Blues fans have served their time

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It was in May 1999 when – at the back of a packed Tilton Road Stand – a gentleman with curtains said to a crying boy: “Don’t bother getting your hopes up with the Blues kid, they’ll only break your heart.”

That kid was me and that game was against Watford. It’s been fifteen years and bloomin’ hell, he wasn’t kidding was he?

Supporting the Blues is both grim and odd at the moment, instead of debating the next transfer target I find myself reading the Hong Kong Stock exchange and articles on the ‘relisting of shares’.

Want to know more about administration and liquidation? How about the Hong Kong justice system, accounts, auditors and money laundering? Just become a passionate Blues fan, we’ve had a two-year course thus far and the third is in full swing.

The club is dying a slow death and for the most part we are powerless to prevent it, the owner isn’t in the UK and the CEO – in his own infamous words – cares not.

Outside of the second city it still appears that the extent of our crisis is not quite understood. ‘Brave Lee Clark can turn things around’ say the headlines – so here it is for those of you who just think we’re just in a little bit of a pickle.

We can’t buy players because we’re completely skint. We can’t sack our manager because, again, we’re completely skint. Our owner is on trial for money laundering in Hong Kong and we haven’t seen him for two years. Any player of ANY value is sold to prolong the nightmare.

The money for Gardner, Dann, Foster, Butland, Redmond, Davies, Mutch and the many others is gone. Used to pay the bills and keep us going, not reinvested into the squad but just dead money.

Then there’s Lee Clark, a manager hell-bent on changing formations and personnel every week – sometimes twice a week – while deploying peculiar tactics, giving bizarre interviews and turning a difficult job into a very difficult one.

There are huge money problems at the club and these clearly do restrict Clark but there are many facets of his role – not financially dependent – that he seems really keen to mess up.

After 16 months in the job he still doesn’t know which formation to play in my opinion (and he’s tried them all), he still hasn’t nailed down a specific style of play and the first eleven appears to be selected by a random lottery style machine.

Last year we had Nathan Redmond, Ravel Morrison, Curtis Davies and Marlon King at our disposal yet the same problems existed. Different players yet the same issues and that’s why I want him gone if we are taken over. He appears to be very passionate about his job but this is the bare minimum you expect from a football manager.

A draw at Derby ended a run of 5 straight away defeats but with 8 defeats in 13 league games this season we are well aware that a relegation battle is in store, one that would be extremely difficult to win if administration bites us in the New Year.

The squad is a concoction of rookies and experienced heads who have maybe seen their best days

It was incomprehensible in November 2012 that we wouldn’t be taken over before the end of the season but here we are in November 2013 and we are still waiting for some kind of saviour.

The off-field issues over the last three seasons have left me wondering ‘If only I didn’t care about football, wouldn’t things be easier?’

But as much as I try to ignore the financial waffle and endless ‘in the know’ forum rumours I do care, we all do. All we want is someone to reinvigorate this mess of a club and cheer the fans up, because we’ve served our time.

You can find Alex on Twitter – and don’t forget to follow @FanZone for links to all the latest blogs.