The last time I went to the Wirral to watch its football team, towards the end of last season, it was the stoicism of supporters that impressed upon me most.
Tranmere Rovers, once a staple of the second or third tier, had been caught in a deep hole, one season above League Two since 2014. And still they came to watch their club simply exist.
Then, Tranmere were the 88th-best club in England. Not only was that unacceptable, but it was also the height of their ambition. Last season caused deep divisions to take hold, but the one point on which all could agree: Tranmere had to move upwards and onwards soon.
Ten months on and Tranmere are the 87th-best club in England; to call that progress would be risible and nobody would dare sell any upside. Tranmere will probably survive relegation to non-league football, but don’t bet on it yet. On Tuesday evening, they lost 3-1 to Newport County, until then bottom.
The gap is eight points, but Tranmere have now lost 10 of their last 11 league matches. Andy Crosby, the manager appointed almost exactly a year ago in roughly the same circumstances, lost his job on Wednesday. Six of his 15 league wins came at the end of last season.
If Tranmere have perfected one thing, it is not quite committing to a full-blown crisis but leaving progress and positivity as the dream of so many others.
They are not the only League Two club circling the drain, protected more by the meagre promotion places of the National League than their own competence, but they are the only ones who may finish in an increasingly worse league position for seven seasons in a row.
A new manager may change something. That is the usual playbook here and elsewhere: firefighter following firefighter but nobody ever managing to renovate the damaged buildings. But Tranmere’s problems lie deeper and higher up its food chain.
The sale of the club by the Palios family was first mooted seriously in early 2024, when a group including rapper A$AP Rocky and Donald Trump’s former lawyer were granted exclusivity. Despite A$AP Rocky being cleared of firing a gun at a former friend, a takeover expected to be completed in summer 2025 never materialised.
Last May, chairman Mark Palios said that three groups vied for the chance to purchase a majority shareholding. Then Christmas was the aim; that came and went too. In January, another US consortium was mooted. And still the wait goes on.
Two season ticket holders I speak to say that it is the constant delays that have sapped the spirit most. They understand that football club takeovers are not simple transactions, but the constant loop of suggested deadline dates that lead to nothing. But nothing is breaking their resolve.
The Palios family has clearly spent money; owning a league club is an expensive business. But the execution of longer-term plans and managerial appointments has been dispiriting for those who pay to watch them.
Mickey Mellon is the only manager to reach 18 months in charge since 2014 and, all the while, the squad barely seems to improve. It is also the third oldest in the division.
To make matters doubly worse, Palios is also engaged in a conflict with the club’s official supporters’ trust that is still going through extensive, messy legal proceedings. The trust ran a large marquee fan zone that welcomed away and home supporters before joint fundraising between club and trust raised money for the construction of a permanent structure.
Then the breakdown of relationships and a civil war. All that is left is a half-finished building, a half-standing marquee, worse provisions than before and resentment in every corner.
There is no better way to epitomise seven straight seasons of on-pitch decline and mistrust towards those who own the club and those who have loved it all their lives. Prenton Park is glorious if you visit once or twice a year with its anachronisms and grubby tradition. It is less fun if you go there every other week.
For now, Tranmere supporters have resisted all-out mutiny. I am far from convinced that is a positive sign. They have merely been browbeaten into apathy, stuck in unpleasant suspension through their loyalty to a club that is in precisely the same situation.
You subconsciously teach yourself to care less as a means of emotional self-preservation because caring never seemed to make anything change anyway.
And soon they will go if change does not come. I speak to multiple season ticket holders who tell me that they will not be renewing in 2026-27 as it stands. Not for “£399 on an early bird discount for dismal football in a crumbling stadium in Birkenhead with a shocking matchday experience”. Well, quite.
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It is just all so bleak. Tranmere are not the only club feeling the pinch of repeated poor decisions. I do not believe that their owners wish them any harm.
They are not the only club that used to be bigger and better but got stuck in a downward cycle. They are certainly not the only lower-league club to learn how the wealth inequality of English football makes recovery so much harder without accumulating losses that risk the future.
But that does not help those who are sick of feeling like this and sick of waiting. No Tranmere supporter is crossing their fingers for a miracle cure; they aren’t foolish. But it would be nice to believe in something again.
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