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.