Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.
Bill Shankly
Ahh, Mr. Shankly. You could not have been more correct. To the average person, football is a sport, and merely that. Could they be anymore wrong? Football is a passion of millions of people around the world.
And to few, a religion. It is my religion. I follow it more than your average fan. At this moment in my life, nothing matters more to me. What's that I hear you say? 'The Titans are on'. So what, so is the football; the best sport in the world. Ever. Hell, I'd rather watch my local pub team play than watch the Titans.
Don't get me wrong, I love rugby (that's right, I said the 'r' word). But what I have with football is more than love. I can't describe it, but when I have a ball at my feet, when Tottenham are on TV, when England are on TV, when I'm at Skilled Park; screaming my lungs out for GCU, when I'm playing FIFA on my PS3, everything stops. Nothing matters anymore. Just me and my football. Oh, and if you don't know who Bill Shankly is, this blog isn't for you. In fact, none of the blogs on this site are for you. Just, go away.
But anyway, enough of my love affair with football. Now on to the might of the GCU! It was only a few months ago that there didn't seem like there was going to be a Gold Coast United. Thanks to our notorious owner, who needs no introduction, we almost got ourselves axed after only one year! But luckily, the FFA decided against making a bad mistake. For once they did something right!
But was there any validity in these claims from one Michael Cockerill?
Now let's evaluate this source. Does he have any quotes from reputable sources? No. Does he have any quotes? No. Well, let's think logically now. Either he has made up these claims out of thin air, or he has a very well-hidden and secretive source that doesn't want to be identified.
Now I'm not saying that Palmer is a saint. He's far from it. But he's not the type of businessman to abandon a project when the going gets rough. I personally don't think that there was any truth in Cockerill's claim. Why the hell would the story be on the Sydney Morning Herald website? Surely if it was truthful, it would've been on the A-League website, the Gold Coast United website, or at least the Gold Coast Bulletin's site. (Or else, someone was feeding him information in a game of brinksmanship - KA)
But this has all finished now. And its another season to look forward to. Perhaps a season of jubilation, a season of nail-biting, or a season of depression. Whatever way it pans out, I will be proud to call myself a supporter of Gold Coast United. I am confident that we can do better than we did last season, but it's going to be a hell of a lot tougher.
The loss of Shane Smeltz to China is like a knife through the heart. The two time Golden-Boot winner was instrumental in GCU's route to the finals last season. He will be hard to replace, but he CAN be replaced. Whether it is Joel Porter, Tahj Minniecon, or a new signing, I'm confident that we can find someone who can score the amount of goals that Smeltz did. I think that our primary transfer target should definitely be a new striker, mainly because I wouldn't want the club to risk our season on Joel Porter or Tahj Minniecon. We need an established and proven goal scorer.
Do you know what my favourite part of the pre-season is? The transfer rumours. There's always hundreds of 'certain' transfers, numerous players that are 'poised to sign' for a certain club. And the A-League is not exempt from this rule. GCU were linked to former Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires.
He's not as young as he once was, but I don't think that GCU are looking at him primarily for his footballing skills. Ask any football fan who has watched the English Premier League in the last 10 years, and the majority of them will have heard of the French winger. So I'm positive that he could put bums in seats at Skilled Park. He may be 36, but he could still cut it in the A-League. If Robbie Fowler can, then Robert Pires can.
However, although he would be an amazing signing, I feel that a better marquee to bring to the club would be a striker. As mentioned in my earlier paragraph, we NEED a striker, and if this striker is well-known, then that's an added bonus.
On to attendance. Or the lack of in GCU's case. Last season's average attendance was abysmal. Having attended the majority of home games myself, I know that the people who did go to the games, thoroughly enjoyed them. Speaking to numerous fans after games, the answer to the attendance problem was simple and unanimous in opinion. The advertising, or the absence of advertising.
There was no REAL attempt from either the FFA or GCU to promote the club on the coast. This needs to change. And quickly. The FFA has numerous times stated that they are making every attempt to promote football within Australia. But are their feeble attempts working? Obviously not. When the average attendance goes down by almost 3,000 from the, 2008/09 season to the 2009/10 season, you should know that something is going wrong.
I only found out there was even a club on the Coast when browsing through the English Premier League teams and their pre-season friendlies when I happened to notice that Fulham would be playing someone called Gold Coast United. My first reaction; who? Thanks to a quick search on Google, I found that the Gold Coast had a local A-League team. Finally! I'd been waiting ages for a local team to support. I immediately set out finding some fans to associate myself with. Then I found The Beach.
The vocal supporter's group of GCU was small in number, but large in passion. After a few games, I considered myself a member of The Beach. With the second season on the horizon, we can only get better. And with any luck, we'll get bigger.
Here's to another season of highs, lows, controversies and surprises in the ever exciting Hyundai A-League.
