Whats your thoughts

[shrimpnsave]

On PMG since the sell out

[mrpotatohead]

The spirit of JB Christie reckons we have been ''sold down the river'', the silence from all parties involved is hardly surprising , it's been common practice to tell fans bog all for years , I am yet to be convinced the new guy actually owns the club, I have always viewed the whole FL promotion and globe move akin to Orwell's Animal farm.

PMG Napoleon
Dicko squealer
jim harvey snowball
jim bentley boxer

and now we have the brazilian guy .....Mr Whymper.

[Christies Child]

The spirit of JB Christie reckons we have been ''sold down the river'', the silence from all parties involved is hardly surprising , it's been common practice to tell fans bog all for years , I am yet to be convinced the new guy actually owns the club, I have always viewed the whole FL promotion and globe move akin to Orwell's Animal farm.

PMG Napoleon
Dicko squealer
jim harvey snowball
jim bentley boxer

and now we have the brazilian guy .....Mr Whymper.

OK we get it, you've issues with PMcG....and it would sound like everybody else connected with OUR club...

[mrpotatohead]

I have no ''issues'' with anyone at the club CC, just opinions.......unlike some

[George Dawes]

On PMG since the sell out

what are yours ?

[Wild Bill]

My thoughts on PMG?

A successful businessman who decided 20 years ago to get involved in building our football club. This required lots of work, guile and more importantly ample amounts of cash, which lead to our most successful period in our history.

10 years ago, PMG achieved his goal of reaching the FL and facing the increasing costs and CP needing serious investment just to be fit for purpose, came up with the idea of moving to Westgate.

Initial plans were over ambitious, and with the credit crunch, finances became tighter, but PMG steamed on with the project, cutting costs wherever he could, leading to some poor choices and a disappointing end product.

Good will was lost quickly with many fans and the rot began to set in as PMG stopped investing and started looking for a route out. To him, he'd done his bit, and with the club in the FL a ground built and a stand with his name on, he probably felt it was job done.

PMG generally kept aloof over the following years and as discontent increased, desperately touted the club to any foreign businessman daft enough to listen. Running the club in all areas fell to his trusty general manager who had little empathy for fans frustrations and made some poor business decisions.

Ultimately, MFC became a millstone around PMG's neck and he would have sold to practically anyone to claw back a fraction of the cash he'd put in over two decades. This is why we appear to now have the Qatar's answer to the Chuckle Brothers running the show.

So PMG, thanks for the memories. You did some good things for our club. However lets not put the guy up on a pedestal. Time will tell whether his memory to fans would be mostly positive or not.

[fulwoodshrimp]

It looks like we have been sold down the river by a chairman who seemed desperate to sell. If we are relegated PMG and Jimbo will be remembered not for what they have done for the club but as the people who took us down for the first time in the club's history! I might be wrong but the new owners don't seem to have available the money required. The absence of any statements from the former chairman and the new owners is unacceptable and leads to all sorts of rumours. One simple question- has PMG been paid for his shares now? I still feel there is an element of Michael Knighton in this saga.

[KenH]

In my opinion, the rot set in early 2013 when Rod Taylor stepped down as CEO and both Graham Hodgson and Stephen Wright resigned as directors due to them publicly disagreeing with the way the club was run. As a result, PMG took over the helm to take over the running of the club with MD as his general manager. Downward spiral ever since on and off the pitch. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall of the Board meetings late 2012 and early 2013 that led to those management changes!!!

[mrpotatohead]

Wether Fullwood is right or wrong, time willl tell, but I think he sums up what most fans are thinking, the treatment of the supporters by all concerned in this is frankly, shite.

[KenH]

Wether Fullwood is right or wrong, time willl tell, but I think he sums up what most fans are thinking, the treatment of the supporters by all concerned in this is frankly, shite.

And has been for a few years now. Hard to remember the time when directors stood on the terraces with us riff-raff and we were all in it together. The "them and us" that has arisen from the corporatisation of the club has basically ruined it.

[P/T Indie]

I believe PMG always had an exit plan even when he was covering our losses to £250K-£300K per year in the conference I think he always had the move to the globe in the back of his mind, the plans for Westgate can be seen in an old MFC year book dating back to something like the 70s/80s so I wonder if they knew it was always a possible option.

I think he always thought he would plough the money in the early years and then with the money from the sale of CP get all his loans paid back to him and leave the club self sufficient.

I honestly believe he is a decent guy with the clubs best interests at heart and he wanted to take us to the league get us set up and walk away and at the end of it he wouldn't be out of pocket, he prob wouldn't make money but he hoped he wouldn't loose any.

Then we moved and the wheels fell off for whatever reason for which we could debate all day. The main problem I think was some of the people he started bringing into the club to work along side him and advise on certain areas especially some non football people. This then also lead to certain board members, of which most of them are no longer here, becoming isolated and this is where I think the split between the boardroom and fans started appearing. These new people just didn't understand our club and when we moved and they implemented their new ideas we lost our identity.

I still think PMG had our best interests at heart he was just ill advised and made some bad decisions and I think he actually wanted to sell quite a while back (five years maybe) but he kept with us and tried his best to straighten the ship before he left. However by then things had started to snow ball fans had already started to turn their back on the globe and progressively things got worse and worse.

I think PMG has made some bad mistakes maybe by been to loyal to certain workers both on and off the field. For example this is the guy that offered McIlroy a new contract when everyone could see even Sammy that it was time for a change. Yes he was then bold and gave Jim an untried manager with no experience the job for which he should be applauded for not going out an getting an experienced journey man of a manger but then I think after a couple of years loyalty has got in the way again and he shouldn't have given him the latest contract renewal. There are examples off the field as well but it's prob best not to go there.

It was fun while it lasted and I am sure it was never PMG's plan for it to end this way he probably hoped we would be self sufficient he could have cashed his loans back in and gone and sat on beach somewhere in Spain.

I look back now and think were we one of these cheating clubs that has had success by living beyond their means when they know they cant afford it and really was our level mid conference. On our attendances we should have been no better off that Northwich, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove etc
I don't think we were a "cheating" club as such as although I think we did spend beyond our means the idea was there to recoup the losses back, sadly it just hasn't worked out and it's all caught up with us now.

[Christies Child]

An excellent post and a lot of the observations I would totally agree with.

The demise of Graham Hodgson and others over the years plus the promotion of individuals has not been one of our clubs finest hours.

It's a pity that Graham and a group of current and former Directors are unable (at the moment) to have taken control by buying out PMcG rather than find ourselves in a state of limbo, unsure what the next few months will deliver.

I for one am worried about the future of OUR club that like others have supported since the late 50's. You don't support something for all that time without the thing becoming part of ones life and anything that is seen by some as to be being a threat is worrying.