David Artell / David Artell / 04 April 2008 / Leave a comment

Morecambe's star defender David Artell on Rotherham's financial woes, being back in the Morecambe team and why it's not a bad thing that David James is a little crazy

Someone once said that a week is a long time in politics; well the same rings true for football. This time last week I was out of the side having been dropped and then 22 minutes into Saturday's game I was back playing after our skipper, Jim Bentley, pulled his hamstring. Going on when the score is 0-0 against one of the best home sides in League 2 in Darlington is never easy but everything looked rosy when we took a half time 2-0 lead. But we threw away two points as a disastrous last ten minutes saw us draw 2-2. We followed that up with a resounding 5-1 win at home to beleaguered Rotherham (more of them later). It's always good to be playing football as that's what you train for every week, but it's tarnished when you're playing because of someone else's misfortune. Having said that you can't feel sorry for your injured team mate and have to try and grab the opportunity with both hands.

Back to my hometown club in Rotherham and the sorry state of affairs they are in at the moment. There's a hell of a lot of money in football but unfortunately for Rotherham not much of that is in South Yorkshire. The Premiership clubs get richer and richer while clubs like Rotherham and Luton struggle to survive. It wouldn't surprise me if Rotherham weren't in business next year as wealthy people who want to invest in football clubs are few and far between.

The administrator has already sacked the Groundsman and the Commercial Manager. The players have been asked to defer 50% of their wages until the club finds its feet again but some players have their children's mouths to feed and live to their means. Would you be able to survive if you had to take a 50% pay cut? Not many people would. The PFA went into the club last week and offered to pay a further 25% but even that could cause problems. The players we asked to agree to this and all but one player did (who didn't play on Saturday).

It's a tough one because I can see it from the two parties' perspective. If it was a choice between feeding and clothing your children or playing football there's only one winner. However if all the players took this view then no-one would get paid. it's a Catch 22 situation and I can see both sides. There's never much written about clubs who enter administration after the initial event but it's a problem that affects everyone at the football club from the Chairman to temporary match day staff. The players are no different and if last Saturday is anything to go by then it must be affecting them too.

Obviously being 3-1 up at half time, as we were last Saturday, leads to a quiet team talk from the gaffer. Obviously the score is a big factor in how the chat at half time goes but the gaffer has been in the game long enough to know if we need a talking to whether we're winning or not. Like all previous managers I've played under, my current manager knows when to raise his voice and remind us what's required. Conversely he knows when to encourage us if we're losing but the performance isn't reflected in the score line.

FA Cup fever returns this weekend and the all the clubs left in the competition could only have dreamt of going to Wembley. For me the biggest factor that will decide who wins the competition this year won't be who scores the most goals but who doesn't concede them. And for that reason Portsmouth are rightly instilled as favourites because they have the best goalkeeper in David James. This last two seasons has seen him at his best and he shows no signs of his form dipping despite his age. He also has the character that all good goalkeepers need; he's a bit crazy! Its hard to see Portsmouth not going all the way so having spoken about half-time team talks I'm going for a bet from the halftime/fulltime market and a Harry Redknapp inspired Draw/Portsmouth bet at [5.4].

David Artell plays for Morecambe FC:

http://www.morecambefc.com/

Tags: David Artell, David James, football betting, Rotherham administration