that. In the 1995/96 season, I frequented Roots Hall, home of Southend United, for almost every home game and saw a few at Old Trafford too. By the end of the season i'd clocked up 37 games including 3 friendlies and that tally remains my highest to date. I will beat this in the future..

I'm lucky enough to have a partner that's a passionate football fan. She has her flaws, such as being a Chelsea fan and siding with Drogba after a ten out of ten performance in the diving category, but she enjoys going to watch live football. A fact that should make future life much easier...