The new season is almost on us and I, for one, can’t wait. Saturday afternoons are just plain pointless when there isn’t a match to go to. I haven’t yet found anything to replace football that doesn’t involve going shopping. And I’m not a huge fan of shopping.
Since the end of the football season, we’ve been hearing rumours about transfers, and then of the countless millions paid for, in some cases, very surprising transfers to clubs whose monthly wage bills would keep a non league club going for many, many years.
Non league football also has the excitement of moving players at the end of each season and you never quite know who you’ll be paying to watch for the next nine months. The Curzon Ashton website (*rolls eyes*) is beginning to drip feed information about the new team. I say new team because that is essentially what it is. Only two players remain from last season’s squad. Luckily, one of those two is top goal scorer, Chris McDonagh. The rest have been spirited away by local rivals. Or just been spirited away. Of course, there’s always movement at the end of every season. But this feels like a whole new beginning for the team.
The new Curzon squad appears to consist of, well basically, the old Mossley FC team. John Flanagan obviously had a good relationship with those players during his short time managing Mossley and has confidence they are the right people to form the new Curzon Ashton. I’m hoping his confidence is not misplaced.
And what of the local rival teams squads? Well, the new Mossley team seems to have much of last season’s Youth and Reserve members. Maybe the rumours about the problems with money there are true. Not sure how the good folk of Mossley are going to take this.
Woodley Sports FC, which had been the new Mossley (are you following this?) since Chris Wilcock. another ex-Mossley manager, took charge in February are not saying very much at all. Just that information is ‘coming soon’. Maybe the spirited away Curzon players will be seen on the pitch there next season. Who knows?
And who knows what impact these changes will have on the League tables. Last year, and for a fair few years before that, Curzon managed to get towards the top of the table at the end of the season and had to endure nail biting play off games. Teams with a much bigger fan base and consequently much bigger budgets (probably), always managed to pop the promotion dream.
This season, there aren’t any Halifax Town’s or Chester’s or Chorley’s in the Evostik First Division North. I daren’t even dream that this could be Curzon’s year. I mean, winning isn’t everything is it? But it beats losing.
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