Swann didn’t destroy our club, Hilton stepped in and could have saved it. He didn’t and nearly destroyed us.
I believe this is closer to the reality of it than anything else.
I’m no Swann apologist, but it was Hilton who actually had the opportunity to do good and right by the club and didn’t.
He did not ‘save it’ at all. He set it on a crash course.
He bitched and moaned about the previous owner, engaged in dubious social media PR, stoked division and incited others to make threats, sometimes behaving abominably when engaging with supporters himself. Let’s not forget he u-turned often and lied who knows when and how many times about who knows what. Gaslighting in extremis! We also don’t know if he actually did put any money in at all, or – as some suspect – just used the season ticket cash, the 1899 Ponzi, the turnstile income, the sponsorship deals and whatever else was lying around when he took over.
If Swann’s legacy was to bring the club into financial crisis and calamitous mismanagement, Hilton’s is to stoke divisions within the fans for his own ends. Even now we have fans calling others Swann lovers for making pragmatic posts about dealing with him. I think That Crazy New Yorker’s reply is closer to the truth and that wretched owner will get no thanks for me for being one of two recent owners who have brought us to ruin.
