The Lounge

[Cape Cod Womble]

First up I have to say that I have full respect for Tranmere Rovers as a club and the fans are amongst the best in League One. When our group went to Prenton Park in December, we headed into the tent that doubles as the Fanzone and were made very welcome. Marco Cura, Pat and I did The Away Turnstile podcast and it was a lot of fun there. As a game Rovers should have turned us over 5 or 6 nil, AFC were so bad and if it wasn’t for the heroics of Nathan Trott in goal and some woeful finishing by the home team, then it may well have been.
In hindsight those extra goals may have gone towards reducing the eleven goal difference that currently stands. That gap acts as a not unsubstantial argument in favour of AFC’s position to stay up.
Tranmere Chairman Mark Palios made a podcast of his own last week in which he made his case for the cancellation of the season and for no relegation. One interesting point he raised was concerning those clubs that had no incentive to play because they were not in promotion or relegation positions, basically playing out the season, in effect the Lincoln Citys, the Burton Albions, the Gillinghams etc. He said that there could be contrived results coming out of fixtures involving these mid-table clubs whereby they don’t want to risk or play their top (possibly meaning earning) players and they could put out line-ups consisting of youth team players.
Well his argument kinda falls flat on that point when you realise that is exactly who Tranmere faced early on in this botched up season during the financial debacle at Bolton Wanderers. Yes you can only face the team that you have in opposition but Tranmere pasted a Bolton youth side 5-0. AFC faced twice a strengthened Bolton line-up twice and only could draw on both occasions, albeit that we were very poor in at least one of those matches. And on that score, can you imagine how poor Bolton or say Southend would be if they had to play out their remaining fixtures.
Tranmere point to their rise in form and we all know from last season that it is entirely possible that they could have pulled off a miraculous recovery as AFC did. (I only wish the Franchise were in the mire then you would have been seeing a majority saying “who cares about them”. Well the Dons have an intangible of our own in that arguably our two best players in Anthony Wordsworth and Will Nightingale were about to return to the first team, making our depleted line-up substantially stronger.
My point is that unless your team is Sunderland / Oxford / Ipswich / Tranmere / Peterborough (what a complete wally that Darragh McAnthony has shown himself to be), then regardless of the magnitude of the health and separate financial considerations, then playing out the season itself has become meaningless. The EFL has committed to promotion and relegation and plans to have play-offs. If AFC do survive to play in League One next season then so be it. There’s a much bigger picture here.

[Windlesham Don]

Agree with all your points, CCW, and on a purely selfish note it would likely be the case that resuming the season behind closed doors would disadvantage us more than any of the other relegation candidates.

Assuming that Bolton and Southend are beyond rescue, then four sides (Rochdale, Franchise, us and Tranmere) would be fighting to avoid the last relegation place with Tranmere and us favourites to go down. The lack of atmosphere from empty stadia would undoubtedly be an advantage the Franchise, as they are used to playing in an empty stadium. We would be the major losers as we could expect full houses for each of our last home games.

A major advantage to Tranmere would be their playing surface. Unsurprisingly throughout the discussions Mr Palios has kept quiet about relaying their pitch when the league was suspended. Their descent into the relegation zone was largely due to a dire set of home results (2 points in 7 games since Xmas) and this was in no small part due to a quagmire of a pitch. The fact that they would now have a pristine playing surface for the remainder of the season would be a major advantage to them – something that could never have occurred if the season had continued as normal.

In purely selfish terms I believe we need to hope that the season is stopped. The ‘fairest’ solution to the relegation issue would be for Bolton and Southend to be sent to League 2 and for Tranmere to be reprieved, but I don’t see a scenario where this could be achieved.

As an aside, if the season is abandoned without relegation then what happens to the significant points deduction incurred by Bolton? The deduction would have been meaningless…

[onyadon]

Some big and welcome news on the Plough Lane Stadium….

Take outs from #PloughLane stadium announcement:
– Final construction contract has been signed, ground scheduled for completion by October 25.
– New minority shareholder Wimbledon resident Nick Robertson taking 10% stake and invested on terms that leave the Dons Trust in control

— wombles downunder (@WDownunder) May 29, 2020

– Dons Trust remain the majority shareholder (over 75%)
– Robertson's shareholding will come from allocating some more of the shares that were approved but not used in the Seedrs issue.
– A General Meeting of AFCW PLC to approve the allocation of shares will be announced soon.

— wombles downunder (@WDownunder) May 29, 2020

Stadium announcement

On the 18th anniversary of that three-man commission suggesting ‘resurrecting the club from its ashes is… not in the wider interests of football’ The Wider Interests Of Football Limited enters a construction contract for our new stadium in Wimbledon.
We’re going home, folks! pic.twitter.com/EYhPhMRtwI

— The Dons Trust (@TheDonsTrust) May 28, 2020

Joe Palmer – "This really is a historic moment for our club. Without doubt, it's thanks to our incredible fans that we're in this position. The Seedrs crowdfunding and #PloughLaneBond were the game changers."https://t.co/UDEyXu1URO

— wombles downunder (@WDownunder) May 29, 2020

[liamwimbo]

Thanks for the update and the chat Rob.
Truly a historic day, given the timing of the announcement 18 years ago.
A day that knocked the wind out of me. I left work in a daze and went to FA HQ in Soho Square that day, even though I knew there was nothing I could do.
But from that dark day, we have shown the world “WE ARE WIMBLEDON”

[Tooting Womble]

Great to hear that the final contract for the stadium has been signed and is due to complete this October. Also welcome to Nick Robertson and I appreciate the detail that the club shared on our new minority shareholder in their statement.

We are told that he has taken a 10% stake and invested an unknown amount in our club. I would imagine that this investment although substantial would still leave the club needing to take out a bank loan to help finance the stadium but given that the club have signed the final construction contract they are obviously confident that any loan needed will be secured.

[onyadon]

Meanwhile, the dithering goes on with the fate of this season…

EFL calls a meeting for 8th June to decide changes to its framework. Any alternative proposals must be submitted by Tues 2nd June. This is essentially for L1 clubs. Championship indicated will play on while L2 have agreed but EFL will want some sort of consistency across its Divs

— Ian Dennis (@Iandennisbbc) May 29, 2020

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