Compensation from Gray breaking contract?

[al_quaker]

What a bloody joke. What a stupid clause to put in a contract.

I suppose it's better than the nothing we were due, but I'd rather York just give us a couple of grand now. Wouldn't have to go through with the charade of the Martin Gray friendly after he dumped us the first time things got tough. It's an embarrassment - it's like we're a tinpot club who should be privileged to be playing the likes of York City after they deemed us worthy to talk to our manager strictly after he resigned from his position at out football club.

Just waiting for it to turn out that Ferguson has a clause in his contract meaning he can go to a club with a name beginning with with the letter Y in exchange for a signed photo of said clubs manager to hang up in our bar. Not that we even have a fucking bar.

This bloody club.

[H1987]

I'm 20 years old. What was it like supporting darlo before these last two decades? Was it this miserable?

Yeah. More or less. Anything good was usually snatched away.

[roadrunner]

Actually at this point I don't really care about compensation. I think I'd send the reserves to York for the friendly

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It's unusual to play a friendly game with a team from the same league.

[AndyPark]

What an absolute fucking joke.

Gray can fucking do one for all I care now!!

[H1987]

What a bloody joke. What a stupid clause to put in a contract.

I suppose it's better than the nothing we were due, but I'd rather York just give us a couple of grand now. Wouldn't have to go through with the charade of the Martin Gray friendly after he dumped us the first time things got tough. It's an embarrassment - it's like we're a tinpot club who should be privileged to be playing the likes of York City after they deemed us worthy to talk to our manager strictly after he resigned from his position at out football club.

Just waiting for it to turn out that Ferguson has a clause in his contract meaning he can go to a club with a name beginning with with the letter Y in exchange for a signed photo of said clubs manager to hang up in our bar. Not that we even have a fucking bar.

This bloody club.

I can't be the only one sat here thinking "this isn't how a fucking contract works"?

On what bloody planet would there be some kind of exception where a non league side can take our manager, with no notice period, and no fee required? What sort of fucking logic is that!? "Oh yeah, if you get a job offer from a football league side, we'll stand in your way and expect compensation, but if an altogether more realistic offer from another side in the same division comes in, off you go, no notice required". I'm sorry, what? What!? It doesn't make any sense.

The wider and more significant point here is that York clearly made him resign, on the basis of knowing the terms of his contract. You are fundamentally not allowed to do that. Shove their friendly and get them reported to the FA. I'm sure there are rules in place to prevent this s***.

[My opinion]

Looks like the fuck up was made when setting up the existing contract...

"Darlington had little bargaining power as the terms of Gray's contract entitled them to a cash payment only if he left to join a a club in the EFL."

Its the kind of oversight that might lead to not to realise we needed 500 seats to make the playoffs.

So we gave him an escape clause that we would only need his contract paying off if it was to a league side? Wonderful

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Lets be right about this...It won't have been an oversight.
Gray held all the aces and probably dictaed the terms of his new contract..If the board had not agreed to these terms and Gray left because of lack of agreement, uncovered would have gone into melt down and once again the board would be slaughtered
Damned if you do and damned if you don.t

[H1987]

Honestly. The hell with this. Once again, Darlington football club sends me to bed in a bad mood. Some things never change.

[al_quaker]

If it's true that Gray dictated the terms of his contract, and it's entirely believable, then it was very nice of Gray to ensure he could leave for nothing, knowing full well what even relatively small amounts of money would do for the football club he led many to believe he cared for.

[Yarblockos]

I can't be the only one sat here thinking "this isn't how a fucking contract works"?

On what bloody planet would there be some kind of exception where a non league side can take our manager, with no notice period, and no fee required? What sort of fucking logic is that!? "Oh yeah, if you get a job offer from a football league side, we'll stand in your way and expect compensation, but if an altogether more realistic offer from another side in the same division comes in, off you go, no notice required". I'm sorry, what? What!? It doesn't make any sense.

The wider and more significant point here is that York clearly made him resign, on the basis of knowing the terms of his contract. You are fundamentally not allowed to do that. Shove their friendly and get them reported to the FA. I'm sure there are rules in place to prevent this s***.

Yes, it seems odd that you would let someone go with 4 years of a contract to run and not ask for some compensation, but if Gray did not tell them he had an offer then they would have no reason to refuse the resignation. If they didn't know, and York tapped him up illegally, then this could result in a fine for York, or some other penalty, but importantly, NOT compensation for us. We would have to persue a compensation claim ourselves, probably through legal channels. I think the friendly at York is all we are going to get here.

Of course, if the board did know of the interest from York they were stupid to accept the resignation. Reality is, allowing someone to leave without the other club paying compensation is stupid, but it still does not allow you to break your contract without a penalty if the club don't want him to go. Gray broke the contract and appears to have had to pay no penalty. Clearly Gray signed a contract that put him in an amazingly strong position, but he appears to have been negotiating with schoolchildren.

The more that comes out, the more it seems like the entire board were terrified of Martin Gray.

[en passant]

All in all the running of the club over the last 12 months looks to have been ill thought out and as a fan who placed trust and money in the hands of those who where doing so I currently feel as if we've had a pretty raw deal.
And on the subject of this match - how is it any sense a sop to compensate Darlo for the loss of MG when it is the Darlo fans who will be paying to go to the match so that we end up getting compensated out of our own pockets. I don't see the benefit in this match.

[DarloDave40]

Let’s put this in perspective, Gray hands his notice in and is determined to go- do the club say work your 6 month notice or put him on gardening leave either way it would have been one disgruntled manager with the effects on the dressing room and club alike. I remember a picture of him signing his new contract with Richard Cook which strengthened the contract from his previous one!

If Gray couldn’t leave immediately then York would look elsewhere would you really want a manager who doesn’t want to be here. It sounds like York were not prepared to pay for his remaining 6 month contract even if we got 50% it would add up to £7-£8k I would imagine not a huge amount.

Gray has mentioned he wants to sign 2-3 players and I’d imagine we all know who they may so perhaps the Directors are thinking the long game as we would get a fee on Ferguson and as a fan funded club we need it.

[m62exile]

Let’s put this in perspective, Gray hands his notice in and is determined to go- do the club say work your 6 month notice or put him on gardening leave either way it would have been one disgruntled manager with the effects on the dressing room and club alike. I remember a picture of him signing his new contract with Richard Cook which strengthened the contract from his previous one!

If Gray couldn’t leave immediately then York would look elsewhere would you really want a manager who doesn’t want to be here. It sounds like York were not prepared to pay for his remaining 6 month contract even if we got 50% it would add up to £7-£8k I would imagine not a huge amount.

Gray has mentioned he wants to sign 2-3 players and I’d imagine we all know who they may so perhaps the Directors are thinking the long game as we would get a fee on Ferguson and as a fan funded club we need it.

FWIW if we'd not have accepted his resignation I would be amazed if York weren't back within the hour with a settlement. They'd clearly put masses of effort in to get to that point bearing in mind they had the structure set up and ready to go.

Then you could argue it comes down to a point of principle about not wanting to stand in Martin's way.

I deal with employment contracts on occasion and it is standard to have a clause in to stop an employee going to a competitor company within a given time period, yet it seems this one was specifically written to make it easier to go to a competitor than a non-competitor. I just find that extremely unusual.

[princes town]

A five year contract at this level should never happen. I was amazed at the time by it and I'm really not sure why it was agreed. Was this approved by the corporate director

[Darlo-and-Back]

A five year contract at this level should never happen. I was amazed at the time by it and I'm really not sure why it was agreed. Was this approved by the corporate director

.... and crucially was the contract between DFC and MG or with MGFA.

[Quakerz]

I hope we never give 5 year management contracts out again, Gray's long contract hardly protected us did it?

You've also got the problem that if you take a manager on and he's not cutting it and he has 4 years left on his contract, then you can't afford to get rid of him.

[Vodka_Vic]

Tezza has already spoken about this.
We need to lay off the volunteer directors here or we'll have none left. Gray is ruthless. He knew what he was doing when he 'negotiated' this contract. There could be a view that this is taking advantage of volunteers/a fan run club. I understand people's anger here, but I can see why the club would be desperate to keep hold of Gray. I would blame MG more than the club though. I just hope John Tempest and David Johnston can ignore the mob on Facebook and stick to their guns.
Also, if it is true that some of the recent players i.e. Ferguson/Bartlettt have clauses in their contract allowing them to leave to a full-time club, as is rumoured, then I can understand this as well. At this time MG was already tapping up Raj, so in his eyes, as he normally gets his own way, he will have expected us to become full time in the next few months until the Fans Forum that is.
Divas has already given us an indicator of the culture of DFC under MG, and I expect more to come out in the next few weeks. 1883 was MG FC. DFC is now our club. Thanks MG for the 3 promotions, but it wasn't all you. Thanks to US for raising the funds and to all our VOLUNTEER directors for allowing it to happen. We now need to pull together and ride the next financial cloud, which I fear will happen due to a shortfall in budget due to dropping crowds, mainly caused by us raising gate prices to cope with MGs impossible ambitions.

[LoidLucan]

The one thing that should not happen is this ridiculously patronising and practically worthless friendly. Having the "big club" throwing a few coins down to the "tinpot little club" that Gray regards as a laughing stock is just about the most excruciating outcome I can think of. To retain some kind of respect and pride we've got to just do a U-turn and say it won't go ahead. For a whole variety of reasons we've been stitched up and stitched ourselves up and will just have to move on from this whole sorry affair. And no doubt when we lose our best players to the odious Gray we'll just have to do the same again.

[Spyman]

This is a fucking joke.

So we get a friendly where we get to keep the gate. Where does the gate come from? Our pockets. Where does the rest of our funding come from? Our pockets.

I'd rather everyone donated what they would've spent attending to the club in some other way. Even just donate half that amount. Let York rack up the running costs for the game for nobody to turn up.

I don't blame the board for this - as Divas says, it's clear that Gray used his popularity with the majority of our fanbase to exploit the situation and hold the board over a barrel knowing that if he'd walked in the summer they'd have taken the blame.

We now have an opportunity to get the club in order. Empower the board to run the club how it should be run - not at the whim of one mans ego but instead for the good of the community that the club belongs to.

Gray is gone. Good riddance.

[jjljks]

No wonder Mr Raper quit. The Board were in Grays pocket & why they should settle for an uncertain 'Compensation' fee from a preseason friendly is beyond belief. Money up front please, it isn't as if we are rolling in it & can afford to be generous.

Need to check all our team contracts now to make sure there are no weasel clauses to let Gray poach our players. If he wants any one of them he should pay through the nose!

Hope our current board learn lessons from this debacle. Anyway, all we can do now is get behind the club & when Gray shows his face again, give him the reception he deserves.

[banktopp]

When Gray was given a five year contract there wasn't too many objections then.
What must not happen is this turns into a witch hunt of blame and recriminations similar to the aftermath of the infamous fans forum.
Gray has gone and good riddance, I think he had reached his level and was shown up to be lacking in ideas and motivation, and his only answer was crowing for a bigger budget to bring in more players who when or even if they played, didn't improve the team.
York will get the 'new manager' boost but Gray will never get them back in the football league.

[lo36789]

Hope our current board learn lessons from this debacle.

What board?

Wayne has tendered his resignation as the DFCSG rep on the board, Johnston has as good as admitted he was in it for Gray (ex-business partner or whatever they are to each other) and didn't John Tempest only end up staying to steer things after the rest of the board were chased at the fans forum.

We are basically looking for a new board at the next AGM. The culture of the club needs a serious re-jig.

1. There needs to be an open discussion with the fan base about what the club is aspiring to be. This needs to be a clear vision and I'll be honest it is like it or lump it. For me this is a sustainable, fan owned club which basically is there to inspire youngsters, to provide a community 'hub', to generate pride in the town and to represent the town externally at the highest level of football within it's means (that needs a heck of a lot of wordsmithing). You can see that the fan-owned mentality of some is in huge contrast to the "must return to FL at all cost" mentality of others - that is not a club that is working in the same direction. What is the old single vision of NASA "to put a man on the moon" and the old story that when a cleaner was asked what the purpose of his job was it was "to put a man on the moon" - he could see how what he was doing was ultimately working towards the overall vision of the organisation.
2. I'd hope this would drive out the negativity directed and felt by any board member seems to come from this space of why are they not behaving or delivering like the board of a full time professional club. Ideally this would then inspire some members of the community to come forward in order to help run the club.
3. Clear roles & responsibilities. Until these are laid out there is too much on too few shoulders. We might not be a professional outfit but with a proper structure in place it should make completion of roles more palatable for those taking them on.
4. We need to shout out about what our intentions are and get in amongst the community. Anyone looking in doesn't see a friendly club they see in fighting with fans and board, they see an argumentative manager, they see fans basically making out they are higher and mightier than the amateur rugby club who we share facilities with. It just needs to stop. We need a friendly face of this club because right now I don't think we look particularly welcoming.

[Spyman]

When Gray was given a five year contract there wasn't too many objections then.
What must not happen is this turns into a witch hunt of blame and recriminations similar to the aftermath of the infamous fans forum.
Gray has gone and good riddance, I think he had reached his level and was shown up to be lacking in ideas and motivation, and his only answer was crowing for a bigger budget to bring in more players who when or even if they played, didn't improve the team.
York will get the 'new manager' boost but Gray will never get them back in the football league.

Of course not, but we weren't party to the various clauses in the contract. Had it protected us better in the event of Gray leaving for a rival club then I'd have no issue with a 5-year contract.

As it was though, it seems like Gray dictated what he wanted because he knew the board would be criticised by the supporters if they didn't give him what he wanted.

They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Stand up to Gray and get it in the neck from the supporters - back down to him and get your pants pulled down when our rivals come in for Gray.

[al_quaker]

After my initial outburst of disbelief last night, I too hope that nobody blames the board for this (although they will as still, even now, some think Gray is the messiah). They were obviously put in an impossible position. Gray used his success to basically make himself the club. Somebody above made a good point. Darlington 1883 FC basically became Martin Gray FC. We now have our proper name back, and so it's time to have a proper relationship between board members and management team.

I wonder if any of the previous board members, whether that be football club or SG, would be willing to come back into the fold now that Gray is gone and hopefully we have a manager (or managers!) who knows their place?

[D_F_C]

If Tempest goes we are right up a very famous creek. He's more important than any issue with Gray

[ex-exile]

Well what has happened is done now,Grey will probably take our best players for little.It ironical that since we played York that things have gone poorly.I don’t believe that he could access his new squad in 24 hours, and obviously knew about York’s interest before he said. This is time when we all have to get behind the club and carry on as we always have done,the club is always more important than one man.

[banktopp]

The fiasco over the seats, Gray's contract, are basic issues that would not occur in a club with full time paid officials. We don't have that luxury and our rapid rise through the leagues has not been matched by the administrative infrastructure necessary to avoid such set backs. We have precious little talent willing to be involved and must not lose it.

[al_quaker]

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/1 ... h_Quakers/

Interesting reading:

“There’s a clause in there now which means they would get some money for a change. That’s important because if somebody does come along why should the club lose out on a financial opportunity.”

Forgot to mention the key detail there didn't you Martin

[super_les_mcjannet]

I was looking for that this morning as I remember Gray saying it.

Looks like Gray wasn't being truthfull or he failed to mention the non league bit.

[al_quaker]

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He must have forgotten to mention that key bit of the contract he'd just signed. Even though he mentioned an offer from a conference club just above and the clause in his new contract he'd just signed was only relevant if he went to a Football League club. Easy to forget.

[Spyman]

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He must have forgotten to mention that key bit of the contract he'd just signed. Even though he mentioned an offer from a conference club just above and the clause in his new contract he'd just signed was only relevant if he went to a Football League club. Easy to forget.

Maybe his head was so big he thought only a League club would possibly dare approach him?

But then Wenger signed a new two year deal.