Heaney

I think this is a fair question for you Jock. Would you have been happy at the time of Administration to see Heaney and his cohorts win the day? The reason I ask this is that it's easy for people to say one was actually a clone of the other in retrospect but before things were known about Brent would you have preferred Heaney to him.

I know the question is directed at Jock Sensible, but I suspect that most of us knew nothing about Heaney until most had their opinions swayed by the smear campaign spouted on pasoti at that time. Prior to that I would say that nobody really cared as as long as the Club continued.

What I will say is that I would prefer Stapes to Brent and anybody that has known me during the Stapes period will know I am not exactly his biggest fan.

But is that in retrospect GOB or from the outset? I asked Jock because he seems to have some knowledge of Heaney without the smear campaign. I don't disagree that there was one by the way.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

I think this is a fair question for you Jock.    Would you have been happy at the time of Administration to see Heaney and his cohorts win the day?    The reason I ask this is that it's easy for people to say one was actually a clone of the other in retrospect but before things were known about Brent would you have preferred Heaney to him.    

No I wouldn't because that would've meant Ridsdale running the club and I'd have rather stuck hot pins up my Japs eye than seen that bloke running Argyle.

If Heaney had taken over the club and wasn't lining Ridsdale up to run the football side of things then I would say that I wouldn't have minded Heaney taking it over. I say that because as I've already pointed out he oversaw Truro City gain 5 promotions in 6 years by showing an enormous amount of ambition and I would love for someone to show some ambition for us.

It's easy to say with hindsight that he left Truro City in debt and became bankrupt himself, most football clubs are in some kind of debt and Heaney almost had a new stadium for Truro City which would've been shared with the Cornish Pirates and who knows where Truro would've been if that had gone ahead. League football would've been most likely and there really was a rapidly growing fanbase in Cornwall that would've started to grow even more as more success was gained. I'm also pretty sure that it would have impacted Argyle's gates as well if the new stadium had gone ahead.

I must admit though at the time it was announced that Brent was the knight in shining armour that I felt he was going to be brilliant for the club because he spoke about rebuilding and reaching the championship before handing over to someone else, of being open and transparent and of advocating fan involvement which has all turned out to be a big crock of shit.

It's not really easy to say exactly how you would've felt about things like that though because there was a hate campaign waged against Kevin Heaney, just like there was a hate campaign waged against Guilfoyle and his firm, and we know where that emanated from. It is all supposition though, other than the fact that Heaney was portrayed as the evil one and Brent was paraded as the second coming, oh and of course that certain people were quite happy to be back slapping and shaking hands with Peter Ridsdale, even sharing a glass of champagne with him.

It's a funny old game.

That was my point Jock. Brent was the sort of unknown and had no background in football at all. Heaney had the background even if it was non league and his financial dealings were there to be shot at because it was known. True Brent didn't get the smear treatment but if people had taken the trouble to look him up without any campaign against either of them Brent would probably have come out looking better. He also said all the right things and people wanted to be saved. Retrospect as always is a wonderful thing but never available at the right time.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

That was my point Jock.    Brent was the sort of unknown and had no background in football at all.    Heaney had the background even if it was non league and his financial dealings were there to be shot at because it was known.    True Brent didn't get the smear treatment but if people had taken the trouble to look him up without any campaign against either of them Brent would probably have come out looking better.    He also said all the right things and people wanted to be saved.    Retrospect as always is a wonderful thing but never available at the right time.

It is indeed Sensible.

As soon as the chuckle brothers announced that 'they had looked the reluctant bidder in the eyes and had seen what a fine gentleman he was', some of us on here knew that deals had been done and I'm certain, said as much. We were told to not be so cynical.' Look at all the charidee these boys and their groupies do........... they saved the club !'  
He knew he could get away with anything if he annointed the gruesome twosome as they would bully and control the Avivas for him.

But wasn't it good that, by sheer chance, some fans happened to be having breakfast in the hotel that Heaney was trying to do a deal in? Phew!

knecht wrote:

But wasn't it good that, by sheer chance, some fans happened to be having breakfast in the hotel that Heaney was trying to do a deal in? Phew!

 Couldn't have planned it better!

Greenjock wrote:

knecht wrote:

But wasn't it good that, by sheer chance, some fans happened to be having breakfast in the hotel that Heaney was trying to do a deal in? Phew!

 Couldn't have planned it better!

Whenever I'm hungry and in need of a good breakfast I certainly don't go to those weird cafes or restaurants. I always Google the local Holiday Inn.

Are you saying that JB set up the meeting at the Holiday Inn then? Curious.

Iggy wrote:

Are you saying that JB set up the meeting at the Holiday Inn then? Curious.

James Brent set up the meeting at 9.30am and coincidentally Heaney and his architects were in the same hotel having breakfast with the plans for Home Park in front of them.

Did Webb post his message about the 9.30am meeting with Brent before or after it took place ?

It doesn't take the suspension of much disbelief to assume that they were tipped off about Heaney being at the Holiday Inn. It could have been somebody working at the hotel or somebody connected in some way to Heaney or even to those he was meeting. I think I read as much somewhere long ago that confirms this without detail being provided. It was more like an ambush than a coincidence. The only thing that surprises about the event is that Heaney was stupid enough to do it where he did.

All of this Heaney stuff is pointless though. The only thing of interest about him was the identity of those he was fronting for.

The point that there is precious little between Heaney's plans ("he only wants to build a cinema in the park!") and Brent's is one well made though. And I'm sure that Ridsdale would have been a complete disaster. A disaster that might even have been worse than the one we are currently experiencing.

And isn't Viv Pengelley's quote a screamer! Is it verified in writing and actually signed by her anywhere? And did she vote for the 1.22 acres to be handed over? Mind you to be fair to her it wasn't sold so her quote does stand up to scrutiny.

And is there any significance in a breech of the "Local Devepment Framework"?

My opinion was that it would of been better to have in effect folded and been left to the fans to resurrect it. Of course looking at the so called fans that were involved, if it was left to them then that would be a totally different outcome.
Also the bit pointed out that Buttivant supposedly wanted to develope the land to help fund the club, as this was the way forward for football teams, seems a better bet than Brent developing the land for his own personal greed sorry gain.
Never believed that the breakfast meeting was a coincidence either
At the end of the day tho, no matter what people write or think, we will never find out the truth about the whole sorry saga that was the administration period.

In browsing for the LDF, I came across THIS . (I could be nice and extract the relevant bit but I'm not nice and I'm in a hurry). It's interesting to see that back in July the request to donate the 1.22 acres in the form of changing leasehold to freehold & gifting it to Akkeron was already in place.

Whereas in THIS later document it is being presented to the council after the planning permission was granted.

I may be missing or not understanding something ..... happy to be put right.

I see that Damon L was part of the group to accidentally discover Heaney and his full English. I wonder why Damon was deemed 'fit and proper' by Nool then and is now regarded as the devil incarnate ?

Tringreen wrote:

I see that Damon L was part of the group to accidentally discover Heaney and his full English. I wonder why Damon was deemed 'fit and proper' by Nool then and is now regarded as the devil incarnate ?

That also crossed my mind and what has happened for DL to become anti many of Brent's ambitions?

I don't suppose we'll find out, DL like several others seem to have dropped off ATD's radar for some strange reason and any interest of informing the fans shot out of the window once the planning permission was gained.