Monday 30 November 2015 14:22, UK
Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium was a dark and rainy place on Thursday afternoon but the mood of the weather was in stark contrast to that around the club, where bright optimism has broken out after a very difficult few months.
New owner, former Oxford chairman Kelvin Thomas, was formally unveiled as the grey clouds gathered - and immediately revealed his plans for financial salvation.
The chequebook, it quickly transpired, had already been wielded. A £166,000 tax bill, the non-payment of which had led to a winding-up order which could have ended the 118-year existence of the club, was immediately paid.
Next up was the less critical - but still very pressing - issue of the club staff's wages. Other than the players, whose salaries have been covered by the PFA, no club employee has been paid since the end of September. They will all receive their money this week.
Those expenses will be covered by a £1m bank draft Thomas has lined up to move from his own accounts into the club coffers. With time, that investment will be quadrupled as he sets about restarting the redevelopment of the club's east stand, something which has been the cause of all the recent problems.
Having been loaned £10.25m by the local council, the club's problems began when they stopped paying the builders they had contracted to oversee the project. Then they stopped paying the loan back. Owner David Cardoza tried to initially sell up to an Indian consortium but that deal fell through.
Since then, the Thomas takeover has been completed and Northamptonshire Police have taken matters into their own hands, confiscating computers and paperwork from the club offices. A full investigation has been called for.
The east stand remains the perfect symbol of the debacle, a windswept building site adorned with supporters' flags, a visual metaphor of both gross mismanagement and the spirit of the fans.
For Thomas, one of the key reasons for investing was his previous Oxford association with manager Chris Wilder, under whom Northampton are third in Sky Bet League Two after years of struggle.
It was Wilder, in fact, who contacted Thomas about buying the club when the Indian consortium pulled out, and the new 'executive chairman' is delighted to be renewing the partnership.
"When you look at the positives and negatives of certain situations, it was definitely a positive," he said.
"One of the best things about this deal is that you don't have to go through the trust issues that you have to go through when you meet new people.
"There isn't that period of ritual dancing, of getting to know people. I know what Chris is all about and he knows what I'm all about. Our bond has formed with success and that's important.
"We trust each other that we can both be successful. It wasn't necessarily a deciding factor but it was definitely a positive."
The on-pitch performances have certainly helped too. Northampton are two points behind leaders Plymouth and Thomas could witness his new team go top in his very first home game this weekend.
"It's an attraction, a bonus and hopefully it won't be a curse," he said. "Normally clubs looking for buyers are at the bottom of the league and we're attracting by the fact that Northampton aren't in that position.
Our long-term goal is to be as successful as we can be.
"I'm even more excited about it after seeing the performance at Crawley on Tuesday night; it was a powerful performance from a team in good form.
"It's our job now to see what we can do to help that. We'll take a view on what we need to do in January and plan for that.
"We will use the time between now and then to sit down and discuss things. Chris is not a manager who will say he wants six centre-forwards. He will have done his work in the summer.
"The squad has been put together then and we will sit down and talk about it. We're not coming in to not support that."
Thomas' grandfather played for Fulham and Crystal Palace and his own abilities as a "central midfield lump" took him to non-league employers such as Dulwich Hamlet, Croydon and Banstead, so it is clear football is in his blood.
He is also a qualified coach, and says with a mischevous grin: "I'll be picking the team from now on."
Buying a club like Northampton, whose relationship with the local council is now unlikely to lead to much more co-operation on funding for projects in the future, seems a strange move for a businessman whose acumen has led him to an online radio network in the United States and a working relationship with former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal.
The reason is pretty straightforward - football.
"I'm about the football and I enjoy that," he said. "Whenever I'm over here that's what I do. It's been mentioned that I've been to a couple of Oxford games since I've been here and that's just because I love going to football.
"In football clubs you've always got to engage with the fans and maybe that's not necessarily the case here but we perhaps do need to reach out more to businesses or sponsors, that's something we maybe haven't done well as a club."
Thomas will split his time between England and his base in Florida - "I actually get more work done when I'm away" - and is reluctant to talk about any grand ambitions until he has got his feet firmly under the table.
In playing terms, there arguably doesn't need to be much work done. Wilder has put together a well-drilled squad which has proved itself capable of competing for promotion.
"It's not necessarily about long-term goals - our long-term goal is to be as successful as we can be," he said.
"We need to get to know the club what the club is about, how it's structured and how it operates internally.
"Once we know that we can start thinking about plans and implementing those plans."
Whatever they might be, at least Northampton Town now has a plan that does not involve extinction. The grey clouds may be about to disappear.
