The James Ramsden Column

Thursday 04 July, 2002

Richmond's back - does it surprise you?

Not me. In my previous article, I stated that I would be happy to see Richmond back, and even happier to see him back with a consortium supporting him. Ok, I admit that I hoped it would have been Mr Morrison, but thinking about it a little more, I think the Rhodes boys are a safer bet.

What does Ken Morrison know about football? Say onionbags to us - we say 'goals', say it to Ken and he says 'you'll find them between the carrots and the king Edwards'.

He's not a football man, and although sometimes they don't show it, GR and the Rhodes are.

Imagine if Ken had been present when GR signed Beni - it wouldn't have happened. Although in hindsight (isn't it a wonderful thing) it was daft signing Beni on £40K a week, I still will never forget the feeling I had hearing it announced on radio one on the way home from work. Ok, he messed up, got his fingers burnt- but once you do that, you don't do it again. GR is a business man and he will want to make amends.

He has lost a lot of faith, respect and trust from his supporters and staff and I honestly believe that he is going to try his hardest to get back in our goodbooks. The board spent lots of money on high profile, big name, big earning players. I hope they'll now get back to the drawing board and spend little money on low profile, up and coming players who want to fight tooth and nail for the club.

Obviously, we've got the door policy of 'one in one out', so the first thing is who GR and the management want barred from his club.

I think Benito Carbone, Ashley Ward and Peter Atherton have sat in the ViP lounge too long, and its time to get rid of these high earners. Eoin Jess and Andy Myers looks set to leave, and to be honest Juanjo and Aidan Davison should have been ditched at the beginning of the year.

So with these gone, we are left with a decent backbone and have something worth building on. Bring in a few eager youngsters, make them learn from Jakes and Wethers and I think we are in with a shout this season.

GR - sit down with the birdman this week, thrash out a nice little cash injection from him and redeem yourself. You get your respect back, we get a promotion winning club (and reduced entrance to Flamingoland).

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