Cusack and More…

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But we of all clubs know far better than to judge any future we have on one performance, one month, even one season. What this club needs and has needed for some time is stability – OK, no great front-page shocker there – but it really is the most important factor these days. And I’m not just talking about financial stability, I mean the kind of stability and unrockability (I just invented that word, so don’t use it in your exams kids) that comes from within, not from a big-named celebrity or family member of a washed-up star of the “big screen”. Not mentioning any names of course. But The Wicker Man is a very good film.

Contrary to popular belief, unlike success, you simply cannot buy stability. You can find someone who will throw millions at the club (sterling notes, not bottles) but are they likely to be in it for the sole good of the club? We must remember that it is unfair to think that any such investors (note the use of that word as opposed to “donators”) are not entitled to make a buck from their ventures, as we do live in a back-scratching world after all. Now call me old-fashioned, but doesn’t the prospect of an ex-Wales legend at the top and an ex-club captain at the helm carrying our club slowly forward and upward make your mouth water? The ITV digital affair has after all showed that clubs borrowing money left right and centre are all but living on borrowed time. Even some Premiership clubs are running on multimillion pound debts and happily announcing gigantic new loans to their loyal fans as if this was good news. Oh, but I forgot, they don’t call them loans these days, rather “re-financing packages”. Call them what you will, I’m much happier living on and working with the money that I have now…not the money I’ll earn if I win promotion 10 years from now. We have for some time written off this season as one in which all we wanted was to survive. Thankfully it seems like we’ve achieved that, in both league status and club existence. But with the way things started out back in August, it would have been foolish of us to expect more. And going up this year would’ve brought us back down the next even quicker than last time round. Roll on August, crunch time is coming.

But before I close, a few thought on Nicholas Cusack. When I first became a Swans fan at uni, I watched the championship winning season in complete bewilderment, as the quality and tactics offered by John Hollins couldn’t even make a stray Swansea dog (no jokes about the clubs on Kingsway please) salivate at the mouth. A long run of clean sheets meant we went up while still playing unbelievably drab stuff. And my recurring memory of that season was turning to my mate and saying “how the hell has he picked Cusack again?” week after week…

But I am the first to admit that he has surprised me this season. In his attitude throughout the P era, in his role as Chairman of the PFA, and in his conduct both on the pitch and off it, he has shown he is a leader of the very top drawer and therefore won my respect for a start. More importantly, with his comments this week, he has hinted that he isn’t for one minute going to let his former team mates (sorry, current team mates, thinking ahead of myself there) get away with things lightly. When a player takes the additional role of manager, that is the greatest fear for any supporter. But in Nick Cusack we are talking about a model professional, whatever your opinions of him may be.

His birthday’s falls on christmas eve. Let’s at least give him till then to deliver a few presents, eh?

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