When you are working in as localised a playing field as the Irish League, rumours are bound to spread and conjecture is sure to emerge.
That’s understandable. The climate is such that everybody knows everybody, so to speak; every matchgoing supporter knows a player, a coach, a committee member or someone bound to be privy to inside information.
It’s a close-knit environment, and relationships between even rival fanbases are easy to build. Combine all that with social media and forums, and the written and spoken word can be a powerful tool.
An out-of-work manager is sighted in amongst the crowd where one of the clubs concerned is on the hunt for a new supremo… next thing you know, it’s doing the rounds on Twitter and then is taken almost as fact, the suspense seemingly evaporating before, in a surprise twist, the boss said club hires turns out to be a totally new face.
Or, sometimes the speculation does carry legs. The person in the loop who knows a guy who knows a guy is, in fact, on the money as the name you were told in private is then made public.
Personally, I’ve heard plenty of them turn out to be true and false as many other football fans have over the years.
It’s been going on as long as time itself within Northern Irish domestic football – and it will continue to rinse and repeat.
There are times, though, when it oversteps the mark.
Recently, the wildfire has spread around Glentoran, who were purported to be on the verge of financial collapse with rumblings of mounting debts and their British-Iranian businessman owner Ali Pour having partially pulled his investment in the east Belfast establishment.
Millionaire shareholder Pour, who gained control at The BetMcLean Oval in 2019, was over to watch the Glens deliver a masterclass. He saw a side led from the touchline by Warren Feeney hit Coleraine for six, inspired by David Fisher’s first professional hat-trick, a brace by his strike partner Junior and midfielder Bobby Burns’ finish.
It was the cherry on top of the cake on his birthday weekend, however a sweet taste turned sour when he read some of the online rumblings around his side’s financial health.
Pour bullishly rubbished them. He claimed that The Oval was debt-free for the first time in half a century, the ‘debt’ was in fact his money that he had declared as an investment and that Glentoran didn’t even have an overdraft, adding that the club is in the “strongest financial position it has ever been in”.
“I arrived from London, I checked into the hotel and I got dragged to The Oval by the board for ‘crisis talks’,” he told the club’s official media channel.
“I wasn’t aware of anything until I was told of these various rumours. And I thought, ‘again’?
“I was here a few months ago and the same things were talked about then.
“I hear things like, ‘I’m pulling out’, ‘There’s no money’ and I thought to myself, how much long can this nonsense go on for, because it is absolute nonsense.
“The timing is strange, in the middle of the transfer window. The same thing happened six months ago.
“These rumours are quite dangerous at a time when we are trying to sign players. What player would join a club that is on the verge of bankruptcy?
“I don’t know how much longer I will have to repeat myself, but it is all utter nonsense.”
Glentoran, who have become a full-time outfit since Pour took over, are fourth-place in the Sports Direct Premiership with a County Antrim Shield Final to look forward to.
Pour’s on-pitch ambition is for the Glens to truly become the Beast from the East once again having not won the title since the late Alan McDonald guided them to Gibson Cup glory in 2009, and when these things spread, it falls on right-minded individuals and key players who know the score to call them out and put it to bed.
Speaking of key players, two of them joined the owner in giving rudimentary put-downs to ridiculous notions.
One Twitter user purporting to be a Glentoran fan account posted that “the players voted to go on strike on Boxing Day but there were talks that persuaded them otherwise…” before saying that first-choice goalkeeper Aaron McCarey “didn’t play today for a reason”.
Yeah, he didn’t play for a reason.
“I was suspended for accumulation of yellows,” the Monaghan-based shot-stopper stated in a blunt quote tweet.
And on the idea that “most players (are) on half wages for the past couple months” that was also said in this brief thread, captain Marcus Kane was on hand to set the record straight.
“Tweets like this are ruining our club! Anyone who believes some of the stuff on here and other platforms is just as ludicrous,” the defender, who enjoyed his testimonial against St Mirren in the summer of 2023, posted online.
“Last time I wasn’t paid by Glentoran was in 2012 (the year he joined the club from Linfield)!
“That was reported by proper journalists, not wee Jim who heard it under very very very good advice.”
You’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth, then.
Unwelcome distractions are something the club doesn’t need, and while they were swiftly laid to rest, it created an air of worry among genuine punters that all was not secure behind the scenes on Mersey Street.
Feeney, who is pursuing his first major honour in charge of Glentoran when they face three-peat Shield champions Larne at Seaview later in January, will aim to keep his players’ mindsets firmly focused on the pitch.
While they are 21 points from pacesetters and eternal cross-city rivals Linfield at the summit, rendering a title charge highly unlikely at this stage, they remain in the Irish Cup at the last-16 stage and have their sights on the European Play-Offs at the end of the season which could be a failsafe, money-spinning route back onto the continental stage.
There is much to fight for as the campaign continues to progress, and with Charlie Lindsay’s loan return signed and sealed as the 19-year-old heads back to the club whose Academy he progressed through, the Glens are active as others are to boost their panel in the January window.
So, with all that in mind, the last thing they need is for fallacy to seep into the green, black and red bloodstream.
Featured image from Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker.
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