Thetownend.com

Thought this deserved it's own thread

Dear Mr. Morfuni,

We write this open letter, not only out of a sense of deep frustration but also through a duty to look after the best long-term interests of Swindon Town Football Club.

We, at the Trust, led the agreement to purchase the County Ground from Swindon Borough Council with the help of the Eady Trust in order to give the Club a significant reduction in rent and the ability to invest in the facilities to make the Club sustainable moving forward.

In addition, we have tried to support, encourage, advise you and give you constructive feedback in order to give you the best chance of success in running the Club.

We made sure that throughout an incredibly hard second half the season we remained focused on supporting the Club and its players, putting the relegation battle first. Although we avoided relegation, we did still end in the worst league position in modern history.

There are many things we have and continue to appreciate, including the creation of the Advisory Board, joining us in a Joint Venture to own the County Ground and bringing the Women’s team into the Club.

However, with the season over we hoped that our survey, which over 2,000 of your customers completed, would be used to finally make you see both the level of feeling of the fans and to take on our advice to avoid another disastrous season.

But the advice, feedback and survey results are still met with a consistent level of denial and a version of reality which does not relate to the facts. For example, you continue to insist the Club is debt-free. It is not.

You have declined to transfer the shareholder debt into equity, which would fulfil the commitment you made at the last Fans Forum where you said you would 'wipe the debt'.

Consistently over your tenure you have repeatedly not been honest. The Club has been found guilty of EFL charges relating to both undisclosed shareholdings and late payments and it is clear that the Club is constantly struggling with cashflow.

With the County Ground Joint Venture, the club has conducted a secret Master Plan project without the expected collaboration and denied all knowledge that it existed when initially first asked about it. The rent has been persistently getting paid later and now that we have set the ground rule and limit of 30 days past it’s due date, it’s unsurprising that the rent is now being paid exactly 30 days after it’s due without fail.

Your persistence in appointing an entire team running the Club (with few exceptions) who have never performed their role before and/ or come from a football background, has meant nobody can be surprised at where the Club finds itself now – and frankly, relegation would not be a surprise to us next season.

You have had over 100 days to find and appoint a first-team manager and it is indicative of the lack of leadership, overall strategy and ability at the Club, which the fans have recognised and voiced in our survey, that we remain managerless today.

We do not doubt everyone is working hard, but the Club requires both investment and experience if we have any chance of progressing both on and off the pitch.

At the Fans Forum on January 30th, you committed to better communication. Since then, there has been silence from the Club’s leadership, including the recent period when you were in Swindon for a week and conducted zero interviews and published zero articles through the Club’s official channels.

We, as a Trust led by our recent survey, are today declaring we have lost all confidence and trust in the leadership and ownership of our beloved Swindon Town Football Club. Further, we have no faith that a promised re-development of the County Ground is plausible under your ownership.

We call today for:
an immediate and significant investment in both money and experienced personnel into the Club;
a clear and credible funding plan for the ground re-development; and
a commitment to complete transparency and honesty in more frequent communication.
Alternatively, it is time for you to sell the Club and find a new owner who can provide these things as soon as is practically possible.

We are a proud Club which has cherished our football league status for well over 100 years and we implore you to make the changes now before we lose that status under your tenure.

The Board of TrustSTFC

Good on the trust.

The part about the secret stadium masterplan is snide, very snide by the club.

I'd like to know what this "master plan" is about.

The trust haven't made this statement lightly. They know the affect it will have on their relationship with the club.

Worrying times indeed.

Wonder if the masterplan is to build a new ground at the Oasis.

We have also multiple recent confirmations from both Price of Football and Morshead that there are multiple interested parties. Seems like it will be a very important and consuming time coming up.

Day One - What an excellent statement.

First action don’t renew season tickets.
Let’s now await the Clem bullshit response.

Im not entirely sure there will be one.

Pigeons, meet cat.

A definite change of mindset.

Maybe but that surely will get those that are on the fence off of it.

That's more like it

Fair.

A lot were critical of the new Trust board before they’d even got their feet under the table.
I thought it obvious from their first communication that they were loading the gun first and / or giving Clem/the club enough rope to hang themselves.

I just also a hope a credible genuinely interested party has approached the Trust…

…although the cynic in me thinks we’re going to get to (if not already here) the point where we’ll take anyone other than Clem & well all rejoice when the club is sold - only to find ourselves in the exact same position 2-3 years later.

Having people interested in buying the club is one thing. Having someone interested who can afford to & wants to invest in the club and move it forward is another thing entirely…

Strap in folks...

I would have a loved a mea culpa from the 'new' Trust at some point, recognising the very significant role that the 'old' Trust played in all this, but you can't have everything.

The Trust have finally grown a pair.

Fantastic. Couldn’t have said it better myself

Finally. This is what we've all been waiting for.

It's about a year too late. But at least it's happened.

Plus Charlie’s slightly cryptic Twitter post and FBT taking a swipe, it’s making it difficult for Clem’s silence to continue.

Sink the club. Demolish the CG. Redevelop. Make money. Disappear.

It's notable - and probably wise - that the Trust letter sticks to the easily provable, explainable stuff. We all know there's more there but the focus makes it harder to wriggle out of.

Also worthwhile saying how complicit the last lot were. Actual disgrace how long they let the club get away with all of this. Well done the new board but fuck off the old lot

Huge credit to the new Trust board, read the room with the survey and now an excellent statement as it looks like they’re going on the offensive for our club like we’ve all wanted.

Interesting times indeed. Let’s see what response this draws.

Glad to see the trust standing tall after tolerating more and more shit coming out of the clubs ownership over Clem's tenure. As others have already hopefully might wake the remaining sleepy few who accept how bad things have got as normal.

Credit to the Trust - Head firmly out the ground. None of this should come as any suprise to Clem

Is that a fact or conjecture?

Gifting Morfuni and the crooks 50% of the ground is going to prove to be a monumental mistake isn’t it?!

Take the ground out of the equation and Morfuni et al would be gone by now.

Yes! Here we go. This is going to get messy but it always was to remove an owner. Genuinely woke up so happy to read this statement.

One step closer. He can't win the fans back, and when you have that you can't have the club. The clem clock is ticking

A bit of balance is needed here. Whilst I don’t agree with the passivity of the previous Trust board members, there were well meaning people there with good intentions. I have no ill feeling towards them - they were duped, as we all were, by Morfuni and co and it is difficult to extract yourself from that. I exclude the Fair Game bloke from this - that was deceptive. A change in board was needed in order to take this approach and have credibility. Today is the first day of trying to wrestle back control, hound them out, protest, apply pressure etc.

There are also some fairly sensible legal restrictions in place - that 50% cannot be transferred away form the club ownership into a separate company, for example - so we supposedly can't get to a Kassam-at-Oxford style situation.

The cunt doesn't have to do anything. He'll just put two fingers upto it.

How long did it take for Blackpool to get rid of a convicted rapist as owner

Finally a wake up call, well done to the trust.

Correct. Considering how tone deaf this whole lot our, you have to wonder 1. Will they even read it? 2. Will they actually give a shit?

I suspect not.

Having said that it is great to see some proper action now.

We can only hope that this will wake up some of the fans that are sitting on the fence.

Oh to be floundering away in the L1 play off final…

Fair play, is exactly what is needed now. Hopefully the pressure will continue to grow in the coming weeks.

yes we can hope. It needed something trust driven to really rally supporters.

That makes sense and I’d agree.

Clem asked the fans to change their mindset. Seems the Trust have obliged. An excellent statement highlighting proven issues and I'm sure there's plenty more beneath the surface.

Thanks to the new owners, not the old one that asset stripped the ground!

Buckle in lads & lasses, hopefully the boat has well & truly been rocked! Kudos to the trust once again.

If anyone wants a link to join the trust, I am happy to oblige

Yes please mate.

Great statement! Have just rejoined the Trust and ready for war!

https://truststfc.com/join-the-trust-donate-regularly/

If you're rejoining, follow the same pathway

This 'Boo' guy on twitter.

Is it a Clem burner account?

I'm genuinely serious. His latest tweet is staggering.

 nice to see that something has been typed and circulated . I can't help feeling that this will have little or no impact on the current consortium .

I cancelled my direct debit in September, however I have just re-activated my silver account.

Good work Bennett and co.

What has he put?

“ If I was clem I would think fuck you lot, why should I put money in, exactly the same route chansiri done at Sheffield Wednesday. Some fans think they have the god damn right to say what they want and tell him to put money in.
The door is always open for YOU to invest also 👍”

I have wondered if he is related or is Jason Ranford, as STFCBoo has Hinton Parva as his location the same place Ranford is from. He also went missing for a short time around the same time Ranford was inside.

What an odd tweet

Wasn't STFCBoo a club employee for a while (might still be), something to do with security or stewarding...

Also got stitched up by Power at some point as well I seem to remember..  might have something to do with his staunch support of Clem.

Steward wasnt it

Yes please.

Doing nothing certainly would.

 was the "oh fuck" in the LS podcast today included in error?

Yes, I think Rich has had it "brought to his attention" numerous times.  Was a late night edit last night that slipped through.  If ever there was a POD for a random oh Fuck, it was probably that one

Could have waited until the early bird had expired  :)

Very interesting moment on the LSPO when talking about interest from other parties.

I have typed this word for word as best I can.

"I believe there is a fair amount of interest in acquiring Swindon Town, some have had various conversation in terms of going into Swindon to sit down and review books to further conversation with other parties. The Trust ,I don’t believe, has..… Oh Fuck Rich! Lets scrap that lets start again, I will start my answer again. "

Tom then re-answers the question and doesn't re mention the above.

https://truststfc.com/join-the-trust-donate-regularly/

Oops! Late night edits can be sloppier. It wasn't left in accidentally on purpose - It's since been edited out.

That said, I don't think Tom's initial answer was new information. I think even the club mentioned that they've been approached whenever Clem does the 'we're not for sale but if somebody approaches us...' line.

I have been critical in the past about the Trust, not vocally so much but privately.

But this is exactly what was needed by the new Trust board, I am very pleased with this leter and getting it out in the public for all to see.

Now lets see what Clems reaction will be, although we all know he will be dismissive as he always is. This really has been what was needed a year ago, it took the more aggressive new Trust board to finally say something that needed saying, so many fans heads in the sand about things but this will bring it to a head.

Sky's Chris Hull on X:

Having read the @TrustSTFC statement this morning, Jon, I spoke to Clem to offer to act as an independent host for dialogue between club & fans - to produce a roadmap for the future and look at potential fan ownership/other ownership #STFC options. Happy to help a brilliant club.

Could do with SBC threatening to take the CG back if their timescale on redevelopment isn’t met. That might shake Clem.

Problem with this is that it actually moves away from the question he was asked. Open dialogue opportunies have passed, be nice if he reported on what the trust have said

Did anyone catch the radio this morning? A mate reckons someone on the council was on talking about this. I suggest he's mistaken as the fanbase would be all over it. I'll try and hunt it down on BBC sounds later if nobody else does.

100%

If you want to donate monthly, the website it a bit bust and the "join here" becomes circular. I can't remember how I did it in the end, from my phone I think and clicked on the "legends 3" (etc) title - but can't see that from the browser at work

edit: Do it from here, click on the person picture:
https://truststfc.com/product/county-ground-membership-yearly/

Or it should be fairly easy to work out the URL format:
https://truststfc.com/product/trust-legends-3 - £3 a month
https://truststfc.com/product/trust-legends-4 - £4 a month
https://truststfc.com/product/trust-legends-5 - £5 a month

WARNING : https://truststfc.com/product/trust-legends-2 - redirects to .../..-20 £20 a month. Should be obvious

The labour councillor essentially said they are aware of the problems and there are specific dates for redevelopment to have taken place. They are keeping a keen eye on it all and those dates.
They meet with Hall and then then he trust on occasion. I doubt they’d be given the green light to take it back but who knows

the website is a mess, a just about fumbled though it and rejoined..

Bennet assures me its being revamped in the future - and you can call him Susan if it isn't so.

I heard it this morning.

Here is the link :  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hsk3qw

Conversation starts around 1:38:00. Swindon talk starts around 1:43:20

I think Clem's client journalist is best left out of this one.

The Council are never going to buy back the ground, they will never justify spending the money to do so, regardless of what the contract says.

Council's are skint, never in a month of Sunday's are they going to buy what is basically a liability back.

Yeah I thought their first statement was a bit too pally, but its clear now what they were doing.

Good stuff chaps. Putting some trust back in the trust.

Its encouraging what the trust are doing right now. I do wonder if the whole thing is cyclical though, this is reminiscent of later days under the Power regime, the trust then gets pally with a new owner etc. Hopfully lessons are learned going forward.

Well perhaps, but it was more the "I spoke to Clem" bit - at least somebody has!

This.

Agree. It's not about working with Morfuni any more. This leopard won't change his spots - they're cancerous. It's time to force them all out and actively hunt for the right kind of owners.

Yeah fair to say some of them were duped. That James Spencer is just a cunt though. Him and some of our supporters are still to this day total Clemmings.

For some, its time to work out if they're Swindon Town fans or Clem Morfuni fans.

The guy did a puff piece on Karachi!

You can always invest.....didn't the trust offer to convert some of the debt in to shares and the club declined?

We really weren't. Dissenting voices were crushed. I think in order for the fanbase to unite behind the Trust they really need to front up, admit that their "due diligence" was a sham, that huge, potentially catastrophic mistakes were made and frankly look to build bridges with those (a subset of fans, if you will) that felt utterly alienated by the Clem love-in, given there were more red flags than a Soviet Victory Day Parade in Red Square.
I'm all for this latest statement but it leaves the elephant in the room that is the fact that the Trust brought us to this point, invited the cuckoos into the nest and then gave them the keys.

How in good faith could we look at any potential suitor that they back going forward without having had that self-reflection?

Maybe if the Eady Trust provide some assurances they'll buy it again and give it to the trust?  :hmmm:

Biggest issue at play here, is that I think Clems next move might be to offer to sell and then end up selling to Chris Keilys wife, Michael Standings lawyer, Adam Harts mate down the pub or Zav Austins dog walker leaving us in the same Jed/Power/Clem myriad of shite. 

Be curious to hear Bathfords thoughts at this time and if he has been involved in any of the interested parties.

I think this may be why Clem has, supposedly, slapped such a high valuation on the sale of the club. Price the Kiely’s et al out of it if there is, indeed, similar pre emption rights that benefitted Clem when he stitched Power up.

I don't think he will even read it

bloke has an ego and wants to be liked - he'll release a statement later to say he'll do better next season

Whoever did this got it wrong. Trust STFC are the guy in the middle, with Swindon fans on the left!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GNmnuEyXsAAXqHd?format=jpg&name=900x900)

100% this, they are as stoney broke as every local council currently.

Yes. He absolutely would have read it and no doubt angry and hurt.

Perhaps it's time for a Forbes Australia article about those mean English football fans?

Who’s going to be taken outside first?

Gunning I hope....go free young man.....as he limps away....Bang. New manager.

Maybe the threat of a buy back would suffice.

I think you need to let it go now to be honest. Todays letter shows their intentions now and that is what matters. The due dilligence they done at the time was they were convinced due to the court case that Clem was against Power, he never hid that he would be bringing in Hart and Austin and he along with many others myself included thought it would be the lesser of the 2 evils.

They,me and others were so fucking wrong obviously but i don't think that matters now it has happened and asking new board members to get involved in apologising is pointless.

If people are happy that the Trust have put a statement like this out and believe going forward that this current trust will be better than the old one then just get behind them. Arguing the toss now just will not help anyone and just cause more division again

I don't disagree with much of that. I just take umbrage when people say "we all fell for it"!

I do think they will have a credibility issue if/when they push forward a suitor though, and I think they'd be wise to work out how they frame that support given the mistakes of the past.

I’d agree with that, key thing is that the likes of Spencer are nothing to do with the Trust now so there are signs that they might start to fulfil their remit once again.

On a personal level some of the former board members have a lot to answer for but I don’t think they ever will.

Yeah, the Trust are Trigger's broom at this point, the bits you're (rightly) frustrated about have long since left the (notional) building.

It helps that the Trust has a person at the helm that can point to a successful career in running a SMB, at a profit and sold for a significant seven figure amount itself, with a turnover in excess of what STFC generate when it was sold.

With, i state, official vice chairman Zav Austin

Dan Wood of the Adver going in on Chris Hull on Twitter  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Is this true? Zav he was public about, I don't remember Hart being even publicly mentioned.

Some impressive work by Mr Wood. Hat doffed.

I don't remember Zav being mentioned, though he was quickly mentioned after - in the "going to make him vice-chair" communication.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2021/august/club-statement---zavier-austin/

Not that it matters now.

Spencer doubled down with that Fair Game stunt. We know where he stands.

Agree. I've been one of the most angry frustrated people going over the last couple of years with people with their heads in the sand and/or tongues up Clems backside.

This Trust are basically a whole new entity now, so its pointless directing anymore negativity towards them. What is important now is the future.

Need some of that on here. Not everyone has Twitter/X

‘ An owner of a football club has, on two occasions been paid to build a tower block, sub-contracted that job out to smaller firms, not paid them, kept the money and moved it to other companies he owns in the form of loans and other things, and then placed those firms into admin.’

Replies have been deleted

Absolutely loving it! Dan's on fire!

I'm impressed with Dan Wood's contributions lately regarding the situation in the boardroom. Good investigative journalism explained in a way accessible to all.

Deleted tweets what did I miss?

Where was this?

In the replies he linked it back to the expose piece he did earlier in the year for the adver. Same tower blocks as referenced in that.

I think Dan has deleted all his tweets now. I suspect Sky may have threatened action reading between the lines as there was some accusations about Chris Hull, who I think is employed by Sky?

I presume this relates to the creditor that chased Clem across the oceans and was given the greenlight to collect the debt in Aus?

And so it begins...about time...

Just catching up with all of this and it's majorly encouraging. Maybe, just maybe the Club isn't going to die from terminal apathy.

Now...must get my direct debit to The Trust reinstated...

Mr Hull is not afraid of doing a bit of arse kissing is he......

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=503286518551158

I presume Chris had some sort of connection with the club via Nationwide and the club were trying to use him to create saleable media (some mention of a documentary linked to the Karachi FC venture)

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2280699808757677&id=476148985879444&paipv=0&eav=AfbuURn_0Yc5KX-RbZ8Dvnf2AJOp-dH1cBW06lT68qtOgPhvgxnnVoBN__gEUn24G6o&_rdr

Also, a small snippet that suggests we were always on the hook for the finances:

https://footballpakistan.com/2023/02/swindon-town-fc-officials-meet-karachi-commissioner-the-news/

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2399972/karachi-boys-to-train-with-english-football-club

I doubt you'd get legal threats that quickly, Dan probably just thought better of picking the fight. There weren't accusations exactly, but there were certainly awkward questions e.g. did Sky pay for the trip to Karachi or was that funded by STFC?

This was posted not long after the fans forum debacle.

Morfuni lying through his teeth again.

Wrong year, that's February 2023. All gone a bit quiet official comms wise since then.

ffs it's all been deleted, he was asking lots of questions to Chris about if he's being paid by the club ect and if his trip to Karachi was paid for by the club or sky. He also asked about why he travelled with 'matchday guest' Zav Austin, to which Dan posted a dm he had received from Chris telling him to make a correction that Zav was vice chair at the time. Dan preceded to send screenshots from advisory board mins to show Zav was never 'officially' vice chairman. That's the best I can do from memory i'm afraid.

I mean, it's pretty clear from the reporting that came out of Pakistan that Zav was there on official STFC business - one of those articles mentions the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by STFC, Zav being the only person there likely to have done such a thing, doubt it was Pike.

Hull's engagement was new to me, very odd he would be the third member of an official visit to the Commissioner for STFC.

I think it just goes to show that Chris Hull has some sort of mutual benefit relationship with the clubs ownership.  His personal media company having done a few interviews, on top of this holiday, I mean Sky Sports football interest story/doing Zav a favour in creating the illusion of seriousness about the whole scheme.

Dan Wood's twitter.

It was suggested to me on Twitter that he also stepped in to do hospitality in the absence of Phil King when he was exiled.

Any truth?

Yes, I was in Hospitality a couple of times when Chris Hull was on duty.

And he was always in full Clem kiss arse mode

Response:    :tumbleweed:

Open letter would have hit Malbourne at 5pm. So give him time to work out how to try and split the fan base over it.

Can't expect the CEO to comment without direction for the owner. That's what normal CEOs do.

Ah, that and the Karachi trip - he may be fine, genuine and trying to help but we don't need more doubt and uncertainty here (if we head to mediation).

Ah yes, i've just Googled him, he definitely compèred once when I did hospitality.

They've really had their Weetabix this morning. Great turn of events.

https://twitter.com/TrustSTFC/status/1790775108488814989 (https://twitter.com/TrustSTFC/status/1790775108488814989)

Clems enforcers and lawyers will going over this with the Joderell bank telescope.

No doubt he'll put something out and get a load of fuckwits responding with "well said Clem, lets move on"

Yes, I knew I had seen his face somewhere before.

He was doing hospitality in January 2023, when I attended.

"independent" very much in the same bracket as "open and transparent" then.

Just finished Loathed strangers, really good listen.

independent former employee of clem. I really did hate that guy, as much as i do phil king. i know its their job and they have to act all positive and smiley but its cringe trying to preach to seasoned fans that everything is ok when it really isn't.

That fans forum ruined any tiny positive view of GG and phil king.

You just know that GG will go onto have a success management career and everyone will be blaming us fans again aka lindsey.

Having seen his handiwork since January, I wouldn't be so sure...

I was surprised at the email I received this morning because it was so unequivocal compared to previous open letters.

Whilst the subject matter wasn't positive, the wording and calling out of the shortfallings of the club ownership certainly are.

Thank you Trust!  We have had enough of off-the-field concerns that have gone on and on for years and years.  Let's simply enjoy some football for a change.

Wouldn't have said it about Lindsey back when he was waffling about playing fatigued and box entries either though, would you?

Having said that I think GG is a fairer bet.

I’m betting Clem doesn’t directly respond to the letter and if he does it won’t be very positive. All signs point in only one direction.

Well done to the new Trust. Finally something to get behind and get the pressure on Morfuni to sell up.

Hull was the main hospitality guy when my boys were mascots, he was constantly bigging up Clem for bringing back McKirdy and his 'personally overviewed' efforts during the transfer window. I remember thinking it was all a bit odd at the time. He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near talks between the club & the Trust, definitely not an independent voice.

Announce Harry Styles as manager!

Well well,a reply! Of sorts

I don't think too much should be made of the Club's response. They were never going to say, "You know what? You've got us banged to rights, you're absolutely right. We're going to sell up immediately"...we've just seen the opening salvos in what could well be a lengthy process and it had to start at some point...thank God it has...

Now we wait for the next move...hopefully it won't be long...

Interested to see what the trusts next move is.

Clem's response and general comms are consistently poor. At a time when morale at the club appears to be at an all time low, and especially in Season Ticket territory, this is the time where your owner steps up to the plate and comes out with a rallying cry to appease the fanbase. Last season he did the 'we're going to put together a promotion budget' which isn't going to wash this year. His tactic this season appears just to do nothing/very little.

In fairness - I don’t think anyone would believe a word he said anyway.

If anything it probably would have gone down even worse if he’d said anything of substance…

You are probably right to be fair. The guy's made his bed now and realistically the only way forward for him is a complete overhaul of the football operation. Get rid of the hangers on, employ proper football people, put together a realistic plan etc. That ain't going to happen so it's probably best he gets out of dodge.

He's not even trying though. I'd expect at least some effort and urgency to address the points. Not a war, just dialogue. If there are waiverers on season ticket sales, surely you'd want to bring the sales in.

You are correct that half the fan base would Jimmy Hill it.

Just compare a few years ago when Clem came in and compare it to now.

Suggest he is a beaten man.
Run out of puff and excuses

The OSC have just welcomed the chance to meet the club over the next few weeks. Interesting suggestion from STFC Questions that the meeting gets streamed, and to make it part of the condition of the Trust's attendance. Sounds like a sensible idea to me.

Never gonna happen

Of course not, but it's an interesting idea nontheless.

Needs to be full, frank and off record.

The outcomes need to be minuted and communicated though.


Ps. Wasn't it the OSC that welcomed it. Not seen anything from the trust?
https://twitter.com/STFCSupClub/status/1791422239457345623?t=B8h6scgTurDgbFUcJfckDQ&s=19

Following the Trust’s open letter to Clem, & his subsequent response, we look forward to attending a meeting with the Club, the Trust & other relevant parties in the next few weeks.  
It is our intention to help & support all moving forward & most importantly, represent the fans.

Yeah, it was the OSC, just Bob having a senior moment :)

Sorry yes you are correct. Apologies, the Trust haven't responded yet, it's the OSC. Thanks Batch for putting me right.

To be honest, whatever the structure of the meeting, it needs to happen, quickly.

Where have I suggested it was the Trust? Are you sure it's not you having the senior moment?

 :moon:

You are almost as good as Clem at rewriting history :)

How does the meeting proposed that the OSC welcomed differ from the Advisory Board a few weeks ago at which the Trust presented their survey results and were essentially ignored?

I think the OSC and the Trust need to be very careful that they are not played off against one another by the club, who will take any chance to make them look disjointed and disorganised. They need to act as one.

And, at which, the club was asking to switch to bi-monthly.

The most obvious course of immediate action is to re-iterate that a process already exists for discussion of the clubs strategy, direction, actions and issues.  The Trust has not called for dialogue, it has called for action, having pointed out just a few of the obvious issues fans are upset about.

I'll repeat myself - the Trust should essentially move on - prepare now for the next stage.  Helping an investor (with legally binding representation), being an investor in a consortium or with a single buyer, or being THE buyer.  Work out what it thinks it can achieve and begin the public march towards it, while using existing processes to hold the current ownership to account.

It doesn't. Its waffle.

I imagine this one will focus on lots of banging on the table and rants about how dare the survey and letter be done without consulting the club.

I'll add, once the early bird period expires, the Trust can publicly assume that anyone who has not renewed is at best wavering, and more likely wanting change.  They should make a very public request for people to submit funds towards a war chest, ring fenced (legally) to support investment in the club once certain conditions are met (representation, equity, ownership etc.).  Fans forget that they, as a group, provide significantly more funding than the ownership or hangers on do, and if they act as a collective, there is no reason not to insist on equity in return.

It’s just kicking the can down the road, any urgency would be a meeting this or early next week but “next few weeks” is valuable time that we’re just going to waste.

Not that I think these talks will achieve anything, time for that has long gone and any efforts now should be a united front in one direction, not unaligned directions e.g some pushing for mediation talks, some pushing for change. It all needs one direction of “this is what we’re pushing for and this is how we’re doing it”. Not that I’m saying it is like that already but any momentum is lost if things get messy like that.

The OSC tweet has got my back up. They need to stop referring to this liar by his first name - He's not your mate, he is the exact opposite. The offer of a meeting is his attempt to simply pour cold water on all of this and seem like the good guy, when we know otherwise. Wise up, and stop being played.   

Spot on.

Imagine how much more vomit inducing the Power era would have been if everyone called him "Lee"... shudder. Absolutely agree this needs to stop. About 3 years too late but hey.

Can someone do that thing where every mention of "Clem" automatically changes to "Aussie Cunt"?

All season ticket holders (last season) are members of the OSC!.  It would be good if everyone sent the OSC an email to ask them to start backing the Trust and come out and agree with the Trust statement or confirm their position!

Just for the fun of it, I'd like to see the new Trust board announce that they will be retracting the ''Trust Hero'' awards that were given out to certain persons by the old Trust board. Especially ones given to certain persons who aren't even part of the club in any way at all {honest guv}.

It would be nice if he told us which bits he "doesn't agree with"!

Vaguely remember the OSC being against the orange protest when Diamandis was around?

Sent from my XQ-AD51

The OSC are always against any group that goes against what they see as supporting the club.  Their belief is that ST holders should purchase every year irrelivant of what is going on.  Partly understandable, but also partly frustrating when we are trying to do what we are trying to do.

In fairness it’s because it’s run by people who just want to support the team on the pitch regardless of what’s going on off it, pretty sure it’s always been the same.

Agree, that is why i say it is partly understandable.

These people are charlatans lawful prey.

But how can any right minded person keep those things completely separate??? It's just not possible...

The OSC aren’t a protest group - just supporters organising events etc. The trust has a different role. There is room for both to co-exist - I don’t have any problems with that. Maybe the OSC didn’t need to wade in with their response.

My opinion is OSC and the Trust should be as one.
Otherwise anything and everything said will be seen as a disjointed split and used against the "real" views of STFC supporters.
Surely not one STFC supporter can be happy with the current situation of the club and the lack of direction the owners are showing.
A slowmotion car crash.

I think their policy of supporting the club no matter what is horse shit.

Stop being used by our owner as a means of adding credibility to a regime that is overseeing the degradation of our club. So naive. It’s anti-support.

I have no issue with the OSC staying well clear of any discussion about ownership.  In the same light, they should stay well clear of any discussion about ownership! 

They are there to raise funds and provide supporters with a sort of social club related to STFC - that's OK, but they should probably also decline to be dragged into any of it.  So they shouldn't even want to be invited to any such meeting, not that one needs to occur anyway. 

A fan could be a member of both - when they want their voice heard they use the Trust, when they want to have a bit of fun or help out supporters with disabilities, they engage with the OSC.

Season ticket holders were automatically members last season.

"It is our intention to help & support all moving forward & most importantly, represent the fans."

Well, they've thrown their hat in the ring there, but I've only been asked my opinion by a Trust and a Sam Morshead survey.

I'm a supporter of the club, not the board.

At which point does supporting the club become detrimental to it's future rather than beneficial?

Let's say we had an absurdly loyal and blinkered fan base and sold 5k season tickets this season.

This just means Clem stays around longer.

I don't begrudge people for renewing. Everybody has their reasons. It's a ritual for some. A routine.

But if everybody shared the same mindset, we'd be stuck with these chancers forever.

If Clem isn’t going to sell up then the only way to hurt him is for fans to boycott the home games. Yes it’s sad but what’s the alternative?

Unless of course they’re making money by laundering the proceeds of crime then it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever except the team gets worse and worse

Maybe it has to get worse to get better!

Exactly this

I’m slightly cynical that not putting money in will force their hands.

Firstly, less money in just means they’ll cut back and spend less for starters & any deficit we run at they put the money in themselves (assume they can obtain it from somewhere) as a director loan - which will obviously increase the debt and I think technically increase the asking price because if they do sell they will want their director loans paid back…

I think it will no way does Clem and Co have the funds for the club even less so with reduced ST.

Think it should focus minds

They’ll not be able to do that indefinitely. If the income plummets but the expenditure on the team stays the same, someone somewhere is going to start asking questions surely?

Can anyone remember why Jed and Co moved on?

Power "Clem'd" them, he, with other, was the money.

Agree. Fucks me off when people like this get smug about their never waiving support as well. Anti support is exactly what it is.

Some Wimbledon fans still bought tickets and went when the move to MK was confirmed and on the horizon. Some will never stop.

and there really isn't excuse for not knowing now, is there? You're being wilfully ignorant at this point because I refuse to believe there are people that know nothing of what is going on. 

Suppose at least you won't be short on cash buying a season ticket given you don't have a mortgage or rent to pay when you live under a rock.