Jim Little

[Peter Venkman]

also from the cork city forum.......

quote

"Where is the money? all i have seen since they took over is players being sold for big money and non of it being used to buy new players? This big GM appointment now looks like a part time job for an Arkaga employee. Who is paying him for the role?

There are too many questions at the moment and the club should release some sort of "Truthful" news" end quote

[Reg Smeeton]

also from the cork city forum.......

quote

"Where is the money? all i have seen since they took over is players being sold for big money and non of it being used to buy new players? This big GM appointment now looks like a part time job for an Arkaga employee. Who is paying him for the role?

There are too many questions at the moment and the club should release some sort of "Truthful" news" end quote

   That sounds strangely familiar......I almost had a moment of optimism this morning at the thought of the imcompetents finally leaving our club, and the hope that someone with a bit of nous might take us forward....back to scepticism it is then.

[SwindonTartanArmy]

Portuguese holding companies, Jim Little, Rufus Brevett. Confused? You will be.

To answer Batch's question and putting the pieces together.

It looks like the "takeover" is a consortium composed of an investment company with an interest in property development, presumably to run the business side, a Portuguese investment vehicle to feed trialists on the playing side - possibly the Castro brothers - and Diamandis and Wills stay onboard and keep their fingers in the pie.

Oh I can't wait.

Wouldnt suprise me! No wonder they are keeping so quiet!

[Foggy]

You do that foggy.  Keep us updated please.

I have a strange feeling that you will remain a twat well into the next 20-30 years.

[tans]

You do that foggy.  Keep us updated please.

I have a strange feeling that you will remain a twat well into the next 20-30 years.

Ace.  

[fatbury]

Looks like we are at one with Cork City then! Doesnt look too good so far does it

[Colin Todd]

DOOOOOOOMED

[TalkTalk]

also from the cork city forum.......

quote

"Where is the money? all i have seen since they took over is players being sold for big money and non of it being used to buy new players? This big GM appointment now looks like a part time job for an Arkaga employee. Who is paying him for the role?

There are too many questions at the moment and the club should release some sort of "Truthful" news" end quote

The scary aspect of this is that if the investors running the club can make millions by selling players on then they don't have to give a shit what the fans, the Trust or the Supporters' Club think or say.

If their business model is based upon profit from players then income from gate receipts starts to become secondary. So unlike the case of Diamandis (and previous board incarnations), they don't have to take any notice of protests behind the Arkells and the prospect of programme or match boycotts would hold little terror for them as it wouldn't affect their main income stream.

In extremis it wouldn't matter if the supporters turned up on matchday or not.

I'm not saying that this is definitely the case here.

But I have a horrible, horrible feeling that we are about to say goodbye to Swindon Town Football Club and hello to Swindon Town Football Investments.

[The_Plagiarist]

You do that foggy.  Keep us updated please.

I have a strange feeling that you will remain a twat well into the next 20-30 years.

RUMBLED by Hercule Foggy  

[Christy]

Before we all get a little carried away with celebrating self-fulfilling prophecies about the end of STFC, it's worth mentioning that there's some lively debate in Cork (http://www.ccfcforum.com/forum/) about the nature and intent of their investment.

Would you adam and eve it, but it's not as black and white as some would have us believe.  For example, also from the Cork City forum, Tiktok said:

On a good day....

Jim Little has invested money, the fruits of which are there to see off the field with some new staff and in the club shop (a new cost this season). Getting off the field right first was his principle focus. He works for Arkaga, who are an investment management firm, so he knows them well. He, as an investor in Cork City, has retained Arkaga to monitor his investment and he (the club) are paying them to have Adrian Tynan onsite to get us in good shape. [Hiring an external General Manager who specialises in turning unprofitable companies profitable is not a new concept - of course, the means taken to achieve this profitability are the question].

Once Tynan has finished gathering information, looking at our structure (which he seems to be doing at the moment seeing as Rico seems to have been the only person working on the ROD negotiations) and implementing the neccessary changes, Tynan will return to Arkaga and larger projects. On the field activities can begin in earnest, with the windfall from recent transfers there to be spent. That money might be currently be held because access to a portion of it might be needed to guarantee the club's long term viability.

On a bad day....

Arkaga saw the interest generated among certain Cork individuals when the club was initially up for sale and have bought a controlling interest in Cork City FC. They have pushed Brian Lennox to the sidelines and sent Jim Little and Adrian Tynan (in his first project for the Arkaga group - starting him small) over here to assess the company in order to generate money in the short term to cover their initial purchase cost. They are doing this by selling players, our only asset, to match (or beat) their purchase price, at which stage they will pull the rug and put the club on the market again hoping to get people interested in buying the club and making a quick profit.

*********************

Those are your two options on the Arkaga thing, the second one really is very very unlikely, if only because a company like Arkaga has bigger fish to fry than the return they'd get off a football club in Cork with no tangible assets whatsoever, and it's an awful lot of hassle to go to when they could have just come in and done the exact same thing publically [as in, why would they care what a small handful of fans (not shareholders) thought].

Look,

Jim Little turned up at a CCOSC fans forum, none of us knew him really, but from talking to him, Rico and Brian during the meeting and individually afterwards, I have no reason to disbelieve anything that they said on the night. Little seemed genuine in his interest in the club and his friendship with Brian.

For the time being, I'm trying my damnedest to hang onto my 'good day' from above, but a few players would really help me believe that we're trying to build both a successful club and a successful team, and not just a successful business at the expense of all else.

[stfctownenda]

You do that foggy.  Keep us updated please.

I have a strange feeling that you will remain a twat well into the next 20-30 years.

RUMBLED by Hercule Foggy  

Plagiarist you are a laugh a minute this is almost as funny as the time when you picked a whole 11 of Smith's absolutely classic  

[TalkTalk]

(In reply to Christy)

But you can pick what you like from that forum. The post above could have been written by Nigel Bennett in our case.

How about (regarding the news that Little has left Cork City):

Is he gone from City now and moved onto swindon ,if so what was his purpose here?

This is dodgy stuff

[STFC_Gazzza]

Is it just me but whenever anyone says anyhting that could be seen as a little bit positive someone has to come and say something negative to get people fearing the worst again?

[fatbury]

no its not that .. its just this Jim Little character who is supposedly taking over is reportedly dodgy according to the Cork City fans who seem to be in a similar position to ours .

from Cork City Forum

..Jim Little is American. He works for an investment company: http://www.arkagafund.com/index.html

Last February, it was announced that Little was visiting Cork and representing a group of potential investors. At the time Cork City FC were in need of investment.

A few weeks later, Little was announced as the investor and announced as vice-chairman.

At the supporters club meeting in April, Little attended and it was specified that he was the investor and the investment was coming from himself and from nobody else. It was specifically mentioned that the investment was not from Arkaga Fund.

Since he came on the scene, we've sold Alan Bennett to Reading and Roy O'Donovan to Sunderland for the best part of €1m. and got no players in as replacements.

About 2 months ago it was announced that Cork City FC have a new general manager called Aidan Tynan. Since his arrival, Little hasn't been around. As it now turns out, Tynan works for Arkaga Fund and he seems to be running the show/circus/whatever you now want to call it.

We don't even know who owns our club anymore.

[TalkTalk]

Is it just me but whenever anyone says anyhting that could be seen as a little bit positive someone has to come and say something negative to get people fearing the worst again?

It's just you Gaz  

Seriously, considering the tiny and reluctant amount of information coming from the club about the "takeover" and the flat refusal by them to answer the Adver's or the Trust's questions, what do you expect?