Morecambe Not Wise

Morecambe owner Diego Lemos appears to have completely gone to ground, much to the annoyance of the other Board members.

That Board is now one member light with Nigel Adams announcing his resignation this morning, citing in a club statement:

In the absence of communication from the new owner and access to financial management information my position as a Director has become untenable.

Adams, who is also a club sponsor, also says his sponsorship with the club will not be renewed when it expires. Former owner Peter McGuigan, who has remained as Chairman, has also expressed concern at the situation. He told the BBC he has failed to get a response from Lemos.

The Brazilian has been the club's owner for less than four months but has already seen the wage bill go unpaid and left supporters nervous as to the future of the club. The Shrimps have been sliding down the table in recent weeks, losing five of their six League fixtures since the wage bill was not met.

Star striker Tom Barkhuizen left for Preston, apparently in order to settle the outstanding bill, and even Manager Jim Bentley has admitted the coming month is 'going to be the biggest in the club's history.'

The Shrimps attracted just 1,200 home fans to their latest match at the Globe Arena - a loss to fellow strugglers Cheltenham that left them just two points clear of the League Two relegation zone. They could only name five of the seven possible substitutes for that game, two of which were yet to make their League debut.

Administration would push the club to the bottom of the table and, with the owner incommunicado, relegation is probably the least of their issues.

Fool Me Once

Kurt Eichenwald might want to think twice about his current legal moves.

Eichenwald is currently preparing a lawsuit against an as-yet unidentified person for a Tweet that allegedly caused Eichenwald, a epileptic, a seizure. The much published journalist's plight is covered in this BBC News article, which then links to a second article in which he describes a second situation where he says he was put into the same situation.

Let's get this clear, absolute, it's not OK to send nasty things to people. But, if they are being sent, it's not normal behaviour to keep on looking at them either. If there's a car crash in the opposite lane you shouldn't stop and get a selfie.

As an epileptic, he appears to have broadly followed decent guidelines. In Twitter, videos are usually turned on by default - as they are in Facebook. However, seemingly in both cases, he has chosen to click on the videos and let them play.

I received a tweet from someone with the twitter handle “Mike's Deplorable AF.”

Was his first reported attack. The video came from someone he didn't know and, according to the Newsweek article referenced by the BBC, was in the context of being against his writings about Trump.

He chose to open the video.

The video was some sort of strobe light, with flashing circles and images of Pepe flying toward the screen. It’s what’s called epileptogenic—something that triggers seizures. Fortunately, since I was standing, I simply dropped my iPad to the ground the second I realized what Mike had done. It landed face down on the bathroom floor.

That incident was written about just five months ago, yet Eichenwald subsequently chose to again view a video he received this past week. It's unclear whether he had a new device and had failed to turn off automatic play of videos, but he chose to play the video again from an unknown source.

This is not going to happen again. My wife is terrified. I am... disgusted.

I'm not 100% certain what he should be disgusted at. People who don't like his work are sending him things that he has the ability to not see. Or that he can't - or won't - stop seeing them.

Eichenwald has over 47,000 tweets to his name and over 233,000 followers. Hardy a man that can be classed as a Twitter amateur. On December 16th, he told followers he wouldn't be seeing comments or tweeting 'for a while'. Three days later he has identified a string of 'sociopathic Trump followers', as he called one, that are supposedly revelling in his anguish - offering to contact several at their workplaces he had identified from social media.

Bush Jnr did the 'Fool Me Once' line badly. I'm not sure that having a very public - and quite worrying - reaction is going to help Eichenwald's cause in this case, given the class of the 'enemy'.

Darlo Go Home For Christmas

Darlington 1883 have secured FA permission to play their first game in Darlington since reformation.

The National North side have played in Bishop Auckland since the collapse of the original club in 2012, but will take on Halifax Town at Blackwell Meadows on Boxing Day in the 3,000 capacity ground.

The move has been around two years to the day in the making since the ground was identified as a potential new home. They secured Council planning permission six months afterwards, but legal and funding issues delayed the project by nearly a year afterwards.

Supporters finally raised funds, along with a FA grant, to complete the work with the FA signing off on the move back to their spiritual home town this week.

Since reforming, the Quakers have enjoyed three promotions, one as play-off winners. Attendances have increased by a third this season, bringing in totals of 1996 and 2001 for their most recent home matches. having slowly dropped from their debut season.

The fifth placed side will need to fund further work if they are to succeed in a fourth successive promotion to achieve National League ground grading status, but it has been a big step to return to the town where the only other suitable ground is the oversized and uneconomical Arena that led to the original club's demise.

Magpies Deal Set To Stave Off Taxman

Just four hours before Notts County were due to face court to defend a winding-up petition, bidder Alan Hardy says a deal has been done for him to buy the ailing club.

Hardy took to Twitter at 7am to announce that an agreement with owner Ray Trew had been agreed, with a statement also posted to the club's official site, and that they would work 'around the clock' to finalise plans.

The Magpies had apparently secured the cash to stave off the taxman before the weekend after apparently agreeing to sell 15 year old player Jack Bearne to Liverpool for £150,000. Hardy says he will now settle the bill and take the club forward.

The deal may also save the club's Ladies side, which was marked to be shut down in Companies House papers last week. Trew took the then Lincoln Ladies side that he owned to Meadow Lane when he bought the Magpies.

Hardy has made his money in an office refurbishment company but had previously been unwilling to agree to terms offered by Trew. The pair had been in discussions for much of the past year with price tags of up to £8million quoted in the press.

Bangor And Mash

The appointed Administrator at Northwich Victoria is Refresh Recovery, the same company that eventually wound up Chester City after years of Stephen Vaughan ownership.

This summer Vaughan returned to British football after his Maltese adventure, becoming shirt sponsor at the newly taken over Bangor City as a Consortium took over the club. His Vaughan Sports Management vehicle has a younger Vaughan as the sole Director, but shares an address with new Bangor Club Accountant Andy Haslam. The Consortium say Vaughan has no direct control over the club.

The new Club President is Gordon Craig, who is a Director of Refresh Recovery who is also handling the Administration of Palatine ABC Ltd, one of two companies that Haslam is currently a Director of.

Stephen Vaughan Jnr is now Director of Football at Bangor, having been jailed for 15 months in March for perverting the course of justice, with one of his first actions in the role seeing manager Andy Legg axed in favour of Ian Dawes. The club say Legg wouldn't agree a full time contract with the club.

Dawes, who holds the 'A' coaching licence required to be a manager in the Welsh Premier, was previously manager with Maltese side Floriana, who Vaughan Jnr and Snr had links to.

Now the ownership of the Nantporth stadium home of Bangor is in the sights of the Consortium, with fans concerned that the ground could be used as an asset to build debt. After all, the Vaughan family track record in ball sports doesn't read too well having seen Chester City go to the wall, Barrow reformed, Widnes Vikings end up in Administration, and Floriana left with significant debt.

Farnborough To Slash Budget

When you talk about clubs in financial trouble, Farnborough never seem to be too far from the headlines.

Since their brief dalliance with the limelight in 2003 when a Fourth Round FA Cup game with Arsenal reportedly brought in £500,000. Then owner/manager Graham Westley disappeared three days later for Stevenage, leaving subsequent chairman Vic Searle to say the club never saw any of the FA Cup money and clear up the mess of a transfer embargo left by Westley's sacking of a player and subsequent refusal to pay his owed wages.

The 2007 bankruptcy of the old Farnborough Town saw the new club spring into life in the Southern League South & West Division, but two promotions in three years saw them back into Conference South where the former club had folded.

However that is pretty much where the good times ended. They entered a CVA, owing £1.2million of debt accumulated in just six years, in 2013, agreeing to repay 100% of debt. Two years later they were reported to have paid back less than £20 and were forced to lodge a bond with the Ryman League to begin last season.

In March they confirmed completion of their CVA, paying back only around £20,000 and made repeated assurances to supporters that the club would be run the right way. Chairman Rob Prince told supporters the club had a playing budget of just £40,000 a year at the time, three months after warning that it was struggling to pay its way on matchday income.

That same warning has come again this week, with the club's Board telling supporters that it lost around £300 after matchday expenses on the latest home match in the Southern League Central division with just 189 watching the game. The club say that only around 100 paid with the remainder league and player complimentary tickets and free entry for kids.

The club, that started the season with veteran strikers Jamie Cureton and Dennis Oli on their books, says that the wage bill will have to be cut to balance the books. Cureton departed in September for Eastleigh, replaced with former Camberley striker Perry Coles, who netted 44 times in Step 5 last season.

The Cherrywood Road outfit will need a considerable boost in their finances to continue their current levels of expenditure.

Trouble At Mills

York's crisis deepens by the day with the long standing stadium project suffering another setback.

With a judicial review still to take place in the New Year contractor ISG have pulled out of the project, telling the local press: “Our commitment to the stadium has never been in question and we have worked diligently to explore every opportunity to bring the scheme to site.

“However, with further delays caused by the Judicial Review and increasing cost pressures, we’ve been unable to reach a consensus for the next phase of the project. We will continue to support our partners as they seek an alternative contractor.”

Projected costs for the stadium have risen from £37million to a £44million estimate in March, and are understood to have increased further since the slump in the pound following the Brexit vote.

On the pitch, the club are now bottom of the National League, four points short of safety having played more games than some of their rivals, midway through their first season back at the level following relegation from the Football League in the summer.

The return of Gary Mills as manager, who brought the club both the FA Trophy and promotion from the then Conference in 2012, has not seen a return to form so far with the club now 18 games without a win spanning a full three months. Since Mills' return, the day before an embarrassing FA Cup loss to lower graded Curzon Ashton, they have drawn three of their home matches but accumulated just one point from 12 on the road.

Mills has made wholesale changes to the squad, bringing in six players in the last three weeks alone, and supports and the local media agree performances are getting better. However the general tone amongst supporters is one of despondency with little money to bring in new players to replace those already under contract.

Meanwhile, perennial HMRC botherers Southend United have picked up another winding up petition from the taxman. They are due back in court in January, their sixth appearance in six seasons, just a day after signing former Premier League striker Nile Ranger to a new three year contract.

Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck

That was precisely my line of thought when my right testicle exploded.

It was 2012, a couple of months before the London Olympics, and I was drinking a bottle of wine on a quiet night in before helping out on a Hereford United open day the following morning.

At about 11pm, a sharp pain emerged in my balls. A quick feel, and all was not good. My right testicle was larger than previously measured, unless my hand had shrunk significantly, and the pain did not stop.

I spent the next five hours going through every possible scenario. "They wouldn't see me at A&E due to the alcohol", "It's only a stone", "Something's twisted and a good rummage will sort it out", "It's Saturday night, I won't be seen for hours".

Eventually at 5.40am, still in pain, without sleep and having done the calculations as to whether the bottle of wine had sufficiently worn off, I drove myself to A&E. I walked in to an empty A&E. The receptionist asked the problem, I whimpered a response, and she told me to sit over there "if you can".

Within 10 minutes a nurse assessed me and decided I needed to see a Doctor. The out of hours GP service opened at 6am and that was the quickest option. I wandered round and was called in to see a Doctor that looked like he was midway through pulling a double shift.

"Pull your trousers down. That's not happened today. When did this happen?"
"Last night, about 11pm."
"Rubbish."

He rang someone, inferred my testicle was the size of a tangerine, and sent me to an admissions ward.

A nurse guided me to the ward in question, I was pointed to a bed and offered tea. Half an hour later one of the 'team' came round. The young Doctor pulled the curtains round and asked to see the offending article.

He shortly after spoke to a colleague using the word "Orange".

I was now an inpatient for the first time in my adult life. I hadn't spent a night in hospital since I was born. I was sent for an ultrasound, which reported that there was no growth - the ball was full of fluid - and growing.

By Noon, I was on a ward. I pointed out I had no possessions with me and my van was still in the car park. I was allowed a day pass to go and get things sorted. "Be back by 8pm, or you won't have a bed."

I went home, packed, told people what was going on, showered, ate, and then returned.

The consultant appeared around 10pm "We'll fit you in as soon as we can." Monday afternoon was the first surgery date.

"We've had to cancel, there's a cesarean that needs the bed" was a phrase I heard several times. While it was painful, what I had wasn't immediately life threatening. The 12 hour Nil by Mouths each time were though.

Eventually, surgery was scheduled and committed for Tuesday afternoon. I had, apparently, become the talk of the hospital. A friend's wife reported she had overhead gossip and pointed out that it was me. I think it probably didn't help I was so bored I was posting many of the gory details onto Facebook.

I seemed to become a local attraction. Every time the consultant appeared, it was with more and more trainee Doctors. After the third or fourth group, I picked out the youngest looking male "You look like you've got a weak stomach, they're cutting this out of me and feeding it to you as your rite of passage."

I didn't see another group.

The surgery was eventually done, the surgeon described it as the size of a Honeydew Melon.

I went home and rested.

A couple of weeks later, my blood test and the biopsy on the ball was done. A meeting in Cheltenham didn't exactly suggest good news. The consultant, a friendly chap in his sixties, asked me why I thought I was there. "If it's good news, you'd have sent a letter."

I had testicular cancer. A three month course of chemotherapy would follow.

I'll write at some point in the future about that time, but I spent a lot of time reassessing my life from that point.

Journalist Simon Ricketts - https://twitter.com/SimonNRicketts/status/804718981596774400 - has announced on Twitter that his Cancer has returned and this time it's terminal.

This thing not only hits when you least expect it, but when you really don't need it.

Don't be a victim.

Veil Of Secrecy

Torquay have announced an agreement on the takeover of the club has been reached with a "Midlands based consortium" but the club are not giving any further information on the planned new owners.

The deal is expected to be completed within two weeks, with Gulls fans debating the identity of the new owner - and indeed what towns and cities constitute "The Midlands".

One name surfacing is that of current Port Vale owner Norman Smurthwaite. Smurthwaite put the League One club up for sale a year ago but has, so far, failed to secure a buyer despite coming close once or twice. He is claimed to have put over £3million into the club since a 2012 takeover at Vale Park but has also claimed he is in no rush to sell to just anybody.

If, and that's a big if, it was Smurthwaite then the confidentiality of the Torquay deal would suit as he completed a sale of the Valiants. That excuse would likely cover any person already at another club like the much-linked Peter Masters, currently with Truro City. The nightclub boss has long been touted as a Plainmoor suitor, but doesn't fit the Midlands profile.

The secrecy could be on the club's part, not wanting to lose a great buyer to another needy club. Just a name and a general location, and the cash-rich bidder could be tapped up by anyone with a reasonable grasp of a keyboard.

Or it could be for darker reasons, as often seems the case. Sometimes the ones that prefer to live in the shadows are there for a reason.

In Torquay's case, living hand to mouth and cutting anything excessive, you are more likely to lure the latter.

Third Time Around For Magpies

Notts County have been served with a winding-up petition for the third time this year, while manager John Sheridan acknowledged the players were paid late at the end of November.

Owner Ray Trew has been actively seeking a new owner for the side that was relegated to League Two in the summer and sits mid-table this season, four points clear of both the play-offs and the relegation zone in a tight division.

Trew, in charge for six years, had been in discussions with local businessman Alan Hardy, but it was claimed last week that Yankee Global Enterprises, the owners of the New York Yankees baseball side and controlled by the Steinbrenner family, were in discussions to buy the club.  The $3.2billion valued business quickly denied any interest, with the local press altering their line to say a minor shareholder of the company was the one in talks.

Joseph Molloy, who formed JAM Sports Ventures to acquire 'sports franchises' earlier this year, is reported to have quit his role with the Yankees in the late 1990's as his marriage to one of the Steinbrenner daughters ended. He subsequently returned to his role as a PE Teacher before, nearly 20 years later, launching this new venture.

Whether Molloy and his company are the cure for the ills at Meadow Lane is debatable, with the trail on news on the talks now quiet for two weeks, but the oldest Football League club is in need of new investment - and quick.

The List Lengthens

The list of clubs with financial issues seems to grow longer by the day.

League One side Bolton, the subject of a Dean Holdsworth fronted takeover just seven months ago, have seen a Boardroom rift threaten the club once again. The Trotters fell into League One in the summer, prompting Holdsworth to leave the Director of Football role  he assume at the takeover.

Holdsworth and Ken Anderson, a former football agent who partnered with the Sports Shield vehicle that made the takeover move, are the only Directors of Burden Leisure Ltd, which is the trading company of the club, but the pair appear to have fallen out over the finances of the club and what each of them has put in to right the ship after their takeover was valued at £7.5million.

Anderson is reported to be the majority shareholder with 60% to Holdsworth's 40%, with Anderson now understood to have agreed a deal with the former striker to take on his shareholding as well. Anderson told the local press the club had no money to pay December's bills, and that without further investment from either one of them the club would drop into Administration.

Bolton have remained under a transfer embargo despite the takeover, and are claimed to also owe kit manufacturer Macron £150,000. Documents are overdue at Companies House including the 2015 accounts which were due in March, with club bills reported to be £800,000 a month on average gates of just under 14,000.

Meanwhile, National South side Margate are reported to have 'less than no money' left in the bank according to their 'Chairman designate'. Alistair Bayliss, formerly a Director at Dover with a brief spell in the Gate's Boardroom two years ago, says he could not become the actual chairman until 'certain legal issues are resolved' when he returned to the club in September.

Bayliss' company is providing coaches for the team to travel to away matches as part of a sponsorship deal struck when he returned, but five straight defeats have left the club just outside the relegation zone with a series of players walking out due to severe budget cuts.

"There is less than no money left. Before I came in, it was the most amateur environment I have seen. Everything is a double negative at the moment, it's a near impossible task to turn it around.' Bayliss told the local press, with a former club CEO having obtained a County Court Judgement against the club.

Bayliss had previously warned the club was run so badly it was just six weeks away from bankruptcy, a claim he later said was 'generous'. Those six weeks are up and, with apparently no improvement following a 30% drop in attendances from last season, it could be just a matter of time before implosion occurs.

Grounds For Complaint

Two Greater Manchester clubs with an unusual link are facing severe financial problems in the coming weeks.

The Danebank was a terrace at historic football ground the Drill Field. It has since been moved to the Victoria Stadium and Broadhurst Park, with both clubs now facing challenges.

FC United of Manchester has told its owners, the supporters, that it is in a "worrying financial position" and that it will have to seek an overdraft facility next month.

The club, formed as a protest against the Glazer takeover at Manchester United and the switching of Saturday 3pm kick offs for financial reasons, had a firmly anti-debt stance throughout its existence. But their ambitious plans to build their own home have seen them spiral quickly into a uncertain future.

The club says it is set to make a loss this season, having seen gates drop some 25% on last term after moving up to National North, and it says it won't have the money to make further improvements to their new £6.3million Broadhurst Park home that they are obligated to this summer, nor meet repayment terms to existing lenders. They suffered a further blow yesterday when their home game was called off just an hour before kick off.

Some of the blame has been foisted on former staff and Directors at the club, calling the staffing structure "not fit for purpose" and financial plans for last season "unrealistic".

Meanwhile, the Evo-Stik League Northern say they have received official notice that Northwich Victoria are to appoint an Administrator.

The nomadic side has had an eventful history under the ownership of the Rushe family. Jim Rushe was part of a consortium to buy the club out of Administration in late 2007, but subsequently saw their Victoria Stadium home sold from underneath them and a move to Stafford, then Flixton, before taking up a second residency at Witton Albion, where they had played while the Victoria Stadium was constructed following the Drill Field's sale.

Rushe senior handed the club to son Martin when he not only failed the FA's Fit and Proper Person test, but was subsequently convicted of conspiring to supply Class A drugs and sentenced to six years in prison in July. The club has flirted with financial disaster through much of the Rushe family's ownership, and saw a large proportion of their fanbase leave to form a new club in 2012, Northwich 1874, when the club took on a groundshare in Stafford, more than 40 miles from their previous home.

The Vics now average just 113 supporters at Step 4, down by nearly half on last season, with the 1874 phoenix attracting 225 in the league below.

A club statement says ownership is to be transferred to the Supporters Club as soon as possible in a 'smooth and solvent transition'.

Both clubs have the root of their problems in agreements for building stadia that were not necessarily the right deals for the clubs. The Vics leaving ownership of their ground to a former Chairman, FC United in signing up for a deal that was incredibly ambitious for a side with limited commercial income.

What A Waste

The proposed takeover of Dagenham and Redbridge has collapsed after the Directors of the club admitted they were unlikely to win a crucial vote of club members over the ownership change to a consortium of investors.

Members had voted last month in favour of changing the structure of the Limited Company from one limited by guarantee to one limited by shares - effectively moving control from the members to the shareholders. However the vote was one that saw so few members vote that the second, crucial, vote to allow the external investment was always on rocky ground.

It didn't help matters that Glenn Tamplin and one of his business interests, Manns Waste Management, were convicted at the end of October of illegally dumping 6,000 tonnes of waste on to an area 'the size of a football pitch' at his home in 2014. It is reported the waste raised ground level by 2 metres with the Court ordering Tamplin to pay over £75,000 in fines and costs within 3 months of the hearing. The total bill for Tamplin, co-defendant Ricky Mann, and the company was in excess of £170,000.

Needing 75% of the members to vote in favour next month, the Board of Directors have admitted defeat and withdrawn support for the proposal - leading to Tamplin and his consortium to withdraw their offer, with a club statement adding:

“The current Board will now arrange for the necessary finance to be put in place for the Club to continue at its current level. It will hopefully submit new proposals to its Members at its upcoming AGM."

Managing Director Steve Thompson had previously told supporters it would be the end of the club before the season was out if the investment didn't come in, with fans questioning the quality and detail of the financial situation of the club offered prior to the first vote.

Thompson faced a fans forum after the announcement where he faced repeated calls for his, and the Board's, resignations. The six figure sum paid out by the consortium to the club now has to be repaid, and the club is coy on how it now intends to plug both that gap and the hole in funding that saw Thompson make such stark comments about the club's lifespan.

Supporters of the club remain calling for answers that they are yet to receive.

Meanwhile Tamplin has agreed a takeover of Ryman Premier side Billericay Town instead. That agreement came just days after the collapse of the Daggers deal, with the completion subject to contract.

On The Boundary

Oldham Athletic have admitted that they are under a transfer embargo after several years of financial struggle at the League One club. While the club did not disclose the reason why initially, they later admitted they had not handed over money from a recent away match at Rochdale that the club sold tickets for.

12 months ago the club admitted it was late with wages for the third month running and it was hauled in front of the judge by HMRC in June for unpaid taxes, but the problems have gone on for longer. Back in the late spring of 2012 the club admitted it stopped playing defender Zander Diamond as they could not afford to meet the terms of his contract and trigger a new deal due to budget cuts due to be implemented for the following season.

In 2010 they warned they were just two postponements away from financial catastrophe, just weeks after posting a £1.5million loss for the previous season, yet land around the club's Boundary Park home has been quietly squirreled away from the club and redeveloped including a housing estate and a car park housing 1,000 cars daily.

A lengthy article in the Independent claims that a separate company called Brass Bank now owned the land. Companies House shows that Brass Bank is run by two former Oldham Athletic directors that arrived at the club with chairman Simon Corney, who is listed as owning all the shares in the club save for the 3% owned by the Supporters Trust. All of their shares are non-voting, with Corney's 97% all voting.

Corney says he is owed £6million in loans into the club, adding that he won't ask for repayment unless the club reaches the Premier League. As it stands, the club is facing relegation to League Two, having last scored five League games ago before Tuesday's draw with Port Vale, and just eleven times in nineteen League matches in total. Gates are down 20% from last season, and nearly 50% on ten years ago when they were seeking a League One exit through the top door rather than the bottom.

Last season, they were struggling to appoint a first team coach on just £18,000 a year, with the prime candidate turning the job down as it was not 'financially viable' for him to travel the 120 mile round trip each day on such sums. Players are reported to be paid a top end of £2,000 at the club, which is a median figure for players in the division overall.

In a video interview Corney, sitting in a knackered looking chair, noted that the club were to face paying out a combined £300,000 over the next week in wages and a HMRC bill, calling the cashflow at the club 'tough' and that they had higher priorities than paying Rochdale. He went on to name a series of message board users, after accusations that some people were being 'negative', calling on them to meet him in person for a recorded interview.

The likelihood of Oldham slipping out of League One after a 20 year stay is increasing by the day.

Kick Start The Jams

Figures released last week by the BBC show that Councils in Britain spent £3.5billion on temporary accommodation for homeless families over the last five years. The annual cost has, over the entire country, risen 60% in five years - with huge rises especially seen in London.

That is clearly an unsustainable position.

For that money, you could easily build 35,000 houses - 40% of the entire need at the present time and the same amount of social housing as in the entirety of Nottingham. £3.5billion is also a similar figure to that being spent on the refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament - as the bottom end estimate. The true figure could be double that.

There are now significant areas of  London that are no longer affordable to the average family in minimum wage jobs looking for private sector housing, and the problem is now creeping to several other parts of the country also.

Difficult decisions need to be taken, not just by the state but by the individuals involved. Some people have to accept that their lifestyle - whether by choice or whatever - is no longer sustainable in the place they are currently living.

There needs to be an acceptance that just as people move to London for higher paid jobs, those in London that are employed for lower wages must move outside their family's traditional area for a sustainable life.

According to home.co.uk, a three bedroom house in Hackney - considered to be the poorest borough of London - is at an average of £2,500 a month in the private sector - £30,000 a year. Deposits are often 6 weeks rent - £4,000. Working London Minimum Wage 40 hour jobs, a couple would have £150 a month left after rent. Then there's the Council Tax, utilities etc that would mop up that little bit left. Where would they dream of getting the deposit from?

People rely on benefits in this situation just to get by. They have no choice. There's nothing wrong with them, no illnesses or disabilities. They just can't financially stretch to their needs.

So why not take the £3.5billion, and the benefits paid out to those stuck in a hole, and build new housing stock in affordable areas? You'll stop making the already rich private landlords richer, and start making the country rich instead.

A ten year building plan, producing 3,500 homes a year. If the temporary accommodation bill was reduced by just 4% for each year of housebuilding, £28million in year two, £56million in year three etc etc, the project would become self-funded within a quarter of the lifetime of the newly built houses.

And then we could carry on, funding further building with the 'profit' of the savings. By the end of a ten year building project nearly half of it would have already been funded by savings on temporary accommodation costs.

Then, in Year 18, we will have saved enough to cover the entire cost of the project. With the houses still to give value back to the economy for another 70+ years and producing £280million of savings a year in money not spent on temporary accommodation.

And that's assuming we stop at ten years of building. Go for 100% of current demand, and the project breaks even on Year 14 and is in profit by Year 26 - generating £700million of savings each and every year thereafter on current spending rates.

These figures, of course, assume that the current housing crisis doesn't get worse. And there aren't many experts predicting an improvement.

Spireites Looking For A Handout

Chesterfield FC are the latest club to be looking for new investment after Chairman and majority owner Dave Allen quit the club at their AGM.

Allen, a former Sheffield Wednesday Chairman, says he originally invested £4million into the club for a majority shareholding but the cash demands meant he put in millions more after his 2009 arrival.

The local press reports he put in £200,000 last month to cover the wage bill, and his sudden departure left the rest of the board, and supporters, stunned. Vice Chairman Dave Jones, asked by local paper The Star whether the club would fold, could only manage a less than confident: “I don’t know, I don’t think so.”

Allen says he walked out after his fellow Directors apparently declined to waive interest payments on their loans to the club and not seek repayment of the loans: "The interest alone amounts to just over £150,000 per annum, so it would be a considerable saving."

With a £2million mortgage also outstanding on their six year old stadium and a string of outstanding charges registered at Companies House, it is difficult to see anyone bailing the club out unless Allen - or the rest of the board - have a sudden change of heart.

Debts totaling more than £500,000, in addition to unspecified charges in the names of current Directors (or their companies) and Allen's A&S Leisure, appear at Companies House in 37 separate charges recorded against the club.

The Star estimates that it will cost £9million to clear out Allen's majority shareholding and loans but, with the club rooted to the foot of League One and facing a bleak winter, it will be a brave 'investor' that steps into Allen's shoes at that price.

The BBC's Price Of Football Is Lazy Journalism

The BBC has, annually, released its "Price of Football" survey with the latest being the largest ever done.

It has been, and remains, the laziest piece of journalism the BBC has done. Ever.

Despite the BBC sending reporters to just about every club on the survey at least once a fortnight, it relies on the clubs to respond to the survey and provide accurate responses. There appears to be no check on the information provided.

Plymouth Argyle are noted to be the only club to refuse to participate despite BBC Radio Devon attending every match. They, presumably, could find out ticket prices, visit the Club Shop, and the Tea Bar. That would take an internet connection and five whole minutes of their time.

But they don't.

It was a three day fanfare on the BBC website. The survey was coming. Released at 10pm on Wednesday night.

It was actually available hours earlier as someone posted the link on the "National League" heading on the football page. And the statistics were - as usual - badly skewed.

At the top end, Premier League clubs claimed £9 entry fees. Hull's own Supporters Trust called bullshit first. In the Championship, Derby County claimed £17.60 tickets - an unusually odd amount - but their ticket site noted the cheapest Adult ticket available to be £25.50.

In the National League, Sutton United claimed a season ticket of £85 but doesn't list any such thing on their website where the only Adult ticket available is £169 with extra for seating - suggesting that both their cheapest and most expensive figures weren't exactly true.

Many clubs claim tickets are available to away fans cheaper than home fans. 26 of "The 92" claim away fans can get into matches by as much as a third less than home supporters. That's some way to encourage your own support.

And then BBC Sport Wales post the following:

Don't be silly, BBC Wales. It's the cheapest in your 'study'. Nothing more.

Clubs lie. We know that. They will do what they can to not be depicted as the desperate financial basket cases they quite often are.

For the BBC to class this 'survey' as a newsworthy headline item and to treat it as 'fact', without the proper journalistic input, is deplorable.

Guilty Pleasures

A great loss to the music world occurred this past week.

The vast majority would have never heard of him, nor heard his work. Most would probably have been put off by his stage name. He wasn't for the shy.

"Kunt And The Gang"

Back in the early 1980s a quartet from Basildon brought a electronic new wave sound to the nation which, over the years, has influenced a huge swathe of musicians. Twenty years later it was a bloke in tracksuit and hi-vis rattling tunes out of a tiny Casio keyboard that the Essex town churned out.

I first came across Kunt through a Facebook post from a local paper of young mothers, who were picking up their offspring from a nearby Primary School, complaining of a pub advertising the act for a forthcoming gig with the name clearly displayed.

His songs were vulgar, but funny and usually catchy, the first album title 'I Have a Little Wank and I Have a Little Cry' should give some idea as to the content. Some were parodies of existing songs. "I think you'll find that any resemblance between my song Fucksticks and Chas and Dave's Gertcha is just a massive coincidence... " Kunt told one magazine in 2013.

Some of the songs deal with subjects that are - or were at the time - not usually the subject for comedy. Serial killers and pedophilia were reoccurring themes alongside sex and an obsession with Countdown that produced love songs for both Carol Vorderman and Rachel Riley.

He took two swings at actual chart success, reaching no. 63 and 66 with two of his crowd pleasers - Videos here - but any thoughts of widespread fame and fortune were usually hampered by the choice of stage name, let alone the material. Mainstream attention was fleeting at best, Charlie Brooker once name checked him in a column. A couple of his videos made it to late night YouTube compilation shows on TV.

He referred to himself as a 'minor internet hit singer' and he will probably forever remain that. But he deserved so much more and leaves a body of work that should stand the test of time. Unless sex goes out of fashion...

New Chief Wants SD Evolution

New Supporters Direct Chief Executive Ashley Brown wants the organisation to evolve, acknowledging it has been 'too idealistic' in its approach as the game has moved on.

In an excellent article for The Guardian's Owen Gibson, Brown says SD still needs to focus on supporter ownership of clubs, but that target is no longer achievable at the higher levels of the game: "In the higher levels of the game, outright supporter ownership is probably unrealistic. Part-ownership is something that is relevant but it is has to come with a voice, it has to come with a reason."

The article highlights the issues at FC United of Manchester and Swansea. At Swansea, their minority Trust ownership has almost entirely been pushed into a corner by the new American owners. At FC United, as previously noted here, there has been a bitter conflict that has seen most of the incumbent officers leave over the summer, with Brown noting:

“You need strong leadership. You don’t need dictators, but you need strong leaders. People who have the ability to bring people together around a table. That’s the most difficult thing in football. All the FCUM fans want a successful club. But they need to get behind a leader and a small group of people and trust them to do that.”

To run a Trust, there needs to be trust.

Bunfight At The FA Corral

The FA have banned former Frome Town manager Nick Bunyard from football until the summer of 2019, but the man in question appears to have no intention of going quietly.

A FA statement claimed Bunyard had bet against his own team 45 times, whilst manager of both Frome and fellow Southern League side Paulton Rovers, over a 19 month period to April 2016. A further 52 bets not involving his clubs were also recorded.

Officials, players, managers, and all employees at clubs at Southern League level and above are banned from betting on football played anywhere in the world at any time. The rule came in on August 1st, 2014. Bunyard's breaches of the rule started six weeks later.

Bunyard, 36, says he is now retired from management, taking a lengthy swipe at the FA in a Facebook post and posting part of the written charges from the FA to Twitter. The charges name Paulton's goalkeeper as having received text messages from Bunyard trying to sign him after he was suspended by the FA, also noting Paulton's Secretary being involved in the reporting of the act to the authorities.

Bunyard has made swipes about 'rats and snakes' in his social media comments. Paulton officials didn't have much choice in the matter, especially considering their Chairman has been a Southern League board member for the past seven years. You can't selectively uphold the rules, we get told that repeatedly. The FA demanded they comply with their investigation - as a Paulton club statement attests - and that the FA had already received information regarding Bunyard's alleged ongoing activities.

The ban also comes with a fine, £3000, which presumably will go unpaid with Bunyard's retirement. He says he's 'never taken a wage' as a manager of either club and hinting that the 45 bets on his own side were actually just eight. He also says he lost many of the bets, only placing the money due to inside knowledge on injury crises but seeing his side draw or win on half the occasions he claimed actually happened. He hasn't provided proof of his responses, and the FA are unlikely to confirm or deny them.

The FA rule on betting is draconian, especially at this low level, but zero tolerance is probably the only route when suspicions of match fixing in football around the world is at an all time high.

However the length of time to resolve the charge - seven months - is unnecessarily long for the person involved and the club. It is difficult to 'move on' if justice is not done swiftly and, as both the club and Bunyard point out, it would have been resolved much quicker at a higher level.

The level of the fine, however, is frightening. Frome Town's current average attendance is 242, which means Bunyard's fine is the equivalent of the takings of two matches for the club.

I doubt a manager at a Premier League club would get such a hefty sanction.

Takeovers Galore

The number of football clubs struggling financially seems to grow by the day. Macclesfield boss John Askey admitted at the weekend that their FA Cup win at Walsall, and the subsequent prize money, would pay off an outstanding VAT bill - "The FA Cup has saved the club numerous times," Askey told the BBC.

Over at Torquay, the on/off takeover by Gaming International may be back on. Dragging on since March, when the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding, the latest development is that the local Council now seem prepared to discuss the freehold sale of the club's Plainmoor ground leading to Gaming International reaching agreement with the club to exchange their loan for existing shares in the club if a sale to another owner isn't completed.

Other parties are reportedly interest in the club with the Board telling a Fans Forum that there are two firm offers on the table, neither of which involves the redevelopment of Plainmoor. The club's Supporters Trust have been, again, ruled out of making a bid with most supporters acknowledging it simply doesn't have the financial clout to recover the situation.

Meanwhile, a step lower in National South, Gosport Borough have confirmed takeover talks with a local consortium after staving off their second winding up petition of the season. The consortium is led by Danny Thompson, a former player turned businessman, with the club having spent most of 2016 in financial turmoil.

Tower Heist

Donald Trump's election campaign was just the same as the Brexit Leavers except without the decorum that just about remains in British politics.

The Leavers branded the other side "Project Fear", accused their opponents of talking down to the electorate and misleading them. Trump did the same, but with the volume turned way up.

Hillary Clinton was "the worst", a "nasty woman". His challengers for the Republican ticket "lying Ted" and "little Marco", they all got a 'brand' from Trump, and that brand was pushed at every opportunity.

'The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.' Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.

Benghazi, emails, Bill Clinton's infidelity, the system being rigged. Again, and again, and again. You may be a terrible candidate, but you must make your opponent appear to be much, much worse.

And that's ultimately what did it. Usually only one or two million people vote for the third party candidates like the Libertarians or Greens. Yesterday, six million did. In far too many swing states the margin between Trump and Clinton was far less than the third party votes. 130,000 votes split the pair in Florida, with nearly 300,000 voting for another option. That alone could have swung the election another way.

People weren't put off voting, they were just put off voting for the mainstream candidates. Trump has been elected with the lowest percentage of the vote of any Presidential Election since Richard Nixon, when an independent candidate - with far-right backing and appealing to alienated white voters - picked up 13% of the vote.

Despite being a tax-dodging abusive sex pest that had his own Twitter account taken from him to stop him doing more damage to the campaign, Trump is here for four years.

If you have nothing to lose you will probably enjoy the pantomime.

Bring Me Sunshine

Morecambe FC have become a staple of League Two over the last ten years having been one of the non-league also-rans for decades before.

Dicing with financial disaster in the 1980's, a steady rebuild of the club allowed a slow but sure climb up the leagues. As the club rose, so did attendances. From a low of a couple of hundred in their darkest days to 2,800 as they pushed for promotion from League Two. However the smaller attendances never left them behind and they would often struggle to pull in 1,200 for some matches.

That is where we find them currently, having seen 1,302 through the gates of the Globe Arena for a 3-0 home loss to Newport on the day after it was revealed the club had failed to pay the wage bill and that they were in talks with the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) for a loan. This wasn't a first for the Shrimpers.

Documents available at Companies House show the PFA agreed a loan with the club, secured on the stadium, in April that remains outstanding. They only settled a previous PFA loan in February that had been on the books since June 2013, pretty much the same time as Barclays Bank also secured a mortgage on the freehold.

The club itself was taken over only a couple of months ago. Diego Lemos, a Brazilian based in Qatar, took over at a point a club statement declared the Shrimpers 'virtually debt free'. Lemos, reportedly a former football agent, was stated to be a relative of a series of high profile Brazilian footballers, including being the nephew of 1974 World Cup squad member Cesar, but the only person he has so far brought in to the Shrimpers is a relatively unknown 24 year old Qatari businessman - appointed as co-chairman alongside Lemos.

The histories of Lemos and co-chair Abdulrahman Al-Hashemi are not easily discoverable and it is difficult to see how either former club owner, Peter McGuigan, or the footballing authorities managed to accurately vet them as owners of the club.

McGuigan, who remains on the club's board after 15 years as Chairman, has been largely silent since the takeover. But when the bills are not being paid just weeks later, questions must be asked.

We've seen clubs - and the authorities - fall for slick stories and faked documents time after time. Salisbury City went under thanks to a Moroccan 'businessman' whose only proof of ID was a United Arab Emirates driving licence and Post Office box. The Munto Finance story at Notts County was a trail of false documents, smoke and mirrors. Even Premier League Watford now stand accused of filing fake financial documents.

Morecambe fans will be hoping for a little bit of Brazilian sunshine sooner rather than later.

The Build A Wall Mart

If the only thing Donald Trump comes out of the US election with is a bucket load of his supporters' money, most of the world will breathe a sigh of relief.

The Donald has not been shy with his merchandising. There are currently 62 T-shirts, hoodies, vests, and Polo shirts on his website, excluding another 18 individual state designs. T-shirts range from $20 to $35, Polo shirts $50. Foam hands for $25, caps - that his campaign finances report cost about $5 - go for up to $30.

48 different badges for $5 each, one for every state he thinks he can win - and a few others thrown in for good measure. $30 for a poster with Trump's signature scrawled across a dozen images of Trump, done in Photoshop's best handwriting.

Holding a party? $315 gets you a bumper pack of caps, t-shirts, signs, and cardboard megaphones for you and some of your five friends. Going as a couple? $95 for caps, t-shirts and pom-poms!

Against Trump's 62 pieces of apparel, Hillary Clinton has 20 - only 15 in stock, though it has to be said her official shop is reasonably well stocked - if a little less generic.

Tote bags, a cushion, and an official "Woman Card" are among the items in her store. While Trump's merchandise is generic, Clinton's has been designed by a variety of artists and designers whose names probably mean more to others than they do to me. Clinton also offers refunds, Trump doesn't, citing the payment to be a donation rather than a purchase. His FAQ's also make a lot of bluster about the deduction of a postage charge from the donation.

The good news for British citizens is that they are excluded from buying any of this overpriced tat by US election law.

Trump has three times the merchandise on offer, and mostly at higher prices. If you can see a Trump supporter coming, so can Trump.

Wage Cut

A cut in the benefits cap kicks in today, dropping up to £115 a week from the biggest claimants.

£20,000 a year sounds like a lot of money to give out to someone that isn't 'contributing to society', but the safety net of social housing has all but disappeared and now the private landlords are milking the system for all its worth. That is capitalism.

The average three bed house in Hereford is now around £800 a month to rent according to home.co.uk, and you can add another £200 for each additional bedroom, with most observers expecting rents to rise another 20% over the next five years.

£800 a month is pretty much half of the new cap. That leaves £200 a week for people to pay their bills, feed their kids, and look to get their lives back on track. Yes, there are a few serial claimants not interested in getting into work and improving their lives, but the vast majority of people don't want to scrape along the bottom for the rest of their time. And it was these people that voted for Brexit. They didn't have much choice.

Jonathan Pie, a comedian, made the strongest argument I heard either way in the vote debate - if your choice was between the shit you're in and something unknown, you'd choose the unknown.

And that's the position that some people have reached.

We had the 2008 financial crisis, and then it was cut, cut, cut. Eight years of slice and dice on the social welfare fabric has left a surprisingly large amount of the country willing to take any 'other' option on the table. Even if that option is a leap into the unknown.

The longer it takes for Brexit to actually happen, the longer the uncertainty - and the pain - for the bottom end of the electorate will continue.

And the longer you torture someone the more likely they are to make desperate decisions.

Expensive Hobbies

Blackpool Chairman Karl Oyston has discontinued libel action against a supporter, surprising many with the late move in what is a long running bitter battle between his family and supporters over the club.

‘We shouldn’t have sued Jeremy Smith.’ said Karl Oyston, chairman of the club, who had already twice successfully sued supporters over comments and claims made as the club tumbled from the Premier League to League Two. One was ordered to pay a total of £40,000 to both Karl and father Owen for comments that had “gone well beyond vigorous criticism” according to a judge. Another was left with a £30,000 damages bill after accusations on an online forum that the younger Oyston had threatened him with a shotgun. Both supporters were left with significant legal bills.

The latest action against Smith, which is reported to have cost £100,000 in legal fees before reaching Court, and would have seen a £250,000 bill at the conclusion of the case, a bill that would have ultimately sat with the loser of the case, in addition to the claim for damages of another £250,000.

Libel action is expensive. The average person, with an average job, kids, and a mortgage, would see themselves bankrupt and their family homeless on the back of such action. Yet the talk that gets ordinary supporters into trouble is cheap and very easy to do.

The Oystons are deeply unpopular with Blackpool supporters, with average attendances plummeting at Bloomfield Road over the past two years from an average of 11,000 in 15/16 to the current 3,500 on the back of successive relegations. The quantity of comments against their ownership has increased dramatically, as have the ones that have gone beyond the pale. A football club Chairman thesedays could fund the gap in the club's balance sheet by taking supporters to court that made comments that are false and libelous after every bad result on the pitch.

With the ability to post comments on the internet in most peoples pockets, individuals no longer seem to be willing to accept the consequences of their actions. Go to a game, drink a couple of pints, team loses, six more pints, smartphone comes out and the comments get nasty.

The Oyston's don't have a lot of other recourse at the moment. A fairly successful fan boycott sees many of the supporters under threat of action not actually attending matches to have a stadium ban, the common - and often only - action enforceable by the club. The boycott, which has seen the Blackpool Supporters Trust take donations to assist FA Cup opponents Kidderminster - who face losing out on their share of the gate. The reasoning behind it, that Kidderminster are fan-owned, is odd seeing as the majority owner is ex-agent Colin Gordon.

It does appear that an unusually large amount of the online abuse comes from people that don't actually attend matches. That they will spend hours each week on forums berating a club they don't actively support is an odd pastime.

And an expensive one.

Well To Do, Gulls To Ponder

Motherwell have made the move into fan ownership with a 76% holding in the club now resting with the supporters trust, the Well Society, four years after the plan was put into place.

The £1 purchase from current owner Les Hutchison came after the Trust was conceived in 2012 to take over the club from previous owner John Boyle. Losses at the Fir Park club ran at around £500,000 a season since 2012, leading to Barbados-based Hutchison having to rescue the club in 2015 from the threat of Administration before the Trust were ready.

Hutchison will now see his loans repaid via extraordinary income - transfer fees, basically - over the next three years before a fixed payment schedule kicks in. For their part, the Well Society are fully aware of the scale of the task to hand, with a statement noting:

"Our ongoing responsibility as fans, through the Well Society, will be to generate additional income for the running of the football club through monthly direct debit payments of £10 or more. The income generated by our fans via the Well Society will be crucial to our financial stability over the coming years."

While Joint Chairman Douglas Dickie added: "Fan ownership has responsibilities and we all need to realise that continued and growing financial support from all fans will be required."

Meanwhile, at Torquay United, their Supporters Trust is on standby to avert the club's looming collapse. Club Chairman David Phillips has acknowledged that the financial implosion could happen in January with financial forecasts proving grim reading.

"When Wrexham went bust, their Supporters' Trust were able to step in because they already had £400,000 in reserve." Said Phillips to the local press,

"Our Trust haven't got themselves into that situation. They are fans of the club, like we are, and we all want what is best for the club. But you would be talking about significant amounts of money needed to run the club and take it forward, not just this year, but next year and the year after.

"It would be a mammoth task. It's a very tight schedule, but TUST have insisted that, if it did come to Community Ownership, they would need that sort of time to set things in motion. Hopefully, by the end of Monday we will give them some sort of decision."

A Fans Forum is currently set for Wednesday.

Cat And Mouse

Another round of HMRC induced winding-up petitions have hit football, with clubs again appearing to be using the taxman as a lender of last resort.

League Two side Notts County had their fourth petition of Ray Trew's ownership withdrawn at the last minute earlier in the week. Trew, who rescued the club out of the Munto Finance fiasco, has been looking to sell the club for most of 2016 after stepping down as Chairman in February after six years as owner.

Trew blamed 'foul, mindless abuse' for his withdrawal, but he subsequently returned to the helm in September before apparently offering the club to local businessman Alan Hardy, who had seen Trew reject two offers for the club in the last few months, in the past weeks.

Another club in trouble is National South side Gosport Borough. They will face HMRC for a third time in the High Court in 2016, having already staved off petitions in February and August. New investors are said to be interested in the club, but Chairman Mark Hook - also the leader of the local Council - denied there was a crisis in February having seen several of their squad leave having been unpaid for several weeks.

A promotion chasing squad has been dismantled slowly from March onwards, leaving the club as mid-table also-rans this season having battled a transfer embargo into the summer.

In League One there is an even more concerning story at Bury.

A statement last week from the club wearily admitted a winding-up petition had been lodged, accusing the taxman of being intent on winding-up a club. Back in January, the unpaid bill that saw a previous petition was £156,000 - hardly a trifling amount. Owner Stewart Day accused HMRC of being 'trigger-happy', admitting the payment was a week late due to cashflow issues surrounding a postponed Boxing Day match.

The latest petition is the club's fourth of 2016 from HMRC to the club owned by a property developer. Day plans to move the club from their home of 130 years, Gigg Lane, to a new stadium. The project is currently advertised on a crowdfunding loans site to source investment from small investors at high interest rates, and has already taken out five separate mortgages on the stadium with total accumulated losses for the club nearing £11million.

Supporters have questioned the financial position of the club, with a near £3million loss in the 14/15 season set to be followed with a £2.5million loss for 15/16 - all for a mid-table League One placing. Responses have been vague, with Day telling the press he has put £7million into the club and that a string of County Court Judgements - in addition to the winding-up petitions - were being challenged.

The Disinterested Owner

We've all seen it in football. The millionaire owner gets bored, loses interest, and drifts away leaving the club in the mire.

AFC Telford United have a new take on the situation, with the 'millionaire' being the wealth of their combined Trust membership, and the drift away being the level of membership.

Just 123 people chose to have a say in last night's vote - a tenth of their average attendance this season. Membership to have a vote was just £5, so there was little reason for people to stop having a say.

They simply lost interest.

It's the same at a lot of clubs. Time breeds discontent within a handful of supporters. That discontent is run through the megaphone of the message boards and it suddenly seems like the world is against the club even though it is only a handful of people.

The people that do the work at the club walk away, replaced inevitably over time by less able people.

Then the project fails.

A string of good people were turned away from their voluntary work at Telford due to criticism from people on message boards that wouldn't lift a finger themselves to help. They struggled for replacements and took what came forward. Those that were prepared to put themselves into an increasingly bitter firing line simply to put bodies in places they were needed.

This wasn't a failure over the past year. This was a failure from several years of worthy people being denigrated to the point that they simply walked away, their character tarnished by a set of faceless keyboard tappers that would often barely make a game let alone be the dedicated supporters they claimed to be.

Telford's last home opponents, FC United of Manchester, have a similar problem. Wholesale changes on their Board over the summer left them barely able to function through pre-season. Speaking to a few of the now former Board members this summer, who had visited Edgar Street last summer, it was clear that they had been worn down by the relentless criticism and abuse.

To run a business there needs to be a plan. If your plan is to get rid of this person or that person, with no thought as to what or who comes next, maybe you shouldn't be a business owner.

King Of The Hill

Rochdale's Keith Hill went on a bizarre rant this week.

The club faced a Tuesday night match at Swindon. Just over 3 hours down the motorway without traffic. However Hill wasn't happy, telling the BBC: "Something really needs to be done. We need a bit of help because the hotel, the cost that we go through - it's something you shouldn't have to do."

"We stayed all day in a hotel, and it's just not conducive to the type of energy that we want - it can get you really lethargic. There's too much coffee being drunk, too much idle time, too much time sleeping, and it's not the ideal preparation, but we can't trust the traffic to actually come down on the day."

Dear Keith, sod off.

You went overnight on Monday for a game you could have left Rochdale for on Tuesday at 2pm and still made kick off with 2 hours of delays? And that's unacceptable? If Swindon is an overnighter for the Spotland outfit on a Tuesday then so is half of the division.

A manager that cut his teeth as player and manager at the same Rochdale that bummed around the wrong end of League Two is now so soft he demands an overnight stop for a three hour journey?

We thought it was just the players, but managers thesedays are far too pampered.

Members Only

Dagenham and Redbridge, one of the last 'member owned' clubs in the professional game, is set to finally go private after members voted in favour of a takeover proposal on Monday night.

The Daggers had been a Members club for decades, but had to become a Limited Company in 2007 to comply with Football League rules for promotion. Now it is set to move a step further by agreeing to that company changing from one limited by guarantee, and run by the members, to one limited by shares and run by shareholders.

Those shareholders are currently likely to largely be a consortium led by local businessman Glenn Tamplin which includes manager John Still and the club's Managing Director, Steve Thompson. Tamplin, who is reported to be involved in the steel industry, is claimed to be worth £45million and has offered £1.225million for an 73.5% stake in the club, with the existing membership - comprising about 70 members, of which 49 voted - taking the remainder.

The offer comes out of some desperation for the club, who are second in the National League table after losing their Football League place in the summer. Former manager Wayne Burnett still had to be paid off in stages following his December sacking, and attendances have dropped by a third from last season, sinking as low as 1,100 for the win over North Ferriby that put the club temporarily top of the league.

At the meeting, it is reported that Thompson told the room that the club wouldn't see out the season without investment, with Tamplin previously telling the DiggerDagger site in September it would be curtains in just two months, but Thompson apparently refused to offer any more detailed information before the vote.

That just 37 of the 70+ members voted in favour of the proposal puts into doubt the second stage of the transformation. The club needs a 75% majority to pass a second resolution, likely to come in two months once paperwork is in place, to allow the outside investment at actually happen.

Whether they will get that majority is open to strong debate among supporters. Many are questioning the lack of financial detail offered to support the takeover proposals. Financial figures have not been offered, and key questions about the investment have been brushed aside.

A handful of long standing supporters are actively protesting against the takeover proposals, largely due to the lack of clarity on what is being offered. It is hoped they get the clarity they need before the club heads to what could be a vote to save its life.

Bucks Stop Here

Telford United Supporters Trust have announced they will hold a vote to surrender their ownership of AFC Telford United after 12 years in charge of the club.

The Club had been seeking outside investment for the past year, with the Trust willing at the time to part with a minority stake in the club in exchange of a six-figure investment. However no party was keen on the deal and rumours of financial issues have swirled around the club ever since.

Last Saturday the Bucks' players took cars for their away trip to Bradford Park Avenue, a 220 mile round trip, with the club unable to fund a coach. That was the latest in a string of visible cuts at the club. Stewarding numbers at matches have been reduced, and the club even attempted to vastly reduce the number of turnstiles open at one game - leading to queues and hundreds missing kick off.

The club, in a statement, says it is not in a 'terminal state' but it does need funding with cashflow 'extremely difficult' and a 'reducing ability' to pay trade creditors. £25,000 by the end of October and the same again by the end of November, the statement says they are looking for.

Attendances have fallen dramatically with the club's on-pitch performances, somewhere more starkly than some clubs, from an average of 1,800 to barely 1,000 at some matches. A disastrous managerial appointment has seen the club slip from a mid-table National League position to being at the wrong end of the National North table, and current bosses Rob Smith and Larry Chambers have seen their efforts to revamp the squad largely hog-tied by financial restraints and having a string of higher earners on contracts they cannot dispense with.

It's the classic case of one mistake compounded by another. The wrong manager, backed by the Board that hired him, signing too many of the wrong players to the wrong deals. When it goes wrong, there is no room for manoeuvre and panic sets in.

Having been one of the early adopters in the brave new world of fan ownership, Telford will now seek to revert to a more common form, with their statement hinting at the 'limitations' of the model.

Those 'limitations' are more than likely due to the clubs they are surrounded by. Clubs that aren't fan owned, that have a backer, that can call on a somebody to bail them out. Until that changes in football, the model will remain limited.

The TUST Board have announced the vote will take place in the near future, after an initial call for this coming Monday was deemed to be legally unsuitable. They also acknowledge an 'apparent decline in people willing to get involved' and 'a record level of apathy felt towards the organisation'. They also noted that they have a 'record number of vacancies' to fill on their Board. There is a long list of good people that have quit their volunteer roles due to criticism from dark corners.

The club host FC United this coming Saturday, then Salford City on the 29th. The level of attendance for those fixtures may determine their future.

Running On Empty

Sometimes you can tell a club has run out of ideas.

York City dived out of League Two last season with just one win in their final sixteen games. Manager Russ Wilcox, who managed less than a 25% win rate, was replaced by Jackie McNamara in November, and lost his first seven matches in charge, including a 5-1 home defeat to Accrington.

11 months later, McNamara is still - just about - in charge. Last week, following a 6-1 thumping by previously winless Guiseley, McNamara told the press he would resign if the result in their next match was not 'positive'. A 1-1 draw with relegation strugglers Braintree was followed by three days of deliberations before a statement admitted he would leave the club - but only when the position had a new incumbent.

It's a bizarre decision. No moving the assistant manager or goalkeeper coach in to take temporary charge. No committee of senior players to hold the fort. The manager that has already admitted failure will remain to 'motivate' with the club facing a potentially lucrative FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round tie at home to Curzon Ashton, who sit in roughly the same place in the table as the Minstermen, only a division lower.

Chairman Jason McGill, 16 years on the board since a Supporters Trust takeover of the then ailing club, and ten as owner after a second financial wobble required another cash injection, admitted following relegation that the club would be financially troubled until their new stadium was ready.

His company had propped up the club over the past five years but he told the local press it "cannot keep funding York City year-on-year just to survive" as his company's funds were pulled out in the summer.

The long term future potentially looks bright, but the 'Community Stadium' that the club hopes to move to in 2018 has been delayed four years from its initial opening date already and has been in the works for more than ten. A series of planning and legal challenges - along with the occasional financial woes of the Minstermen and their planned co-tenants at York City Knights Rugby League side - have led to ongoing delays that have threatened the existence of both clubs and the entire project.

The latest roadblock comes in the form of a judicial review from a rival cinema chain over the size of the planned multiplex on the site. You almost couldn't make it up.

The York City supporters are prepared to wave goodbye to Bootham Crescent after more than 80 years sooner or later, but they are now drudging along until either they finally find their salvation in the new stadium, or the club hits the buffers once again.

The Smell Of Trump

In the US election, the choice of the next president is between two candidates that have been in the public spotlight for so many years that their every mistake and indiscretion is highlighted by one biased media outlet or another at awkward times.

On one side Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, former Secretary of State, former Senator, former scorned wife. Anyone having spent the best part of 40 years in public life is likely to be some skeletons to draw out of an assortment of closets from the offices they have held. There is no doubt that Clinton has made mistakes along the lengthy road.

On the other side, Donald Trump. Real estate entrepreneur, reality TV star, and a man that does love to stick his name on things - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Donald_Trump - which includes steaks, mortgages, fragrances, a board game, and a series of buildings and golf courses. For every mark in the win column on his record, there's at least one in the loss. You don't make omelettes without breaking eggs.

Both Clinton and Trump have their passionate supporters and passionate detractors in equal measure. Never has a campaign been so bitter and negative as the current one, fought by two candidates who will either become the oldest or second oldest - behind Ronald Reagan - President to be sworn in to the role.

While Wikileaks publish details of Clinton's Wall Street speeches, pushing further Trump's slur that she's deeply embedded in the establishment, footage comes around of Trump demeaning women yet again. This time, in the company of one of the lesser known members of the Bush family. His defence of the comments includes claims that Bill Clinton used to say similar things on the golf course. If playing golf with a Clinton and touring in a bus with a Bush didn't make you part of the establishment he so claims to not be part of...

Trump continues to refuse to release his financial records, as Presidential candidates have done voluntarily for decades. However his did release his medical records and a statement from his Doctor, which sounded more like a script from an as yet unreleased Bill&Ted film, when Clinton looked a little wobbly. Leaked financial records suggest massive losses in years past, leading to allegations that Trump's tax paying history isn't quite as upright as it could be. "That makes me smart" is Trump's response to not paying taxes, in an indirect answer to the question.

With Republican bigwigs now, finally, distancing themselves from their candidate after the latest revelation, there are even calls for the little known Mike Pence to take over the lead as nominee. Pence, who declares himself 'a born again evangelical Catholic' is a former Indiana governor that progressed laws limiting abortions, LGBT rights, and sex education, and campaigned against gambling, immigration, and lax drug laws.

With no-one really knowing what a late withdrawal would actually mean for either candidate or party - especially considering that voting has already started for non-resident citizens - a departure at this stage could throw the whole country into confusion.

Whereas, if either of these two are elected, that could becomes a would.

Trump has already made claims that the election will be rigged against him - almost laying the path for his split from the Republicans in the event of a Clinton victory, and the death of the two party system in US politics.

But if Trump won, would Republicans actually back him? It's a bigger, more flamboyant version of the Labour Party. The masses want Candidate A, the politicians want Candidate B, and never the twain shall meet.

There is one thing that may be motivating Trump - money.

Aside from $700million the two campaigns have amassed in funding for their respective challenges, there is over $1billion in 'SuperPAC' money available from super-wealthy people - who have 30 times the financial clout that Trump even claims to have - to pour into, or often alongside, campaigns to get political sway and votes in their candidates favour.

There is a $1.7billion pie out there that is ripe for a small, orange, finger to be stuck into. And it swings by every four years too.

Do you smell what Trump smells?

TalkTalk "Security So Poor"

I was once rang, in about 2012, at my home by a cold caller from TalkTalk.

"Hello, I'm ringing from TalkTalk, one of the largest phone and broadband internet companies in the UK."

"Yes, I know your work. Can you thank them for me?"

"Eh?"

"Can you thank them. For being so awful. You've made me a lot of money."

"Sorry?"

"By being so bad. I run a repair firm. I've done well from your company."

Click. Which was either them ending the call, getting the point. Or both.

It comes as no surprise to me that TalkTalk have been fined £400,000 by the regulator for their data breach in October 2015. Nor did it come as a surprise that they had been hacked.

I managed to circumvent their call centre security many times. It didn't take much. "Are you not the account holder? Are they there?"

"Yes, I'll put them on."

"Can you authorise the person to speak on your behalf?"

"Yes."

They had no idea who had said yes, who I was, or that there was even a fault. I was merely after my call out fee and to go home having left my customer with a working connection.

For many years, Tiscali, whom TalkTalk took over and the firm whose original system got hacked, would routinely change passwords to "12345". The call centre defaulted to it after only very basic checks.

The bigger problem out there is that TalkTalk aren't the only one with lax security. Other, smaller, ISPs are vulnerable across the board due to inherent faults in their overly familiar systems. Some are so small that their customer service staff number less than five and their customers are known almost personally. But they're vulnerable.

And, if you need a way into the internet, there it is.

Until the rest of the industry catches up, the holes will remain and the internet will still fit the 'Wild West' tag it earned.

And, until then, circle your wagons and be prepared to be threatened by those that want your valuables.

One Song After Another

While they had to scrap the UKIP Calypso pretty quickly, the party currently known as No Direction continue to play the hokey cokey with some aplomb.

So, just 18 days after election, Diane James shuffles out the door. The old dance master Nigel Farage remains the 'official' leader until the next one is appointed, having spent a sum total of three weeks - and two resignation speeches - out of the job in six years.

Farage is like an old warrior king. Once he shuffles off the princes beneath him squabble over the leadership and can't form a strong, uniting, force. Cue a 'surprising' resurrection of the king, and peace is restored to the land.

At least he managed 18 days 'dead' this time. But what have they got to replace him with?

James was a County Councillor until a loss to her former Tory colleagues less than 18 months ago. Her rise in the party from unseated local councillor to leader has been meteoric, and probably underlines the vacuum of talent in the party generally. Suzanne Evans has been a victim of the infighting that has left the party floundering for a viable candidate, while Stephen Woolfe, who earned the backing of millionaire Aaron Banks, seems to be terrible at deadlines.

Woolfe is an interesting pick as immigration spokesman for a party that is often branded racist. With a mixed background encompassing Irish, Black, and Jewish roots, Woolfe is an unlikely frontman for a party that saw Farage dismiss as 'pub banter' a call from the party secretary for it to welcome bigots.

Well spoken, comfortable in front of the cameras, and well educated, Woolfe is probably the only person that can provide a leadership that - while it might not unite the party - would at least try and turn it away from the screaming lunatic it is dangerously close to becoming.

But, having allowed his membership to lapse and filing his application to be leader late, he was excluded from the previous leadership election. However, when the other serious candidates are former Tory MPs with little backing within the party or country, Woolfe may be the man to - at least - attempt to keep Farage deceased for a while longer.

Big Sam's Big Problem Is Football's Big Problem

Samuel "Big Sam" Allardyce has been in football since before I was born.

He is, easily, a Bolton Wanderers legend. Player and Manager for nearly 600 games combined over a combined 15 year period. He has been a 'legendary' figure among various supporters for his comments and ability to get the best out of a limited set of players.

Being pictured at a music venue, at aged over 60, 'raving it up' certainly did his stock no ill.

However, over a ten year period, he has been mired in the dirtier claims. 10 years and one week since he was first accused by BBC Panorama, he was named in the Telegraph of conversations that the paper insinuates may have breached the laws of the game. Big Sam, and the FA, had their meeting and decided he was to depart.

I'm not going to toe the 'it never happened' line - Big Sam, and his cohorts, are the people that football has bred over the past 50 years since Jimmy Hill broke the maximum wage schedule. People who no longer believe they are beyond the pale asking for money for simple things.

I'm not saying what has happened is wrong. That's for the FA to determine. And that they did.

Money is rife in the game - at the top level. It is limited at lower levels, but the delusion remains.

I've seen a contract between a coach and club that saw him being paid £200 to stand on the touchline - where he already stood - and be named on the bench as a player. That same contract said he'd be paid £1000 if he played. The person he'd replace, a goalkeeper, was paid substantially less for the same job.

The person in question, who is no longer in the game at a professional level, was paid substantial amounts as a coach to represent the club, but still demanded more to slightly change his role. That is what young players are told - do your job. If they want something more - expect more.

Agents are now the biggest cancer in the game. They have been for some time.

The Wolf of Wall Street is a comic book to some agents. They're parasites. I'll grant you, there are one or two that are prepare to accept the organic growth of their clients - but most of the despicable worms are looking only for the next transfer - often within days of the last.

I'm involved in a "National League System" Step 4 club - the eighth tier of the pyramid. We shouldn't be a target. It almost seems that, with Jamie Vardy, that we are now the next hunting ground. A major bookmaker came calling to interview our next "Vardy". Then an agent pulled their client towards a higher grade club a few weeks later. I wonder whether that client regrets that move now.

The club I represent hopes to do things right, has a little bit of honour in a fairly classless world.

Dear footballer, if you want to be treated with respect, please call us.

Being Social...ish

So, the inevitable Jeremy Corbyn win has occurred. He won in every category of Labour member that mattered in the vote. And that didn't include the MPs.

Bear Shits in Woods, Rain Falls in Manchester, etc. It's not the earth shattering headline the papers want. It is, however, the consequences rather than the result that will now echo in the public conscience.

Nearly 40% of the paid up Labour Party didn't vote for him. 80% of MPs didn't back him. A series of party grandees warned against his re-election.

The Labour party, or at least a sizable part of it, now needs to make a decision. It needs to determine whether a lot of high profile people can walk away from the party they have represented - often for decades - with the belief that the general public would elect them under another badge.

With only one fifth of the party members definitely backing their cause.

An awful lot of the people that back a candidate of a party do so because of the party - not the candidate. The leadership issue is a personal one, the General Election a party one. There's been a lot of talk about a new politics - a new party or two - redefining the landscape in the 21st Century.

There are so few actual 'personalities' in politics that straddle party lines thesedays. Dennis Skinner could probably get voted in on reputation alone, but who else?

The "big beasts" of the 80's have largely fallen by the wayside and today's politician is so much more a disposable hero. Would you go to war for Jacob Rees-Mogg? You'd barely go to Mothercare for him.

The powerhouses of the Labour Party boiled down to Owen Smith as a challenger. Was he truly the best on offer? Did they not have a single MP that had a profile that could be classed as 'high'. Sorry, Jim, I don't need a washing machine...

Until a credible candidate appears, the idealistic Corbyn is the leader of Labour. And a sizable part of Labour will have to take that on the chin.

And, given that the previous incumbents since Blair are Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown, the Westminster membership probably shouldn't hold out for a charismatic hero for a while.

Though Nigel Farage is now at a loose end...

Same Old Faces

It's getting slightly weary that the same old faces keep on appearing on the scene.

Two former 'characters' in the story of the demise of Hereford United have recently resurfaced. The first, Jed McCrory, has always claimed innocence for his part in the saga.

McCrory has reappeared in football at Solihull Moors - http://www.solihullmoorsfc.co.uk/news/details.php?news_id=12385 - a newcomer to the National League this season after promotion from National North. The statement contains a number of bold claims about McCrory's past involvement in football, much of which has already been disputed by the supporters of the various listed clubs.

I've been contacted by McCrory on more than one occasion to 'set the record straight' and to repair his reputation. I'm not really sure how much repair I could do, if I ever felt such way inclined, when a judge wouldn't believe the evidence offered in the Swindon Town ownership court case - http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11304273.Judge_accuses_McCrory_of_lying_about_vital_evidence_in_Town_court_case/?ref=rss

Meanwhile, another face formerly associated with Tommy Agombar has also suddenly returned to my radar.

Andrew Green, introduced during the ill-fated takeover of Hereford United as Agombar's accountant, is now handling affairs at Herefordshire Recruitment Ltd, whose former Directors now include David Keyte and Stuart Blake, through his accountancy.

Blake's personal bankruptcy made front page news in the Hereford Times, http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/14568911.Hereford_businessman_declared_bankrupt/, but the subsequent movements within the company that used to operate out of King Street are interesting.

A couple of weeks after Blake's bankruptcy all four Directors of the company, including Keyte, Blake, and Blake's son, resigned on the same day - https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08071217/filing-history - a new Director appointed a few days later, and the Registered Office address changed to one in Doncaster used by Andrew Green with some 160 other companies apparently registered to the same address. One of those is former Hereford United creditor Athelston Ltd, which once had Agombar as a Director.

The new Director at Herefordshire Recruitment Ltd is also an interesting character, with a history in waste management and other items - http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/crime/welney_businessman_at_centre_of_mepal_motocross_track_row_is_jailed_for_eight_months_at_norwich_crown_court_1_1418139

The King Street offices are now empty and undergoing refurbishment.

The Throwaway Society

News this week that Sweden are to offer tax breaks and other incentives for people to repair items rather than replace them is welcome news in this increasingly throwaway society - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37425107

I was, for 15 years, the repairer of computers. I kept all sorts of machines running far beyond their normal life. I've been commissioned to repair IT for all sorts of companies, private individuals, and public sector bodies. One day I would be knee deep in shit on a farm rebuilding a milk monitoring system, the next at a secure power generation site.

Probably my biggest 'achievement' in that time was for a coal fired power station in the East Midlands. I was asked, in 2011, to upgrade their Windows 95 1996 model Compaq Deskpro to be internet capable and remote control accessible to turn on the power station as demand increased and make the site basically unmanned.

The first thing I had to do was to find another 15 year old machine to act as donor as their computer, complete with the only known copy of the station control software, was dead. A donor machine was sourced, the hard drive cloned to give them a backup, and the machine made ready to meet their needs.

In the end, after 20+ hours of work to do the job - and the parts -  I never got paid. The commissioning company went bust, got bought out by its commissioner, and promptly resumed trading from the same office under the same name paying out precisely zero of my bill in full and final settlement.

That, sometimes, is the nature of the game. I think I probably encountered £10,000 of bad debt in 15 years. I probably paid out a similar sum in bank charges over the years, and I've got a lower opinion of the banks than I do of the people that owe me money!

I closed the business just over a year ago to concentrate on other interests. It was going to become an inevitable outcome sooner rather than later, due to the increasingly throwaway nature of society, so I chose to depart on my terms while there was still a functional business and I had the ability to go and do something else with relative ease.

Back in 2000, the average laptop price was £1500 and few had a mobile phone in their pocket. Some of the mobiles back then didn't even do text messaging. Today, a laptop is on sale in PC World for a tenth of the price back then, and the average mobile phone has more than enough computing power for the average consumer to do everything they need to do online without resorting to something with a keyboard on it.

When I started, the computer boom was just taking off. Broadband was 'coming' and just about every home was just starting to buy their first personal computer. I timed it right, almost by accident.

Now, computer use is at saturation point and the computers themselves are as disposable as nappies. Once, it was common for someone to be happy to pay £50 to clear their PC of viruses. Thesedays if they're full of shit, like nappies, they have to go in the bin.

Whether the rest of the world wants to follow Sweden is debatable. In a society where everything is increasingly 'me' and 'now', it seems that to make do and mend is a cult religion but the Swedes have got a fair few things right over the years.