This is from yesterday's Chrobicle:

Gateshead FC players' statement: Urgent plea to club's owners. The Gateshead squad has been reduced to just 16 players this season

Gateshead players have released a damning statement regarding the current plight at the club under the current foreign owners.

Players and staff say that they were not paid this month and the club were evicted from the International Stadium on Friday.

Debts are believed to be in excess of £200,000 and a takeover bid by former Rochdale chairman Chris Dunphy has yet to be completed.

Players and fans are united in their condemnation of the current regime running the club, Dr Ranjan Varghese and Joseph Cala.

Supporters association Gateshead Soul have threatened to stage protests after Saturday's game against Ebbsfleet. The Heed have been under a transfer embargo for the majority of the season and have had tax investigations over alleged unpaid bills.

There are six games to play in the final month of the season, four of them at home.

And today, the players have released the following statement, which was drafted, and approved by all players and coaching staff.

It read: "The Gateshead Football Club playing staff would like to issue the following statement regarding the owners of the club.

"We use the word owners in reference not only to Ranjan Varghese – the named owner of Gateshead Football Club – but also Joseph Cala, the man we all feel has been unofficially running the club virtually unopposed since the start of the 2018/19 season.

"As of writing this statement, all staff at the club are still awaiting our wages for the month of March. This was due on Friday 29th and then later promised to be paid by Monday 1st April.

"Our manager has since been told by Cala that we will not be paid unless he calls the National League and successfully requests them to release funds from the bond. We believe that this is a highly inappropriate and unprofessional thing for the club’s ownership to say to our manager in our current situation.

"For the months of January, February and March 2019 in particular, we have encountered several problems receiving our wages. Players and staff have not been paid on time for three months running and some have been paid improperly. Several outstanding expenses are still owed as well.

"On Friday, the day before an important National League match at Braintree, our training was disrupted as we were called back to remove our belongings from the International Stadium and leave the premises due to outstanding debts owed to Gateshead Council.

"This serious financial mismanagement at the club has to stop. We are a squad of 16 senior players with one of if not the smallest wage bill in the National League yet debts and wages are still left unpaid."

The statement continued: "There have been numerous hurdles we’ve had to face over the course of the season, such as travelling to almost every away game on the day, having to get up as early as 5am with no pre-match meals (until Saturday, thanks to Gateshead Soul) in order to cuts costs.

"Still, this barely scratches the surface of all the damage that has been done.

"In spite of all of this, all players and staff have remained professional and continued to perform above and beyond all expectations to the point where we are serious contenders for a play-off position going into the final month of the season.

"We have always given 100% for the badge but we could not have done this without the immense support from the simply unbelievable Heed Army who have backed us through thick and thin while those in charge haven’t.

"While our job is not yet complete, we continue to compete while battling the stresses of being thrown out of our home stadium as well as the financial predicament of not being paid properly, if at all.

"We have reached the point where these decisions are now affecting our lives away from the football club. Many of us have bills to pay and young families to provide for and it is seriously concerning that very little explanation or apology has been given as to why this has been allowed to happen. This is your doing, not anyone else’s.

"As owners, you have a responsibility to honour contracts, agreements and show a basic level of human decency and respect towards your staff – none of us have ever experienced anything like this before and we feel we have reached the point where we cannot continue while you, the current owners, are still at the club.

"We have the football club at our heart and nobody wants you at Gateshead any longer. The players, staff, fans, National League and Football Association have all made that abundantly clear. It is in everyone’s best interest, including your own, to leave.

"Fortunately on Friday, there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel for everyone as an agreement was reached in principle, to sell the club to former Rochdale chairman Chris Dunphy.

"Having agreed to sell the club to Chris, we simply ask you to honour this promise and leave the club with at least some dignity by allowing Chris to take over alongside Bill Goodwin.

"These are men with a proven track record at running a football club and we wholeheartedly endorse their takeover bid.

"Should you fail to go through with your promise to allow Chris to be in a position to take over at the club, we will be left with no choice but to take immediate action.

"It is up to you to ensure that it does not come to that."

The club had no comment to make on the players' statement.

No idea how we Poolies can support the Heed Army - going along to a game (like the Save Pools Day) would only put cash in Cala's pockets - but these near neighbours (meaning their fans and Ben Clark and the rest of the remaining staff) deserve any support we can give.

As if more proof was needed that the FA `Fit for purpose` checks are seriously `unfit for purpose`, makes me sad that these C unts get away with it and will then go to it elsewhere!

The players can go to other clubs but where do the fans go

I`m amazed nobody ever hunted Coxhall down

You are so right Monkey.

How about a weekend in Essex at the end of the season? Twat hunting?

wasn,t that joseph cala guy involved with a morecambe fiasco takeover bid only last season.

Yes, he claimed he was the owner for a while even though he never was. Funny bit in the Sunderland Echo where 'the Italian-American business man' claims he is only acting in the best interests of Gateshead. They make him sound like a mate of Tony Soprano, hopefully he won't be making any Heed fans an offer they can't refuse.

He also tried to take over Portsmouth in 2012.

I find this quite ironic. The C unt we had got away with it and ended up just down the road

Sad that football clubs are seen as such an easy target. The FA is not fit for purpose let alone their owners test.
Police will never give much time to investigating small football clubs either.

Will Gateshead be able to fulfill their fixtures? Surely not out of the question for Pools to let them finish the season at the Vic?

Think they've been evicted for unpaid rent but the landlords (the council) are letting them play matches as long as they pay for each week up front. Presumably the monies owed will be sorted out once the ownership situation is clear.

You really don’t see the difference in someone like this Gateshead chancer and Gary Coxall to someone like Raj Singh do you?

How on Earth did he ‘get away with it’ he lost a large chunk of his own cash which without your club would have been liquidated long before it was. Coxall got away with stealing a large chunk of cash from our club without losing or investing a single penny. He should be in prison with his mate Goldberg, I would call that ‘getting away with it...’

Where is the irony in you not getting it?

I was comparing him to the Gateshead owner who has refused to pay the players and pay the bills. Exactly what Singh did to us. Yet he's allowed to rock up at another club. The Gateshead owner had previous for fucking about at Morecambe yet passes the fit and proper persons test again. You are the one bringing Coxall into this.
And you are showing your ignorance yet again, we werent liquidated, Singhs holding company was. The club is a continuation as proved by the fact we carried Singhs debt over and paid it off for him.

You were demoted to the Northern League, had to change name, didn’t have a ground. The old club went out of business. You make it sound like all the debt was inherited and local businesses didn’t end up out of pocket, again, when in reality some of the football debt was inherited so the new club would be entitled to sell on clauses from a couple of players.

Whether Raj got involved with your club or not as a club you were totally unsustainable playing non league football in front of 1,500 people in a 25,000 stadium. The outcome at some point was always going to be the same whoever was at the helm, pouring money into a blank hole has no future.

Would love to be a fan of a club who fucked over St John's Ambulance like

Remember that Chant

You’re going home in a Poolie ambulance!!


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wasn,t it really great before all this financial stuff ruled the game when your only interest was a new signing and where you,d finish up at the end of the season. Pools like many others have mainly struggled financially for most of their existance but never like the last few years where a few hundred became a lot of thousands.

I find this quite ironic. The C unt we had got away with it and ended up just down the road [/quote]

There seem to be two quite different versions of the story and it would be nice if someone could just provide the basic facts - without the views, interpretations, etc.

If we had the facts then we would know when to worry and when we don't need to.

And the 'facts' will obviously include the behavior/ legacies of BOTH Georges - many seem to remember only Messrs Reynolds and Singh, but there was an interesting gap.............

I know the facts and have put them on here plenty of times but people like PJ choose to ignore them to follow their "Darlo went bust" agenda.
GR was a deluded fool who got stung himself for money he was relying on to build the stadium.
Stewart Davies was the man who saved the club and got it on a sound footing before selling to the other George who systematically restructured the club and landed us right in the clarts, along with Singh. Singh to his credit tried to rescue the situation but his actions when he pulled the plug were beyond contemptible. Refusing to pay certain players or pay any bills. Then claiming he would walk away without asking for any of his money back then deciding he wanted it back. Refusing to sign over the football share (hence the name change PJ, not because we went bust) and consigning us to the northern league because a new football share had to be issued. Thats the type of man you have running your club now and you are welcome to him. Just dont be surprised if his true colours come to the fore again.

Il read this when i struggle to fall asleep tonight.

How come you're not back in the FL yet, thought the juggernaut was going to smash through these leagues?

Thanks - so did RS keep that Golden Share? I guess it then just 'died' (for want of a better word).

And the point about the debt has confused me. Did he simply refuse to put more money into the limited company (which went bust) so certain folk didn't get paid? Or was he more devious?

I know the story about how his 'gift of money' suddenly became a repayable loan and so he became a major creditor - and I guess the concern is that he has done something pretty similar to Pools.

And you guys spent a fair amount on a Newcastle based lawyer (from Muckles I think) - did he ever try to go after RS for money or that Golden Share?

See I think this is all important and interesting - and we need to avoid the abuse and stupid comments and stick to the facts - and work together in same way that the Hartlepool Trust are talking to the guys at Wrexham, Grimsby, etc. If you are half right then we should all know and worry if necessary. And that's why I'm asking for the unadjusted facts. We should be working together and supporting each other - and just as we came along to your various fundraisers at the Arena, and Boro and other fans have supported Pools, I soon expect us all to be helping out Gateshead Soul....

Im pretty sure Raj admitted he made mistakes at Darlo when he took over here, im also 100% sure Raj isnt here to line his own pockets in anyway. There would be no sense in taking over a club in the condition we were in (and with the legacy debts that still keep appearing) at the time if that was to be your intention.

Lets not forget without Raj, we wouldnt still have our club.

Not forgotten that and I haven't said anything negative about him - but I still think that it is sensible to understand what happened down the road.

I agree. Loan Star will no doubt tell us every month.

I don’t have an agenda I just don’t think it’s fair to put Raj in same bracket as someone like Gary Coxall. I sure he has regrets about how things ended with Darlo but it was the third time they had been in administration the writing was on the wall before his involvement.

Absolutely agree.

Loan Star - we're still waiting for the facts..................

You had a head start.What's gone wrong ??

You know full well we were fooked over by several dodgy owners before our saviour came along.

Sorry not been on here much lately! Some would say thats a good thing!
I'm at work at the moment so will find some time in the next day or so to update you!
Just as long as PJ etc understand that it isnt a dig at Singh (again) but just the basic facts about what happened from Reynolds takeover onwards.

Sorry not been on here much lately! Some would say thats a good thing!
I'm at work at the moment so will find some time in the next day or so to update you!
Just as long as PJ etc understand that it isnt a dig at Singh (again) but just the basic facts about what happened from Reynolds takeover onwards.[/quote]

Thanks LS - looking forward to it. Really interesting to hear about the 'second' George and what really happened when the supposed 'donations' became 'loans'....and how the negotiations went and at what stage did they fail causing the end of the 'original Darlo'.

And it is a shame that you don't get on here more - this community benefits from input from other clubs - it would be great to hear from folk involved with Chester for example; Gateshead given their current plight; Stockport County, etc....

And where is Horden?

On the Durham coast between Easington and Blackhall.

On the Durham coast between Easington and Blackhall.[/quote]

An accountant's answer. 100% accurate but fundamentally useless. But thank you. Has the transport interchange been built yet?

You sound like an intelligent bloke, so I'm struggling to imagine why you'd want Horden back?

There's a long list of people who used to post regularly on here whose contributions I miss, for a whole variety of reasons. For instance, I wish Chip Fireball would make a grovelling apology to Mr I and get back on this board. He was a touchy, frequently verbally abusive know-it-all too, but when it came to football he did actually know what he was talking about.

Totally agree with you about Chip. No idea about Chip and Mr I. And yes, there are plenty of contributors who have disappeared - is this due to the behaviour of others - or the sorry state of Pools over the past few years?

As for Horden, I sort of agree with you - his pint glass was pretty much permanently drained and his approach to some posters left much to be desired - but he cared about Pools (albeit in a grim way), clearly had an understanding/ depth of knowledge about lower league football and, whether intentionally or not, provoked thought. I took a fair bit of abuse from him some years ago and had no time for his (or others') political rants - but, yes, I do sort of miss him.

Maybe the medication has stopped working?

Growing disillusionment with the football team to the point of being past caring has a lot to do with it. If you had a look at the other board during the 'closing' scare over Easter it's clear there's half a dozen used-to-be diehard fans all feeling like they're on the point of jacking it in.

Their board is carrying on and good luck to them. Don't think there'd have been much of an exodus to here if they'd closed! It really is about more than just the football - for instance, Horden would be right at home among the Poolie pessimists on there, but not at all when it comes to politics! Anyway, it's a reminder that it's all down Mr I that the Bunker is still going.

Personally, I like going to a match on a Saturday afternoon and I enjoy talking about football, so I'm hanging on for as long as it takes to get a half decent side back.
No doubt the young lads and the drummer will create another great atmosphere for the Salford game - looking forward to seeing the retained list in action!