Cobblers takeover 'like a Hollywood movie', say fans

Fans of Northampton Town are hopeful that the club’s new ownership will mean a change of fortune for the team.

The Cobblers sit 22nd in League Two after seven games, following relegation from League One last season.

Some of the new owners, including former AC Milan and Brazil player Alexandre Pato, were at the 1-0 win over Newport County last month, but that was the first victory since February.

So will the new Brazilian flavour to the club bring some samba sunshine to Northampton?

Northampton fan Keeley Wilson-Townsend says she is excited by the takeover [Keeley Wilson-Townsend]

The announcement of the takeover happened at 13:00 BST on Wednesday and Keeley Wilson-Townsend said she was anticipating some news that day.

“I woke up [on Wednesday] and feel like I’m in a grim lower league nightmare, and then I come home from work and find out we are completely debt free, got a multimillion-pound global backing and literal AC Milan legend sitting on our board.

“It’s like I came home to a Hollywood movie script, it’s absolutely beautiful chaos.”

Wilson-Townsend said she “would like a period of stability”, but added: “The Wrexham trajectory would be absolutely awesome.”

The Welsh club was taken over by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and has since risen from the National League to the Championship and massively increased the club’s global fanbase.

Wilson-Townsend said she did not want the new owners to “lose the roots of who we are as a club”.

The season-ticket holder praised them for keeping current CEO James Whiting and the fan representative on the board, Tom Cliffe.

But she added: “I would like to think with this sort of backing we could get in the Championship in five years.”

Brendan Walsh believes there is a lot of potential at Northampton Town [BBC]

Fan Brendan Walsh said the takeover was “pretty amazing”.

“It’s one of the best things to happen to the club, if not the town, for a long, long time,” he said.

“I just love the ideas they’ve got for kind of the globalisation of the brand.”

Shortly after the announcement, Northampton Town posted a video on social media, featuring a history of the town and the club.

Walsh said it showed the new owners were “really thinking about taking little old Northampton all the way around the world, which is really exciting and I think it’s the most sustainable way to continue growth for the team”.

He praised Kelvin Thomas, who is standing down as chairman, but remaining a director.

“We’ve had lots of ups we’ve had lots of downs but he saved the team when we needed it most,” Walsh said.

“I’m glad that he’s staying around in some capacity as someone that knows the club, knows the community, knows the area and can help steward these new owners into a new era.”

“I am nervously excited,” said fan Martin Maloney, adding the takeover “suddenly happened at once”.

“This feels like the real deal… it’s really good,” he said.

Maloney said the social media video “gave me goosebumps”, joking he had not felt that way since the club avoided relegation from the Football League in 1993.

He said over the past 10 years the club had been well run, having been “literally on the brink” of collapse before Thomas took over.

“I was happy to know I would have a club in 10 or 20 years’ time, but this could be better than that,” he said.

On his hopes for the future, he added: “I’ll take nice and calm, make sensible football decisions, and have football people in charge of the football side.

“It’s a great blank canvas to paint on if you do it right.”

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