Joe Davis column: Fleetwood Town chairman has been ahead of the game

I listened to each recording with intrigue, and with the confidence that others in positions of power will be equally as prudent as the voice behind my screen.

Five months on and Pilley’s ideas around salary caps and wage deferrals are in full swing – but aside from the furlough scheme and tax holidays, the financial package so pivotal to the existence of our game is yet to be delivered.

Sadly, time has told us that Pilley was ahead of the others; more proactive, more concerned.

The lack of progress to date has shown that his drive to tackle the issues early on was overlooked by the men in suits.

Time has told us that his innovative thinking and ability to forecast the problems that lay ahead was a unique trait among an EFL governance that became renowned for indecision in times of need.

To describe today’s climate as a problem would be a drastic understatement, the bleak reality being that football has never been in such a fragile financial situation.

The time bomb for monetary assistance has been ticking ever since the government banned supporters from entering grounds, which in turn left clubs that rely on matchday revenue without a large portion of their income.

For a club of Fleetwood’s size, matchdays are what keep the club ticking along; gate receipts, club shop merchandise, food and drink sales in Jim’s Bar.

In the absence of those, there are no cash reserves or an offshore nest egg to dip into – just one man at the top doing everything he can to keep his club above water, and it is for that very reason I feel so uneasy when another multi-million pound transfer is plastered across the back pages of our newspapers.

Staggeringly, since July 27, Premier League clubs have spent more than one billion pounds in transfer fees – all while the pandemic continues to tear through the global economy.

In ordinary circumstances, people would pass such absurdity off as ambition or the pursuit for silverware, but when football clubs beneath their feet are waving the red flag, surely there is a moral obligation to cease those free-spending ways?

Then again, do top flight clubs, the oligarch owners or managers even care about losing a few EFL clubs along the way?

Perhaps the words of Sean Dyche provide the answer to that.

When asked whether EFL clubs deserve the Premier League’s financial support, the Burnley boss had little sympathy, saying: “Does that mean every hedge fund manager who is incredibly successful does that to the hedge fund managers who are not so successful? Do the restaurants who are surviving look after the ones who are not? If you are going to apply it to football, you have to apply it to everyone and every business.”

I am – I concede – a huge fan of Dyche and Burnley, so this iron-hearted view took me by complete surprise, especially as most of Dyche’s playing career was at the base of the footballing ladder.

It seems he is also forgetting that the Premier League is at the core of a much wider eco-system; a system that has provided a stage for Jamie Vardy, Chris Smalling, Tyrone Mings and even the man who stands between the sticks at Turf Moor, Nick Pope.

Then there are the benefits of loan spells: without Notts County, would Jack Grealish be the player he is today?

Without Bradford City or Carlisle United, would Jordan Pickford ever have developed into a multi-million pound goalkeeper?

On reflection, it appears the relationship that once existed between the big boys of English football and the rest has become increasingly disconnected.

“A different world,” is a term I often use when comparing the experience as a League One player to that of a Premier League footballer – my two years at Leicester City giving me an insight into the latter.

Medium-rare steaks replaced the leftover meat and potato pies at lunchtime; cryotherapy chambers were an upgrade to the recycling bins filled with ice and water.

Last weekend provided the most recent illustration of the disparity between the two.

Roy Hodgson was the first in a long line of managers to voice his discontent over the new handball laws, while fans, ex-players, administrators and politicians sent an open letter to the government warning that many EFL and National League clubs were “unable to meet their payroll obligations next month”.

For days, my social media feeds were clogged with profanities over Eric Dier’s handball and Manchester United’s match-winning penalty at Brighton, while our lower league institutions were on their knees fighting for survival.

The decision to rally together and demand help is one that I applaud from afar, with the hope that the widely supported open letter will lead to swift action from the government, EFL and Premier League.

Although talks commenced on Tuesday, the likelihood of reaching a mutual agreement is still unclear, but judging from the lack of proactivity or urgency from all parties thus far, my expectation around a timely resolution remains subdued.

I just hope that our clubs along the Fylde coast and beyond are given the opportunity to bounce back from what has undoubtedly been the most challenging spell in the entirety of their existence.

Macclesfield Town, though heavily impacted by other factors, were cruelly denied that second chance, leaving the Moss Rose ground lifeless and a gaping hole in the surrounding community.

Now, after months of sitting on the fence, it has all come down to the final straw; ‘the last chance saloon’ you could say.

We must now, at any cost, rescue, preserve and treasure what is and always will be the heart and soul of the game – and do so before any more fall victim to the broken system.

As Andy Pilley declared in episode two of his Covid-19 update: “It is now or never…we have to make this happen.”