Sorry for the late reply, it's been an intense and interesting couple of days...
If anyone wants a chat, including Thekston and Mooneyraker, just to say hi, I'm a season ticket in the Town End and run the socials for the Trust so give me a shout of the Trust Twitter DMs and we can organise a catch-up face to face - no dramas at all
Appreciate the offer Drummer Boy and I have no doubt that it is pretty stressful at the moment on top of your normal lives.
I just want to clarify a few things: I am not anti "the Trust." I would love us to have a strong, respected Trust who we can all rally behind. I seem to recall that during the Diamandis era, Red Army Fund days and so on. I have no interest in digging out the individuals online but from the outside looking in it seems to me that as soon as the Eady money turned up a small group at the top of the Trust have railroaded the CG acquisition at all costs and with little thought of the consequences. It seems to have been a giant ego trip. The day they announced that they were prepared to work with Power on the ground is the day I cancelled my direct debit. It could never have been in the interests of the club for that man to be anywhere near the keys to the County Ground. Then the Trust put themselves foursquare behind Clem Morfuni for reasons that are still not clear to me. By all means call Power out but what was the reason to get into bed with Morfuni to the extent that the Trust did? As I see it, a lot of Trust subscribers membership fees and the Trust's time went towards the work to smooth his takeover and even take on day to day running of elements of the club. That feels completely wrong to me. We have been told time and again that that the Trust have done 'due diligence', whether on Axis as a business or on Zavier Austin's background or any number of other things. Well, Axis never passed the sniff test. When pictures of their tiny dilapidated offices emerged the Cultists told us that was normal for a building services firm... hmmm. Well, it is now clear that Axis as a business had the resilience of a wet paper hanky.
Then we got Zav Austin. Clem's literal first act was to attempt to install a convicted drugs money launderer as Vice Chairman. At that point the Trust should have distanced themselves immediately. This is meant to be a community football club, quite aside from the fact that he was never going to pass the fit and proper person's test. Yet, out came Clem's Praetorian guard at the Trust telling us that extensive due diligence was done and Zav 'explained it all' on the OSC couch (did he bollocks). His background was right there on Google for all to see.
We've had partnerships with fake football clubs (I really can't emphasise how mad it is to have to type that), Zav, now relegated to Matchday Guest, doing deals on behalf of the club on Whitehall, one of Britain's formerly most wanted in the wings, chaos in the transfer department in every window, Greg Norman departing, Rob Angus being thrown under the bus, share transfers, rumours swirling about non-payments for months and months, the most threadbare squad in living memory, it goes on and on and on. There would be less red flags at a Chinese Communist Party Parade.
And yet, everything, every statement, every interaction from the Trust is entirely reactive. They are always caught on the back foot when something is pinged from Companies House or some other bullshit emerges. Did no-one at the Trust ask who Karachi FC were? A google image search of the crest shows it NEVER EXISTED! Did that not bother anyone? I only use that example because it is peak Clem insanity.
We've also had Trust members making veiled threats ("we know who your are" type stuff) towards legitimate social media accounts asking questions that some fans want answers to online. That is mad.
I'm certain that there are conflicting views within the Trust but it would be great to see something happening on the front foot, rather than after the next skeleton tumbles out of the closet, which it will as surely as day follows night.
In terms of offering solutions rather than problems, I do think that both the Trust website and membership model are barriers to entry. It is utterly labyrinthine. On the basis that Clem clearly doesn't have a pot to piss in, I think we can forget voting shares for a while. You need a basic membership model so that the Trust is in a strong position to react when this house of cards comes tumbling down. I also think we are way past the critical friend-zone.
Anyway, apologies for the ramble and I do appreciate a Trust member coming on here in peace and hope that this is taken in the spirit it is intended. We are where we are and I think we will all need to pull together over the coming months.
