I’ve just caught up with an interview* on BBC Radio Cornwall last week with Truro City chief executive officer Eric Perez, and I’m glad I did – because it’s very illuminating!
That City’s superb new ground has been up and running from scratch in less than a year, along with a high-riding team to match, has been something of a minor miracle.
But in his chat with Julie Skentelbery Eric makes it abundantly clear that so far as he is concerned this is just the start of something very big.
Okay, we’ve been here before, sort of, but there’s no denying the scale of achievement since his Canadian consortium acquired the club in November last year.
Right from the start of this season, match attendance figures have been consistently around the 1,500 mark and rising – Saturday’s was 1,721 – so all in all Eric’s aspirations are at very least worth listening to.
Here are a few samples from that radio interview:--
“ . . . I think this is the most exciting opportunity in English football right now . . . “
“ . . . The club has the biggest catchment area in the top six divisions . . . the biggest catchment area in the country . . . “
“ . . . There’s a sense of destiny in this thing. I just feel we’ll be the first Cornish club in the Football League . . . we are on our way now . . . “
“ . . . Cornwall is responding to (our project) . . . “
“ . . . I think we have the best manager outside the Football League . . . “
“ . . . If things keep going as they are, we will be in the Vanarama National League next year and then we’re just one step away from the Football League . . . “
“ . . . I don‘t think there’s a limit to how high we can go. I believe we can reach the Premier League. Could Cornwall sustain it? Yes . . . “
“ . . . Getting this club into Sky Bet League Two will be the biggest achievement of my life.”
And the Premier League? (Prompted by Julie) “Drekkly, not shortly!”
So there you have it.
And as for having “been here before,” there is one other similarity worth mentioning. When Kevin Heaney set the original City revolution rolling with his takeover in 2004, he confessed to being a “football nut.” When Eric Perez acquired Truro City, he labelled himself a “football fanatic.”
I also recall Kevin telling me in 2008, admittedly with tongue in cheek, I suspect: “I hope this club maintains its momentum. Hopefully, if we see a 60% increase year on year, we will be getting over 20,000 in the Premier League by 2016!”
Alas, most of those Truro home attendances, despite promotions into the Southern and then Conference league (the club’s present level), remained stubbornly around the 400 to 500 mark.
By contrast, if City’s present rate of progress is maintained, with further major developments in the pipeline, it is not unreasonable to anticipate that the home attendances could be hitting 2,000 next season.
So it’s definitely a case of Watch This Space.
As Sven-Goran Eriksson used to say: “We will see.”
Or how about Sir Matt Busby: “Aim for the sky and you can reach the ceiling; aim for the ceiling and you might never get off the ground!”
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