From the Adver (1st September 2006):
Director Bob Holt said: “A cash injection from James Wills means the terms put to us by the League have been satisfied and we’re obviously grateful to the Wills family once again for their tremendous backing.”
Ok so someone is telling porky pies. Either Bob has fucked up royally again with a public statement or it seems that Wills looked to take the credit but then realised when the shit was hitting the fan that it would favour him to try and pass the blame. I think the terrible irony of this official statement is that it muddies the water further, in fact it makes Wills look shady (even if he is telling the truth).
What is clear is that there are no proper controls in place at the club. If Devlin has indeed done as is said by Wills, how and why was he allowed to do so? Can't Sandy Gray actually ring up someone to check Devlin isn't trying to fiddle something? And if club officials were so concerned, you don't just phone or email someone - you go and see them - i.e. go to the County Ground and see what is happening. The Ince situation was well documented in the press, it was that obvious.
Now to the statement(s) 'overspend would be covered by Power' implicitly made by Power/Devlin. Again, I find this horribly ironic - the board have slated the internet/press/even the trust for statements that are 'untrue', yet believe what is said in the press about 'implicit' decisions from Power/Devlin.
If what has been said by Wills is absolutely true (and I'm not sure it is/isn't and am not making this the issue in this post) then Devlin has cocked up, but the rest of the board are just as bad. I think the statement even shows negligence (and possibly failure of fiduciary duty if what has been said represents the full facts and there are no other goings on outside of what has been said in the statement. ) by all of the board members.
