I was left feeling frustrated and drained after sitting through that charade last night. Got home at ten to midnight and realised it had been a complete waste of my evening.
One lad sat near me summed it up very early on when he said "the amount of contempt coming from those seven people (ie the top table minus Sturrock) for everyone in this room is unbelievable"
Bob Holt was very aggressive against the Trust, in particular Paul Davis, who to his immense credit didn't get caught up with Holts petty attempts at point scoring. "is Bill Power here tonight? no? is Mike Wilks Here? no? Phil Emmell? NO? They're not here???" No Bob you plum they're not here, this is a fans forum, one which the club originally stated would have no discussion on the consortium/takeover. Why the fuck would they be here anyway?
Ok Mike Wilks would as he's a Town fan but he's out of the country not that that's any of your fucking business, my mate wasn't there last night either, goes to every game he does, do you want to know why he wasn't there too?
Andronikou, well he was dropped right in it considering he was the only one there not a club employee he got all the flak right at the start. Think he was unprepared, and didn't expect the level of interrogation he got, and as a result he contradicted himself on a number of occasions and failed to answer the main points ie. is the cva dependant on a ground redevelopment?
first he said it was, then it wasn't, then when asked whether it was or wasn't, he went into such a long ramble in avoiding the question, that everyone forgot the question.
Incidentally I thought it hilarious and scary at the same time when he described accounts as quote no more than a historical document unquote.
Starnes, our acting CEO's entire contribtution for the night was to (a) get forgotten when Holt was introducing 'the panel' at the start. (b) blame the now infamous crippling bonus scheme on Mark Devlin and Bill Power and (c) say the Brian Adams concert had made the club £50k. (causing Diamandis to shrug *did I lie? ah well who cares*)
oh and (d) say the accounts were not three years out of date at all how dare you suggest that, 2005 is nearly ready!! maybe this was what Andronikou was referring to as a historical document...
Wee Willy was there for comedy value only.
Bowden, to be fair to the bloke he's only been here five minutes. re the ground development it could all just be pie in the sky whatever it is he's trying to achieve.
But as he wouldn't give anything away about anything, it's very hard to judge the bloke. He seemed to name drop alot, and shout about being a corporate lawyer a bit, but no substance with regards any proposals at all. they're looking at 3 options on the CG site was all he would say. Out of all of them he seems like the only one who would get out there and get things done. Dodged everything nicely and did himself no damage.
Wills. This is the one that I've been churning over in my head. The family love the club and have kept it alive for years as we are constantly told. ipso facto we all love the Wills family, and James Wills was sat there in theory with the goodwill of the fans behind him. Why then did he resort to reading out a bland statement written by his Lawyers? Why??
I'd have loved to hear the bloke speak freely and from the heart about the club. his love for it, how its in the family, in the blood, how he must be stark raving mad to keep on mortgaging his estate to fund this club, how all logic goes out the window when it comes to STFC, and this club is in his bones like it's in all our bones too etc etc etc.
I'd have loved to have seen someone up there with some passion for the club I guess. I wouldn't expect it from Starnes, Andronikou, Diamandis, Holt or Bowden (despite repeated attempts to paint himself as a football nut) maybe wee willie a little bit, but he's just wee willie at the end of the day.
but surely your man Wills could have shown that someone on that fucking table up there table actually understood what it meant to be a Swindon Town fan and actually gave two shits about the club!
Instead he came out with a sterile, patronising statement, longer than this post is turning into. And I just thought what the fuck am I doing sat here listening to this facade? What are you actually saying and why are you here?
Sturrock was good value as always, but I really wish he hadn't been there.
The whole crux of the matter is they are denying there is an offer. They all put on pantomime shocked faces everytime anyone referred to the consortium or the takeover. a la
what takeover?? :shock: consortium? WHERE?
and by that point it had ground me down. and I thought this is fucking nonsense we're going round and round in circles here.
I don't really think this changes anything at all, I just wanted to vent my spleen and actually make some sense of a long evening. Sorry for the rant, if anything it just means I'm going to protest louder and stronger from now until they're gone.
