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1 user thanked author for this post.
I haven’t seen any libellous comments on this post so it’s a non point as far as I can see no matter how much UTI would like otherwise.
There’s lots of anger and frustration but everything I’ve seen falls within the realms of fair comment and defence of the truth in my opinion.
I honestly think things have been remarkably restrained given the ongoing shambles.
1 user thanked author for this post.
“Whatever you may hear or see I haven’t taken one penny out of the club”
Doesn’t the ground count?
And the interest I believe that was charged on the loan prior to that point, and I assume he’ll be letting us stay there rent free from now on……….
1 user thanked author for this post.
Some of it is genuinely funny – was he able to write it with a straight face I wonder? Maybe he’s got a scriptwriter?
‘…..I have given everything….’
Phew, thank god for that. If he’d only done a half baked job we might be in real trouble now.
‘Given everything’ doesn’t extend to actually going to any matches of course, perhaps using the opportunity to engage with corporate sponsors before and after games, try and drive the turnover up a bit, etc etc.
3 users thanked author for this post.
Yeah, load of old cobblers and nothing changes.
Hasn’t even confirmed whether the Swann’s are staying on the board (i think we all know the answer to that).
Reckons the terms of the loan put then at a massive disadvantage.
That’s odd, because he said previously the restrictions made no difference because we’d have run a budget that complied with the terms anyway
Also reckons he daren’t risk the club borrowing money they can’t pay back.
That’s odd as well, because he wasn’t shy about letting the us run up £11m of debt to enable us to lose the ground.
He’s so full of it it’s actually funny.
At least he get he can get on that stage in Blackpool and save himself the cost of booking a comedian.
9 users thanked author for this post.
It’s quite amusing really because unless sone really toxic/outlandish criticism is made I think we’ve actually gone beyond the libel point at Scunthorpe.
As we all know libel actions are incredibly expensive to bring – they have to be heard in the High Court and just to get through the door costs tens of thousands of pounds as a matter of course.
There’s no guarantee on a return on your cash even if you’re successful because quite often you’ll be pursuing a man of straw and awards on costs and damages for libel are also wildly unpredictable.
The usual trick is to send out a bullish cease and desist letter promising hell and damnation if there isn’t a retraction etc etc and then leave it at that.
In the current climate it seems our Chairman can’t afford to get an electrician in to fix the score board let alone fund an all expenses paid trip to the High Court for a few frustrated supporters who get carried away on the keyboard on a Saturday night after another woeful beating.
Hence, I’d be surprised if UTI99’s fairy godmother is able to grant his wish of mass litigation and a bloodbath down at the Royal Courts of Justice.
4 users thanked author for this post.
The problem PS has, is that whilst he has historically threatened litigation in the past against sone of those who have dared to express critical opinions of the great man (and in some cases perhaps gone too far) – given his abject performance over the last 4 years and the perilous state the club is in, most of the criticism now falls under the ‘fair comment’ and ‘defence of the truth’ category!
His position has been weakened considerably having been criticised by a number of high profile individuals in the media (Stelling, Neville, former players etc), and also having made a number of statements/promises that have simply not been borne out in fact.
Anyone sticking remotely to the facts and not making wholly toxic and unfair accusations is unlikely to get into hot water with our glorious leader these days.
9 users thanked author for this post.
It’s difficult though isn’t it – a young player comes in, he’ll show promise and then after a handful of games he’ll start to struggle mentally and physically because he isn’t ready to play week in week out at that level, even though long term he’s probably going to be good enough.
Cribb has had a lot of intense football now in the last couple of months, and they’ve been hard games in a bad side who are about to be relegated.
He wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t starting to struggle a bit short term.
Gallimore has had significantly less first team football recently and so will at least have the advantage of a bit of freshness and won’t be quite as badly battle scarred.
Get half a dozen quick games into his legs playing with that shower and he’ll inevitably start to look like he’s in the same boat as well.
3 users thanked author for this post.
You’ll all not be surprised to hear the academy is apparently a bit of a shambles.
It’s actually a miracle anyone emerges through the current system.
Essentially they stopped recruiting back in March 2020 for a significant period of time – and the coaching set up became a revolving door.
There is a constant shortage of personnel and they are chronically short of players particularly in the younger age groups.
At various points this season for example, because of a shortage of players, year groups have had to be combined – so you have a ridiculous situation where say year 8 and 9 players are being made to play together in competitive academy matches making it close to impossible to judge players properly against their peers – both team mates and opponents.
Players are now also approached at grass root clubs en masse.
I know of one club in the Hull Boys League where they tried to take 4 of their players in one go whilst the season was ongoing – not because there was any real expectation of them being of potential professional standard you understand, but just to get bodies in the building.
Because their reputation precedes them, to my knowledge not one of those 4 have yet elected to go.
I’m also aware of a couple of players this season (bearing in mind these lads are 12 and 13 and still chasing the dream) who were so disillusioned at the set up they decided to go back to grass root clubs – as in, they left a professional clubs academy without being released!
The stories go on and on.
Safe to say, the current set up seems to accurately mirror other areas of the clubs performance.
I suspect they’ll stagger on for another season or so but then the funding will totally dry up and they’ll end up folding it up.
1 user thanked author for this post.
That’s true to a very large extent.
The quality of front players at the club is dismal but the service is so poor it’s irrelevant who is up front really because they’re feeding off scraps.
1 user thanked author for this post.
Sums up the season really.
Huffed and puffed, plenty of effort, defended well and had a few moments going forward but they’re just so pitifully short of goals and any real creativity.
If you’re looking for a few crumbs of comfort it was a very young side with lots of lads right at their beginning of their careers – and who will hopefully be with us next season – so there’s just a little bit of hope going forward.
1 user thanked author for this post.
This is all smoke and mirrors as far as I can see – with Swann cynically trying to distance himself from the carnage just BEFORE we go down and also just before people start looking too closely at the annual accounts which have just been published (only £5.8k of the loan written down in return for GP and still a ‘real’ loss of £1m??!!)
If Swann, the beautiful Karin and their ‘moron’ son Chris (your words Chris, not mine) were all to resign from the board as well (and take the chief scout with them) and state that whilst they are of course the majority shareholders for the time being they would remain at arms length to the club then that would be a different matter – but they haven’t stated that.
This all looks like a bit of deck chair shuffling to quell the peasants revolt – and they’ve had to bring LT in to do it because SE couldn’t take any more of their absolute and total crap.
3 users thanked author for this post.
Ashman did a great job in 70’s on meagre resources – difference being he was given time.
Laws ultimately produced the goods for us us as well, on limited funds – again the difference being he was given time.
There’s a theme……
I don’t think it will come out in the wash.
I can’t see SE engaging in a public slanging match and our glorious leader is unlikely to want to detail the events of what seems to be yet another sorry chapter in a story that is becoming a tragedy of epic proportions.
The rather cold reference to ‘current regime’ tells you all you need to know I think. He’s made his feelings pretty clear without resorting to mud slinging.
11 users thanked author for this post.
I’d speculate he jumped.
There’s only so much crap anyone can take, no matter how committed you are to the ‘project’.
I suspect he has discovered over the last few months with grim clarity just what kind of comedy show our glorious leader is running down there.
8 users thanked author for this post.
Yes – to single him out the criticism is a bit harsh.
He hasn’t been perfect this season but he’s done more than most to contribute to our meagre points total.
When you have to deal with the traffic that he’s had to this season the odd error is inevitable.
He has commanded his box significantly better this season – more out of desperation than anything I think – because he’s realised that his best chance is just to come for everything because defensively we’re so fragile.
1 user thanked author for this post.
He’s no worse either though.
How can you judge anyone properly trying (and inevitably failing) to sort out this Swann inspired shambles?
12 users thanked author for this post.
Who would want to buy us for the price Swann will want?
The share value of the club when he took over was, I believe, around £1m – and of course the club owned their own ground.
Whilst the shares themselves are worthless Swann made a series of share issues that he himself took up – notionally placing the share value of the club at several millions of pounds.
Having now hived off the ground (and ascribing a notional value of around £11m to it) it seems to me that Mr Swann will be seeking offers in the region of 8 figures – certainly if any prospective purchaser wants to take the ground back rather than being left with Swann as the landlord.
This also nearly recoups most of the money he squandered at the clubs expense of course.
For this hefty investment you will get a loss making entity, on an unprecedented downward spiral, with no playing squad worth talking about and a stadium that is falling down.
Besides that, you’d have the issue of having to totally reorganise the off field structure of the club – unless you were happy with the current chief scout et al.
Whilst I’m sure there must be a kind hearted simpleton out there who also happens to be a multi millionaire I’d be surprised if he came knocking on our door anytime soon because he’s probably under lock and key for his own safety.
The reality is that either by incompetence or design, Swann seems to have managed to make us totally unsaleable – unless he is simply prepared to give the club and ground away of course for next to nothing – which seems even more unlikely than the kind hearted simpleton scenario described above.
7 users thanked author for this post.
This side would struggle in the National League but that’s academic because this side won’t actually be playing in the national league.
Most will be released or jump ship voluntarily if they get any sort of offer elsewhere.
Assuming Swann doesn’t try and just wrap things up (which wouldn’t totally surprise me) we’ll have the usual late influx of desperate bargain basement signings – of the ‘has been’ and ‘never will be’ variety along with the usual half a dozen 18 and 19 year olds on loan to pad out the squad numbers.
I wouldn’t fall off my chair in surprise if we’re not scanning the national league north by this time next year wondering what local derbies we can look forward to on 2023/24.
Hats off to Swann. In a perverse way it takes rare talent to be such a monumental and consistent failure as a football club chairman on and off the field over such a lengthy period of time.
8 users thanked author for this post.
I thought it looked really harsh in real time.
Having seen a photo still of the impact though – it looks significantly worse, almost to the extent it looked like a different challenge!
He went in over the top of the ball studs raised and made full on contact with the players shin.
On that evidence it was dangerous play and a straight red – so the ref got it right.
3 users thanked author for this post.
There isn’t much difference between us and that Donny side.
They won 4 all season – we might scrape to 5 or 6 if we’re extravagantly fortunate.
They scored 30 in the league – we’ll be lucky to surpass that as well.
Prince Moncrieff was their top scorer with 10 – and no one will get close to that.
1 user thanked author for this post.
I don’t think he can really be blamed for the lack of quality of the signings in January – disappointing in the most part that they have been.
You end up signing what you can afford and that dictates the quality.
It was evident we were struggling by the last minute nature of the deals – we were literally scavenging for scraps that no one else wanted.
Both Cox and Hill have done the equivalent of trying to buy a serviceable car for £100.
You might pick a Ford or you might pick a Fiat but either way you’re going to end up with a crappy old banger.
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