The NLP says… Fans stand united for our Dulwich Hamlet

By Alex Narey
Readers of a certain vintage will know where I am going with this, but there’s a scene in the 1969 classic, The Italian Job, that has been at the front of my mind for most of this week.
It comes when Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) and his London mob are cut off in the Swiss Alps by mafia boss Altabani and his crew, who have learnt of their plans for a $4 million robbery in Turin and take offence at the thought of some jumped-up criminals stealing money from under their noses.
After trashing their cars, Altabani orders his men to cock their weapons, only for Croker to warn him that London’s criminal underworld, led by the incarcerated Mr Bridger, will loot and attack the many Italian businesses in Great Britain. “We’ll drive them into the sea,” Croker says.
Realising the potential implications for his countrymen, Altabani lets the robbers go, but warns Croker to stay away and politely points him in the direction back to England.
It was Croker’s reaction that struck a chord when I read the outpouring of support for Dulwich Hamlet this week.
Let’s be clear: nobody is being threatened with murder and nobody will be driven out to sea, but the treatment of one of Non-League’s most famous clubs, handed an eviction notice from Champion Hill and legal papers stating they can no longer use their name or club initials, smacks of bullying tactics to me by people who think they can just walk over others.
Much like Altabani and his mafia clan did with Croker, it seems Meadow Residential are taking Dulwich Hamlet too lightly, and the battle that is in front of them.
Football clubs and property developers, the two have a long and chequered past. But there is something far more sinister about Meadows’ treatment of Dulwich.
Caught in the crossfire between their land owners and Southwark Council, the rug has been pulled from under their feet.
My job is not to state every fact in this column, but to argue that Meadow appear to have reneged on an agreement they would financially support their tenants.
They have treated them with utter disdain, refusing to discuss any terms and rejecting the £10 million bid of Rio Ferdinand – an offer that remains on the table. What kind of way is this to run a business? Somewhere down the line, someone will remember those actions.
What Meadow fail to understand – and let’s be honest here, other benefactors from overseas – is that Dulwich, while appearing little more than a mere blot on their landscape, are part of the football eco-system in this country.
The Champion Hill gates, in Non-League terms, have always been impressive but the support spreads much wider than this leafy suburb of southeast London.
Later in the film, Altabani, slowly waking up to the fact that Croker and his pals are clearly no mugs, turns to one of his associates and warns him they must not underestimate the English… Because they are “not as stupid as they look.” Meadow would do well to remember that about Dulwich.
Mind you, we’ll leave the analogies there, since Croker’s crew were left hanging perilously on the edge of a cliff by the film’s end. Still, we’ll forget about that…
 
*This article originally featured in The @NonLeaguePaper which is available every Sunday and Monday