Actually that's a good point. With a sole owner do you even have a Chairman? Although we still have a board of directors - just a very much smaller one.

I think he does regard it as a great deal for the club, but like he says it does not lean to us heavily promoting a big gate. Im sure we'll see changes that will allow 20k gates for certain games

A lot of his comments show the previous board in a bad light IMO. Lack of vision and investment in the club for too many years

TBF we shouldn't have needed AP to point that out

It's frightening to think that the previous BOD would have been happy to continue as we are - Scraping into the top 8 & making a small profit.
It proves we'd never have become the big club we should be under the previous regime.

Is it just me that thinks he looks like he could be Briscoe's real dad?

Either that, or:

1)The old board's money prevented FC going under and
2) They didn't have the sort of resources Pearson has to invest in driving the club forward, so
3) They got the club to breakeven and maintained its position over several years so it was a viable opportunity for someone with Pearson's resources and drive to buy into.

You seem to be assuming that the board were awash with cash in their personal lives and willing to take on risk. Their average age is 66, so maybe they had other things they wanted to do spend their money on. I don't see the need to have a go at them tbh.

Thought he came across well. Needs to stop the Stevie Wonder stare about though.

hes just getting used too the new surroundings

4) they invested heavily in gateshead, were looking down the barrel of a massive loss, got lucky, got their money back, lost interest

Or played safe?

Kept us secure and got us stable off the pitch. Grateful for that. Thank God someone had the resources and willingness to buy them out as they had gone as far as they could, and we can't blame them for that. Pressure's on Pearson, now.

My point is that they had recouped their money (which of itself saved FC to start with) and may not necessarily have been in a position financially to invest to the extent that Pearson has done and will do. You criticise their "lack of ambition", the implication being they personally were in a position to invest in transfer fees, academy facilities etc from their own money but chose not to. I'm saying that possibly they weren't in a financial position to do so, and that, at standard pension age, they may not have seen FC as a low risk high reward part of their pension investment portfolio. As it happens, they've been able to sell a breakeven going concern to Adam Pearson. I'm not going to slate them, personally.

You are the only one mentioning "lack of ambition". You may be right, you may be wrong. Who knows? Either way, there were certainly parts of the club which have suffered due to a lack of investment. Maybe they'd have been better advised to invest in the club infrastructure rather than spending on transfer fees. Only thing we do know is that we don't really know and anything you assume, presume or surmise is merely supposition

TBF they made two attempts to invest in infrastructure and both were scuppered by circumstances beyond their control - most recently by the petty and vindictive actions of the council. Maybe they could have done more, but they [idid[/i make [isome[/i effort.

You said this:

which criticises the old board for lack of vision and investment. You are saying they should have put more money in, aren't you?

Think AP will have more flex with the Council eh

Maybe they did make some effort, maybe not. May have just been bluster and spin

A lack of vision and investment do not necessarily mean a lack of ambition. They're completely separate.

Where did I say they should have put more money in? I'm sure that revenues generated by the club should have been enough to invest more effectively in it's infrastructure. I'm also aware of a severe lack of spending on the academy set up in the recent past which is maybe one of the reasons that rovers have stolen a march on us and picked up some of the better younger players in recent years.

I wouldn't knock the shareholders for wanting their cash back out of the club, but the fact is that 5 years or so ago they were owed in excess of £1m, all of which has been paid back. Now, as an accountant, you'll know that those funds must have come from somewhere, most likely from profits generated or "borrowed" from somewhere else. I'm sure that an investment of £1m or so over 5 years in the club would have made a massive difference. We've also debated in the past the amount of income the old board derived from the club but it's not worth going over old ground as we will never know the truth.

I thought the most interesting thing to come out of the club sale was the HDM interview with John Weatherill, where he inferred there was a split on the old board about the direction the club should take and also that he would have been keen to stick around and work with pearson.

You think they convinced the third parties involved in both projects to fake it?

No idea. Difficult to see him having less though.

Amazing how you and other posters just make things up because it suits your agenda

I don't have an agenda. I'm just puzzled why you might think that two very public projects involving significant third-party partners could be just 'bluster and spin'. Surely the partners would have spotted that?

2 very significant projects that never proceeded due to withdrawal of both parties?

Thought the second one folded due to a change of policy by the Council?

Can't recall the exact details of the first one but didn't the University pull out due to some disagreement or other? The NHS were still up for it though and were partners in the second project.

So why did the council and the university drop out? The boulevard one was pulled under the previous council administration. I'm not expecting you to know the answer BTW, the same as I don't, however if there had really been the will there to build a training facility then I believe it would have been built or at least underway by now.