So is this the end?
Are the Rovers going to just fizzle out in a whimper? No big bang?
I was hoping for a last minute press conference (this can still happen after the writing of this blog), that announced new investors, a coach, a stadium deal and everything was good to go to get into the transfer market and start signing players.
But alas it all appears to be over before it even begun.
Started with a bang, ended with a whimper.
The fact that Ian Rowden and co have been virtually in hiding for months now hasn't bode well at all. There has been no statements from the board since Rovers were announced over a year ago. It all seemed so positive, off to a great start, and getting us all excited.
To say I am disappointed, frustrated and annoyed would be putting it lightly.
As I've stated previously, I've always felt that you would have to put in great effort to actually screw up a Western Sydney football team. The foundations are already there. The history is there. The existing infrastructure, the community clubs that have been there since the middle of last century.
It just needed someone to go in and try to get them all together with one goal under one banner. Someone to rally the troops, scream out that "this is OUR team, OUR region, OUR club". To show that we are the heartland of football in this country where Australia's greatest players were bred (and still are), and now we have a professional team to represent us in the highest level in domestic professional football. A team led by our marquee captain and homegrown hero Harry Kewell, proudly representing us and his childhood home.
But it appears now that was merely a dream.
A dream that many latched onto, that many proclaimed will come to fruition, with high hopes of a healthy average attendance at home games, of a team that all within the region would be proud of and rally behind.
So what happens now? Unless some miracle happens, I'm assuming the Rovers name will die.
There will be a Western Sydney team in the A-League one day, no doubt about that. But we are getting sick and tired of waiting.
If it's not going to be Rovers, then I hope its someone that knows how to reach out to the old clubs, to create partnerships with them and create a true pathway into the A-League for their players and members. Someone that knows how to capture the heart of the people in the wider Western Sydney region.
I know you're out there somewhere. It's a shame you haven't appeared sooner though.
So until something of worth happens in regards to a Western Sydney team I don't think I have anything more to say in this space. It's been a ghost town from every sector, bar the fans. But now the fans have nothing to say except repeat themselves over and over as we have been doing for two years now.
There is still time for an 11th hour announcement, but I'm not going to hold my breath for it.
