Wrexham Fan

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What we found out is that the majority of supporters instinctively favour the status quo. That is, local businessman putting his own money into the club and all us ordinary punters paying for our ticket each week and not bothering our poor, pig-ignorant peasant heads about money and accounts and property development.

It turns out that the club can pretty much fold before these people will stop trusting those in charge and they're not helped by the local press and politicians who more often than not are up to their necks in the trough that the bastards who are screwing your football club put out for them. They play nice and continue to enjoy the corporate hospitality while Rome burns.

Of the fans who have means to access the information to make an informed decision about the direction of the club and the directors (that is, those who are active on messageboards generally) plenty choose to automatically screen out 'negativity' (i.e. the posting of facts) or are fatalistic and won't do anything.

The problem is that if it is to succeed, the Trust has to appeal to the people who don't believe anything's wrong, won't believe anything's wrong, believe that anyone who says otherwise is trying to undermine the club and who think that even if anything were wrong, there's nothing that they can do about it. And until that state of affairs changes, they're pretty much limited to growing their beards, holding vigils and raising cash to put into the club so that Heaney doesn't need to. The single useful thing the trust could do now is build up an equity fund with which to purchase the club in the future. But unless you can convince people that the Trust should not put all its money into the club (i.e. until you can convince the Plymouth public that Heaney, Kassam, Buttivant and whoever else are poison and the club is better off dead than them in charge), it's a non-starter.

In the end what happened with us is that the group of supporters formed a militant, anonymous group called the Dismal Jimmy. They engaged in investigation, protests and agitation (some of it of questionable legality) and published their findings in a fanzine and on the messageboard. But it turns out that most of these football vultures are actually quite insecure people and most have a whole raft of skeletons in their closet. Once you push at the veneer, they reveal just how unsuitable they are. And gradually, through this, we were able to convince people round to the idea of trust ownership. I don't know if that's what's needed at Plymouth - maybe twelve or six months ago it was but it's possibly too late now.

Mock Cuncher wrote:

Quote :

What we found out is that the majority of supporters instinctively favour the status quo. That is, local businessman putting his own money into the club and all us ordinary punters paying for our ticket each week and not bothering our poor, pig-ignorant peasant heads about money and accounts and property development.

It turns out that the club can pretty much fold before these people will stop trusting those in charge and they're not helped by the local press and politicians who more often than not are up to their necks in the trough that the bastards who are screwing your football club put out for them. They play nice and continue to enjoy the corporate hospitality while Rome burns.

Of the fans who have means to access the information to make an informed decision about the direction of the club and the directors (that is, those who are active on messageboards generally) plenty choose to automatically screen out 'negativity' (i.e. the posting of facts) or are fatalistic and won't do anything.

The problem is that if it is to succeed, the Trust has to appeal to the people who don't believe anything's wrong, won't believe anything's wrong, believe that anyone who says otherwise is trying to undermine the club and who think that even if anything were wrong, there's nothing that they can do about it. And until that state of affairs changes, they're pretty much limited to growing their beards, holding vigils and raising cash to put into the club so that Heaney doesn't need to. The single useful thing the trust could do now is build up an equity fund with which to purchase the club in the future. But unless you can convince people that the Trust should not put all its money into the club (i.e. until you can convince the Plymouth public that Heaney, Kassam, Buttivant and whoever else are poison and the club is better off dead than them in charge), it's a non-starter.

In the end what happened with us is that the group of supporters formed a militant, anonymous group called the Dismal Jimmy. They engaged in investigation, protests and agitation (some of it of questionable legality) and published their findings in a fanzine and on the messageboard. But it turns out that most of these football vultures are actually quite insecure people and most have a whole raft of skeletons in their closet. Once you push at the veneer, they reveal just how unsuitable they are. And gradually, through this, we were able to convince people round to the idea of trust ownership. I don't know if that's what's needed at Plymouth - maybe twelve or six months ago it was but it's possibly too late now.

The man knows what he's talking about.

The situation at Wrexham all sounds depressingly very familiar.

Trust in stapes heaney ridsdale brent

It was always thus.... no earth shattering revelation from Wales.

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But unless you can convince people that the Trust should not put all its money into the club, it's a non-starter.

Hence why the 5K gift to the Green Taverners was such a big deal. This particular version of a suppoerters' trust, Pasoti Trust, has no intention of planning an economic path to own the club ... good grief, half the protagonists are just in the mix to stop that very thing .... I loved the "lefties" comment, what a telling quip that was.

Guess what Pasoti Trust's big new headline suggestion will be, come the new owners.
I believe any Trust led plan to ask fans for 'investment' will be met with the same disdain as the recent 17k share issue dreamed up by Todd ... where he wanted to keep control of the club, but get the mugs to pay for it and take all the fiscal risk ... and not as a loan like he and his mate Gardner preferred for themselves, but as vulnerable equity. I still find it amazing these guys actually tried that one.