Thetownend.com

via Twitter this evening -

When I decided to stand alone and support the club it was a disaster scenario - relegated to League 2, facing sure administration... and with a heavy FL points deduction there would have been a major chance of falling out of the leagues at the end of the season .... The club also had no manager... Today we sit at the top of league 1, again with no manager. As far as I'm concerned it's job done.

He also said he never intended it to be a long term venture.

For the above, several Town fans think filthy abuse appropriate but, thankfully, many have been more positive.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
I never signed up to the '3 year plan' - it was only presented to me once, and then only briefly...

I was expecting the mong element of the town support on twitter to be giving him shit but it seems 90% of the messages towards him are expressing thanks and appreciation.

A pleasant surprise

Owe him big time, just a shame how it was all handled at the end!

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
As it happens in 2011 I agreed to sell the club at the end of that season. Paolo knew about this. Unfortunately the deal fell through.

Fully agree, but they got rid of Diamandis and co., and getting debts down from £18m to approx £4m gets more brownie points from me.

Would be interested in knowing when Sir Martyn Arbib left the backers of the board and why, sounds like some stuff went on behind the scenes after relegation that we'd never really heard about...at the same time as Fitton going?

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
The deal fell through because the FL concluded that they couldn't afford to run the club. One of their main backers died suddenly ...

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
...in the final weeks. It was all a bit tragic

I get the distinct impression that something is going to come out that is going to make Paolo look like an absolute nutjob.

Suspicious...

@themichaelowen: @bertthebold For somebody who did it as a favour, you don't need to explain yourself Bert. Your generosity could not be found anywhere else.

Was it Paolo in the dining room with a candlestick?

If he wasn't in for the long term then what was he in it for.

I believe he sold up because of the ground development issue- where it just hasn't progressed.

There's no money in football especially when you don't own the ground.

Hopefully it will all start coming out now.

@themichaelowen: @bertthebold I am sure most Swindon fans realise what you have done for the club. They are in their strongest position in years.

Stands to reason that Michael Owen would know him personally from the horse racing connections.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
I put Jeremy in as chairman at the start if the 2011 season - for various reasons I wasn't comfortable but I didn't have anyone else.

Mention newell,s name to black on twitter, see wot the response is

Not sure if it's good or bad, but something I want to hear

He won't reply to that

There's obviously a lot of tension in the air. Could get nasty

He's already rubbished it many times. Pay attention.

Why not

@bertthebold: Jeremy and Nick interviewed Paolo and thought he was the right guy - I stayed in the background as I prefer. We gave him a 2 year contract.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
Jeremy and Nick interviewed Paolo and thought he was the right guy - I stayed in the background as I prefer. We gave him a 2 year contract.

I'm fucked if I would have stayed in the background if I was the one pumping the millions in!

Sorry I don't spend all my life reading wot other people write

These tweets are probably closure for him I'd imagine, can't see him wanting to get drawn into conversations.

Says he within five minutes of the original post.

Hmm... Just seen this:

@jimmoffat1: @SamMorshead_SA what about the story about pdc about to break on mail online.

Sam doesn't seem to know what it could be. Sounds ominous.

@bertthebold: I've known Jeremy for half my life - he was a huge West Ham fan, and in particular almost obsessive about Di Canio.  This concerned me.

I've known Jeremy for half my life - he was a huge West Ham fan, and in particular almost obsessive about Di Canio. This concerned me.

That explains why Wray was removed. Pretty much as expected at the time, gave a bit too much to Di Canio for the moneyman's liking- and you can't blame him, it's his money.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
I've known Jeremy for half my life - he was a huge West Ham fan, and in particular almost obsessive about Di Canio. This concerned me.

I said All my life, not the last 5 mins

 :eek: 'obsessive'

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
I've known Jeremy for half my life - he was a huge West Ham fan, and in particular almost obsessive about Di Canio. This concerned me.

Uh oh.

This explains why Wray bent over for Paolo at every request then

@aidanmccartney: Rather incredible story about Paolo Di Canio set to break soon on MailOnline. He is literally mental. #stfc

Now I know it's the Mail but....

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
There was a lot of debt in the holding company, much owed to Sir Martyn Arbib, but he was always happy to write it off, as I was with mine
Expand 

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
The remainder was owed to Amdrew Fitton

Do you reckon he's been on the sauce?

No, I think he's just had a lot he's wanted to say for a long time.

More than likely. Good fun this isn't it  :popcorn:

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
...who was Jeremy's business partner. He wasn't prepared to write it off. It was very messy. Andrew and Jeremy did not want me to sell...

Only at Swindon Town FC could the much praised new era of financial stability of 2008 end like this five years later. Several parties, over twitter, possibly drunken and pre-empting a mail article.

All coming out now.

Could be an interesting evening.

It's fucking up my chances of getting any work done tonight quite nicely.

It's difficult because there are clearly a lot of deep rooted issues on all sides. Pretty much everyone involved (with the possible exception of Patey although we don't know that for sure) deserves our thanks and respect, but it's like watching a couple you like both of divorce.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
...and we ended up falling out. I won't go into the detail here.

Refreshing to hear his viewpoint, seems to come across well... Shame he didn't speak out sooner.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
I decided I 2011 that I would have to replace Jeremy, but it took a long time to find someone. Chairing a football club is not easy.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
Sir William did an amazing job for which he will never get full credit. I am hugely in his debt.

Hopefully not literally, the man's lost enough money.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
I never got to know Paolo very well - I only met him a handful of times.

The NDA is well and truely over then! What are The Sun/Mail going to print? (aka what has Murdoch got up his sleeve now)

This seems like it could be reported tomorrow with the closing words "before turning the gun on himself".

Stay strong Bertie xx

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
Sitting in a board meeting with him is pretty surreal. I said many times to Nick that we should get the cameras in for a fly on the wall...

Wow this all fucking ridiculous I think this all going to end up in a legal mess thankfully they are nothing to do with stfc anymore

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
...documentary.

I'm glad he cleared that last bit up

Brilliant :D

Well I really hope you're right about the last bit.

He's not the fastest typer

A fly on the wall documentary about a fly on the wall...genius.

If he's had a few he should come away from twitter, reporters asking him questions will twist his every word.

At least he's literate, unlike Jed.

It's financial

It's gone quiet. Perhaps he's building up for a biggie.

Or maybe just not good at endings.

Am I the only one enjoying all this? It's like watching a horror/suspense/thriller movie.

What will happen next?

Or he's got a call from a lawyer / p.a

It's brilliant isn't it, until we hear something we don't like...

Never a dull moment.

Battery ran out?

Didn't pay the bill?

Enjoy is probably not the right word but I see what you mean. It's strangely engrossing but not enjoyable!

Maybe it's like a Star Wars series, we'll have to wait years for the next instalment, but Patey dolls will be hot property for a while.

Or gone for a dump?

I am, but watching through my fingers whilst hiding behind the sofa.

I thought that the entire point of smartphones was tweeting whilst having a shit? Maybe he's just finished his dump?

It'll be about cheese.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
Sorry to keep you waiting, I'm squeezing out an enormous log

 :D

I'm hoping he's just opening another bottle of red.

He's just mopping up?

Morshead tweeted someon saying if the mail story is what he thinks it is, it could be a legal knot

I suspect a journalist has rung him.

Fuck me what did they used to do at Board Meetings, play fucking darts.

Come back Bert.

Hmm, it did seem like he was just building up to something.

A coincidence in AB leaving us on a knife edge and the daily Mail releasing their story shortly after?

If he only met PDC a couple of times whilst bank rolling the Club then this unbelievable.

Imagine the Boardroom Meeting.

"Right Jeremy lets talk about the Budget".

"Err we're just slightly off target".

"OK, we better call Andrew"......ring ring........"The Budget Andrew, we're quids in and we want to sign a Czeh international,"

"How much ?"

"Don't know but Paolo wants him."

"OK as long as we're under Budget sign him on."

"Where are we in the League ?"

"Doing very well......we are top"

Like Mr Grace .....Are you being served....."You're all doing very well"

"Thank you Mr Black, speak soon"

"bye"

"Right Nick you require 180".

He sounds like a bit of a pushover. He effectively said that he never really wanted to buy into the club and definitely never bought into Fitton's 3 year plan. In the end it's cost him a shit load of money and a few lost friendships.

I actually feel a bit sorry for him.

Agree totally

Hate to be a pedant but 180 is not a finish

reading back over those tweets, I think he probably should have kept his silence.

Dunno why but that's made me laugh more than the Paolo story!

Wouldn't be the first rich man to try and please others with his money and get fucked over royally.

To be honest if he had waited a month before switching off the tap he would have been universally lauded by all Town fans. Especially as the sale had been agreed.

We would, in all likelihood, still have Ritchie, Paolo & his team and be top of the league.

Having written off the best part of £10m I can't imagine another month would have cost that much more.

That said, even having lost those things, we are in a much better place now thanks to Andrew Black, it's just that feeling that it could have been better.

But the turning off of the tap was not a surprise to those in the know, I interpreted it as being necessary to force the others hand who didn't want to sell.

After spunking up £10m, if anyone has a right to talk its him.

Why single Black out?

How about Fitton? He didn't put anywhere near as much in to the club, didn't want to write it off and tried to block the sale.

Exactly. If Fitton and Wray stood firm over their debts in the holding co, Black's only way out would've been administration which we now know would've resulted in a demotion and may have ultimately been a death toll for the club.

Fitton and Wray effectively had two choices - 1) write off their debts and allow the sale of the club, or 2) not write off the debt, force Black to call in the administrators, jeopardise the club's future and STILL not get their money back.

Surely They wouldn't of jeopardised the future of the club just to get back at Black though?

So Fitton, if anyone, is the bad guy.  He was instrumental in putting together the consortium and cleaning up the mess off the pitch.  But then he undid some of his good work by making some poor judgements with manager selections, which contributed to relegation, then got bored of his own plan halfway through.  Wray and Black were left to pick up the pieces.  In Black's case this has cost him his best man and a few million quid.  Plus a lot of grief.  He should have cut and run a few years ago.

It's pretty clear Fitton brought in Arbib and Wray brought in Black. It really has been a huge falling out.

Fitton has been a problem for some time.

Don't think it was about getting back at him. Fitton didn't want to lose his money and Wray wanted to carry on running the club, except neither of them were prepared or able to foot the bill to enable this to happen. Seems like they held out for as long as they could before admitting defeat.

Well I can understand why Black feels a bit peeved then, For Andrew to continue to put heaps of money in month after month just to please others deserves some huge thanks and not some of the shit he's getting on twitter and alike.

I think he's also been suffering from panic attacks/anxiety which is never good.

He bailed us out in 2011 and again at the start of this season, the timing of the takeover has fucked us up but I can sort of see why he did it now.

Ooh he's back!

I like how he returns after a two hour absence with 'Anyway...'

Ooo Black wasn't happy with the Caddis saga.

You and me both Bert, you and me both.

He's really letting go now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debriefing#Psychological_research

Feel for the guy. He's lost a lot of money over something he was never passionate about.

I can't keep with all of this we get no info now we are getting overload

Just as I was about to turn in for the night  ::)

Yeah...it's keeping me up too!

can someone post his tweets please?

I wish he could type a bit quicker.

I don't know if Black realises it or if it's just me but it feels like he's building up to some kind of bombshell statement. He'll probably stop half way through a story.

He must be stringing the tweets out on purpose just to keep us on tenterhooks, like a good author. Either that or he does average about 7 words a minute

I wish he would finish his sentences. Although I get the feeling that the next word after 'issuing' will be 'ultimatums'

This is going to end up going legal you can see it happening

Surely that's between Black and Di Canio and the rest though? Not the club.

Anyway as the (first) sale of the club was going through FL approval Di Canio and Spencer presented us with a new contract with only a ....few days to accept. I said it wasn't my concern as I thought I had sold the club. The contract went through and then I ended up owning...the club again. It seemed to be a very one sided contract. I had no choice but to accept it. A couple of months later I replaced Jeremy.and relations started breaking down very quickly. I hadn't been happy with what had happened over Caddis and I had had a sense of humour failure when the club breached the wage cap and went into embargo. I had repeatedly asked at the board for all player transactions to be communicated and I had had virtual radio silence. Di Canio and Spencer were not happy with the chairman being changed and began issuing

So far!

"...Press releases criticising the board. I didn't like the way it was going. The budget plan changed with the forecasts for this year and"

He doesn't have any thumbs.

Is that where the Eastenders drums kick in?

I see Jed has tweeted that he has not given up hope of Paolo returning and that he didn't want him to leave - It's hard to know what to believe.

"...next going a lot higher. At the start of the season I had decided to put in another year, but I changed my mind. I felt very confident that we could find a buyer in January. There was plenty of interest - the problem was that a lot of the interest was to buy the club out of..."

What's this new contract spencer presented him with?  Did it contain a pay rise for Pdc and endless consultancy fees for spencer?

Incredible stuff being released in to the public domain to tonight!

All pretty damaging for PDC's future prospects

I'd imagine so. In fact, it doesn't surprise me at all that Spencer was involved in a dodgy contract.

Seeing as this started up again post midnight then this makes these latest set of tweets Black's final Statement Friday with STFC. I think he knows this, hence the 2 hour delay.

"buy the club out of administration. None of the board wanted that of course. To be honest I didn't really know much about the administration process at first"

Jesus, this is chronic. Could he not just have made another of his fabled blog posts?

"Anyway as it happened there was interest to buy the club without the need for admin. Given that I sold the club free of all callable debt. For £1 you'd hope that that would get some interest going."

Would it be fair to say that Black's gut instinct - which has clearly served him well in business - was right when it came to PDC? There's something a bit soul destroying about the thought of Di Canio making unfair demands on a our small but perfectly formed football club.

Well, he is just ambitious.. and if he managed to get promoted, all these demands, and spending would have been seen as investments.

But at the end of the day, it was their choice to agree to the demands and give him what he wanted.

If mccrorys tweets are to go by he wants Pdc back.  Don't do it jed

I would take him back in an instant - I have never had so much supporting Swindon as i have over the last couple of years.

You mad bro?

No.  There's to much here I don't like especially involving spencer.  I will not have this club being held to ransom.  Pdc and spencer have questions to answer. 

There's no way it should even be considered.

The price of success my friends.

This is worts and all stuff from Black. Wonde what we'll hear from PDC and Spencer? Especially the renegotiated contract and adjusted budgets part.

@bertthebold: They didn't want to sell him of course - I don't think any of us did, but there were cash issues and I had decided for better or worse

@bertthebold: to hold firm and not put more money in.  There were lots of frantic calls late into the evening and Ritchie ended up sold. Di Canio and

@bertthebold: Spencer had argued against it but AFAIK they had been consulted and had accepted that it might happen.  I didn't have a lot to do with it -

Who are AFAIK?

As far as I know.

There's the interesting bit "AFAIK"... Offers some wriggle room for Black should PDC backup his claim that he didn't.

@bertthebold: I had a few calls when I was at a restaurant that evening.  I signed it off though.

The deal got done subject to FL approval, which was great - Russell Backhouse put a lot of work in to make it happen. I met with the other side and got on well with them - a mixture of guys who hopefully have most bases covered. We still had to wait for FL approval and it was
quite slow in coming, which displeased team Di Canio as we couldn't sign any loan players until the deal was approved. Paolo presented the

How many non-mental managers, given the resources PDC had, would have got us where we are today?

Impossible to say I know, but I'd guess plenty.

Incoming owners with a deal (that they accepted) on a very short time frame that was out of our control. When the FL approval did not come ‏@bertthebold

through in time Paolo resigned as he said he would and walked away. I was surprised.

Fuck this... smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.

This is excruciating waiting for him to tap out his next tweet via his iPhone!

I know he's lost a fuck ton of money on us but he can afford a laptop to write a statement in full Shirley?!

I've been banned from making new topics. I am very unhappy. I want Paolo back.

Why am I waiting for this to start:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnbH2XvCN7c (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnbH2XvCN7c)

Andrew Black @bertthebold
but if I'm honest I was pleased. Paolo is a highly intense individual and a fierce and demanding boss, but he is uncompromising and does

"not manage upwards. I haven't decided how good I think he is at his job - he'd be on your case the whole time but he had a very decent"

What's bugging me is that first he said he didn't really know him, he barely talked to him.. Now he is throwing shit at him.. and giving a detailed insight on his personality.. WTF..

(What he really means)  :D

:D

but he said he never got to know him.. 

He is now continuing to throw shit at him..

It's not sounding implausible though is it? I imagine one in-depth meeting with PDC is enough to get an idea about how the chap operates.

Andrew Black ‏@bertthebold
budget to work with. The worst thing from the perspective of new owners is that he isn't the type to be told - I think he saw himself as bigger than the club and I think it would have been an accident waiting to happen. At least this way the new owners get to pick a manager

Bugger this, I'll catch up with this later in the morning, night all   :zzz: :zzz: :zzz: :zzz: :zzz: :zzz:

Well.. he is saying things we already know about Di Canio.. U can see how he is.. but he is being superficial...

Di Canio has a big ego, no doubt.. but he has always been determined to win and his style of communication is not unheard, and has been successful elsewhere.. Mourinho, to say one easy name.. it's similar somehow.. He puts himself in front all the time, as a polarizing figure, so the players concentrate on the pitch..

Huzzah it's over!

He had absolutely every right to have his say. I'm more than sure others will do the same.

"Anyway that's all from me. I hope it works out with the new team and I hope the club makes it to the Championship. Thanks all."



[url width=428 height=438]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JpLK3CEavUc/TGJMIxa2WeI/AAAAAAAAAMc/F47x1t5T3fg/s1600/thatsalllogo.gif[/url]

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/10245156.Black_reveals_all_on_Twitter/

Andrew Black really has zero interest in talking to the press.

I notice it gets a little vague round the edges on the sale of Ritchie, which is perhaps just clever as it could easily be a key point if there's any constructive dismissal claim.

It could also send me on a massive, boring, rant about managers, stability and why it's bollocks.

Good on Black for giving us his perspective, now just up to us to filter it using our brains, and without having anyone intermediaries to do so for us.

My take - Paolo/Spencer too demanding, didn't take no for an answer and spent too much now, and more next year, and had too much of a free reign.

 Black got very very pissed off. Simple as that. Disappointingly his exit reasons are exactly as we thought.

Black has done wonders for the club, I've thanked him. But I still think his timing sucked.

Had a quick skip through this thread.

If PDC comes back, which I don't think he will, it will be an unmitigated disaster. Especially as we don't have a wealthy backer for Paolo to order to write cheques.

Its been fun, but maybe time for a few quieter years of calm and stability!!

can someone who has fuck all else to do today copy this all into one message so i can read it properly, its doing my head in line for line!

Spot on and he and Phil The Spiv will struggle to find another owner who is so accommodating for so long.

It's in the adver

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/10245156.Black_reveals_all_on_Twitter/

Mr Moorshead has kindly done that for you already Whits..

Lovely - Thanks All :)

But what was he suposed to do, he gave them all a deadline but it is clear that Wray and Fitton were happy to sit on their hands and continue spending his money on their toy, was he supposed to just keep throwing £x each month down the drain?

This is the one bit of the story that possibly needs further investigation, just how much did Spencer take out of the club in fees, what links did he have to the plethora of completely pointless signings that Paolo made and finally the fact that our club was essentially being joint managed by an Agent. There was all that media about the issue of Willie Mackay at Doncaster and this seems on a similar level.

I statred a thread a while back debating Phil Spencer's role.  It got laughed off and lost in a load of jokes about some cunt on a property programme .... I knew ...

Yes, as a football fan I wanted him to do that until the last day of the season. Exactly that.

I'm not saying what he did wasn't sensible from his point of view, just being selfish.

i guess that'll be the last we ever hear from Mr. Black, he doesn't seem the type who would wish to drag this out. i do expect another statement from Paolo today though.

If he's got any sense, he'll already be back in Italy.

We know the answer to this!

Read the report in the SA interesting reading?
This will drag on seems the daily Mail are after PDC maybe Martin Samuel's doesn't want PDC at West Ham
I would expect in the next couple of days PDC will respond
Hopefully Jed has the rights for the ITV Drama production

Paolo is in a very diffcult situation regards West Ham. Both the owners, Gold and Sullivan, are Jews. Do you seriously think they're going to appoint a man who has so exuberantly expressed his love of Fascism? It's not going to happen.

I think we should run out to this now.  Not for the word, just the general sense of drama seems to encapsulate the last few weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HELofmbpDM0

Enjoyed that Saxondale. We are the soap opera of football. Long may it last :beers:

Fascism doesn't necessary equal anti-semitism... I imagine they have far more pressing concerns with di Canio's personality and managerial style, to be honest.

Learn your history. Italian Jews are among the founding members of nationism/fascism in Italy.

So has anyone found out who the money man behind the new consortium is yet?

Richard Money and Pat Cash.

Thats explains that then cheers bob.

There doesn't necessarily need to be one.  What we will need, however, are board members with the background, skills and contacts to make a success of the club.  As of now, I have no idea whether they have these things.  They seem to be ordinary joes like you & me.  Time will tell.

Jed has been very open in certain respects so far (blow by blow account of what he's drinking and in which pub, etc.) but next to nothing on the new owners' business plan or the direction the club is going to take under their ownership.  The important questions...ground plans, transfer strategy etc.  They will get until about the middle of next week to start answering the important questions, I would imagine, before the locals start getting restless.

Poor old Andy pandy didn't really want to play footsy wootsy at STFC but got swepped along with it. Ok then. My heart bleeds. It's everyone elses fault

Ok here's my attempt at adding 2+2 and coming up with 25% football, 80% bollocks. First let's rewind - last night AB made some comments about Wray being a PDC obsessive and AB also said his style is to stay out of the limelight. Add to this a manager whose character lends itself to extremities in behaviour and an executive management happy to egg him on, you've got the makings of a situation that spiralled out of control. It was only the xfer embargo that brought the club's financial direction of travel sharply into AB et al's focus. It is incongruous to think the warning signs weren't there in the preceding months, what about monthly board meetings, financial info etc (maybe not, after all it's a football club)? Again, indicates total lack of control. AB et al realise the situation was totally unsustainable and was going to cost him way more cash - he may be loaded but he's not Abramovitch - and decides enough is enough.

Hard-nosed businessmen that they are, first thing they do is get rid of Wray and, on the basis he's dealt with the Taliban therefore may stand half a chance, put in Sir WP to get control of PDC. SWP whether directly or through others does rather well at this and, as you can imagine, PDC doesn't take too kindly to this. Ultimately new owners found but (hope I'm wrong) they can't access funding to the same extent, i.e. can't afford "the circus" and condition to taking over is that PDC leaves. Loads of stage management behind the scenes, e.g. Matt Ritchie off and rest of the squad get xfer listed, PDC sees the big top's about to get pulled down and exits.

None of the main characters come out of this covered in glory. Credit due to AB et al (but not Fitton), even Sir WP (?), for steering the club through all of this, taking a huge hit on write-off of monies owed and the club avoiding admin (this time......). Admittedly I doubt they'd have got any money back from admin as the loans were unsecured but lesser men could have put us down this route out of spite. Re PDC, I prefer to remember the great times he gave me watching Swindon on the road. As for the new owners, as per Ardiles' post, be interesting to hear what they have to say about their future plans.

What's amazing is that throughout all of this, we haven't lost in the league for three months, we're top and for this the players deserve our utmost respect. Hopefully we can move forward on a more sustainable basis; if we go up, how sustainability would interact with life in the championship god only knows, we’ll leave that for another day but, one thing’s for certain, it’s never dull following the Town.

Anyway, found this vaguely cleansing for the soul but still feel we only have about 2% of the jigsaw. Look forward to being further enlightened by the TEF. Keep the faith and all the best.

I suspect that Black was/is a comparitively young guy who found himself with a substantial wedge of disposable cash and invested with his mates as a bit of fun.

Which rapidly spiraled out of his control and led to him losing friendships and cash, cash that AFAIK he has never moaned or whined about losing.

How people can have a go I don't know.

That was perhaps the most interesting read I've woken up to in the Adver for a few years. Hopefully the dust will settle on this. It would be painful to watch a war of words between Di Canio and the club.

On Black: he deserves a huge credit. I was not convinced by the timing of the sale, but when you consider his earlier attempt to sell, you could argue that we got a 3/4 of a season 'bonus' out of him.

Di Canio: There's a bitter taste left, which is a shame. He was always going to whip everybody up into a frenzy, making the highs higher and the lows a bit nasty. It's entertaining, but no doubt creates a difficult working atmosphere. The bottom line was that we scored more goals and conceded less goals, and for that reason alone, he will go far.

McCrory et al: I have had my rant in the past few days, part tongue in cheek, part from a genuine concern that the new board may not display the professionalism we have become accustomed to. I hope that now they're in place we see that and move forward. It's wonderful news that Nick Watkins is being retained, to ease the transition and because he would appear to be very good at his job.

Next manager: I just hope we go for the best man for the job, not somebody's mate. Regardless of any relationship the board may have with Mike Newell, his abysmal record makes appointing him incredibly difficult to justify and would result in an instant loss of credibility. I don't think it will happen. I've always been very impressed by JFH as a pundit, but as a manager, none of us know. It is tempting!

Bring on tomorrow. I cannot wait.

The timing was unfortunate but I'm not sure Black is to blame for that. Seems like it had been building up for some time with Black being continually pushed and pushed (more and more money, Paolo's press releases etc) and when his countless warnings hadn't been headed he said enough is enough. He couldn't keep waiting another month, it had to stop somewhere.

As you say we should look at it as getting some bonus time from him, rather than him cutting things short.

Spot on.  Agree with pretty much every word.

And for what it's worth, I think your comments earlier in the week about Jed's lack of neckwear were taken rather too literally by some (when you were clearly pointing to the wider issue of professionalism, which you return to above).  Public image does matter, for all kinds of reasons.

I'm just astonished that he goes out for beers as well.

A beer drinker that DOESN'T wear a tie?

Nurse, my blood pressure is going through the roof!

I won't accept him until he amends his profile to Swindon Massive ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!

I'm willing to bypass the apparent lack of professionalism for a bit. He's only been in the door 5 minutes.

Although his Twitter description thing is a little annoying.

So, according to Black's tweets, Paolo et al knew all about the imminent sale of Ritchie and wasn't kept in the dark at all - albeit they weren't happy about it.

I do tend to agree with him when he said the new owners are probably better off sans PdC and being able to pick their own manager.

Reckon Paolo knew about the financial problems, that they needed to raise cash and that Ritchie could be sold as a result.

Guess he wasn't told when it actually happened though, hence his claims of not knowing anything about it until Ritchie called are technically true but not the whole story.

Considering he's a businessman and was pumping a lot of money into the club, it seems rather strange that Black appeared to be so distanced from what was actually being spent etc?

The whole I'm not going to be the owner, so not interested in looking at your new contract is a bit odd as well.  He must have okayed it in the end when the sale fell through and it was clear he was still going to be the owner?  Also, how on earth did an earlier sale that appears to have got right down to FL approval remain completely secret?

There's still an awul lot of unanswered questions and a lot of he says, she says going on.  I doubt we'll ever fully know the truth, but somebody somewhere is certainly not being completely honest.  I'm just not sure who it is.

For one of PDCs post match interviews im 99.9% sure he mentioned maybe having to sacrifice someone. I think the issue as PDC sees it was that he was later told they wouldn't have to sell, and when they did that they didn't inform Paolo.

To be honest, if it is as PDC says he has a point in this particular instances.

Surely we know he knew about the problems, because he admitted as much in early January when he said it might be necessary to sacrifice a player for the good of the club.  We all took that to mean Aden Flint, who would never have raised the kind of money needed.... It still does not excuse 'the board' IF he only heard about Ritchie's sale from Ritchie himself, but he knew and he was going to do everything in his power to prevent it.

Perhaps because the club being for sale wasn't common knowledge at the time? Had AB announced his desire to get out by then?