THE official club line on the sale of Manchester United merchandise in the Bury FC shop is that it raises money for Bury Football Club. So before embarking on such a drastic step surely the board should ensure that all the current enterprises run by the club are generating the maximum return.

One enterprise which I believe fails to give a good return is the Bury FC social club which could and should be one of their biggest assets. This establishment is synonymous with much that is wrong within Bury FC and it desperately needs dragging into the 21st century.

The social club should be the ideal tool to bring the youngsters of Bury to the ground, other than on match days. It should be open to youngsters several nights a week, perhaps catering for different age groups on different nights. Surely Bury MBC would be interested in running a joint venture with Bury FC to open the social club as a youth club a couple of nights a week. I bet it would generate more revenue than a couple of old dinosaurs sipping on a half of bitter all evening.

What passed for entertainment in the 1970s is no longer relevant in today's market and the new owners of Bury FC will need to make the updating of the social club a top priority.

SALFORD SHAKER