Resignation Letter by Wolvesy

It’s strange how it happens. One day you find yourself sweating over injury news about Ryan Prosser or scouring the fixture list for the prime games and then you discover that you just don’t care anymore. 

I don’t care about the Martyrs anymore, it’s quite liberating to write those words. After 43 years of following the ups and downs of the team I seem to have hit a wall of apathy and to be honest dismay with the club at the top of Park Terrace. I’ve struggled health wise for a while now and watching Saturday’s heroes was once an oasis from the stresses and strains of modern life but after a while I realised that the governance of Merthyr Town FC and the lack of accountability at the top of the club was adding to my frustrations. The same people who propped up the previous regime now seem to be back in the board room, how do they do that? I wish I had that level of confidence to just walk out the door, take on the new club’s philosophy and then return as if nothing had happened. As Groucho Marx once said, “These are my principles and if you don’t like them … well I have more”.

I suppose you should be realistic with your dreams, were we ever going to be a fan owned club based on democratic principles? Were we really going to be a collective where every major strategic decision was debated by the fans in regular meetings at the club? To be honest Yes. We should have achieved those aims but when a Director informs you that the highlight of his season was the cooked dinner at an away board room then you know that we have hit the buffers. 

People have told me just to enjoy the football and put aside what we fought for but I’m afraid watching those people who laughed at the Trust model now reaping the rewards of that struggle is often hard to swallow. A Chairman who used the Trust principle of that post being open to all and shared to gain a foothold that he is determined not to lose no matter the cost to the club’s integrity. It looks like a closed shop, it feels like a closed shop so it must be a closed shop. 

Why pay £20.00 to “own” your club to attend two meetings (maybe with six days’ notice) and an AGM, get to vote for an away kit with a choice of red or red, get 5% discount at the bar as the club increases the prices by 5% so you’re paying £20.00 to stand still, get a copy of the Board’s minutes so late that the next meeting has already happened, not even a fixture card; well would you? 

Perhaps that’s the plan for our Board, bore us into submission, antagonise the natives enough so we’ll go away and leave them to their club ties, bus trips and of course those away day cooked dinners. 

We have staff at the club now so if you have an idea for a fundraiser you can contact them to set it up, wrong, you must do it yourself as it will be outside of the staff’s remit. Have an idea for the ground? We’ll ignore you until you go away.

I think we thought that Merthyr Town would be different to others but we’re just the same, I was once asked why I don’t watch the Martyrs as much as previous seasons, my answer was the Board have no ambition and no imagination to make this club a truly unique institution that would be a beacon of fan ownership, sadly that flame is slowly dying and my enthusiasm for what is a major part of my life seems to be too. I can only hope for better days to come. Prove me wrong!

Wolvesy