UK Edition
How Notts County – the Football League's oldest club – became its biggest basketcase
It is among English’s football strangest chants. But increasingly “I had a wheelbarrow, the wheel fell off”, is the apposite anthem for Notts County, who sit bottom of the four tiers of the Football League.
Far more is at stake than pride if the nightmare of relegation comes to pass. After all, Notts have gone down more often than most. Four times in my lifetime, nine since my father was born and 14 since my grandfather first visited the terraces at Meadow Lane.
The club’s calling card, its honey to prospective billionaire buyers, is the title of oldest football league club in the world. This is its footnote in footballing history. That, and the gifting of some black and white shirts to a little-known team from Turin who played in pink and went on to become the most successful in Italy.
All this is pertinent because, yet again, Notts County are for sale. “Devastated” owner Alan Hardy made the announcement last week – shortly after accidentally posting a picture of his penis on social media. But more of that later.
Disaster is nothing new to the dwindling number who have followed Notts over the past few decades. A decade ago a Littlewoods study named Notts as the most stressful team to support, based on a toxic mix of financial woes, play-off heartbreak, and managerial upheaval. The appointment of Neal Ardley made him the 30th manager in as many years – and the third this season alone.
Relegation would not only mean Stoke City assume the bragging rights’ of being the Football League's oldest club, but would place an enormous financial strain on a club already forecast to make a £3million loss this year, according to Hardy. With a huge squad compared to their League Two rivals, anything other than an immediate bounce back could once again push Notts to the brink.
Dropping into the National League – and losing associated television rights – costs a club £450,000 in the first year and £1million after three years, according to Kieran Maguire, a lecturer in football finance at the University of Liverpool. Losses will be compounded by falling “perimeter” advertising because games are not part of highlights packages, he added.
Financial ruin is not a new concept to Notts. A supporters’ trust built up a 60 per cent ownership stake in the early Noughties after a record 534 days in administration. Tragically, the trust handed over the shares as part of a takeover by Munto, a group it hoped would bring Middle Eastern riches that never materialised.
These were heady days, with Sven-Goran Eriksson unveiled as director of football and Sol Campbell playing a single match before beating a hasty retreat.
Now the trust stands ready to step into the breach again, says chairman Mike Scott.
“It’s a disaster if you go down, particularly for Notts because our reputation to the rest of the world is being the oldest club. Without that, we’re just another struggling club,” said Scott. “The purpose of the trust is to protect the future of the club. If we’re in the same situation as we have been before, we will step in again.”
Hardy’s decision to pull the plug on his two-year tenure has not come as a surprise to supporters. First there was the cut-throat closure of the cash-haemorrhaging women’s side. At the time Notts County Ladies boasted seven England internationals, part of the team that reached the 2015 World Cup semi-final.
Then there was the dangerous taste for social media. To his credit, Mr Hardy answered fans’ genuine questions late into the night on Twitter, but quickly showed a tendency to take the bait of wind-up merchants, often supporters of rival clubs.
Time and again, he ignored those who advised him to log off and concentrate on the football. Now his quick fingers have left him the butt of the jokes, £10million worse off and aiming to “do what I do best, the corporate world”. Experts say he will be lucky to get a fifth of his investment back.
A year ago, the future looked rosy. Hardy leveraged expertise from his business, an interior design firm, to revamp the dressing rooms and touch up the 20,000-seat stadium. Innovative marketing campaigns, including £2 tickets, and even new sensory suites for autistic fans followed.
Everything was in place for a club headed to League One and the Championship. Instead, former Newcastle and West Ham midfielder Kevin Nolan’s second stab at management ended with a whimper. After losing out in last season’s play-offs, Notts were the bookies’ favourite to become this season’s champions. One point was secured from the opening five matches and Nolan was sacked.
But supporters with longer memories point to a few key moments that began Notts’ slow slide down the leagues. First is the success of Nottingham Forest, half a mile away (another record – the City Ground and Meadow are the closest grounds in England). Until Brian Clough took over at the City Ground in the Seventies, the clubs were more or less on an equal footing. Two European Cups later, and generations of Nottingham children would be Reds.
Further back still, others point to the destruction of rows of tightly-packed Victorian terraces know as The Meadows that surrounded the ground. Thousands of Notts fans moved out of the city centre and never returned.
Less sentimentally, the killer blow really came in 1991. The nation’s biggest clubs in the First Division signed up to the breakaway Premier League, secured a big chunk of the money emanating from new broadcasting deals and changed football for ever. Notts County signed up with the other top flight clubs but were relegated before the inaugural 1992-93 campaign. They have not been back since, and the billions have gone elsewhere.
Despite the woes of the past, the mood among supporters is philosophical approaching Saturday’s match at home to east Midland rivals Lincoln City – and the arrival of eight players during the January transfer window has at least give the squad a refresh.
Dane Vincent, a former employee of the club and editor of fans’ site Gerrit Forward, said: “Before transfer deadline day I was resigned to relegation. Thankfully, there's now a bit of hope with the arrival of some potentially key players.
"Credit to the chairman because after he put the club up for sale, there were even more concerns about our Football League status. But, he's backed the manager again and for all of his mistakes, you can't deny his heart's in the right place. I just hope it pays off this time.
"We've got a tough month of fixtures but hopefully we can get within touching distance of the teams above the relegation zone and pull off what would be arguably our greatest escape to date - and there have been a few."
Notts County declined to comment.