Darlo Uncovered

QuakerPete wrote: I hope there is an element of restraint at tomorrow's fans' forum as this subject has been done to death now and the last thing we need is resulting acrimonious division. If not, we could be restrained in this division for more than one season - and that WOULD be a disaster.

Spot on. I'm worried about tomorrow to be honest - we only have one director left, and who knows what might happen if things turn nasty.

Hopefully the board departures have satisfied those who wanted heads to roll over this mistake, and that the anger has reduced enough so that tomorrow can be a respectful and informative Q + A session. I'm not expecting, or wanting, the club to get a free pass on this (although the statement today has answered some of my questions), but I hope it's all done with an air of respect.

After tomorrow night, hopefully everyone can move on together - without that unity we won't progress as a club, we won't raise the money for the seated stand, and then we will take backwards steps on the pitch too. A mistake has been made, it's been handled poorly, and directors have resigned. Let's have a respectful clear the air session, then move on, raise the money, get the seats installed, and have another stab at promotion next season

I presume Martin Gray will be at the meeting. It'll be very interesting to hear what he has to say about the debacle.

Darlo_Pete wrote:I presume Martin Gray will be at the meeting. It'll be very interesting to hear what he has to say about the debacle.

Suspect he will say he is disappointed but he is proud of the way the team have played this season, particularly in the last few few weeks since news came out. I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking he is a professional after all.

lo36789 wrote:

Darlo_Pete wrote:I presume Martin Gray will be at the meeting. It'll be very interesting to hear what he has to say about the debacle.

Suspect he will say he is disappointed but he is proud of the way the team have played this season, particularly in the last few few weeks since news came out. I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking he is a professional after all.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/ ... ns__forum/

Darlington director John Tempest will be present this evening, as will manager Martin Gray.

He is hugely frustrated by the recent turn of events, and this evening he will comment on the issue for the first time.

Gray will also make clear his stance on what he believes the future direction of the fan-owned club should be.

Robbie Painter wrote:

lo36789 wrote:

Darlo_Pete wrote:I presume Martin Gray will be at the meeting. It'll be very interesting to hear what he has to say about the debacle.

Suspect he will say he is disappointed but he is proud of the way the team have played this season, particularly in the last few few weeks since news came out. I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking he is a professional after all.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/ ... ns__forum/

Darlington director John Tempest will be present this evening, as will manager Martin Gray.

He is hugely frustrated by the recent turn of events, and this evening he will comment on the issue for the first time.

Gray will also make clear his stance on what he believes the future direction of the fan-owned club should be.

Future direction.... I suspect he will make comment about greater investment needed to return to the FL. Controversially, i think he may suggest attracting an outsider to invest in order to fund the developments needed. We need to be honest and think that is likely to be the only way to return to the FL

Darlo_Dan wrote: .....
Future direction.... I suspect he will make comment about greater investment needed to return to the FL. Controversially, i think he may suggest attracting an outsider to invest in order to fund the developments needed. We need to be honest and think that is likely to be the only way to return to the FL

I saw this story on the BBC website earlier this week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39646919

Seems Portsmouth are having this issue at present and their situation may be one to keep an eye on as lessons can be learned

Martin has already said in the past about outward investment and identifying an investor. I'll be honest I think if that is still his stance then it isn't game changing. Unless a benefactor is stupidly rich, a devoted fan and the mechanism through which they invest is not to seek complete power then I would never be on board.

Thing is we can see ourselves how tight money is in this club. You have to ask what is he motive for any new owner because it's near impossible to make money from the club. That inevitably leads to problems down the line.

what did Duncan Bannantybe say. The best way to become a millionaire through football is to start off as a billionaire...

If we are to get to the football league, outside investment will be required.

We simply do not have the fanbase to raise sufficient funds to get the ground upto football league standard and then put a team on the pitch that would win us promotion from the National League.

When you look at how much needs spending on the infrastructure, and then look at how much teams at the top end of the National League are spending on their wage budgets (Forest Green a good example, yearly wage bill of £2 million +), then it is clear that external investment is needed.

Fan ownership will only take you so far, which is a shame really as it should be the way forward for all clubs.

But there may not be anyone external that wants to put monies into the football club, and if they do want to put monies in, they may demand full control. And we know from experience what can happen. And you only have to look at the situations at Blackburn, Coventry, Charlton, Morecambe, Leyton Orient, Blackpool etc to see what can happen to clubs who get owners coming in promising the world and putting clubs in the sh*t.

Gow9900 wrote:We simply do not have the fanbase to raise sufficient funds to get the ground upto football league standard and then put a team on the pitch that would win us promotion from the National League.

Maybe not 'naturally' but I think we can get to NL with fan ownership. I even think we can get top half of NL with fan ownership.

An FA Cup run to the 4th round would probably enable a budget to compete - we'd have to go project promotion the year after that.

So it is possible to do it on fan ownership it might just take a bit of skill and luck along the way...

lo36789 wrote:

Gow9900 wrote:We simply do not have the fanbase to raise sufficient funds to get the ground upto football league standard and then put a team on the pitch that would win us promotion from the National League.

Maybe not 'naturally' but I think we can get to NL with fan ownership. I even think we can get top half of NL with fan ownership.

An FA Cup run to the 4th round would probably enable a budget to compete - we'd have to go project promotion the year after that.

So it is possible to do it on fan ownership it might just take a bit of skill and luck along the way...

Agreed.

Darlo_Dan wrote: Future direction.... I suspect he will make comment about greater investment needed to return to the FL. Controversially, i think he may suggest attracting an outsider to invest in order to fund the developments needed. We need to be honest and think that is likely to be the only way to return to the FL

Nail on head!

MG has been saying that for a number of forums now.