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.

Brian Clough

About a year ago I was accused of being a 'loose cannon'. The accusation came from a person that was a public sector employee and knew nothing other than doing things by the book.

I took the accusation as a badge of honour.

I've been my own man for a long time. 15 years running your own business makes you a little single minded and gives you strong opinions on doing things that you have a track record of.

'We talk about it for twenty minutes and then we decide I was right.'

Brian Clough died 12 years ago this week. He was the best manager England never had, and the man that made the unfashionable clubs of Nottm Forest and Derby County not only the best club in England but European Champions to boot - long before Leicester City managed half that feat some 35 years later.

'They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job.'

Clough was a true maverick, he did things in his own style, and didn't mess around with idiots outside of the TV studio. Some would say he was controversial. Back in the 70's there wasn't much actual controversy about Clough's comments. He was honest. He truly believed he was good, and he proved it was the case time and time again at the City and Baseball Grounds.

At a time that England has ended up with Sam Allardyce, Cloughie is sorely missed. One of the few men to have been a prolific player - netting 267 times as a forward in 296 games - as well as a prolific manager, his self belief - or arrogance as some saw it - was the only thing that ultimately prevented him from taking the England job.

Don Revie hated him, the FA disliked him, and he was on a hiding to nothing every time the job came up.

'I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.'

When they wanted to build a statue to Clough, I contributed. The small cast figure I received for my money sits above my TV right now. Two biographies sit on the bookshelf, and a picture of the great man is in my kitchen.

'That Sinatra, he's met me, you know'

Ol' Blue Eyes was a lucky bugger...

Who Would Live In A House Like This?

Torquay United are up for sale, still, and are apparently a bargain.

Chairman David Phillips has told the press (http://www.thenonleaguefootballpaper.com/latest-news/conference-premier-step-one/17044/torquay-united-up-for-sale-for-bargain-price-says-chairman-david-phillips/) the club is available for less than the price of a “big detached house”.

This past weekend, Torquay had to make the decision between paying for a hotel and a coach to Boreham Wood as they couldn't afford both. Players eventually drove to their hotel, with manager Kevin Nicholson having acted as the minibus driver on several occasions last season.

A football club that is barely keeping its head above water, constantly generating headlines about its cash-strapped nature, simply isn't going to attract a bidder with the right intentions - especially with a price tag that can be termed in the size of house it can buy.

Torquay had been, for years, a reasonably well run club. Former chairman Mike Bateson wasn't necessarily popular among supporters, but the wheels kept on turning at a club that was fairly financially prudent during his lengthy ownership. When Bateson chose to leave, even he would probably admit making a mistake in selling the club to a consortium led by Chris Roberts. A mistake it was, with Roberts backing out of the deal just six months later after attendances crumbled and he was unable to raise the funds to complete the deal.

Bateson stepped back in, steadied the ship once more, but was still looking at the exit. Along came Paul Bristow, a £15million Lottery winner who eventually brought in both his wife and son onto the Board. Bristow's generosity - and, indeed, the entire family's - kept the club running for eight years, even through his death and the passing of the Chairmanship to wife Thea Bristow.

When she elected to leave, a year after losing their Football League status, the club noted her 'incredible generosity' in leaving the Gulls in a good financial position, with a new grandstand named after her husband to boot. However the hunt for new owners with financial clout proved fruitless time and again.

By Phillips' own admission, the Bristows had been subsidising losses at the club of up to £500,000 a year. Without the lottery money, cuts had to be made to prevent a meltdown.

First to go at Plainmoor was the youth setup, then the training ground was surrendered. Staff followed, leaving those remaining to take on multiple roles, and the first team squad was reduced to bare bones with players brought in non-contract to boost numbers. A series of vague statements hinted at takeovers being close, negotiations progressing, but never quite completing with last minute hurdles always seeming to get in the way, leading to numerous apologies to supporters from the board for the lack of information.

The most recent takeover proposal by Gaming International, an operator of greyhound and speedway tracks in Poole and Swindon, fell apart over the ownership of the Plainmoor stadium, with the local Council refusing to relinquish ownership of a prime piece of development land for the potential bidders to develop a new stadium on the back of a development of the Plainmoor site. The club say the ownership of Plainmoor was never part of the agreement they had with the Swindon based outfit.

Phillips' asking price for the club, whatever he terms a "big detached house" to be worth (Rightmove indicates a 4 bed detached property in Torquay starts at £250,000) is excessive for a club that needs immediate inward investment and has few assets of its own.

The club has 1100 reported season ticket holders, most paying just £200 - less than £9 a game when the main stand is £19 per match - for National League football. Average attendances have seen only around 1000 additional paying supporters for each game this season - a figure that is hardly going to justify a six-figure price tag when a similar sum would be needed to sustain the club for the remainder of the season and into the lean summer months - let alone challenge for a place back in the Football League.

Maybe Phillips meant to say the club was for sale for one months rent of a "big detached house".

David, it's over to you...

Supporters Direct In Crisis

An article in the Belfast Telegraph (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/cashstrapped-fans-group-supporters-direct-faces-merger-threat-35065109.html) says Supporters Direct (SD) is facing a funding crisis and is facing a potential at least partial merger with other groups funded by the Premier League.

The Premier League puts £3.5million a year into fans groups - a paltry sum for the financial behemoth - with less than 10% of it offered to SD in the current funding round.

There is no doubt that Supporters Direct has done good work in its time. In the last 16 years it has been instrumental in helping to save or restart clubs across the country. However it seemed to lose focus, key staff, and ultimately appears to have over-reached itself putting its own future in peril.

Moving on from football clubs, it encompassed Rugby League and other sports - even branching out into Europe. The more it tried to do, the more it got stretched with a small staff and limited resources. It probably reached breaking point when a key member of staff was shuffled out of the door in an 'internal restructure' 18 months ago, having been apparently slowly pushed aside in the months beforehand, and SD has struggled to be quite the same force since.

Clubs that have struggled since have found a less proactive SD that hasn't quite had the bite to get the job done in many cases. It still had the same funding, but with a far less effective staff member in place that did little in inspire people to get involved in their Trust.

By staff member, I do mean one person. For all of SD's profile, their departments have often been single people. The "Head of xxxxx" is usually the only person doing that job, at least on a full time basis. That they've done the work they have over the years on the resources they've had is often remarkable - but their small size is a massive weakness as a single key appointment botched can lead to the organisation floundering as a whole.

I watched one SD presentation to the fans of a struggling club live on Youtube. The Trust in question had been going for the best part of 10 years but had a small membership and needed a thrust to make itself a viable bidder for the deeply troubled club in a time of crisis. Thrust was sadly lacking in the presentation, a potential fundraising drive failed miserably, and the club continues to teeter on the brink some 18 months later with the Trust a little larger in terms of membership but nowhere near the entity it needs to be to become a viable bidder.

That lack of thrust, and a rather inept presentation by a SD representative to the then Hereford United Supporters Trust (HUST) Board, was one of the reasons the new Hereford FC (HFC) never followed the SD model for a club. Despite having a potential 50% fan ownership - more than Portsmouth's much publicised fan takeover now holds - you won't see the HFC crest on SD's list of achievements, even if they were massively instrumental in the process. Yet Portsmouth, whose fan ownership eroded from the initial 51% in less than two years due to the financial demands of a football club, remains a 'case study' for SD's achievements on their website and is front and centre when any media article appears on fan ownership.

The newspaper article touches on news that SD has been 'unable to meet its financial obligations to a seriously ill member of staff'. Jacqui Forster was one of two people at Supporters Direct that assisted the rebirth of Hereford FC that I truly rated, and she has been ill for some time but continued working.

I first had contact with her over the writing of the constitution of what became HUST. She spent hours poring over the various drafts in her role as Head of Casework & Constitutional Affairs. She's worked for SD for 13 years but now appears to have been abandoned by the organisation. While SD deny the claims, refusing to comment further, friends of Jacqui have opened a crowdfunding page to raise money for her at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/justice4jac

SD's money troubles have been there ever since I got involved in the embryonic HUST in late 2012. It was clear that SD was there for expert advice, but it didn't do much more beyond that. And once the experts started to leave it became less relevant in the day to day running of a Trust.

I turned up for a Board Member training course on a hot Saturday in June 2013 in Birmingham to find Jacqui, an Altrincham fan who had previously volunteered in their Trust, with limited resources. Pens were handed out and collected at the end of the day 'can't afford to replace them', pamphlets were for display purposes 'please don't take them, we haven't got the money to print more' - everything was downloadable from the website should we need to read something later.

Speaking to her after the event, the money issues at SD had only just started to bite. Budgets had been cut across the board as SD found itself hunting for cash handouts in an increasingly crowded marketplace for fans groups.

Through my time with HUST, SD charged just £100 a year for membership - £83.33 after VAT. For that you got their expertise, and access to their solicitors for any queries. Each year SD would send Trusts a breakdown of the resources they had used, and the costs of each resource, yet the fee remained £100 - with a polite request for an additional donation if a Trust wished to make further contribution.

The idea of a request for contribution is fine in theory - the problem is that a large number of Trusts are formed in times of crisis for their clubs and are more concerned in meeting the demands of their members rather than funding a group that often becomes increasingly irrelevant to them as time passes.

At HUST, we probably used £5,000 of Supporters Direct time and resources while we set up and got through the first year and the ultimate demise of Hereford United. However, rather than paying for that time, those funds we generated went into paying the unpaid staff of the old club and helping to start the new one. It was a matter of priorities, dictated by the membership.

SD have announced the formation of a 'Financial Restructuring Task Force' in it's latest statement - http://www.supporters-direct.org/news-article/message-to-members - while the European arm of the operation is set to be spun off into a separate entity. The leaders of SD will have to made difficult decisions over the coming months to bring the group back into the black and remain relevant for the future.

SD have a funding crisis yet, having set up reportedly 200 Trusts with 350,000 members, it gathers just a small percentage of its financial needs from membership fees. Just about every Trust charges for membership, usually £10 or so, and maybe it's time for SD to charge per member of a Trust rather than the small flat fee.

Maybe, then, in future they will be able to keep the people that excel in their roles, and honour their obligations going forward.