I don't agree with your stance MMM but the above is a well reasoned and well put post.
Personally, I don't see Wasps as the biggest villains either. SISU undoubtedly are but Wasps have taken advantage of our situation which along with the help of CCC, has pretty much condemned our future unless something drastic happens.
I had a long drive back from Leeds to the South Coast yesterday and was trying to thinking of an analogy to summarise my thoughts on whose to blame for our demise. I came up with the following:
* Richardson et all pretty much give us a death sentence with frivolous spending.
* Sisu euthanized us and then built a coffin.
* CCC asked Wasps if they wanted to be the ones to knock the nails into the coffin.
* Wasps obliged providing the hammer and nails.
Just my own thoughts...all of the above are to blame for our demise, probably in that order as well (in my eyes only).
WM
I like the similie. I have one of my own, but a comment first.
In trying to secure a lower rent and access to matchday revenues we all knew were needed; the football club's owners took a very hardball stance. Not only that, they overplayed it to an extent quite beyond belief (the fact they seemingly didn't learn and made many similar mistakes with the Higgs Centre is astonishing - but another story). The council, with egg on their face and a blue ribbond project failing were given a get-out-of-jail card and grasped it with both hands. If they hadn't, and Wasps had walked away and the Ricoh still empty would have been beyond consideration. So.....
...You may be familiar with the notion of 'revenge sex'? Not first-hand, I'm sure. A party who finds their partner has been cheating gets their own back by sleeping with someone else. This then often leading to a total breakdown in the relationship.
So, in my comparison; there's a boyfriend who lives at his girlfriend's house. Bit of a bad lad and he's been sleeping around. Not a bit, a lot, and lies regularly so that the girlfriend can't believe a word he says, distrusts him and resents him (read: the club's owners)
The girlfriend; she's quite attractive, but owns a lovely house in which the boyfriend lives. She's been a pain in the arse in the past by asking for high rents and wanting jobs doing around the house - but these issues could perhaps have been worked through, maybe with counselling. But she's really pissed with her cheating, lying boyfriend (read: the council as the girlfriend and The Ricoh as her beautiful house)
Some lucky bloke at work/the gym who happens to be in the right place at the right time to be the chosen partner for the revenge sex, and has now been moved in and the boyfriend's bags left packed on the pavement (read: Wasps)
So who's to blame; the boyfriend who strayed the sleeping around and cheating, the girl who's had enough and found someone better and showed him the kerb, or the fella who couldn't believe his luck and is now warming his toes in front of the fire?