The problems that have seen Hereford United drop from Division One to the Southern League in just six seasons have been highlighted in an article written by Chris Dunlavy in today's Football League Paper.
League One, 2008-09. Doesn't seem so long ago does it?
Unless you're a supporter of Hereford United.
It really is just five years since the Bulls were in the third tier of English football. Five years ago they beat Leeds 2-0 at an ecstatic Edgar Street. Five years since they thumped Oldham 5-0. Now they sit 16th in the Southern Premier League.
Debt-ridden, besieged by creditors and at very real risk of extinction, theirs is a ghastly fall that should act as a wake-up call to every small club in the Football League. Because if it can happen to Hereford it can happen to anyone.
Asking why Hereford capsized so spectacularily is like asking why the Titanic went down. The simple answer is that they hit an iceberg. The real answer is a complex web of gambles, misjudgements and oversights.
When owner/manager Graham Turner sold up in 2010 he claimed the club were 'debt free' with £450,000 in the bank and a slew of transfer fees to come. The year before the Bulls had recorded record annual profits of just over £400,000.
"The club is trading profitably and is in great shape to profit both on and off the field," he said. "The long term future of the club looks very bright."
Incoming owner David Keyte disagreed, arguing that a £1M debt to Formsole, the leaseholders of Edgar Street, was simply being serviced and should be paid off. This he did securing the return of the leases at considerable cost.
The lease issue rumbles on to this day but the reality is that either approach would have worked had it not been for a litany of basic blunders in the wake of Turner's departure.
In October 2010, manager Simon Davey was sacked just ten games into a two year contract, netting him a hefty pay-off. Under his replacement Jamie Pitman, the Bulls dodged relegation by just three points.
At that point it would have been sensible to take stock. Gates had dropped by 36%. Money was tight, the squad were poor. The manager was untested. Relegation to the Conference was far from unthinkable. You could even say it was likely.
So did Hereford scale back operations? No. They gave Pitman a two year deal (plus a mentor in Gary Peters on a three year deal) and signed up 11 players on two year contracts, almost all of them lacking relegation clauses.
Sure enough, they sank into the Conferencer. Pitman and his coaches were all paid off and new manager Martin Foyle discovered that 65% of his budget was eaten up by a handfull of contracted players.
In December 2012, closure was narrowly avoided when Hereford settled a debt to HMRC.
Yet just days later, the club upgraded Foyle's one year rolling deal to a two year contract, paid £3,000 for Telford's Chris Sharp, signed two players on permanent deals and paid over £10,000 for drainage work to the pitch. Pass that revolver.
Before long a PFA loan was needed to cover wages and, with Hereford ludicrously budgetting for gates of 2,000 - 3,000, this summer gone brought financial implosion and expulsion from the entire Conference.
Now they languish in the seventh tier of English football, awaiting rescue or, more likely, extinction.
It's easy to say 'that would never happen to us'. But remember, Hereford had manageable debts and cash in the bank five years ago.
It just takes a bit of ambition here, an optimistic forecast or persuasive agent there and suddenly the seeds of destruction are sown.
Grim as it sounds the mantra for any small League Two club should be not to speculate to accumulate, it should plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Attendances aren't magically going to soar. Sponsorship isn't going to rocket. You can go down and stay there for a while.
Hereford weren't willing to face fact. Othere can - and should.