With a single flap of his mighty wings, the albatross left the windowsill of the Carrow Road boardroom; leaving only a small white deposit to show for his brief stay.
The assembled board glanced nervously into the growing gloom outside to check he wasn't still circling, then sipped their now luke-warm coffees before looked back down at their neatly typed agendas.
'Right, where was I?? That's right, sanitary suppliers…' continued Doncaster, 'Considerable savings were made in the season 2007/2008 thanks to?'
And so life at Carrow Road returned to Waltons-esque happiness and harmony. Delia can continue to don her scarf, down a sherry and beam and scowl in equal measure from the directors box whilst the rump of the board discuss the new centre-half from Tamworth?. Or maybe not!
It's hardly been the most serene of football supporting weeks has it? Stan has been even more preoccupied by all matters Norwich than usual this week. He's checked for texts continuously, read and re-read articles, scoured 'Wrath' to try to gauge the zeitgeist and sat for hours on end in deep thought whilst he should have been working.
Even now as the dust slowly starts to settle, Stan's still not quite sure what to make of it all. There's no fury at the board, no threat of becoming part of a 'backlash', no tutting indignation at Cullum. Instead there's just a feeling that we have all become small parts of far bigger battles being fought all around us.
The timing, the way the story has been spun, the completely lop-sided and non-analytical coverage we have received from the vast majority of the Norfolk media; this coupled with the stony silence from the club have all pointed at personal battles being played out at the expense of the fans and the club itself.
Such quotes from the EDP as: 'Mr Cullum, estimated to be worth ?1.7bn, offered in October to give ?5m to buy players to get City away from the relegation zone, followed by ?15m to finance a promotion push this season – with majority shareholding thrown in….' hardly gave an insightful or balanced view about what was unfolding.
Like everyone else, Stan wanted to know the terms of this offer. What exactly Cullum expected in return for it and how it would all transfer to players on the pitch? Such nonsense as 'with majority shareholding thrown in…' was not the sort of impartial journalism that Stan grew up expecting, and usually getting, from the EDP.
Don't get Stan wrong here; he's as frustrated as the next man that Saint Glenn will not be off to the sales with 20 million quid tucked into his back pocket. However, he's also pretty pi~~ed off that he and everyone else's hopes and expectations were raised to believe that this was to be the case.
It does look like this could have happened, but only if the existing board and other shareholders had given Peter Cullum their shares, and thus control of the club. Oh yes, and whilst they were about it they'd have paid off the outstanding bank loans! If the 'King of Deals' had pulled off this little baby he'd probably have just experienced his finest hour.
If Cullum does love the club, though admittedly Stan has never heard him profess to, surely he would have seen that the extraordinary effort the board has put into the club was worthy of more than a job in the Brassiere?!
After all, he is worth ?1.7 billion. If he wants the club that much then either buy it for it's true value, and not do it through the Press, or chuck some money in on the proviso that every last penny goes on the players budget.
Make no mistake, Stan wants success for this club so much that it hurts – however he doesn't want it at any cost.
He also doesn't want to be played for a mug by Peter Cullum, by Archant or, indeed, the present board.
Maybe Stan is being a big 'small time' by not screaming from the roof-tops that we should have welcomed Cullum on board – at any cost. We could finally have been a big player?and, yes, maybe we could.
We could also have become merely a commodity – and that's something this club will never be regardless of whose name is above the door.
On the Ball City!
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