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2 users thanked author for this post.
Swann has abso-ducking-lutely ruined this once proud club! In my 40 plus years of supporting the Iron I have never felt so worried about the future of the club as I do right now!
5 users thanked author for this post.
He’s the first of Manny… :-)
Sorry, bad joke, I’ll get my coat…
4 users thanked author for this post.
We were always destined for relegation this season. At the end of last season we avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth, and there was nothing done to better the team for the next season. Even if we do the unlikely and stay-up (which we won’t), we would be in the same battle next season, and the season after, ad infinitum.
5 users thanked author for this post.
I’ve heard Will Swann has offered OG a 2 year contract.
9 users thanked author for this post.
Complaining that a football match was paused whilst medical staff tried to save a supporters life! Jesus ‘H’ Christ I’ve heard it all now!
2 users thanked author for this post.
The ground work for this relegation started pre-season. Since then Swann has just been shuffling the deckchairs around on the Titanic to appease the revolting fans!
5 users thanked author for this post.
The end of season statement from Swann will go along the lines of:
“We got relegated and it was the fault of the supporters, the council, and COVID.”
6 users thanked author for this post.
Don’t worry, I am sure he will be back when he wants to convert the land into housing or some other ‘non-football’ use.
7 users thanked author for this post.
The issues are not down to ‘stay away fans’ though. We are in the mess as a direct consequence of the way that Swann has ran the football club.
Constantly blaming stay away fans for our current plight does not cut it, especially when there are five other clubs in League 2 who currently have a lower average attendance than us for this season, and there were eight in 2019/20 season.
4 users thanked author for this post.
@MK Iron – I’m with you on this.
I’ve been supporting Scunthorpe United since the days of John Duncan. I bought a season ticket last season, and sponsored home, away and 3rd kits for JB. This season I have bought a season ticket despite knowing that I will only be able to attend a handful of matches, along with this I also have an iFollow season ticket, and always purchase a ticket for any live streams.
Like most supporters, I get annoyed at being told that the current plight is somehow the fault of the supporters.
8 users thanked author for this post.
As has been said many times on many threads…Swann IS the root cause of all the ills at the club.
Swann decided he wanted to pursue the vanity project of becoming a the owner of a Championship club. HE told us not to panic as the ground redevelopment would make it all sustainable. HE loaned money to HIS club so HE could spend more money than HIS club had. When HIS vanity project fell through, HE chose to take HIS clubs ground as payment for the loans HE had loaned to HIMSELF.
Despite saying the ground transfer was a ‘temporary’ thing (which goes against his previous statement), the ground and surrounding land are still owned by Coolsilk, and it appears that Coolsilk are doing nothing with it; i.e. not fixing the broken scoreboard, not doing any development of the ground / surrounding land etc.
Disclaimer: All the above is just a stated opinion based on the information I have. It is not intended to cause harm, distress, or defame Peter Swann, or his business dealings.
4 users thanked author for this post.
No – the word from Swann is that the club is sustainable. Swann’s words carry as much credibility as a fat kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar saying I haven’t eaten the biscuits.
2 users thanked author for this post.
He can stick his unity up his hairy harris, after his land grab I do not trust in anything he says.
3 users thanked author for this post.
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.
In short, Swann has been a total disaster!
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Swann in April: “It was revealed that the club’s Glanford Park ground and other assets have been transferred to Swann’s Coolsilk Property and Investment company, with £11m owed to Coolsilk being written off in the process. Speaking to the BBC, Swann defended the deal, and insisted it will protect the club for a period of “999 years”.
Swann in October: “I am working on a project on our site which would ease that pressure on us, without risking the football club and has meant a temporary move of the ground and assets to its parent company whilst we work on this and I can assure everyone that once all this has been completed, the ground and training facilities will be back in Scunthorpe United Ownership.”
Swann’s word is his bond…In April he said that he had taken the assets as repayment for his loans. In October he said that the assets were transferred as a ‘temporary measure to aid future investment’. Those two statements are in direct conflict.
I am starting to think that he ‘misspeaks’ more than Boris Johnson!
2 users thanked author for this post.
Swann sat thinking “No incoming signings, the fans are getting restless and starting to blame me. What can I do to distract them?”…”Oh I know”…Please vote on a next seasons kits.
Message for Swann – How about you stop with the misdirection and pull your finger out of your ass and start helping the club survive the drop!
3 users thanked author for this post.
We’re gonna be left with the dregs that nobody wants and won’t actually strengthen the team. If you haven’t already, I would pop to the bookmaker and get a tidy sum on our relegation. We might as well make as profit from this mess.
1 user thanked author for this post.
Even if we survive this season do you realistically expect things to change for the better next season? I don’t…As Turkish said “The rabbit gets f*cked” – Scunthorpe United is the rabbit, and Swann is the reaching for the lube.
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@Ironawe – sadly I think you’re correct.
2 users thanked author for this post.
Lets look at his track record with us; gambled the financial security on the club chasing Championship football, fell out with developers, fell out with council, and fell out with the fans.
He promised 3 things; a new ground – didn’t happen, Championship football – didn’t happen, entertaining football – didn’t happen. Instead we got unsustainable debt, mock-up images of ground redevelopment, relegation battles, a squad that would struggle to be competitive in the National League North, and all club assets transferred to Swann’s company.
Lot’s of promises, none fulfilled, so it’s an emphatic NO from me!
13 users thanked author for this post.
Looking at the next few fixtures I fully expect us to be 5 points adrift from safety come the end of January. The simple truth is thus; the squad are just not up to the job in hand. It doesn’t really matter who the manager is at this stage, unless we get some better players we are going down.
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After all the recent bad blood between the supporters and the board it would be a nice gesture if Swann and co. bought up the empty seats to ensure that the supporters bus could run.
Can’t see it happening though, why would he want to start building bridges with the supporters when he blames us for our current plight?
4 users thanked author for this post.
No matter which way you cut it the club has a very bleak future, and as many on here have already said, this is all down to the way Swann has chosen to run the club.
Even if we do the unlikely and survive the drop this season does anyone really think next season will be any better? Swann has made it abundantly clear that he is no longer going to invest into the club, and so far, this is the ONLY promise he has delivered on.
Having said several time in interviews that if anyone wants to buy the club they should contact him, so it’s clear to me that Swann is looking for a way out. Him shifting the ground / land ownership to Coolsilk was a master stroke for a businessman. If the club does end up going into administration the creditors cannot take the real assets (the ground and surrounding land) as they aren’t owned by Scunthorpe United. Scunthorpe United FC Ltd could then dissolved, no more football club, and Swann is left holding the assets. He could knock the ground down, selling the scrap, put in planning permission for more homes / flats / whatever, and walk away with a tidy profit.
I am not saying that this was Swann’s idea from the start, indeed I actually think he did have intentions of getting us into a new ground and the Championship when he arrived. But his failed gamble has resulted in our current plight, and the chips have fallen in such a way that Coolsilk stand to benefit from the failure of Scunthorpe United as a business.
DISCLAIMER: All the above is pure conjecture and is not intended to slander, misrepresent, cause harm or distress to Peter Swann, his family, his business interests, business partners, or anyone else associated with the club, Coolsilk, and / or Peter Swann.
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