CLARE INTENTIONS

By Richard O. Smith

When it looked like Daryl Clare wasn't going to be playing for Boston United ever again, news that occurred simultaneously with Evans' announced departure, I posed the following question: who needs Daryl Clare and Steve Evans? Not us. A successful and ambitious football club maybe, but not us.

Then slightly more focussed images of the Clare and Evans scenarios started to emerge; Evansgate continued for months in an unwrapped cloth of secrecy and still insufficient details have emerged to understand, comprehensively, what did, and did not, take place. A scheduled hearing was postponed, then eventually occurred at Nottingham Forest's City Ground in November. After two days (it is highly unusual for an F.A. inquiry to last a whole day, yet alone two days being insufficient) the panel then adjourned the case until late December at the Hawthorns.

Meanwhile, the Daryl Clare saga did seem to allow reporters into the courtroom. After being not only Boston's leading scorer last season, but the top marksman in the entire Conference last year, Daryl was more responsible than most for Boston's current Football League status. So when he was suddenly placed on the transfer list, and overlooked for team selection at a time when acting manager Neil Thompson had insufficient fit players, so that it looked like the man who puts the cones out for the training sessions was likely to play up front with (key word coming up now, Mr Thompson) defender Ellender leading the forewardtine, we were understandably concerned for the future of Daryl, Thompson and Boston's League status.

Thompson alleged that Clare had refused to sit on the bench. Why? Was it full of splinters? Leaky rumours then alleged that Clare had been the subject of a bid by a Division One club, but they couldn't afford his wages, and that he was "unsettled". Hmmm.... to us, when phrases such as "unsettled" and "wage demands not met" are deployed in football parlance, this usually translates as "I've got an agent".

A few weeks of non selection later, Clare finally donned an amber shirt again, but this time for a reserve team fixture. Apparently Daryl was bereted at this match by some spectators, who inarticulately challenged his commitment to the club; Clare's response was, allegedly, to communicate in sign-language to the crowd. He's was just (un)fortunate there was a crowd present at a reserve team fixture to witness such conduct.

Then, according to John Blakwell's column in the Guardian in mid-October, Clare and Thompson had held air clearing talks, hence we assumed olive branches were mutually swapped, and white doves released.

So he was back in a Boston shirt. But, perhaps strangest of all, was the fact that the national media were reporting an interest in buying Clare from a mystery club. Thankfully, a confirmed sighting was obviously made of this mystery club eventually, and they were unmasked (like the villain in Scooby Doo) as being Chester City. Boston turned down the initial bid from Chester, stating it was insufficient.

Mark Wright's Chester then presented a "significantly improved" offer two weeks later. And now here's the punchline: how much do you think the two bids amounted to? Before calculating the figure, you may want to bear in mind he was the Conference's leading scorer, and a player Evans always said should be playing in Division One. Answer: well, according to "The Independent" newspaper, the original offer was £20,000 and the improved offer £25,000. That's right, Chester having left nothing out in the cheekiness of their bid. The nothing they missed out, specifically, being the "0" that should have appeared after the previous nothings in the figure.

There was a time, of course, when Boston would sell any player for £20,000 - yes, I am thinking of Mark Rawle, Paul Wilson, Neil Grayson, Paul Cavell, Paul Richardson. But hopefully the club is now more aware that players have value other than purely financial, and that in today's football marketplace, a top striker cannot be afforded simply by the Board members throwing their surplus change into a big sweetie jar for a few weeks.
Although Boston as a town is undoubtedly a rumour factory with a high productivity rate, one story that does bear repeating is United's attempts to re-attract departee David Norris on loan from Bolton Wanderers.

Allegedly, the player that Boston sold to the Reebok Stadium for £150,000, was unwilling to return to York Street for another loan spell. Then, without warning, Norris did sign for the Pilgrims on loan -Plymouth Argyle to be exact. Pity, we say.

Naturally, Clare has already scored Conference hat-tricks with Chester, and scored on Match of the Day during a 2nd Round F A Cup tie at Morecambe. And TV pundit Mark Lawrenson mentioned, no less than eleven times (trust us, we counted them) during an F.A. Cup edition of Football Focus that Chester had poached Clare for a mere £25,000. It made me want to drive to the BBC TV Centre in Shepherd's Bush, await Lawrenson's departure from the studio, and then punch him - 25,000 times.