I wish Sisu had sold the lot
In a funny way, I wanted Sisu to sell all our best players last week. Turner, Clingan, Jutkiewicz: As far as I was concerned they could all go. And not only that, I wanted others to follow. I didn't want a single 'saleable asset' (because footballers are no longer people on transfer deadline day) to be left at the club.
At least that way I would have been sure that my suspicions of Sisu were well founded. It would have legitimised the protests; Sisu would have been outed as the enemy we thought they were and we could all have pointed our angry accusatory fingers at them with cries for regime change.
But that didn't happen. Sisu were reasonably well-behaved in bringing in a striker and selling a defender, albeit our best defender, and albeit for what was (reportedly) a derisory fee. Nevertheless, their transfer acitivity that day was far from that of a company desperate to cash in, leaving the club bereft of squad talent, before selling up.
Sisu frontman Onye Igwe's open letter to fans merely left me more confused. The sentiments shared were not those of a man looking to sell his business, or put it in administration, but those of someone looking to the future.
I want to believe in a future with Sisu. I want to believe that they can lead the club through this turbulent time, economically speaking, and take us to a point where we have a team to be proud of and can say that we own at least some bits of our stadium.
Igwe's letter - his regular six monthly correspondence with the fans - is a step in the right direction, but Sisu have a long way to go before they regain the fans' trust.
If Sisu want us to believe they're in it for the long haul then they need to start making long haul decisions. Lately we've only seen short term money grabbing fixes: the loaning of Thomas; the mortgaging of the training ground; the selling of Turner; not offering key players new contracts until they've already decided to move on.
How about some decisions that will benefit the club in the long term? Buying a stake (at least) in the stadium; getting key players on long term contracts; and not selling key players for little money. It's these things that will win back trust and support, and until Sisu back up their committed words with actions, they will always be treated with suspicion.
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