This mess is entirely of Swann’s making. He chose to appoint an inexperienced family member as chief scout, he chose to create the transfer committee, he chose to spend cash the club didn’t have chasing his vanity project of Championship football. What have all those decisions achieved? Relegation, poor squads, revolving door policy for managers, huge debt, assets being stripped, and a football club that is in crisis.
It’s all very well spouting how the club’s debt was wiped clean by transferring the ownership of the ground and surrounding area to Coolsilk, but that debt was only there in the first place because of the way he (Swann) chose to run the club. He created the debt for the club, and the debt was owed to him!
Swann has told us time and time again that we should trust him, but when you look at his track record, he has all the credibility of a snake oil salesman.
This club is in a very perilous state right now. Following the rescue loan, we are now indebted to EFL so are no longer debt free. The club is operating under the restrictive policies of the EFL transfer embargo following the loan and is making a loss week on week. The chairman is refusing to stake anymore of his personal fortune into the club, and having no assets, the club has no way of securing additional funding other than relying on gate receipts, season ticket sales, merchandise, sale of assets (players), and sponsorship.
There was a time when Swann said that the ground redevelopment would bring in the income to secure the clubs future. Now that Swann’s company owns the ground, even if the ground development was to occur (and I highly doubt that) the only one who would benefit financially from this is Swann and Coolsilk.
Today we sit 6 points adrift of safety (this is effectively 7 if you look at the goal difference), are back in debt, operating at a loss, and have a chairman who appears to be looking for a way out. The club is in a very perilous position, and I fear that there is a very bleak future for the club.
