New beginnings - 25% Truth, 80% Bollocks

[theakston2k]

So it seems all the concerns we’ve raised over the last couple of years are unfortunately valid…. How very STFC

If only there was an organisation that was supposed to hold the club to account…. Whilst I wouldn’t belittle people doing stuff for free in their own time surely the Trust asking questions now is all a bit pointless as certain Trust board members positions effectively become untenable. You can’t credibly go from being Clem’s biggest fan, popping up defending him at every opportunity including on this forum to suddenly claiming to be pushing the difficult questions. They’ve spent the last 2 years paying lip service to any concerns raised and allowing the club to fob them off.

I’ve obviously been very vocal in my concerns previously but when a perspective owner and then incumbent owner uses the supporters Trust and ‘influential’ supporters to in effect be his PR department it was always a red flag. In hindsight he was clearly pretty calculated in who he allowed to enter his inner circle. The only question is whether Clem is the poor fall guy for someone else similar to Angus for him, or whether Clem is in fact ‘dodgy’.

[Bob1978]

I’m not sure any league football club owner is whiter than white. The trust and RAs problem is they believed clem was. I’ve always been a bit sceptical but I still think clem has cleaned up quite a bit of mess. I you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

[Charlie Henry]

I can't quite believe everyone's favourite scouse "entrepreneur" Rikki Hunt has been forgotten while discussing our well established rogues hall of fame... Could we re-name the toilet blocks in their honour?

[The Grim Reaper]

Fooled me once won’t fool me again. Will be interesting to see how this pans out during the season. Clem would have to come up with some incredible bullshit in end of season program notes to shift season tickets.

[ThreeDrawsMentality]

I noticed that the journalist who did the Adver article of the Axis monies owed earlier this week has this to say yesterday morning:
'Any of my fellow journalists had any dealings with crisis management lawyers?

If so, did it make you more or less compelled to keep reporting and looking into the thing they’re trying to
crisis manage?'

[Mooneyraker]

So it seems all the concerns we’ve raised over the last couple of years are unfortunately valid…. How very STFC

If only there was an organisation that was supposed to hold the club to account…. Whilst I wouldn’t belittle people doing stuff for free in their own time surely the Trust asking questions now is all a bit pointless as certain Trust board members positions effectively become untenable. You can’t credibly go from being Clem’s biggest fan, popping up defending him at every opportunity including on this forum to suddenly claiming to be pushing the difficult questions. They’ve spent the last 2 years paying lip service to any concerns raised and allowing the club to fob them off.

I’ve obviously been very vocal in my concerns previously but when a perspective owner and then incumbent owner uses the supporters Trust and ‘influential’ supporters to in effect be his PR department it was always a red flag. In hindsight he was clearly pretty calculated in who he allowed to enter his inner circle. The only question is whether Clem is the poor fall guy for someone else similar to Angus for him, or whether Clem is in fact ‘dodgy’.

I'm sure people think I bang on about this but it is worth going to the Trust's very own timeline to remember how this panned out.

https://truststfc.com/history-and-timeline/

The conflict of interest was absolutely glaring from day one.

They went on national media to force Power out with their 'No Money No Power' campaign.

They even trumpeted their significant due diligence and yet somehow seemingly missed that the proposed Vice Chairman had done porridge for laundering drugs money.

They have, for some reason or other, been absolutely blind to things that have been glaringly obvious to many.

It was clear from the Man City ticket debacle that Clem or whoever pulls the strings didn't give a tinker's fuck what the Trust thought once they were actually through the door. What Supporters' Trust in their right mind would allow the hounding of people not to ask for their season ticket refunds? It was shamefully blinkered.

When is the next Trust AGM? Not much point trying to change direction unless they are prepared to have a clear out. We will need to have a working Supporters' Trust for the next phase of this odyssey.

[Wobbly Bob]

Fooled me once won’t fool me again. Will be interesting to see how this pans out during the season. Clem would have to come up with some incredible bullshit in end of season program notes to shift season tickets.

Shouldn't be a problem with promotion in the bag.

[Nemo]

The last Trust AGM was in on 22nd March, so about six months away from the next one. Worth saying that not every member of the current board was part of it during the events laid out above - obviously some of the higher profile ones have been very vocally behind the current ownership in all their decisions, but I don't think that's a unanimous view in private.

Also worth saying that as disappointing as all the recent events have been, we are in a better position than we were three years ago - joint ownership of the ground is an unalloyed good thing, and the legal contracts in place around that joint ownership look (to this untrained eye) waterproof in terms of protecting the fans and the club from any owner current or future trying to exploit it.

[STFC_Manc]

I'm sure people think I bang on about this but it is worth going to the Trust's very own timeline to remember how this panned out.

https://truststfc.com/history-and-timeline/

The conflict of interest was absolutely glaring from day one.

They went on national media to force Power out with their 'No Money No Power' campaign.

They even trumpeted their significant due diligence and yet somehow seemingly missed that the proposed Vice Chairman had done porridge for laundering drugs money.

They have, for some reason or other, been absolutely blind to things that have been glaringly obvious to many.

It was clear from the Man City ticket debacle that Clem or whoever pulls the strings didn't give a tinker's fuck what the Trust thought once they were actually through the door. What Supporters' Trust in their right mind would allow the hounding of people not to ask for their season ticket refunds? It was shamefully blinkered.

When is the next Trust AGM? Not much point trying to change direction unless they are prepared to have a clear out. We will need to have a working Supporters' Trust for the next phase of this odyssey.

I'm not sure quite what your issue is with the Trust, your captain hindsight routine is laughable.

Would you have preferred Power to carry on, not paying anyone and then putting STFC into admin?

The Trust can question (as they did) e.g. man city tickets but at the end of the day they don't make the decisions.

To your final point 7 of the current 11 on the board are new and have no links to the takeover. By all means you could get off your keyboard and put yourself up for the board?

[JoeMezz]

All credit that the current regime has the club's best interest at heart goes with Angus gone. Funny how all of this has unravelled after the stadium has been purchased. Corrupt fuckers 

[Mooneyraker]

I'm not sure quite what your issue is with the Trust, your captain hindsight routine is laughable.

Would you have preferred Power to carry on, not paying anyone and then putting STFC into admin?

The Trust can question (as they did) e.g. man city tickets but at the end of the day they don't make the decisions.

To your final point 7 of the current 11 on the board are new and have no links to the takeover. By all means you could get off your keyboard and put yourself up for the board?

A classic pro-Trust response I'm afraid. It seems they can't be criticised unless you are prepared to stand for the board... All very Clem Jong Un.

My issue with the Trust is that they've hitched our wagon, and Nigel Eady's money, to a bunch of charlatans and crooks.

It's not hindsight if you said it at the time either is it? And got head patted by people in the Trust. "Clem's the real deal" etc.

This was blindingly obvious to many. From the outside looking in it seems like a handful of people have been able to vigorously pursue a chosen outcome in spite of all the red flags in the world.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

OK, I get where you’re coming from, but what exactly are all these charlatans doing that is detrimental to the club.

[Robinz]

The cold hard facts as I see it... Morfuni was the only person able to move Power on.

The club would not be currently be trading today if Morfuni had not wrestled and won his fight with Power.

We don't have any other options but to simply wait and see what happens next.

[Nemo]

Read the Joint Venture terms and clauses, it's pretty clear not everyone in the Trust had absolute faith in the owners' goodwill - even if it was couched as future owners. I don't think it's fair to say Eady's money has been squandered here, yes Clem benefits but no more than any owner would and the scope for nefarious stuff is very limited.

[STFC_Manc]

A classic pro-Trust response I'm afraid. It seems they can't be criticised unless you are prepared to stand for the board... All very Clem Jong Un.

My issue with the Trust is that they've hitched our wagon, and Nigel Eady's money, to a bunch of charlatans and crooks.

It's not hindsight if you said it at the time either is it? And got head patted by people in the Trust. "Clem's the real deal" etc.

This was blindingly obvious to many. From the outside looking in it seems like a handful of people have been able to vigorously pursue a chosen outcome in spite of all the red flags in the world.

I think you need to get down from your soap box, my point was that if you want to do more than type on your keyboard, you have a way to influence it.

Yeah my bad, we did have loads of billionaires queuing up to take over STFC, I can't remember anyone else in the running? apart from 'Able' who no one knew anything about, unless I'm wrong?