Oh shit - just when you think things are going well....

Ken Hodcroft has decided to jump ship and become the chairman of Darlington.

See, I can talk shit too.

Please let this be something with no truth at the bottom of it.....

If the Daily Mail said it was Monday I'd still check the calendar.

So what relation is this Berger Larsson to our very own Berge Larsen?

Tsk, don't newspaper sports editors ever check their facts?

Nah.

He's estimating something in darlington, has been all week.

Quite right, a shame Uncle Ken has already written his programme notes and they've been printed...

Chinese casino owner??

Considering gambling is illegal in China, and the Government are recently cracking down on online gambling also, it's hard to imagine where they dreamed him up, or where he flew in from. Even if he owned a casino elsewhere he'd be severely frowned on here. They all go to Las Vegas or Macau if they want to fritter their hard earned away.

Just taken this from rivals

[/quote]

Neil Robinson on Rivals always seems to post sense... Can see what he's saying especially on the cost of redevelopment around the Mill House / Pools / Morrisons area , I think if IOR / Larson were to pull out of the club they'd have maybe said so at the AGM in February was it?

Also, You have to look over the last 10 years, Are Sheffield Wednesday investible on that front? I suppose there history before that might say otherwise

Well if Larsson is looking elsewhere because our council wont sell IOR the ground there'll be foooking hell on at the civic if IOR jump ship

Why?

Just a reaction as to our councils stubbornness to sell IOR the ground. Maybe Drummond needs to earn his whack, mind, remind me what his actual job is

Mayor ? "Hear ye, Hear ye IOR should sell ye the ground"

The silence is deafening

I really don't think the council care about the football club, so I can't see there being much reaction.

Bit concerned about the report in the Mail, can see no logical reason for it to happen, just have a bad feeling about it

There's a few points in that post by Neil Robertson that don't ring true though.

Firstly, it's well documented that The Mayor has declared a vested interest because of his season ticket and anyway, he's an indie and the majority vote is Labour so he can't do anything anyway, much as he might want to.

Secondly, the amount of redevelopment that's gone on around Hillsborough in the last five years is staggering. If EVER there was cause for suspicion it would be someone swaggering in and underwriting 26 miil worth of debt right in the middle of a redevelopment area. And who did Wednesday or rather Mr Allen try to sell their training ground lease to?? A developer who wanted to stick a Tesco's up on it. Hmmm..what fills Hillsborough Barracks?? Morrisons that's what with no rival for miles.

Thirdly, develop WHAT on the site?? We've got ASDA. Mozzers and Tesco's in town. Plenty of much cheaper development land over on the Marina.

Fourthly, we've already had it from the horses mouth that there's contracts flying out of the Vic for development work on the ground. Why spend the money if the backings going??

Doesn't ring true to me.

It could be disastorous for the town if IOR did pull the plug, fooooking newspapers, however, it is all speculation so we'll just have to wait and see. A statement from the club would be nice mind.

Definatley right on that, ASDA, Morrisons & Tesco in town so we dont need another supermarket unless Sainsburys come in...? But why would they want to build within a mile of ASDA,Tesco & Morrisons?

If the Vic was demolished along with Mill House I think it'll go to housing
Or possibly a re-development of Mill House which will include outdoor football pitches, Tennis courts & a link with the Bowling Alley - Its hard to say

Cant think what else would go there, But I'm sure the council have there thoughts

What we the fans have also got to consider is that the 'VIC' is currently situated in an area that is due to be redeveloped which includes the demolition of the Millhouse leisure centre, Pub and Bowling club.

so the bowls club would go

sorry but with all the clearance taking part around the town and the size of middle warren/ bishop cuthbert why would the council need this land.
the new water world is allegedly to be on the site of the old car storage of middleton road.
i think it is all just nonsense

Right, had a bit of time to consider this, do a bit of googling, and also check the Daily Mail article in person.

As has been pointed out, they've spelt both names wrong - it's Berge Larsen who's the big cheese at DNO and reputedly bankrolls Pools. That immediately casts some doubt on the rest of the article. For starters, how does Allen know Larsen? There's nothing been said before, and Allen's been in charge at Sheff Wed for long enough - why wait until now, when news of a Norwegian Oil Tycoon interested in investing would have got the fans off his back a couple of years back when Bates was stalking them?

Next, most of the current Internet stuff refers to this mystery Chinese Casino owner. Kev's in a good position to know about the situation over there, and it may be that we're talking someone from Macau rather than China itself. Allen is a Casino owner himself, so that answers partly how he might know those people - and they've been seen at a match, unlike Berge Larsen who I believe has only seen Pools play rarely.

One interesting thing from the DNO site: Berge Larsen did his degree (Chemical Engineering I think) at Newcastle. Therefore there is a link with the North-East... anyone see a Norwegian student at the vic in the 70s?

My Norwegian is non-existent so most of the stuff about Mr. Larsen (including on the Norwegian version of Wikipedia) is unintelligible to me. I can't even tell you whether he is genuinely the driving force behind the IOR-Pools linkup, although it seems likely. However, we do have a 10 year track record with our current owner(s) where considerable investment has been made on and off the pitch and we've had more success than in the other 90 years of our existence combined. That doesn't mean it will last forever (what does?) but there have been plenty of opportunities in that time to get involved with other clubs - Leicester for example. Yet IOR are still here, Uncle Ken is still paying the bills, and there's nothing concrete to say that it's not going to continue....

Oh, and if anyone is in contact with Mr. Larsen, get him to have a gander at this thread....
http://boards.rivals.net/default.asp?si ... 2119254184

Yes, once again some of the Wendies are jumping in with both feet, straight into their own mouths. There seems to be a view from some of them that 1) Any friend of Dave Allen is no friend of theirs, and 2) If he's been involved with Hartlepool, he can't possibly be able to do anything for them in any case.

Stay with us IOR, we may moan and complain but compared to the Wednesday fans we're as nice as pie!

Any redevelopment of that general area will be years down the line ....

Back of tonights Mail has a write up on this situation!!!!

"Both Hartlepool United and IOR declined to comment"!!!!

If it's all bullshit why don't they tell us????

Journo speak!!

There'd be no-one there to talk to them and when the girlies on the phones said there's no one here to comment, they'd say 'The club declined to comment.'