A glimpse of the future.

It’s probably the same future the Cowleys had mapped out for us. I was talking to my Boston United following friend in the week and I must have said something about our former heroes as he commented “oh, you’ve forgiven them have you?”

I said there was nothing to forgive, it was the manner of the departure that irritated me not the fact they went. I’d have thought if they were minded to go they should have gone in the close season but it my view they weren’t minded to go at that point. It’s only a theory but I think, in fact I know as they said it, they fully expected further big investment to come in and when it didn’t there was the distinct possibility the Lincoln Loco would end up in a siding.

Anyway, I digress, I think the long term plan was to develop emerging talent, enjoy that talent while we could and sell the players on to further boost the coffers. Short of someone coming in with very deep pockets, and I think we’re all starting to realise how deep they have to be even in league one let alone the championship, then that is pretty much the only avenue available given the support is unlikely to increase substantially any time soon. This weeks developments have seen the first of several such signings as far as I can see

In fact, as I was saying to my Pilgrim friend, and talking of gates, its remarkable how well the support has held up given the blip we’ve been through and that can only help recruitment. If you can imagine we’re trying to sign a player in the face of competition from say Accrington or Rochdale and the same terms can be offered by each club surely the fact that City play in front of two or three times the fans can only help. Leaving aside Sunderland, Ipswich and Portsmouth it’s still a source of wonder to be that we’re in the next echelon of support. That certainly wasn’t the case the last time we were in the division.

All of which brings us to this weekend’s fixture and what surely would have been one of the highlights of the season, a visit to Coventry. Incredibly, the Imps are way ahead of the Sky Blues in support mainly due to them having to share a stadium and of course their catastrophic fall from their previous dizzy heights. I suppose, pound for pound, the result of that fall in terms of where they are now is about on a par with our own descent into relative oblivion but at least we owned our own stadium and, thanks to Bob Dorrian and Clive Nates not to mention the army of volunteers who labour willingly for free and of course many others we’re in a decent place despite the upheaval of late.

For that we should count our blessings at a time we should be doing that anyway. Merry Christmas.