National press blast is rubbish, says local club

Waltham Forest FC came under fire in the Daily Mail from weighty football columnist Martin Samuel, recently.

He wrote a concerned article about the loan system, where one club borrows a player from another club.

Samuel singled out lowly Forest in the “Wild West” Ryman League as an example of the process gone crazy, with 112 players on its books last season.

But Samuel, who fears for the soul of the game, has picked the wrong target, claims a senior figure at the club.

Secretary, Andy Perkins insists that none of the players were on loan.

He feels the club is un-justly lampooned by the article.

This week he talked to the Guardian.

“He did not ask us anything, it’s totally ridiculous. All he cared about was creating an article.”

“If he was just talking about big teams, fair enough. But if he’s talking about clubs at our level which are struggling to survive, then he’s wrong” said Perkins.

“Samuel doesn’t have a clue.”

Mr Perkins admitted 112 players was a “massive number.” He said they were free agents whom the club signed up in order to sell on for a fee.

And what he has to say about the story behind the contraversial statistic could elicit more sympathy than derision from those who care about grass-roots football.

Mr Perkins told how desperate times forced Forest to make itself a shop window for its rivals.

It adopted the policy in order to stay alive after it was thrown out of its Wadham Lodge home in Walthamstow last year, and its revenue stream dried up.

“Sometimes we would sign a player and never hear from him again. It was chaotic.” recalled Mr Perkins. “The players who came in were not good enough to be sold on.

“It’s a failed policy. A good idea which didn’t work.”

It almost sunk the club too. Last season, Forest just avoided relegation out of Ryman Division One North.

Today, a new chairman has dumped the policy and the club has a settled squad of around 20 players. But it plays its home games in Ilford, in the borough of Redbridge.