Darlo Uncovered

Anybody see Mr Grays interview in todays NLP, he says his business pretty much single handedly saved the club in 2012.

Seems to me he needs to have his head extracted from his own ringpiece

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Just shows his contempt for all those who invested in helping to save Darlington fc. He, s delusional if it wasn't for our marvelous volunteers over the last few years along with the investors we wouldn't have a club, it's never been all about a Mr Martin Gray, least said i think.

Ignore him. He’s an idiot.

Never been the brightest button in the box, has nobody told him the fans have raised over £1M.The guy is as thick as a brick.

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QUAKERMAN2 wrote:Never been the brightest button in the box, has nobody told him the fans have raised over £1M.The guy is as thick as a brick.

Bit hard on bricks, that, QM2.

I think this is MG feeling the pressure and using the article as a means of trying to boost his profile. York fans are far from convinced and he knows this. After the first pre season match at Shildon last week he publicly criticised one of his new signings for a ‘halfhearted’ challenge. Body language of the York players leads many to believe that they’re not behind him. Given York move stadium next season they need this one to at least give a top 3 finish. If they start the season slowly Gray will be gone and McGill will go for a crowd pleasing appointment like Parkin or Jon McCarthy

Nimrod wrote:I think this is MG feeling the pressure and using the article as a means of trying to boost his profile. York fans are far from convinced and he knows this. After the first pre season match at Shildon last week he publicly criticised one of his new signings for a ‘halfhearted’ challenge. Body language of the York players leads many to believe that they’re not behind him. Given York move stadium next season they need this one to at least give a top 3 finish. If they start the season slowly Gray will be gone and McGill will go for a crowd pleasing appointment like Parkin or Jon McCarthy

Completely agree. Gray has been backed in the transfer market, this is his squad and he has to own their performances and results.

He won't get away with demanding more new signings if results are sluggish come September/October time.

That article will just alienate Darlo fans even more than before. He obviously has complete and utter contempt for all Darlo fans. Can't wait for MG to come to BM if he hasn't already been sacked.

"I put in a lot of my own money in to make it work in those early days. Back then it was my business that funded things."

Is that true? Or is it just fake news .

I think the key to this is the interview with TW that was in the Non-League Paper the previous week. The story then said:

Darlington boss Tommy Wright says the Quakers can challenge for promotion after “erasing” all traces of the Martin Gray regime.

Gray, 46, took charge in 2012 and won three promotions in five years before leaving to join National League North rivals York last October.

Wright was then lured from Nuneaton – only to be told that Gray’s expensively assembled squad was blowing the budget.

That left the 33-year-old in the invidious position of dismantling a tight-knit group whilst fighting for a berth in the top seven and the play-offs.

“Martin did a brilliant job for this club,” says Wright, below, whose side eventually finished 12th.

“Nobody can take away what he achieved. But it did come at a cost. He left us over budget and it then became my job to balance the books."

“There’ve been a lot of changes off the pitch to almost erase the old regime. There’s a much better feeling and there’s no reason at all why we shouldn’t think about promotion.”

I'll bet Gray was furious with that suggestion that TW needed to erase all traces of the previous regime after over-spending was taking us to the brink. And I'll bet he was determined set the record straight as he saw it. That's why he's now spouting the line of "I financed that club. I made massive sacrifices - personal and financial". He says he would never engage in a war of words with his previous club... but that's really what he's doing because he's absolutely seething with what's been said. I think in his view we weren't spending anywhere near enough money to compete with the likes of Salford, Harrogate and York.

He also said he does not like burning bridges with his olds clubs...Sunderland, Oxford and Aldershot mentioned...No Darlo, I reckon that not only the Darlo bridge, but the fucking foundations are burnt well and truly beyond repair now

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I think Gray's view of us now is a bunch of ungrateful bastards despite all he did for us.

At the beginning of our start in the lower leagues we were struggling financially, (certainly mentioned at the early AGM's), and were saved from difficulties by short term large loans from a small number of "fans" (one of these could have been MG for all I know). Getting the sell on money from former players helping pay them back was my understanding at the time.
MG may also be referring to him paying part of the money for Gregan and Atkinson, (seeing as they worked part time for him as well, I thought that was reasonable to expect). To be honest we don't know unless someone comes up with the detail regarding those early days before we became more financially organised.
As for my personal view, his comment that it was probably advantageous for both clubs that he moved on is one that I totally agree with, (we would have struggled financially if he had stayed and possibly gone backwards).
He has wished us well in his comments, and we appear to be moving forward as a team again so I thank him for his help in our development, (and money if that was total fact), and now we move on and he is just the manager of a rival team in our league, and while not happy how he left, that for me is in the past, it was the best thing for our club at the time and we have a lot to look forward to now and not backwards (would be good to beat them home and away though ).

Does this mean our promised pre-season friendly in lieu of compensation for broken contract is off? Perhaps MG will just write off all the 'loans' he 'made'?
MG is up there with Donald Trump when it comes to the truth. There is a tiny element of it in there somewhere, but also then conveniently leaving out the massive contribution from the fans and many others who were not prepared to see the club go out of existence. MG was a part of our Renaissance, but his ego and overspending were starting to compromise the future of the club, so we are better off without him. York City may not be so lucky, but let's see what happens in the new season.

It was announced at one forum that MGFA were one of the companies putting £5k into the club along with Darlington Building Society. Think it was into the back to Darlo fund.
I have no doubt that Gray may well have invested other money along the way but apparently he did very well out of using the DFC brand for his academy too so it’s only fair some of that came back to the club.

Nimrod wrote:I think this is MG feeling the pressure and using the article as a means of trying to boost his profile. York fans are far from convinced and he knows this. After the first pre season match at Shildon last week he publicly criticised one of his new signings for a ‘halfhearted’ challenge. Body language of the York players leads many to believe that they’re not behind him. Given York move stadium next season they need this one to at least give a top 3 finish. If they start the season slowly Gray will be gone and McGill will go for a crowd pleasing appointment like Parkin or Jon McCarthy

am sure some of it deflection tactics by MG.....and trying to remind York fans that he can be the good guy sometimes. he's under pressure no doubt...

Nimrod wrote:I think this is MG feeling the pressure and using the article as a means of trying to boost his profile. York fans are far from convinced and he knows this. After the first pre season match at Shildon last week he publicly criticised one of his new signings for a ‘halfhearted’ challenge. Body language of the York players leads many to believe that they’re not behind him. Given York move stadium next season they need this one to at least give a top 3 finish. If they start the season slowly Gray will be gone and McGill will go for a crowd pleasing appointment like Parkin or Jon McCarthy

I've just read the article, and yes I feel he is trying to boost his profile. The bottom line is York's end of season was a dismal affair and he's wishing to remind the fans that he is a capable manager.

In his position as DFC manager Gray became idolised, but now seems bitter that a good proportion of Darlo fans (and possibly management too according to the article) now think he's a twat! However he needs to reflect on why this is - and this is because of his actions of last year, namely "Singhgate" and the underhand manner of his leaving.

Actions have consequences!

I feel that he could of left under better terms, I feel that it's a shame that he didn't leave under better terms - all it needed was a bit of consideration and respect to flow from him towards the club, it's fans and management.

As LoidLucan says, it seems as though Gray didn't feel like we were spending anywhere near enough to compete with the likes of York, Salford and Harrogate, and this is true because we do not have a millionaire backer willing to fund the club to a full time level.

This is ultimately why Gray jumped ship because we just couldn't give him enough money to satisfy his need to be winning constant promotions, and it started getting a bit hard for him - and realistically even at that point our budget was stretched beyond breaking point because of his need for more and more money to "compete" - ie win promotion.

But "competing" is relative and a realistic manager knows we can't walk away with the league with our part time budget - competing for us I would say right now is upper mid table to fringes of the play offs, that's just reality.

Gray couldn't accept that and when he'd took us beyond our financial comfort zone, he saw the ££££ at York and couldn't go quick enough. How funny that he's completely fucked the job up so far - with an enviable full time budget pitted against mainly part time clubs. He's lost more than he's won!

I understand why people want to have a go at Gray. I’ve never liked him as a person but was very happy with him as our manager. We need to also remember that Gray did very well for us, but Gray needs to remember that he wouldn’t be where he is without us.

I guess we’ll never know what would have happened if we had chosen a different manager 6 years ago


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D_F_C wrote:I understand why people want to have a go at Gray. I’ve never liked him as a person but was very happy with him as our manager. We need to also remember that Gray did very well for us, but Gray needs to remember that he wouldn’t be where he is without us.

That's exactly the point, D_F_C. I doubt anyone on here would deny MG did well for us, but it's his failure to recognise that it was a two way street, a partnership, that causes the ill feeling.

biccynana wrote:

D_F_C wrote:I understand why people want to have a go at Gray. I’ve never liked him as a person but was very happy with him as our manager. We need to also remember that Gray did very well for us, but Gray needs to remember that he wouldn’t be where he is without us.

That's exactly the point, D_F_C. I doubt anyone on here would deny MG did well for us, but it's his failure to recognise that it was a two way street, a partnership, that causes the ill feeling.

Absolutely right, got it in a nutshell.
The other thing I have noted is the number of signings who cite the support of fans as one of their reasons for wanting to play for us. The manager of any club has to achieve a balance so that by playing in an attractive style, he keeps the fans happy whilst also giving every squad member a chance to play in a role they enjoy, yet still have a winning side. Gray managed to do this in the early days, but then lost the plot with the long diagonal hoofball of later games

jjljks wrote:

biccynana wrote:

D_F_C wrote:I understand why people want to have a go at Gray. I’ve never liked him as a person but was very happy with him as our manager. We need to also remember that Gray did very well for us, but Gray needs to remember that he wouldn’t be where he is without us.

That's exactly the point, D_F_C. I doubt anyone on here would deny MG did well for us, but it's his failure to recognise that it was a two way street, a partnership, that causes the ill feeling.

Absolutely right, got it in a nutshell.
The other thing I have noted is the number of signings who cite the support of fans as one of their reasons for wanting to play for us. The manager of any club has to achieve a balance so that by playing in an attractive style, he keeps the fans happy whilst also giving every squad member a chance to play in a role they enjoy, yet still have a winning side. Gray managed to do this in the early days, but then lost the plot with the long diagonal hoofball of later games

I would say that quite a few of the people I stand near at games, including myself, were concerned with Grays spending and apparent control over club finances for a few seasons, it was worrying that every season we seemed close to financial disaster.

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[/quote]
Gray managed to do this in the early days, but then lost the plot with the long diagonal hoofball of later games[/quote]

I'm not sure he lost the plot. He had simply reached his limit talentwise, and when plan A didn't work, his only plan B was to revert to hoofball.

I know it’s slightly off topic but Salford have just signed Adam Rooney from Aberdeen and he’s on £4,000 per week! Against all odds..

Darlo_CR wrote:I know it’s slightly off topic but Salford have just signed Adam Rooney from Aberdeen and he’s on £4,000 per week! Against all odds..

Owners probably confused and think they have signed their old mate Wayne as a kindness in his old age.

jjljks wrote:

Darlo_CR wrote:I know it’s slightly off topic but Salford have just signed Adam Rooney from Aberdeen and he’s on £4,000 per week! Against all odds..

Owners probably confused and think they have signed their old mate Wayne as a kindness in his old age.

Darlo_Cr more likely to be confused as I very much doubt a player at that level is on £208,000 a year!

Here is an article about the signing from the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44877537

Clearly a more than decent player at Scottish Premier Level is going to command wages of around £4000. The lad is from the north west, so he may have been prepared to take a wage cut to return to the area, but I doubt he'd have signed for them for under £3000 per week.

bga wrote:

jjljks wrote:

Darlo_CR wrote:I know it’s slightly off topic but Salford have just signed Adam Rooney from Aberdeen and he’s on £4,000 per week! Against all odds..

Owners probably confused and think they have signed their old mate Wayne as a kindness in his old age.

Darlo_Cr more likely to be confused as I very much doubt a player at that level is on £208,000 a year!

....................or even as Pete "suggests" £156,000 a year?

bga wrote:

jjljks wrote:

Darlo_CR wrote:I know it’s slightly off topic but Salford have just signed Adam Rooney from Aberdeen and he’s on £4,000 per week! Against all odds..

Owners probably confused and think they have signed their old mate Wayne as a kindness in his old age.

Darlo_Cr more likely to be confused as I very much doubt a player at that level is on £208,000 a year!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.four ... format=amp

Darlo_CR wrote:

bga wrote:

jjljks wrote:

Darlo_CR wrote:I know it’s slightly off topic but Salford have just signed Adam Rooney from Aberdeen and he’s on £4,000 per week! Against all odds..

Owners probably confused and think they have signed their old mate Wayne as a kindness in his old age.

Darlo_Cr more likely to be confused as I very much doubt a player at that level is on £208,000 a year!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.four ... format=amp

Don't believe everything you read second hand! (Fake news?) I still maintain I doubt he is being paid this amount.