Patience Is a Virtue

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but how you act while your waiting" (Joyce Meyer)

It's a virtue most concerned with Real Murcia (locally, at least), have never had. We want everything NOW. This has led to consistent failure, or success, but only in the very short term. Owners and directors have been guilty - How is it possible that the club still does not have a decent training facility? Easy - the short term impatience means any funds available would be spent on a striker that "guarantees" (sic.) 20 goals a year. They never do. It's also the impatience (allied with a complete lack of scruples) that led a series of owners to make every season boom or bust; spending beyond our means, and a systematic dereliction of duty as businessmen (non payment of tax and social security). It has always been the way at the club, to kick the can forward, and continue the snowball of debt, All the time being pushed in this direction by a demanding and overcritical fanbase, ravenous for signings and oblivious to the long term damage being done. All this has to change. We can't keep blaming everyone else; the powers that be, those that relegated us in the summer of 2014 to "Segunda B" with ratios invented specifically for such an outcome, are (let's admit) merely the inevitable result of our own behaviour for decades. I hated La Liga "Capo" Tebas and his cronies for what they did. It was painful and felt unfair. But now it feels like we almost deserved it.

We do now have a board of directors who are absolutely committed to paying the taxman every cent due, since the November 2018 shareholder take over. However the fan base is, seemingly and in their majority STILL anchored in the past and demanding immediate success ("buy a striker!"), despite now being (however insignificantly) a shareholder in the club. Surely this fact should mean a desire for long term stability and a road to one day seeing a dividend per share? After all, that's how shareholding in a company works, right? 

The facts are that the club's income is severely limited, and it is mostly under embargo from the Tax office. Real Murcia needs €1,7m to make a down-payment in order to obtain a long term agreement to schedule repayment. The club also requires over €1,0m to lift the long term debts that could lead to bankruptcy. For long term survival the training facility that will bring local talent through will need an investment of around €1,0m. I can't see an investor coming along with €3,7m total, also, the club's statutes currently prohibit a major shareholder having absolute power (this to avoid the type of behaviours seen in the past). So it looks like we will be asked to put our hands in our pockets again with yet another share issue. Hopefully this time it will be presented correctly, be sold commercially and professionally, and be a success (unlike the 2 previous versions, where only around 10% of the share value on offer was covered.

Steve Parish, owner of Crystal Palace, spoke eloquently on the subject of patience (on the excellent "Life Goals" Podcast - Like a "Desert Island Discs" but with goals and music). Palace were in administration and dire straits when he took over, much like Real Murcia are now, but have built a solid, sustainable, model. He said:

"Running a football club is a difficult thing, running it if you are not all on the same page, if people aren't behind you and supporting you....you know.....it's easy to support a club when you win, or support a person running a club when you win, it's when you lose and the difficult moments...."

"You can punch a lot above your weight in football if everyone is pointing in the same direction, that's why our fans are soooo good, you know, they want to see the club built, and they've seen all the "let's get there quickly" schemes all fall apart, they've got fantastic patience as fans....of course they get frustrated at times....." 

I still believe that in the right hands, Real Murcia is a sleeping giant, ready to be awakened. But we can't keep trying to act impatient; big clubs can do that as they have the means to satisfy their twitchiness and thirst for success. Doing just that has been endemic and damaging. Be patient.