Earlier in the month, Sevco’s managing director told a salivating media that the club had, finally, secured an overdraft from a bank.
The story stunk like a fish left under the bed for a week. There was enough wrong with it that most of the outlets steadfastly refused to give it the kind of push the club must have wanted; it was mentioned and then dropped.
The bloggers knew this one was bent, and unlike the media we were all over it. It was remembered that Close had been involved with the club previously. There was information to remind people that they had backed Green in a number of his business activities.
The idea that this was an overdraft was quickly scotched. The company didn’t offer that particular service, not being a commercial bank. Instead, what they did offer was invoicing financing of the kind Phil had said the club had been seeking out. They were a Wonga company with a shiny website. It quickly became apparent that this was a loan.
The media never asked the club for clarification. Instead, a number of their reporters threw the “overdraft” story into the Morelos tale as “proof” that the club was on a sound financial footing. They ignored the self-evident truth that a club going to these kind of lenders was not one which was certain to avoid administration.
Even as they were doing so, some of the sneered at us.
When Companies House took receipt of the first document verifying the details of the agreement we analysed it and lo and behold it turned out to be exactly what we had said. We got no apology for it. The club itself was never asked to explain why it had lied.
Instead, they continued to push the Morelos farce. The media continued to write it, as if a club going to companies like that could afford to miss out on a major infusion of cash. They poured sarcasm on any one of us who cast doubt on that nonsense.
This week, another document dropped at Companies House. It makes it ever more clear that the club is in deadly peril. Yet the press has spent the whole time writing garbage about the title race being open again, because of the “form” of their team of journeymen, flops and loanees – managed by a temporary boss who has dropped 17 points since taking over.
Key pieces of the club’s infrastructure are now being used as collateral for a loan to get through this campaign. It’s the business of other clubs that they continue to let this stuff go on – they are being cheated, their fans are being cheated – but the media can no longer deny that Sevco’s directors are digging a huge hole, into which the whole club could fall.
They also owe us an apology for how they reacted to our initial stories. They failed to do their jobs here and once again it was left to the blogs. We brought the truth of this to light. We exposed the way the club had blatantly lied to the press and to its own fans.
We don’t expect credit; we’ll never get that from the hacks. But we do deserve respect for being so completely right when they were so completely wrong.
People with integrity would give that to us.
I don’t believe these folks fit into that particular category.
If they did, they would have been angry at the club and being used the way they were.
They would have done this job themselves.
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