The story of how Steve Parish's 500-word post on a Crystal Palace fans' forum wound up making him owner of the club reflects the powerful, sometimes wildly uncontrollable forces at work in football. At times, the experience has been akin to driving one of the Porsche 911s he used to race.
It was precisely 10 years ago on Monday, a searingly hot Bank Holiday Monday as he remembers it. The club had been bust for some time, so utterly devoid of cash that the players who turned up for the drive down to Plymouth for one game found there was no bus.