Bad Owners

[King Kev]

Bury recently rid themselves of the living, deluded joke that is Stewart Day.

Days apparent respectable and almost suave nature, claims of being a successful businessman, coupled with his insistence on hogging the spotlight along with his unrealistic and laughable plans remind me alot of Michael Knighton. Although I am not quite as clued up on the latter as Carlisle fans obviously are.

Recently I have been hearing tales on here about Haslam at Mansfield and there is Allen at Chesterfield and now Anderson at Bolton.
So go on, name your bad (and hopefully) former owners, what they did or in some cases didn't do, and where did these acts take your football club?

Dont ask why, but I just felt like reading up on these tales of woe. Hopefully (and it is a big HOPE) Bury's problems are behind us.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Haslam is a c***, A complete and utter scumbag.

http://twohundredpercent.net/haslam-evicts-mansfield-will-football-look-the-other-way/

 

[SoutheySWFC]

No such thing as a bad owner, just a bad club......

 

[Son of Cod]

We complain a lot about Fenty, but if I had to say one positive thing about him it would be that he is merely incompetently bad and not maliciously setting out to destroy the club on purpose bad. With Sergio Georgini jacket to boot, he is almost like a David Brent character which would be amusing if he wasn’t at the helm of my club. He didn’t intend to oversee an era of drastic decline, however unfortunately he did. I could probably just about deal with this if it wasn’t for two things. Firstly, his lack of respect towards the fans is quite staggering at times. Secondly, he’s a fucking tory. I can even deal with how much of a walking PR disaster he is. I’m thankful that he isn’t on the Oyston, Vaughan, Haslam, Allam level but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for and want better.

 

[MrGloverLover]

Oh my God where do I start with our shitshow of a board? Norman Hayward and his puppet John Fry have been running our club for years (Fry took over as Chairman in 1993) and they've never been popular, even when we were in the Championship.

The last few years however have been as bad as it can get. Lack of transparency, secrecy and lies, aggressiveness towards the fans, downright incompetence. They run it like a communist regime.

 

[devilofajob]

When we were non-lauge, the Majeed brothers.
This will give you a flavour!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...cheating-Revenue-750k--spent-luxury-cars.html
He was caught coming out of the safe-deposit venue with the half million in a holdall!

 

[AdamStag]

No such thing as a bad owner, just a bad club......

And the most ridiculous post of the year goes to....

 

[SoutheySWFC]

And the most ridiculous post of the year goes to....

And the most blatant missing the sarcasm post goes to......

 

[AdamStag]

Regarding Haslam, well a complete shitstain of a man.

"Jelly and Ice-cream when Haslam dies" is a chant I like.

Apart from Conkers post - Haslam for found guilty of fraud after trying to claim someone had nicked his car only for the police to find it in his garage

 

[shoddycollins]

Days apparent respectable and almost suave nature, claims of being a successful businessman, coupled with his insistence on hogging the spotlight along with his unrealistic and laughable plans remind me alot of Michael Knighton. Although I am not quite as clued up on the latter as Carlisle fans obviously are.

That does sound a lot like Knighton, Son of Cod's David Brent comparison also suits him as he never quite was as suave and businesslike as he clearly believed he was. If Day also spat his dummy out when he realised his plans were unrealistic, decided that if he couldn't get the club to the Premiership then he didn't care anymore and reacted badly to criticism then that's Knigton to a t. George Reynolds at Darlington was another in that mould, and Knighton actually ended up at Darlo with his close friend.

We complain a lot about Fenty, but if I had to say one positive thing about him it would be that he is merely incompetently bad and not maliciously setting out to destroy the club on purpose bad. With Sergio Georgini jacket to boot, he is almost like a David Brent character which would be amusing if he wasn’t at the helm of my club. He didn’t intend to oversee an era of drastic decline, however unfortunately he did. I could probably just about deal with this if it wasn’t for two things. Firstly, his lack of respect towards the fans is quite staggering at times. Secondly, he’s a fucking tory. I can even deal with how much of a walking PR disaster he is. I’m thankful that he isn’t on the Oyston, Vaughan, Haslam, Allam level but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for and want better.

Sounds like a description of the Carlisle fans' issues with our owners. Not actually malicious, or treating the club as a plaything, or trying to make a quick buck; just incompetent and obtuse. That they made it onto the ten worst owners in the FL is a reflection of the fact they took charge over ten years ago when Fred Story decided to abruptly bail out and said at the time they were just there to keep the club ticking over until a new owner who was able to invest could be found. Then did nothing to actually try and attract an owner (or nothing they're willing to tell anyone about), oversaw relegation to League Two, obstructed potential owners and just proved impossible for either the fans or any genuine potential investors to deal with, with all their secrecy, defensiveness and total lack of innovation. Even Yahya Kurdi complained that they were impossible to do business with.

Jenkins is actually the longest serving director of a football club in the country (perhaps the world, he joined the board in the mid-fifties), the fans like him for the most part, and when there is a protest he's usually the one to come out and address it, but he can't affect any change, he's put a lot of money into the club, is the largest shareholder and has no more to put in, he's not going to inject any new ideas at his age and seems pretty content with things when he shouldn't be. He stuck his head into BBC Radio Cumbria's commentary box after one game and told them 'get behind the club you c***s'

Nixon's job is to shake hands with the FA Cup final winners. Having someone with his finger in so many pies should be a positive, he's also the League Two representative on the board of the EFL however he is exactly how you might expect a football suit-wearing bigwig to be. He talks a good game about modernisation, although this includes his support for the new format of the Checkatrade but as the man mostly in charge of the day to day running of the club (supposed to be Nigel Clibbens but he just seems to say whatever Nixon tells him to) is the one mostly responsible for the board being the way it is and loves his status with the FA too much. Oh and he has a big square head like a minecraft character.

Pattinson is just a twat who is only on the board because he put a little bit of money in with them, and his company fixed our floodlights for free a few years back. Other than that he's confrontational towards the fans and seems to be up to something behind everyone else's back. Apparently pursued his own agenda during the whole Kurdi fiasco, and told an unhappy fan if they didn't like it they could f**k off.

 

[Buxton Vale]

I think most Vale fans are very unhappy with the curent owner. He's managed to turn us from a decent L1 team to one that is fighting to stay in the football league. Crowds are falling, money made from transfers is not being invested in the team or stadium, and we recruit and turn over uncapable managers all too often. There has been interest in buying the club, but he places an unrealistic value on it. Its difficult to see a way up while he remains at the club.

 

[Agombar stool]

Lee Power is an owner who really has split the fanbase. 5 years ago when he took over (from Jed Mcrory - a whole other story!) he said that his plan was to make Swindon a Championship club. 5 years later, almost to the day and we are mid-table in league 2.

Clearly on the pitch, we have gone backwards. On the pitch, it appears, on the face of it at least, that we are being run financially properly and running more or less at break even. Given our financial history, this is a relief to many. There are plans to build a new training ground and we are trying to improve a crumbling County Ground, which, again on the face of it, sounds promising.

However, as part of his time here, Power has driven a wedge between the local press and the club and his PR with fans is very bad. He lives in Switzerland to avoid tax and also owns Waterford FC in Ireland which also has raised eyebrows. He comes across as a shady operator given his history in business and many are suspicious of his goals at STFC (he's in it to make money, but how?).

Personally I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. This club has had horrific issues financially and to even have a Professional club running at break even is a relief. Its not exciting though and this is the lowest we have been in recent history which doesn't help an increasingly irritated fanbase. There does tend to be a little bit of similarity between ourselves and Port Vale, the only difference being that Smurf has looked to sell the club whereas Power clearly has no intention of leaving, unless some completely unrealistic bid is received (which won't happen)

 

[LordJord]

Our previous owners were given 10 million to redevelop the stadium and surrounding area. We now have a worse stand than we had before after 4 ish years. The money disappeared, club nearly went bankrupt (and then we romped the league that year!). Results of the trial are to be announced this month, suspect they will get away with it.

 

[valefan16]

Lee Power is an owner who really has split the fanbase. 5 years ago when he took over (from Jed Mcrory - a whole other story!) he said that his plan was to make Swindon a Championship club. 5 years later, almost to the day and we are mid-table in league 2.

Clearly on the pitch, we have gone backwards. On the pitch, it appears, on the face of it at least, that we are being run financially properly and running more or less at break even. Given our financial history, this is a relief to many. There are plans to build a new training ground and we are trying to improve a crumbling County Ground, which, again on the face of it, sounds promising.

However, as part of his time here, Power has driven a wedge between the local press and the club and his PR with fans is very bad. He lives in Switzerland to avoid tax and also owns Waterford FC in Ireland which also has raised eyebrows. He comes across as a shady operator given his history in business and many are suspicious of his goals at STFC (he's in it to make money, but how?).

Personally I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. This club has had horrific issues financially and to even have a Professional club running at break even is a relief. Its not exciting though and this is the lowest we have been in recent history which doesn't help an increasingly irritated fanbase. There does tend to be a little bit of similarity between ourselves and Port Vale, the only difference being that Smurf has looked to sell the club whereas Power clearly has no intention of leaving, unless some completely unrealistic bid is received (which won't happen)

Smurf hasn’t really looked to sell the club as such as he values it to include his director loans so wants unrealistic figures for it (£6 million was mentioned a couple of years ago) and rejected realistic offers of £1.5 million twice last year.

When you consider the money coming in the Last few seasons with Hugill sell on, Alnwick, Grant etc that we don’t seem to see reinvested I guess it’s not a bad venture for him, not to mention of course he has split the ground from the club so could be a case of being our landlord if he sells the actual club... but who would buy the club without the massive asset that is Vale Park.

He’s also like Power got other club interests by buying Nuneaton Boroughs ground!

 

[Trapdoor]

Back when we had Russell and Lewis they were literally pocketing the gate receipt. Cash in hand, straight into their wallets in front of fans at the turnstiles. Ridiculous what goes on in football sometimes.

 

[TimeyWimey]

We have probably one of the worst in the league currently in Norman Hassall but his actions aren’t broadcast because he is the invisible man. A leech who has taken millions out of the club whilst other directors put money in to keep us afloat. He refuses to budge and is holding the club to ransom to get rid of him. There’s long running legal action against him to reclaim the money he has stolen. Until he’s gone we are pretty much in purgatory hoping he goes before we get relegated.

 

[Luke Imp]

In my time of watching Lincoln, we've never had a sole owner or anything so we've been ok in that respect.

Even in our relegation season, the Board did as much as they could with the wage cap and Tilson, on paper, wasn't a bad appointment. They probably should have sacked him on relegation rather than waiting until the following season but that's hindsight.

They could only do what they could in the NL with the budget we had and no money man. We were effectively a FT Club paying PT wages on PT, 10 month contracts for a season or two.

Ray Trew tried his best to takeover the Club back in the early 00's, and was rightly told where to go. He'd have destroyed us, I think.

 

[King Kev]

In my time of watching Lincoln, we've never had a sole owner or anything so we've been ok in that respect.

Even in our relegation season, the Board did as much as they could with the wage cap and Tilson, on paper, wasn't a bad appointment. They probably should have sacked him on relegation rather than waiting until the following season but that's hindsight.

They could only do what they could in the NL with the budget we had and no money man. We were effectively a FT Club paying PT wages on PT, 10 month contracts for a season or two.

Ray Trew tried his best to takeover the Club back in the early 00's, and was rightly told where to go. He'd have destroyed us, I think.

Who was the owner back in 2002 when you entered administration?

 

[Chris FGR]

Dale Vince ain't everyone's cup of tea and not all our fans agree with some of the changes he's made or how some people underneath him treat fans regarding bans etc but he's definitely put his money where his mouth is and the club is in a much stronger place then when he took over on and off the pitch.

Seems his intentions are good up to this point, yes he's used the club as an advertising vehicle for his company and their ethics but he has invested millions in return so everyone has benefited. Crowds are up and we made a profit last year so things look pretty bright, although the slight worry is that the plan seems to be to sell the current stadium for housing , which the club owns, and move into one on a site that Ecotricity own. Could be a problem down the line if we end up being tenants.

 

[Luke Imp]

Who was the owner back in 2002 when you entered administration?

No-one to my knowledge. We haven't had owners for years just a Board of Directors so we don't have one person making decisions or owning the Club.

The Chairman at the time was Rob Bradley, who picked up the pieces and re-mortgaged his house to save us and remained Chairman for a few years after that before stepping down. He's rightly still very well thought of around these parts for what he did for us and also returned 5 years or so back and sorted the Trust issues out, too, who were being sued.

Prior to Rob Bradley being Chairman, there was John Reames who bought our ground back from the Council, which we had sold in the early 80's (from memory, we had to sell it again to the Council after admin in 2002 to raise funds and we then bought it back again), re-built 3 sides of Sincil Bank, saw us get promoted to L1, relegated back to L2 and even had a spell as manager for 18 months!

It was the ITV Digital fiasco that did us in 2002.

 

[valefan16]

Interestingly after yesterday and the reality of the mess we are in it seems to finally be hitting a lot of fans with fans on social media now talking about actually protesting etc.

Smurf apparently left early yesterday as the atmosphere soured and chants began.

We did immense work last time to force out V2001 by starving them out and exposing things going on and forcing the club into administration in 2012 to finally rid ourselves of them.

Problem this time is Smurf wouldn’t care I doubt and fans feel starve him out would just see the budget cut to reflect that. Not sure what the answer actually is.

 

[King Kev]

No-one to my knowledge. We haven't had owners for years just a Board of Directors so we don't have one person making decisions or owning the Club.

The Chairman at the time was Rob Bradley, who picked up the pieces and re-mortgaged his house to save us and remained Chairman for a few years after that before stepping down. He's rightly still very well thought of around these parts for what he did for us and also returned 5 years or so back and sorted the Trust issues out, too, who were being sued.

Prior to Rob Bradley being Chairman, there was John Reames who bought our ground back from the Council, which we had sold in the early 80's (from memory, we had to sell it again to the Council after admin in 2002 to raise funds and we then bought it back again), re-built 3 sides of Sincil Bank, saw us get promoted to L1, relegated back to L2 and even had a spell as manager for 18 months!

It was the ITV Digital fiasco that did us in 2002.

Seems like Bradley was the opposite to the joke that has just left us. He remortgaged his house to stop the club going to the wall, Day remortgaged all of BFC's assets to fund a laughable dream. The result was we nearly went bust.

 

[Amber Nectar]

No such thing as a bad owner, just a bad club......

Be careful what you ask for
(Always thought he was a blade due his dad Harry

 

[jacobncfc]

Hardy is an example of how you need a bit of luck as an owner.

Start off with a left field managerial appointment, have a quiet summer signing wise and he was a few refereeing decisions away from seeing us to the new Wembley for the first time.

Back said manager with a huge budget and bring in a group of signings that made you favourites for the title and it looks like he’s going to be the first owner to take us out of the league.

 

[Laker]

We’ve had some good fun with owners and directors.

A lot moaned about Reg Smart - rumours were he was dodgy as hell but my god he knew how to run a football club.

Then he got ousted and we had the fun of Gary Harwood and John Howard who led our board to split the ground from the club which we’ve never recovered from.

Then we got rid of those chancers and had Lee Power but thankfully got shot of him before he was able to inflict too much damage.

Then we had George Rolls, another cad who did his best to spend his way out of the Conference, nearly tipped us over the edge and we had to start again.

Then Jez George gained gradually more power under the growing share ownership of Paul Barry (Cambridge fan now living in the US). George started off fine but then fucked up heavily off the back of the Man U windfall (which he did a great job in maximising) when we started handing out stupid contracts to players and managers. We ran through that money in 3 years and got shot of him.

Barry then got approval for more shares for himself which gives him control of the club but he’s never here to actually run it. We’ve got Graham Daniels in charge now who can’t run a bath.

Basically we’ve just lurched from one incompetent director to the next.

 

[Indian Dan]

Lee Power is an owner who really has split the fanbase. 5 years ago when he took over (from Jed Mcrory - a whole other story!) he said that his plan was to make Swindon a Championship club. 5 years later, almost to the day and we are mid-table in league 2.

Clearly on the pitch, we have gone backwards. On the pitch, it appears, on the face of it at least, that we are being run financially properly and running more or less at break even. Given our financial history, this is a relief to many. There are plans to build a new training ground and we are trying to improve a crumbling County Ground, which, again on the face of it, sounds promising.

However, as part of his time here, Power has driven a wedge between the local press and the club and his PR with fans is very bad. He lives in Switzerland to avoid tax and also owns Waterford FC in Ireland which also has raised eyebrows. He comes across as a shady operator given his history in business and many are suspicious of his goals at STFC (he's in it to make money, but how?).

Personally I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. This club has had horrific issues financially and to even have a Professional club running at break even is a relief. Its not exciting though and this is the lowest we have been in recent history which doesn't help an increasingly irritated fanbase. There does tend to be a little bit of similarity between ourselves and Port Vale, the only difference being that Smurf has looked to sell the club whereas Power clearly has no intention of leaving, unless some completely unrealistic bid is received (which won't happen)

The problem, Bob, is that we only have his word that the club is financially sound. He ducked, when questioned, the % he is charging the club for money he had loaned it.

If all was well, I’d expect a full set of accounts to be published to prove it. Fans pissed off with the footballing side could well be swayed with proof that the pay off is a sound club.

Pictured sitting next to well known East End gangster Charlie Richardson when we played at Millwall hardly enhanced any benefit of the doubt.

 

[Luke Imp]

Hardy is an example of how you need a bit of luck as an owner.

Start off with a left field managerial appointment, have a quiet summer signing wise and he was a few refereeing decisions away from seeing us to the new Wembley for the first time.

Back said manager with a huge budget and bring in a group of signings that made you favourites for the title and it looks like he’s going to be the first owner to take us out of the league.

And putting the Club £9m in debt - admittedly most will be his debt like Fenty at Grimsby, but still. That's alot of money to chuck about chasing problems.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1084492539569233920

 

[King Kev]

I will post the antics of Stewart Day when I can find the time to do so.

 

[darren gregory]

The only positive for our owner is he hasn't posted his knob on social media yet .

Whilst the site was down our owner was mysteriously knocked down by a car about 300 yards from our ground at 8-00 pm ish on Friday 25th January.

Lots of rumours abounded such as he is sleeping at the ground due to extra marital antics to other conspiracy theories. Questions asked why when he lives Leicester way what he was walking about at that time heading towards Burslem town centre.

Either way you couldn't make it up.
Coincided with a big demonstration planned the next day against Carlisle which was then cancelled because of the accident.

Another saga in the continuing circus/soap story that is Port Vale.
He is recovering well after copious amounts of grapes and Lucozade.

 

[valefan16]

The only positive for our owner is he hasn't posted his knob on social media yet .

Whilst the site was down our owner was mysteriously knocked down by a car about 300 yards from our ground at 8-00 pm ish on Friday 25th January.

Lots of rumours abounded such as he is sleeping at the ground due to extra marital antics to other conspiracy theories. Questions asked why when he lives Leicester way what he was walking about at that time heading towards Burslem town centre.

Either way you couldn't make it up.
Coincided with a big demonstration planned the next day against Carlisle which was then cancelled because of the accident.

Another saga in the continuing circus/soap story that is Port Vale.
He is recovering well after copious amounts of grapes and Lucozade.

Mysteriously not there yesterday when Askey was unveiled and mentioned he would clarify his position in his statement after the fans voted to protest!

Possibly handing it back to Garlick for a while?