Thetownend.com

Did he make his money himself or is it an inherited business?

Because I don't see how a man who would have made this much money can be so stupid.

Surely he can see that there is a vicious circle of money going from Wills account to STFC (and Diamandis), Diamandis completely mismanaging it and losing it all, back to Wills to get more money and we start again

Why does he have so much faith in a completely incompetent, self serving tool as Diamandis?

We're all grateful for his money but SSW's actions over the last 6 or so years stink of absolutely shocking business acumen.

With one hand he keeps the club, but with the other he is killing it.

Wills made his money from the wills brand(S) of tobacco and Land/Property deals.

I'll let others comment on the other bits.

Millom

Basically him and James were born into money.

NOt much business sense and it shows

god knows why he got involved with the club - anyone enlightened enough to produce his history here?

i don't particularly think he's killing the club. like every other club in this league it loses money year on year and he's only got so much to offset the losses with. he has already sunk a lot in, for little or no return, and the only way he'll get his money back (or even a portion of it) is if we can do something with the stadium. the blame lies away from him in my mind.

he chooses who manages his money, who runs the club and he's got it horribly wrong and not learnt his lesson time and again

there isn't another club in this league which has had a benefactor like ssw and yet still consistently finds itself in positions like the one today

he is not killing the club directly, but indirectly through diamandis

 Not true......once upon a time there was plain old David Seton who came from Blunsdon....stood on the terraces at the CG watching the likes of Sammy Burton.

  He married a Wills family heiress, and rather than she becoming Mrs Seton, he became Mr Wills, dropped the David and became Seton.  Its often stated that the investment is from the Wills family, because its Lady Wills who is minted.  I suspect SSW has never had  or needed any great business acumen, being of an old school type, which includes property and such in the old African Empire.
 
 Which is why I believe, he relies on Diamandis, who has plenty of experience in dealing with companies who are technically bust and trying to salvage something from the dregs.

  James obviously was born into money, and his profile is lower than a snakes belly.....never shows at AGM's,  has never publically made any utterance about his involvement in the club.......SSW is a fan, James would seem not to be.

La di fucking da, let's all blame Diamandis.

The fact is that nobody manages anything properly at Swindon (behind the scenes). People at STFC have even started to point fingers at each other and making each other scapegoats for the entire mess.

I don't give a shit who is responsible for this mess, somebody within the club needs to stand up and do something about it. I'm not talking about finding pots of money or stopping the alleged siphoning of money to Dunwoody (which hasn't been proven/disproven), I would just like somebody who can make informed decisions and act on those appropriately. This hasn't happened in years and I doubt it will for some time (if at all).

Rant over.

This is my reasoning and it's good to read something with a bit more weight to the truth end of the scale.

I've stated it before, but SSW is not simply going to sign money over to MD. He may not be a business man, but he's not as thick as a certain poster (and former dunwoody employee) would love for us to believe.

Thank you for that reality based post reg, i sometimes feel like no one speaks sense. :D

A-fucking-men Mr Pieman  :thumbs:

the only person who manages the club behind the scenes is diamandis, so surely there's noone else to blame

how you not care about how we got into this mess? surely the entire point is the problem that the same person keeps making the same mistakes again and again leaving us in the shit. which means nothing can really be done about it until they leave

Just to reiterate:

* I do care, which is why I made a rant.
* Even if one person is making the errors, they are employed by certain people; ergo, there is a level of accountability in that respect
* Others have made mistakes at this club which have proven costly. Sandy Gray's excellent job at VAT accounting the prime example.

I hope that makes clear my feelings on the matter. I'm not saying that particular people aren't to blame, just that I feel there is more than one person (or at least it seems that way) that are accountable to the goings on in the club. Somebody needs to take charge and sort it out.

Simon Pieman is a man of sense and reason.  8)

surely thats my point as well, that wills is fucking stupid to allow dunwoody to mismanage his money so badly again and again.
Gray's a Diamandis and Dunwoody puppet though. So if you get rid of Diamandis she goes as well. Essentially take out the cancer at the source and the rest will go as well.

Here here

yer very true

Blimey. Reg is actually wrong for once.

With respect Reg, SSW is indeed a direct peer and didn't marry into money. His family line is the Wills family of WD & HO tobacco fame.

Have a look at http://www.thepeerage.com/p3785.htm#i37849



You can follow the links on that page all the way back to his grandfather, Sir Ernest Salter Wills. He is famous as the last family director of the tobacco company before they merged with Imperial Tobacco.

http://members.cox.net/ghgraham/ernestwills1869.html

But, as you rightly point out, SSW does allow Dunwoody to mismanage his money then getting rid of Dunwoody would still only tackle half of the problem, because the initial mismanagement of money would come from the source of it. Who's to say that once Dunwoody are out that the new peoples broght in will do a better job, when the finances would be entirely managed by them?

I just think it's a little one dimensional to lay all the blame on the Diamandis - even if it is him that's making errors, then the real error is to keep letting him do it.

agreed hence me calling ssw a fucking idiot (or words to that effect) at least twice in this thread

 Interesting....I never made my story up, but read it somewhere, just can't remember where......so we've a contradiction.  Either way, SSW hasn't made money by himself as such, but gained through family connection.