by skyecat » Wed May 02, 2018 4:20 pm
To my limited and somewhat cynical understanding:
PMG moved heaven and earth and with huge financial input at Christie Park, got us to the point where we were heading up the non league tiers and we won the playoffs at Wembley.
PMG and the board structured a deal to allow us to build a new stadium and be "self sufficient".
The infrastructure and finished building at The Globe wasn't what was promised / envisaged by most of the fans and a chunk of money from the deal appeared not to be accounted for to the fans.
The football on the pitch was what it was - good bad or indifferent, JB did his best with what he had and, I believe, punched above his weight as far as the results have gone.
The football at times has been woeful and less outstanding than what I remember being played at Christie Park - this may be down to my memory, or the level at which we were playing - either way, I believe it has been a contributing factor to the decreased number of fans - that along with apparently being taken for granted by the management at times.
No cover on the Berlin Wall, no cover over the Omega stand refreshments area.
I wouldn't be surprised if PMG took back the money he had put into the club out of the Sainsbury's deal - which, I believe, he was entitled to do - it was his (and others') "loans" which kept us going for so long - but, this is the crunch - it was this taking back of some of his money (if that's what happened) which signalled the seeds of change within the club. Moving forward a few years, asset after asset of the club's ground being sold off, remortgaged or whatever, leaving us year on year, worse off.
Fans have been coming up with ideas, offering help for nothing, pointing out where promises were broken, asking questions as to "where the budgets have been going", "what the transfer fees were", "why can't we do this?", "why didn't we do that?" etc but getting nothing but silence from the club or at best "you don't understand to full picture" - that may be true but we are having little in the way of positivity and feedback in which to put our faith and trust.
If PMG still has the club at heart, yet is taking back what he can out of the club, maybe it's time for him to relinquish his control of the boardroom and let someone else have a go?
The Diego Lemos / Abdul / G50 debacle was an absolute joke of a situation and again, no answers, apologies or plans put in place - or at least, none that we, the fans, were officially told about.
The fact that PMG is still the chairman, having sold all his shares during the G50 tenure is a strange one and again, no explanation from the club.
Then just yesterday, it's happened again - I know it's early days but for the majority shareholding being sold to another company, which has passed the fit and proper persons test by the EFL despite only being formed a couple or so months ago. PMG says he's sure that the money is there with this new company, he's seen the money and there's funding for the transfer market and the running of the club for the next 2 years.... PMG STILL the chairman, still calling the shots - and if he's not, I apologise, but in the absence, yet again, of information from the club, I do question the running of the club. I firmly believe there are certain board members who are continually going above and beyond the call of duty to keep the club afloat, but their hands are, I would imagine, tied somewhat, preventing them from telling us the information that we want / need as fans in order for us to have faith in the club once again.
Morecambe is the club I support and has been for years, and will be for as long as it exists - but ask me how long I think it will exist in the guise of what we have currently and I'd honestly say "not long" - but thanks to the JB Christie trust, we should always have a ground to play football on long after the current board have done what they're doing. JB Christie must have been and incredibly insightful man - way ahead of his time!
When I say we should have a ground, that's if a smart cookie of a lawyer doesn't poke holes into the agreement and offer anyone on the council a brown envelope and the deal is mysteriously overturned (I told you I am getting cynical) - but, if the ground DOES exist in years to come, we may well have to walk through a housing estate, through a little alleyway to get to it as all the current land around the stadium (and maybe even the actual stadium itself) may be long gone.
I turn up to the games, i've joined the Trust, I watch and cheer etc, but as for my involvement with "The Club" no thanks. It's not financially viable, the costs far outweigh the income, the prospect of being competitive even in league 2 is a distant dream without wholesale changes which I don't believe will happen for a long while yet.
So, I turn up, watch the game, wonder at the turmoil which goes on behind closed doors, knowing there's nothing I can do about it and then go home and look at the league table to find out where we are.
Hell, even if I remortgaged my house, sold everything I own and gave it all to the club,it still wouldn't make a dent in the finances - it's far, far bigger than the majority of fans in my opinion and even if 1,000 of us got together and we managed to get £1,000,000 to invest, it would only run the club for arguably 2 years and as we know, the income into the club still leaves us short by a minimum of £500,000 EVERY YEAR!!!
Too much smoke and mirrors and not enough clarity - by a country mile, for me to be trusting in the business that is football, in general, not just at our club.
The best mind-altering drug is the truth - Lily Tomlin
) know if a feasible alternative has been put forward. And if it has and has been rejected then that is the business of the Board exclusively.