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With no real updates coming from the club, or Swann, or the board, or the “fans director”, or local news, it is to be expected that supporters will speculate as to progress or lack thereof, and there will be likely any number of “my mates, best mate window cleaner knows <insert name here>, and he says <insert random update here>.”
From a personal perspective, I hope I am wrong but I have seen, read, or heard nothing that makes me believe there is a deal to be sealed anytime soon. To add to that, it appears abundantly clear to me that the club is operating at a loss right now, and cannot continue to accrue debt indefinitely. At some point something will have to give; either the current owners will have to invest more of their cash, the club is sold to new owners and they invest, or the club is liquidated.
Whatever the outcome, one thing we can all agree on; Peter Swann’s reign has been an unmitigated disaster!
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Swann appears to have a reverse midas touch, everything he touches turns to sh*t!
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IMO the keeper is the most important position on the pitch.
A good keeper who commands his area instills confidence throughout the defence, and this spreads into the rest of the team. An inexperienced keeper, who is prone to mistakes instills a nervousness across the defence, and by extension to the rest of the team.
It is no coinicidence that SUFC have struggled defensively over the last few seasons. If we ever want to progress and return to the EFL we need to find a good keeper.
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I’d buy a share at £5K if there are another 999 willing to do the same.
That’s £5m.I would do the same – I don’t know if there is an official page, or if the people who are looking to buy the club could put the opportunity out there for the public to help get a deal over the line. I would definitely be interested in helping but don’t have loads of cash to spare in these difficult times. I know Peterborough offered some form of bond and generated a lot of cash to be used for players. Those people who have bought a season ticket may be a good starting point for a prospective new owner to tap into!
As long as Sawann isn’t buying it from his wife!!! If that’s the case he is not having any of my money.I can pledge £5K too…we need 998 more!
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I feel for Neil as I believe he took the role in good faith, hoping that he could play an integral part in the rebuild of the club. The recent weeks have shown however that the role is nothing more than a token gesture to get the fans back on side.
If I were in Neil’s shoes, I would be demanding that the board provide the fans with an update on the alleged club sale, as well as a clear plan on what they plan to do to address the disastrous start to our National League campaign. If the board refused to do so, it would show that the role is as toothless as a 98-year-old granny from Grimsby, and I would resign.
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Jesus “H” Christ, we’ve won a game, how bad must the Leeds U23 squad feel right now?
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I was at the match…Clayton Donaldson was the stand out performer for me, he really put a shift in and had a cool head. The match officials were poor, there wasn’t much quality on display. I would say that Boston were slightly the better team in terms of possession but were ineffectual in the final third.
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I know Hill has had a difficult time with the squad he’s been given by the club but god, he has done a truly awful job. Each week we seem to rise to new levels of rubbish, I cannot see why we would want to keep him next season!
We need a complete clear out, including Hill!
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We have to be realistic…Swann wants away and has made it abundantly clear that he isn’t prepared to invest any of his personal fortune into the club. I am also pretty confident that due to the poor attendances, and lack of money coming in from external sources (sponsorship etc.) the club is likely still making a loss week-on-week. Relegation will also mean that we have even less money coming into the club from the solidarity payments from the Premier League, and reduced parachute payments from the EFL next season.
Anyone who comes in for the club would likely need a good few million to purchase the club AND the assets (ground / land). Then they would need to invest some serious cash into rebuilding a squad to have any chance of gaining promotion back into the football league. As much as I want to see a white knight come in and revive the fortunes of the club, I just cannot see anyone coming in with sufficient finances to rebuild the club.
I am genuinely worried for next season. Forget promotion, the 22/23 season is a battle to avoid going into administration.
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Unfortunately I won’t be at the match as I’m busy doing coach type stuff this weekend. It will be interesting to see what sort of protest does emerge, how many actually protest, and how many of those end up being handcuffed by the stewards.
I feel that lower league clubs are at a high risk status of poor ownership, and fans of the clubs should all support each other to campaign for better governance of owners. If we want a protest that has more voice we should be reaching out to the away fans too. Imagine just how much Swann’s jowls will wobble if he sees images of fans protesting at four sides of the ground.
#UTI #Iron #SwannOut
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Let me break his statement down:
“I have decided to stand down as Chairman of Scunthorpe United. This wasn’t an easy decision for me to make, but having weighed up the options, it will hopefully ease the tensions at the club and enable the manager, staff and players to focus on their jobs, rather than there be distractions at what is a very important time in its history.” – I read this as “I am hiding from the club and passing the buck onto the manager, staff and players”.
“It is vitally important for you, the fans, to continue to support the club and that means buying match tickets and season tickets, using the club shop and catering facilities, sponsoring matches and players, etc as much as possible. This is because while we are budgeting to run at break-even, any extra income to that position can be reflected in the playing budget. I can assure you that all the income received by the club is used to meet the running costs of the club. Whatever you may hear or see I haven’t taken one penny out of the club and all the money generated is kept by the club. It is therefore important that fans support the club as much as they can in order to ensure there isn’t a shortfall against budget.” – I read this as “I ain’t putting any money into the club so you need to bankroll the club for me.”.
“I have done all I can financially to support the club over the last few seasons and we have had a concerted effort to take the club to a sustainability model and that would have happened earlier if it wasn’t for the pandemic. The turnover the club generates isn’t enough to maintain a large playing budget and that was and has been evident over the last few seasons. Sadly, the lack of cash flow and having to borrow monies from the EFL have combined with the club being restricted on its player recruitment and this has been detrimental to our performances, and we find ourselves staring relegation in the face.” – I read this as “Covid has enabled me to hide the mismanagement of the club finances during my tenure, and I took out a loan from the EFL without understanding the T&Cs.
“Last season we had no cash as such and if we had not taken the EFL loan we would have been in administration and relegated through points deduction then, or this season. So I had to decide, and try to give us a chance this season. However, the embargo attached to the loan put us at a huge disadvantage – one we have been unable to overcome.” – I read this as “I took out a loan without understanding the T&Cs.”.
“Although I have not actively been looking for a new owner, I have been talking to several groups who have an interest in the club and having stepped down I can spend more time now working toward finding a new owner for the club and securing its future.” – I read this as “I’m not actually in any active negotiations with any party as I cannot tell you an accurate number of people who I am ‘in conversations with’.
“I am delighted that Lee Turnbull has agreed to come in and oversee the operational side of the football club as we focus fully on planning for next season. Lee will be welcomed onto the board in the coming weeks and join Neil Wright in what will be representatives both for fans and the community, I wish them all the best going forward.” – I read that as “I am a master of misdirection and I’m giving you the illusion that something has changed.”.
“Nothing changes regarding the manager or our work to integrate young players into the squad, moving towards a footballing model where we can utilise our academy and not only see them flourish in the first team but also move on and create a future career at the highest level. I am delighted that Keith wants to stay and help the club achieve this and we are fully focused on a positive and robust pre-season, to give us the best chance of bouncing back at the first time of asking. We can’t however do that if we don’t raise enough income from all of our income streams, so again I can only emphasise how important it is for the fans to return and support your club.” – I read that as “I hope Keith doesn’t leave otherwise I wil have to appoint Will as the manager. Oh and don’t forget, if you don’t bankroll the club all failures to sign quality players will be YOUR fault.”.
“It’s a real shame that all the good work done in the first five years (the financial investment, and the hard work behind the scenes to get us to a point where we could have challenged the top end of League One and even return to the Championship), will be overshadowed by what is a few poor seasons of football.” – I read that as “It is a shame that i gambled the future of the club on my ‘Championship Chairman vanity project’, and now the club is reaping what I sowed.”.
“I have given everything, I know I have come up short, but I will not risk the financial future of the club by borrowing monies and although we may well find ourselves out of the league, we will be financially sustainable. That, in itself, means we offer something substantial to a new owner and I’m convinced we can find the right person for the club. By stepping down I can concentrate on doing just that.” – I read this as “I am not putting any of my personal fortune into the club to rectify the mess I created. And whatever you do, do not mention the fact that I asset stripped the club, and will be set to make a tidy profit from property development if the club was no longer trading.”.
To sum it up in one sentence “It is COVID’s fault we’re in this mess, and YOUR fault we can’t sign quality players.”
In my 40 years of supporting the Iron I have never expected to be served up Premier League football, or even Championship football. However I was always proud that despite our small fan base, we could compete with most clubs in League One and League Two.
I really cannot blame Simon. He is an honest man, with honest intentions and a high level of integrity. Him walking away saying “He cannot work with the current regime” tells us all we need to know, and I fear for the clubs future.
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