A new era beckons
by Scott Thornberry - 5th August 2009
Even by Darlington's topsy-turvy standards the last five months have been something of a roller coaster. Odds-on to win promotion back in February with a team boasting league two galacticos such as Pawel Abbott, Rob Purdie, Steve Foster, Neil Austin & Jason Kennedy, a poor performance and defeat at home to Rochdale was a bitter pill to swallow, but what ensued was just, well.......heartbreaking.
On Wednesday 25th February, for the second time in 6 years, Darlo fans woke to read the news that the club had been yet again placed into administration, this time with staggering £7.8m debts ran up in just over 2 years of George Houghton's stewardship. Anger, frustration, but most of all sheer disbelief ensued at how we'd been able to get into that sort of financial ruin in such a short space of time.
Fast forward 160 painful days and we stand on the brink of a fresh start, Raj's takeover is almost complete, with the club said to be "very, very close" to exiting administration after the Football League board recommended that our "golden share" be transferred to the new company - Darlington FC Limited 2009.
The administration team appointed by departed chairman and public enemy number one Mr. Houghton have been a shambles, and that's putting it kindly! I'd pity any club that in future are left at the mercy of the laughingly nicknamed "Bollockbury & Clown". Communication it seems is an alien concept to them - we are still awaiting a statement promised within 24/48 hours, a week later, knowing them, they've probably filed it in a bin somewhere!
However it is worth noting that their modus operandi was to stabilise the club and allow it to continue through the summer until a buyer could be found, a task that has almost miraculously been achieved, although whether that's due to Raj Singh's determination and resilience rather than Mr Clark's competence, well, i'll let you draw your own conclusions.
A strong appointment in ex-Middlesbrough commercial head Graham Fordy will give the club a wealth of experience in trying to bring much needed funds into the club, something that the club has lacked since its move to its much maligned new home. The stadium itself has been blamed for the state of the finances, however, exploited correctly its certainly a potential asset. Fordy has wasted no time in stamping his authority on the club and has introduced a new £50 membership fee for the Ron Greener suite which hasn't gone down well with a small section of fans who used to enjoy this privilege for free in previous seasons. Personally i think it's a fantastic move, and one of many that will hopefully provide the manager with extra funds to improve the playing staff. The clubs new managing director was also instrumental is striking a deal with ex-Boro kit manufacturer Errea who will supply the team with kit's this season, no mean feat considering all this was achieved with the club still deep in administration.
The footballing side of things, which, given the massive upheaval of the past several months has understandably taken a back seat is almost ready to come to the fore and supporters will breathe a huge sigh of relief come 3pm on Saturday, after many, myself included wondered whether we'd see league football in Darlington again.
With only the skipper Steve Foster and Ian Miller along with four youth team lads retained, the squad is drastically different to that which ended last season, a mix of youth and experience all of whom have links to the local area are charged with stabilising the football club and battling bravely to stay in the division given the small but, for once, realistic budget that's been set. Chris Lumsdon, Gary Smith, and Jeff Smith will be the main new men to watch this season, with the former Smith already impressing in pre-season with some battling midfield displays and surging forward runs.
In Colin Todd we have a manager that shares Raj's vision of re-uniting the club and fans, and whilst possibly not as tactically astute as outgoing manager Dave Penney, a manager of his stature should not be sniffed at, especially considering he is somewhat of a specialist in this situation after suffering similar plights at both Middlesbrough and more recently Bradford. Todd's new right hand man Dean Windass who is in his first coaching role is no stranger to adversity either, having been sold to Aberdeen while at Hull to stave off creditors during their dark days and also teaming up previously with Todd at Bradford in a playing capacity. 'Deano' is also no stranger to the scoresheet, however, how often he can achieve this for Darlington is a question, considering his advancing years. At 33/1 though, there's value to be had for league two top scorer!!
A quick look around the division and barring the freak Championship Manager like experiment going down at Meadow Lane, the majority of clubs have had to cut their cloth accordingly in the tough financial climate. Cheltenham are battling with us to have the oldest forward line with veterans Julian Alsop & Barry Hayles just edged out by Dean Windass & Lee Thorpe who will have a staggering combined age of 74yrs old when the season kicks off on Saturday.
With such a small squad at our disposal this season which currently stands at 14 senior professionals and 4 first year pro's, injuries and suspensions are going to play a massive part in our chances and as such, predicting the season outcome is a lottery, however i think i speak for the majority of fans when i say i'd be happy with a mid table finish and some progress off the pitch with the club slowly winning back some of the fans who have been alienated by previous regimes. Oh and a nice little cup run wouldn't go a miss, but maybe that's just being a tad greedy considering we were almost without a club to support just a few short months ago.
We've seen many new dawns at the club in the last 20 years, the majority of them false and full of lavish promises. Perhaps its refreshing that the new man at the helm seems at the moment to not be getting carried away. The message from the club is that change is afoot, it will take time though and we need to be patient and give it chance to happen, however after unsuccessfully trying to buy our way to success with catastrophic results, maybe the mantra of "Rome wasn't built in a day" is one which the club and fans alike will be happy to adopt......i guess only time will tell.
Comments
fat tony - 6th August 2009 06:40:16
There were times during the course of May when I could see no way back for us - £7.8m debts all piled onto the club, stadium and land taken from us by a complete crook, and an apathetic town that seems to have grown weary of the club.With that in mind this season should just be enjoyed for what it is, if we can gel as a new team and have an eye on playoffs then that would be fantastic, but there should be no pressure on performances and the real fresh start has to start off the pitch.
There's some 'green shoots' of recovery that have got me really excited about the new era - a batch of home-grown lads on the edge of the first team, a very good commercial team, and a new owner who has spoken a lot of sense so far. Hopefully they can be the foundations for a new progressive and well-run DFC.
TeessideQuaker - 6th August 2009 07:46:18
Kudos to Divas, a very good read.RUMPLESTILTSKIN - 6th August 2009 08:20:40
TeessideQuaker wrote:Kudos to Divas, a very good read.
I put Kudos to Divas into AA autoroute and got nothing, although Ryanair will do a £1 retrun to Kudos.
beatroute66 - 6th August 2009 11:09:24
Again, as with the article by Mikky earlier in the week on the fans forum, a cracking read. Well done Divas.Tempted to pull something together myself once the season gets underway - no excuse not to (other than time, I guess) given I've been writing online articles on-and-off over the last 10 years or so.
BishopQuaker - 6th August 2009 11:25:08
RUMPLESTILTSKIN wrote:I put Kudos to Divas into AA autoroute and got nothing, although Ryanair will do a £1 retrun to Kudos.TeessideQuaker wrote:Kudos to Divas, a very good read.
Very good.Typing fail there. Oops.
quaker4life - 5th August 2009 23:32:33
Good read well done Divas!February 25th is a day I'll never forget for personal reasons as well as the club once again in it's breif time at the new stadium being placed into administration.
I honestly thought Darlo's luck had run out this time round, I can remember sitting in Block 12 when we played Macclesfield shortly afterwards and seeing the West Stand deserted, it felt like a funeral and the rallying call around the town predictably went unanswered.
I knew back in October/November the club was in trouble despite us flying high in the league, I thought failure to gain promotion last season would see GH walk away and let's face it at the time the club couldn't survive with out him.
The timing of the administration still amazes me though, especially since the end of the season was so close and that around a month later Houghton claimed he had prevented the club from folding just hours before our trip to Barnet and the money he put in would see the club through till the end of the season. It left most questioning why he couldn't have waited? But I know it's all water under the bridge now. Another thing which slightly annoyed me about that was it made the fans fundraising efforts seem futile, I laughed when I saw the £300,000 target I'm not saying they expected us to raise that much but it was a ridiculous sum to put out there even though it was probably aimed at potential investors.
After Houghton knocked Singh back the second time with no other bids on the table, I was convinced since nobody could meet his asking price for the stadium (with the club included I think it came to around £5million) he was going to hang on to it and eventually sell it on to help fund his developments as well as reclaim some of what he lost. DFC itself had no assets other than it's Football League share but it was riddled with debt and unless the stadium was part of the package nobody would touch it.
Even if things aren't going to be as rosey on the pitch this coming season, just be thankful that RS seems to have his head screwed on right and for once things will be more stable off it! And that the club still has a future!
I honestly thought by now we'd be discussing a newly formed club in the non league.