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When Southampton's millionaire players and Barbour-jacketed chairman roll up to hemmed-in Griffin Park for Tuesday's FA Cup fifth-round replay against Brentford, they may just make out an insistent noise, background music to swathes of English football, but still alien to Premiership ears: fans rattling buckets.
For the Saints, the Cup is a mere distraction from their fight to remain in the Premiership, whose fabulous riches are all their chairman, Rupert Lowe, has ever known in football. For the Bees, despite the rancour caused by ticketing cock-ups before last Saturday's 2-2 draw at St Mary's, their heroic Cup run has been a huge boost, the earnings a leg-up in the perpetual struggle just to stay in business.
There are two ways to look at how the west London lower division stalwarts arrived at their recent desperate straits. Not in dispute are the facts: Ron Noades took over in 1998, flush with the pounds 17m he was paid for Crystal Palace by the hapless Mark Goldberg, although Noades retained Selhurst Park, for which Palace still pay his company, Altonwood, a meaty rent, and a slice of the catering receipts.
Brentford's home is squeezed into the densely populated London Borough of Hounslow, where land is at a premium. All agree they need a new, modern stadium to compete robustly in the Football League.
Noades appointed as his manager the man he believed was best suited to the job - himself, then signed good players, including Hermann Hreidarsson from Palace for pounds 750,000, to win Brentford instant promotion to the Second Division.
Noades sold Hreidarsson to Wimbledon in October 1999 for pounds 2.5m, but as the transfer market collapsed, no similar fees could be commanded for others like Lloyd Owusu, Ivar Ingimarsson, or the goalkeeper Paul Smith, and most of the top-earning players left at the end of their contracts. Noades stepped down as manager when he lost the support of the fans, but Brentford have run up a pounds 4.5m overdraft, guaranteed by Altonwood, with interest running at pounds 300,000 a year.
Noades then scared the fans to their backbones. His plan was to sell Griffin Park and groundshare with...