Darlo Uncovered

Statement on the official site now.

Jonathan Jowett moving to role of company secretary.

Personally, I think this is a real shame. Yes a massive mistake has been made, but as the club grows, we're going to need as much help with running it as possible.

It seems to have been a genuine mistake, so some contrition and clear steps being implemented to avoid this happening again would have been satisfactory for me. Others will disagree, but each to their own.

I think this is a backwards step and I hope the gap can be filled by someone with just as much experience. Unlikely.

I'd rather we were losing the despicable "fans" who resort to personal abuse on social media against people who volunteer their time in a bid to help this club. Shame on them. One thing's for sure, none of them will be putting their names forward to help us move forward.

You F***ing idiots.

Good luck Mr Cook in his future endeavours. I wish it hadn't come to this. But equally I don't blame him for stepping down.

Thanks to Richard for all his hard work . he will be missed especially as he will have to be replaced by some one with an equal skill set with the time and commitment ( not to mention the very thick skin ) of which we have few if any waiting in the wings . Now if we were looking for ungrateful, small minded,no nothing , sack the board , clueless clowns we'd be unfortunately spoilt for choice. Sad loss

Darlogramps wrote:I think this is a backwards step and I hope the gap can be filled by someone with just as much experience. Unlikely.

Agreed.

A real, real blow. Thanks for everything over the last year.

Fortunately this board, twitter and FB all appear to have been full of competent replacements over the last week or so, particularly for his years of experience in the construction industry. Would hate to be the person having to vet all the upcoming applications...

Darlogramps wrote:Statement on the official site now.

Jonathan Jowett moving to role of company secretary.

Personally, I think this is a real shame. Yes a massive mistake has been made, but as the club grows, we're going to need as much help with running it as possible.

It seems to have been a genuine mistake, so some contrition and clear steps being implemented to avoid this happening again would have been satisfactory for me. Others will disagree, but each to their own.

I think this is a backwards step and I hope the gap can be filled by someone with just as much experience. Unlikely.

Agree totally with this Gramps. I have only seen comments on this message board and not other social media. Sometimes it can be a fine dividing line between criticism (which I think may be justified from time to time) and personal abuse, but it seems clear certain individuals have over stepped the mark here. Good luck Richard and thanks.
Be very interesting to see the club's appeal when it is published later.

At least it will keep some people happy even though the vast majority were prepared to forgive the error and move on.
Good luck Richard and thanks for the work you have done.

Very, very sad state of affairs. People with the credentials of Richard and Jonathan that are prepared to give their time for free are very rare indeed. No doubt the hounds will be well satisfied. I certainly am not!

No doubt DFCSG will have to add 'armour plated skin and broad shoulders' to the skill set required for any new applicants.

Thank you Richard for everything you have done and achieved for this football club. Thank you Jonathan for not abandoning us totally.

I reckon he will be a huge loss - personal abuse crosses well over the line, and those people should be ashamed. I'm not saying this has been handled well by the club, but vitriol leading to resignations because of a mistake is beyond poor.

I hope those who wanted heads to roll are content with this outcome.

We now need to find the best way to move forwards from this. I hope John Tempest is inundated with highly qualified people to replace Richard (and Jonathan) on the board of directors.

I'd like to thank Richard and Jonathan for all their work for our club as directors. John too, and I'm glad he and Jonathan are sticking around in various roles.

Hounded out.

Not happy.

A great shame.
At least he will avoid the expected abuse coming his way at the Fans Forum

Was there any personal criticism (however unreasonable) of individuals? What I have seen was aimed at the Board as a group.

I believe the club handled the statements badly which on the back of a huge mistake made matters worse.Seen a lot of frustration on here and other social media but nothing I would call abusive.

If I was being abused I would not be hanging around to get more.

wizardofos wrote:Was there any personal criticism (however unreasonable) of individuals? What I have seen was aimed at the Board as a group.

In fairness, there was some personal abuse.

A lot of the criticism was of the mistake and the board's actions which is to be expected and, given a mistake has been made, justified.

But some of the stuff I've seen on Twitter and Facebook did extend to the personal. I'm not going to repeat it or link to it because frankly it shouldn't receive any further attention.

And we don't know what's been said to him privately, via email etc.

But there were some comments which became personal abuse, which is not acceptable.

leedscol wrote:A great shame.
At least he will avoid the expected abuse coming his way at the Fans Forum

Club statement says he is stepping down after the Fans Forum so suggests he will be there maybe?

Darlogramps wrote:

wizardofos wrote:Was there any personal criticism (however unreasonable) of individuals? What I have seen was aimed at the Board as a group.

In fairness, there was some personal abuse.

A lot of the criticism was of the mistake and the board's actions which is to be expected and, given a mistake has been made, justified.

But some of the stuff I've seen on Twitter did extend to the personal. I'm not going to repeat it or link to it because frankly it shouldn't receive any further attention.

But there were some comments which became personal abuse, which is not acceptable.

Thanks for clarifying I had not seen any of these as I don't use Twitter.

MCFCDarlo3 wrote:I believe the club handled the statements badly which on the back of a huge mistake made matters worse.Seen a lot of frustration on here and other social media but nothing I would call abusive.

If I was being abused I would not be hanging around to get more.

Agreed.

Darlogramps wrote: And we don't know what's been said to him privately, via email etc.

Considering that MG recieves abusive communications (which is frankly one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard considering his achievements), I'd be staggered if the idiots hadn't managed to work out how to send abusive emails to those on the board.

Shame just before a game as well,poor players have enough crap to contend with atm.

I was going to say, for all plenty of us are very fed up, I haven't really seen personal directed abuse on here. I think it's a damned shame, I didn't want to see anyone go.

That said, whoever is putting the clubs messages out needs to think about their wording and wider public relations. There was no apology in the original messages and now openly attacking fans? Don't get me wrong, anyone who personally hounds volunteers is a dick, but the clubs official website openly attacking its fans!? Who thought that was a good idea, seriously? Even if it's what you think personally, than isn't the place you should be airing that view.

H1987 wrote:I was going to say, for all plenty of us are very fed up, I haven't really seen personal directed abuse on here. I think it's a damned shame, I didn't want to see anyone go.

That said, whoever is putting the clubs messages out needs to think about their wording and wider public relations. There was no apology in the original messages and now openly attacking fans? Don't get me wrong, anyone who personally hounds volunteers is a dick, but the clubs official website openly attacking its fans!? Who thought that was a good idea, seriously? Even if it's what you think personally, than isn't the place you should be airing that view.

I must have missed that. Where does it openly attack the fans on the Official site?

H1987 wrote:I was going to say, for all plenty of us are very fed up, I haven't really seen personal directed abuse on here. I think it's a damned shame, I didn't want to see anyone go.

That said, whoever is putting the clubs messages out needs to think about their wording and wider public relations. There was no apology in the original messages and now openly attacking fans? Don't get me wrong, anyone who personally hounds volunteers is a dick, but the clubs official website openly attacking its fans!? Who thought that was a good idea, seriously? Even if it's what you think personally, than isn't the place you should be airing that view.

This.

No personal abuse should be tolerated, no matter what anyone thinks of what someone has done.

However, the statement once again has left a bitter taste for me. Let's park the lack of an explanation as to what has happened (they could be waiting until after the appeal) to the side for now, but I don't know how a statement like this is meant to bring fans back together in a united manner. It does feel to me that they are opening a chasm between fans who are willing to back the board regardless of an explanation (an innocent mistake etc) and those who feel they need an explanation to regain trust. Both are acceptable positions to hold to me, yet I feel like there is the potential for the statement to be viewed as encouragement to blame/attack people who hold the latter view in some sense (don't misconstrue that as me saying that personal abuse aimed at the board is acceptable, although I can't recall seeing any of that on here and only a few comments on FB).

The "attacking fans", as you put it, seems to be the club saying that personal abuse is disgraceful and people deserve some respect. What exactly is the problem with that? Seems fair enough to me.

Mr_Tibbs wrote:

H1987 wrote:I was going to say, for all plenty of us are very fed up, I haven't really seen personal directed abuse on here. I think it's a damned shame, I didn't want to see anyone go.

That said, whoever is putting the clubs messages out needs to think about their wording and wider public relations. There was no apology in the original messages and now openly attacking fans? Don't get me wrong, anyone who personally hounds volunteers is a dick, but the clubs official website openly attacking its fans!? Who thought that was a good idea, seriously? Even if it's what you think personally, than isn't the place you should be airing that view.

I must have missed that. Where does it openly attack the fans on the Official site?

Attendances at BM were criticised as not being good enough. Also said not enough money was raised but I'm sure the club ask for donations to stop as they had reached a certain figure.

Wow!.A thread on here with no post from a Welshman and someone who lives far far away.
How predictable.

loan_star wrote:

Mr_Tibbs wrote:

H1987 wrote:I was going to say, for all plenty of us are very fed up, I haven't really seen personal directed abuse on here. I think it's a damned shame, I didn't want to see anyone go.

That said, whoever is putting the clubs messages out needs to think about their wording and wider public relations. There was no apology in the original messages and now openly attacking fans? Don't get me wrong, anyone who personally hounds volunteers is a dick, but the clubs official website openly attacking its fans!? Who thought that was a good idea, seriously? Even if it's what you think personally, than isn't the place you should be airing that view.

I must have missed that. Where does it openly attack the fans on the Official site?

Attendances at BM were criticised as not being good enough. Also said not enough money was raised but I'm sure the club ask for donations to stop as they had reached a certain figure.

Without wishing to get into a complete dissection of the statement, I would offer the following observations which have stood out to me.

"The board of Darlington FC regrets to announce that Richard Cook has decided to resign from the Board after the fans’ forum this coming Friday 21st April 2017. This is despite many messages of support for the Board in relation to recent events regarding the play-offs, and the unequivocal support of the Supporters Group as majority shareholder."

The second sentence, particularly the "despite many message of support for the Board...." seems an implication that holding a contrary view is either wrong or misplaced.

"Richard, who holds a senior role in a major international organisation, "

Whatever his background, many believe either himself or the board have made a major error but there is still no contrition. He clearly has useful skills but something has gone wrong here, and his working background doesn't mean he is incapable of making an error. Adding this in seems an unnecessary addition to me. Whilst professional experience is clearly useful, I would judge them more on their actions for Darlington which recently I think it's fair to say look like they've fallen short to some extent.

I could add a few more but I think the overall point which I feel the statement misses, is an acknowledgement that some of the criticism is clearly fair, and that a difference needs to be drawn between those asking for an explanation and those just spitting unnecessary personal vitriol. It runs the risk of lumping everyone into an "us or them" narrative which long-term, will be deeply divisive.

Sad news.

Emdubya wrote:Wow!.A thread on here with no post from a Welshman and someone who lives far far away.
How predictable.

Emdubya wrote:Wow!.A thread on here with no post from a Welshman and someone who lives far far away.
How predictable.

That'll be me then?

I have never and will never resort to personally abusing anyone. I'm sorry but if my posts are the extent of this personal abuse then here's hoping his replacement is a little bit more thick skinned.