Hartlepool Mail (part deux)

Joe Mac · **Posted:** Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:57 pm

Was reading today that apparently, the Billericary Town wage bill is £25k a week, which is mental for a non-league team so far down the pyramid. Can't see it ending well for him or the club like.

horden · **Posted:** Wed Jan 03, 2018 4:03 pm

UnreliableSalopian wrote:

horden wrote:

What a club like Hartlepool needs is someone willing to invest just to make the club successful on the field for no other reason than they feel its a good thing to do , they will die happy and go to heaven. Unfortunately that type of self made Butcher , baker, candlestick maker local lad mad good type have been consigned to the annals of history and have been replaced by the sharks and consortiums, investors types , people with an Masters Degree in Business and ripping people off, gift of the gab, blue suit and tan shoe, hipster beard type wankers.

Oh for the simpler times when someone like Vince Barker a local farmer , just wanted to takeover the club he loved and supported , even though he knew it would eat into his savings,no mention of the word investor, which in my book implies you expect something back in return.

Part of the problem is that it's become such a more expensive business even at our current level... used to be that someone like Sir Harold Hornsey could come in and sort things out, but forget being a millionaire, you now need to be worth tens of millions... ultimately the question ends up being, "how do you make it at least sustainable" and while some clubs have, we never really got that far - HH was trying to do that, but when IOR first came in they were less interested and so some of his plans (not the Mill House Masterplan, but talk of putting in a Conference Centre from memory) never made it off the drawing board.

We're basically asking someone to come in and sink several million to pay off debts, keep us running for a while, and finance the development going forward to sustain the club - problem is who's prepared to sink that sort of money into us, for little to no reward and possibly a lot of grief? We need a Steve Gibson, we're more likely to end up with a Garry Gibson....

Fair post. As well football is a business now, corporate hospitality and community relations. In the days of HH and VB it was only a match day thing, grounds did little other than host a match in those days. Unfortunately that's still the case with our ground. I think Vince Barker was the only one who got corporate hospitality in the 70s , and that was only a pork pie and a tot of whisky underneath the Clarence Road stand.

Garry Gibson ? think he was in wrong place at wrong time, think he would of done ok 10 years later when tv money came into the game. He was professional , had the best badge, programme and strip under his watch, and was prepared to invest in some very good players. For all it went tits up, that team 91-93 my fav pools era and best team.

Face Paint Army · **Joined:** Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:31 pm **Posts:** 226

Anyone can "claim" to be losing a million pounds a year if they don't have to produce forensic accounts. Funny how these fans run clubs like Newport, Exeter, Wimbledon, Wycombe, etc that DO have to disclose their accounts always manage to break even on the same gates as us but have ten times better teams. How does that work out then ?
Pools have sold Laurent, Thomas, Walker, Toto, Allessandra, Amond, Carson in the last 12 months, had a parachute payment, plus 2600 season ticket holders, and a big money end of season televised game, but have gone bust ? When the woman running the show boasts she is an expert at restructuring businesses ? Yeah of course they have. If you believe this lot have lost £2 million in a year you will believe anything.

dstanley · **Joined:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:15 pm **Posts:** 677

The Mail says "The Mail has learned that SIX potential investors have signed NDAs which grants them access to the club’s books".

If six potential investors all thoroughly vet the books and all walk away, we really are in the financial mess that most of us feared.

Mr Irrelevant · **Joined:** Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:25 pm **Posts:** 22665

I simply don't believe it.

JohnnyMars · **Joined:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:24 am **Posts:** 2474

I remember Gibson being on the local news being pictured with an oversized cheque for 200K that he was going to invest in Pools - wouldn't last a fortnight these days!

horden · **Posted:** Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:30 pm

We don't pay agents fees though, which is just as well or we would be in an even worse position, financially that is, we may of been top of the league like

charco · **Joined:** Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:24 am **Posts:** 885

Face Paint Army wrote:

Anyone can "claim" to be losing a million pounds a year if they don't have to produce forensic accounts. Funny how these fans run clubs like Newport, Exeter, Wimbledon, Wycombe, etc that DO have to disclose their accounts always manage to break even on the same gates as us but have ten times better teams. How does that work out then ?
Pools have sold Laurent, Thomas, Walker, Toto, Allessandra, Amond, Carson in the last 12 months, had a parachute payment, plus 2600 season ticket holders, and a big money end of season televised game, but have gone bust ? When the woman running the show boasts she is an expert at restructuring businesses ? Yeah of course they have. If you believe this lot have lost £2 million in a year you will believe anything.

This this this

mugsy · **Joined:** Sun Aug 24, 2014 8:17 pm **Posts:** 67

Face Paint Army wrote:

Anyone can "claim" to be losing a million pounds a year if they don't have to produce forensic accounts. Funny how these fans run clubs like Newport, Exeter, Wimbledon, Wycombe, etc that DO have to disclose their accounts always manage to break even on the same gates as us but have ten times better teams. How does that work out then ?
Pools have sold Laurent, Thomas, Walker, Toto, Allessandra, Amond, Carson in the last 12 months, had a parachute payment, plus 2600 season ticket holders, and a big money end of season televised game, but have gone bust ? When the woman running the show boasts she is an expert at restructuring businesses ? Yeah of course they have. If you believe this lot have lost £2 million in a year you will believe anything.

Could not agree more. If these people are pouring money into our club why are they so reluctant to open the books but anybody interested in buying must sign a non disclosure agreement to see the books,. What is there that must be kept secret, the current owners have already made it public that the club is a basket case. I hope the trust is one of the six groups who have expressed an interest in taking over the club.

horden · **Posted:** Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:21 pm

The person who last saw pools books also wrote the Lindisfarne Gospels. When was the last time the club had an AGM as well?. Hardly surprising we are were we are.

Face Paint Army · **Joined:** Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:31 pm **Posts:** 226

The Mail and Echo will print whatever the football club tell them to print. They wont ask the difficult questions and never have.
I wasn't at the Open Meeting where Pam spoke about building a community club but I saw the video. I also saw the Trust speak up and say we should buy season tickets because Pam was going to turn the club around.
Six months later the club is in the bottom half of the Conference, has run out of money by Christmas, and players have been told there is no guarantee they will get paid this month. Yet having signed all these players , 2 dodgy managers, and a load of coaching staff on contracts the club has to pay for we are meant to be grateful to these people ?
I would also like to bail out now thank you very much, will they give me half my season ticket money back ? Of course they wont so why should they get any money they have spent back ?

mugsy · **Joined:** Sun Aug 24, 2014 8:17 pm **Posts:** 67

Face Paint Army wrote:

The Mail and Echo will print whatever the football club tell them to print. They wont ask the difficult questions and never have.
I wasn't at the Open Meeting where Pam spoke about building a community club but I saw the video. I also saw the Trust speak up and say we should buy season tickets because Pam was going to turn the club around.
Six months later the club is in the bottom half of the Conference, has run out of money by Christmas, and players have been told there is no guarantee they will get paid this month. Yet having signed all these players , 2 dodgy managers, and a load of coaching staff on contracts the club has to pay for we are meant to be grateful to these people ?
I would also like to bail out now thank you very much, will they give me half my season ticket money back ? Of course they wont so why should they get any money they have spent back ?

The difference you bought a season ticket because you care about the club they invested because they care about profit and I will never believe any different

Face Paint Army · **Joined:** Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:31 pm **Posts:** 226

horden wrote:

We don't pay agents fees though, which is just as well or we would be in an even worse position, financially that is, we may of been top of the league like

Hodcroft didn't pay agents fees. This lot probably do, I wouldn't be shocked if agents have done very well out of the club all these players that have been signed. Even when the club had run out of money they were still signing players.
Pretty sure Devante Rodney and Dave Jones thanked Full 90 Sports Management when they came on board for sorting out their contracts. Not that anyone currently involved with running the club has anything to do with that company of course.
That's before you consider fees for arranging loans. And interest payments.
Someone will have done very well out of all of this.

Hartlepool Mail (part deux)

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