It’s said you reap what you sow, and looking at the state of the relationship between Blackpool FC’s owners and the fans it’s a statement that certainly rings true. The setting up of the ‘fans parliament’ is just such an example of how any trust between the owners of the club and the fans has diminished or in most cases absolutely disappeared. How, in fact, can you trust a man to control a football club who doesn’t have the ability to control himself? Therefore how can you trust that same person to choose people of varying views, some which may hurt, to populate that parliament?

A lot has been said about the time it has taken the FA to bring any charges, if they were answerable, against Karl Oyston for his uncontrolled outburst on text with a supporter, but it appears that they, the FA, have been making sure, if charged, that any charges would stick. That it has taken all this time doesn’t surprise many when they look at the length and content of the judgement of the appeal by three very senior QC’s. It now only remains to be seen what punishment is meted out and where it leaves the running, if that is the correct term, of theis once proud club.

The hardest thing about trust is that it's very difficult to build and very easy to destroy and it could be said that the essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and your customer. Nothing could be further from the truth than the second part of that sentence and the demeanour of the Oystons towards their customers, the fans, is anything but similar. They appear to regard themselves as leading lights in the Socialist movement, a cut above those who populate the ground in more humble surroundings than themselves, but following on from the jail sentence given to Karl’s father, Owen, for rape, it appears that the Socialist party (Labour) want nothing more to do with them or their money, the trust has disintegrated. To the Oystons, the fans are the great unwashed, ‘the mob’, and if there are any similarities I fail to see them.

What they seem to underestimate is the strength of ‘the mob’, its common aim, its members who have a number of skills which, if used in the correct way, can be quite an impressive force to be reckoned with.

Trust in the father, has diminished quite quickly. Go back to the days following his conviction of rape and indecent assault in 1996 for which he served three and a half years of a six-year sentence in prison. The general feeling of the majority of fans was that he had been ‘set up’. When visiting supporters tried to chant his name and call him a rapist, the Blackpool fans drowned out the catcalls and in effect endeavoured to protect him from any further punishment. Fast forward 12 - 15 years and it’s the Blackpool fans themselves who are reminding him of his misdemeanours; their calls for his resignation and sale of the club have grown out of all expected proportions. That trust has gone.

So, what of the hangers on and others who come across these people?

A number of fans have stood up to what other fans wouldn’t and paid the consequences by being threatened by Millionaires who appear to have skin a lot thinner than was thought, and their so called friends appear to love being part of the whole charade joining in on the Twitter insults and using aliases to post on message boards . I come from an era when you said what you meant, and meant what you said, followed through on promises and stood up to bullies and others who tried to put you or your friends down. I still respect people for what they are and not what they have; for what they have achieved not what they have been handed. On the reverse side of that coin, I cannot respect anyone who feels or acts as though they are a cut above the rest or indeed have the ‘I am a lot richer than you ‘ syndrome and attitude. Money doesn’t buy happiness, it certainly doesn’t buy friends. Both have to be worked for and take time to achieve just like trust. Note, please, that the hangers on would slip away in the night if the O’s suddenly became penniless although I feel it will not be possible to prove that point

It seems there are quite a number of people following Blackpool who could be classed in the same category as me, and that means more personally than any membership of an unelected body who would be expected to kowtow to an old man of ill repute, a son who was handed things on a plate, but seems incapable of running a football club; appears unable to say anything on any subject that people will believe due to his past record of constant mistruths; can’t deal with an angry fan without using politically incorrect references to the disabled and infirm and who constantly mocks any approaches that are made to him. It would appear from the way in which a donation was made to a fan, that his offspring seem just as incapable of being anywhere near a decent human being. Time will tell, but the signs aren’t good

So to the title, Trust.

Two definitions: A Firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something;

Or

An arrangement whereby a person or group of persons holds property as its nominal owner for the good of one or more beneficiaries.

The first definition we have already looked at in respect to the owners of the ‘Company’, the second definition is what the Blackpool Football Trust (BST) is. A group of people holding property (intellectual or monetary) as its nominal owner for the good of the many members of the BST and no doubt those who have refused to join for reasons best known to themselves. We have to trust the integrity and the aims of BST and its present guardians as well as the soon to be elected officials to carry out what they have set out to achieve, to bring the club back to the people who are in reality the heartbeat and the conscience of Blackpool FC, the fans. We can only do this through unity and it would appear that the unity is bonding the fans into a stronger group by the day.

In closing, people trust and do things for different reasons. A number of people have volunteered to go by spacecraft to Mars, they have been told they will no doubt die, but to them it is a no brainer, and they will as forecast no doubt be killed. I don’t understand them but do not criticise them for their wishes. Volunteers cleaned up at both Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plants knowing they would probably die and some have. Were they brave, stupid or just happy go lucky, it is not for us to criticise them, it was their choice. Neil McDonald (NMcD) obviously trusts his judgement, whether that judgement is good will soon be seen, but no one should criticise him for it and should in my book back him, after all he is looking after his own family in the way in which he feels right and he will either fail miserably like many before him or pull off a miracle and turn things around. I know where my money lies, but I would not decry anyone else for having an opposing view. Just remember trust has to be earned and is very difficult to build just as it is very easy to destroy and demolish once a certain line has been crossed.

I don’t trust the Oystons but trust BST and support Blackpool FC and hope NMcD can earn my trust. Let’s give him a chance.

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