Statement from Mike D

[singingiiiffy]

from my understanding certain individuals have been slagging off diamandis and his involvement with the club. Kandiman, from the looks of things is one of these people and have asked for him to come out and explain a few things. so he has............

and i think hes a legend

[flammableBen]

fucking hell, that all actually sounds quite reasonable.

[singingiiiffy]

get kandiman banned from this site.

[jonbd]

Looks like someone needs to apologise!! The word OWNED springs to mind!

[Kinky Tom]

Yep, sounds like we owe Mike D a great deal of gratitude for what he has done over the years.

It's sad that all this had to come out in this manner, if he doesn't like public speaking then fair enough - he shouldn't have been treated unfairly for that.

Hopefully everyone will read this and those that need to will swallow their pride and admit they were wrong about him.

Cheers for the statement.

[sonic youth]

it's nice to gain some clarification on diamandis' role within the club and he certainly doesn't seem to be the villain he's often been portrayed as.

[flammableBen]

Comes across as a fairly honest statement, although of course as it's coming from the man him self, it's still settled a lot of doubts I had with his involvement at the club.

Of course if any of his critics can come up with a well structured response backed my more than comments like "he's dodgy" then I'd be interested to read that aswell. Of course the standard of previous critisism seems to based on nothing other than conjecture so I think it's unlikely.

[Boeta]

all seems fair enough to me. i think we owe this person.

to be honest i haven't read diamandis statement cos ive got to get out but from my dad's involvement in the club he's a shady character without the best interests of the club at heart

[Ben Wah Balls]

Fair play to Diamandis. That's a pretty comprehensive statement, our 2002 accounts do show minus £12 million in our profit and loss account so it will be interesting to see the accounts now.

[Piemonte]

I'm not expecting a response to this really but I'll ask the question anyway.

Does going to a +£6.5m blance sheet figure mean that the Wills hamily have written off their loans? The vast majority of the clubs debt was payable to them so it seems the only logical step.

Fair play for that summary of his involvement, sounds like hes done a lot of work behind the scenes.

My only comment would be that all this could have been avoided by a little more transparancy in the 1st place.

I appreciate that MD may not want to be a public figure -thats fair enough, but cant help but think that a statement like the one above would have helped avoid all the riumours and "shadowy figure of chaos" accusations that have been flying around for a couple of years now.

[Batch]

It's a good statement, and if all true then fair play to the bloke.

Agree with Pie,  why wasn't this released years ago. Mike D has always been the shady figure responsible for putting up prices, lowering playing budets and caused a rift between SSW and the Trust.

During my working life I have employed many people and unfortunately once or twice these relationships have failed. Certain people who have been associated with me in the past are using your forum which is for the specific purpose of discussing football matters as a method of attacking me. I cannot say I am too pleased about all these attacks

Interesting? !

[Ben Wah Balls]

There's a poster woodystfc or woodiestfc who's obviously one of his former associates, maybe even Dunwoody. Haven't really paid much attention to his posts but it's fair to say he's not a Diamandis fan.

[pauld]

I'm not expecting a response to this really but I'll ask the question anyway.

Does going to a +£6.5m blance sheet figure mean that the Wills hamily have written off their loans? The vast majority of the clubs debt was payable to them so it seems the only logical step.

(reposted from the Trust site)

It's more in the nature of debt being restructured than paid back - a big chunk of the £14m owed initially was swallowed up in the CVA, and as I understand it some of it was later taken off the balance sheet by being restructured ie the money is still notionally owed but it doesn't show up on the balance sheet. Which, to be fair, is more than just the smoke and mirrors it might seem from this fairly inadequate description - it's still worth doing as it makes the club a much more viable proposition for attracting investors.

Apologies to all concerned if I've misrepresented the exact position - that's the situation as I understand it. Hope that helps answer your question, Piemonte

[Batch]

I'm not expecting a response to this really but I'll ask the question anyway.

Does going to a +£6.5m blance sheet figure mean that the Wills hamily have written off their loans? The vast majority of the clubs debt was payable to them so it seems the only logical step.

(reposted from the Trust site)

It's more in the nature of debt being restructured than paid back - a big chunk of the £14m owed initially was swallowed up in the CVA, and as I understand it some of it was later taken off the balance sheet by being restructured ie the money is still notionally owed but it doesn't show up on the balance sheet. Which, to be fair, is more than just the smoke and mirrors it might seem from this fairly inadequate description - it's still worth doing as it makes the club a much more viable proposition for attracting investors.

Apologies to all concerned if I've misrepresented the exact position - that's the situation as I understand it. Hope that helps answer your question, Piemonte

Sorry for being thick, are you saying your understanding is once the CVA is payed off at the end of the season we only 'owe' money to our creditors such as SSW but that this isn't represented as balance sheet debt?

[Dazzza]

Fair play must admit I’ve been a critic and that statement goes a long way to answering a few of the questions that have hung over his head since his arrival.

It would have been far better coming years ago and doesn’t say anything that’s not already in the public domain but from the horses mouth so to speak gives it some repute.

Batch I'm fairly sure that's what PD is saying.  The investment from SSW and St Modwen as I understand was in the shape of loans and unless they've been annulled then it’s not shown in the ‘balance sheet’ above.  That said they’re to a degree they're friendly creditors that are unlikely to pounce with the taste of blood in the water.