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footymad1 · 31-10-2009, 23:36

Dear all – I am a Stanley supporter of 20 plus years and was born and bred in Oswaldtwistle. I moved South due to a new job 5 years ago and still regularly attend our games, making the 500 mile round trip as often as possible. I don’t normally (ever) comment on message boards but have found that due to the lack of formal and transparent communication from the club, this is the best (and only) source of up to date information on how the club that I love has been battling to survive. As the club itself is in dire straits this is absolutely crazy – regular, “official” transparent communication from the club (Mr O’Neill) should be at the forefront of any other action that is taken.

I felt compelled to comment this evening due to some of the (quite frankly horrendous) posts on this site. I agree with 90% of the comments on here but there is a minority of them that I find to be totally incredulous. How anybody can question or doubt the credibility or intentions of Ilyas Khan or Peter Marsden is beyond belief. Without these two individuals the club would have been wound up on 28th October. Fact. Ilyas has been nothing but totally transparent. If the club (Mr O’Neill) had acted with the same transparency over the past 8 weeks (and much further back) we would have collectively recognised we were going to be significantly short of the £308k and had our eyes fully open to it well in advance of the 28th October. The lack of transparency from the club is utterly astounding – when trawling back over the past few hours to refresh myself on press releases, programme notes (!), interviews, forum posts etc I cannot believe how the club (Mr O’Neill and Mr Whalley) have acted in recent times. To let the club build up the level of debt that it has done is obviously a recipe for disaster. I’m not sure what kind of a future Mr Whalley and Mr O’Neill thought the club would have by running up £100,000’s of PAYE debt (amongst other items) but they came very close to being remembered as the men who led ASFC to be wound up a second time. In Mr Whalley’s case in particular this would have been extremely unfortunate given the footballing success we have had in recent times (I will not comment on how I believe the financial side of the club has been run for many years now).

Transparency is the key here. The lack of communication from Mr O’Neill and the club is unforgivable. The way that the club have ran the SOS campaign is like an A-Z of how not to run an SOS campaign (not updating the “thermometer” on a daily basis, lack of regular comms from the club, no information on how the club director’s are “leading the way” with the fund by articulating how much money they have donated themselves, not allowing "the books" and / or true total debt to be published etc etc etc – it adds up to a total Google Page Ranking disaster – and at the worst possible time). Mr Khan offered to match the donations of Mr O’Neill and other club director’s - had Mr O’Neill (& others) agreed to put in £100k at any point since early Sept the £308k would have been paid. They (and he – Mr O’Neill) did not put their money where their mouth is and unfortunately actions do speak louder than words.

I have nothing but admiration for the effort the fans, including Mr Khan and Mr Marsden, have made – the best and most loyal set of fans in football (ok, I am very biased!). They do not deserve to be treated like idiots by Mr O’Neill and the club. It is not time for a witch-hunt so apologies if this seems like too much of a tirade – this isn’t my intention. All I want to do is to try to (passionately) say to the people who doubt Mr Khan – look back at his words and actions over the past 6/7 months (not to mention for the past 20 years). This message board will allow you to do that. You will find nothing but words of love for Accrington Stanley and total transparency in his words and actions (sorry for keep repeating this word but the lack of this is the key to what has gone wrong with our club). I will end this post by comparing this to just some of the (albeit few and far between) words of Mr O’Neill in recent times;

Mon 26th Oct –
“Yes we are going to beat it, of course we are going to make it”
“On a scale of one to 10, we are a nine now”
"All the bank transfer will be done on Tuesday”
“A few fans have said they are not sleeping. Let me do the not sleeping”

Wed 30th Sept –
“When I took over I was confident we could pay off the debt”

Wed 29th July –
“There’s lot of things we can benefit from having Marcelle with us at Accrington Stanley”

Sat 20th June –
“We’ve an agreement with the tax office and providing we make all the payments on time, then there’s no embargo”

Lots of these things have been said before on this forum so thank you for reading!

31-10-2009, 23:36	#21
footymad1 Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 4 Liked: 0 times Rep Power: 0	Transparency. Simple. Dear all – I am a Stanley supporter of 20 plus years and was born and bred in Oswaldtwistle. I moved South due to a new job 5 years ago and still regularly attend our games, making the 500 mile round trip as often as possible. I don’t normally (ever) comment on message boards but have found that due to the lack of formal and transparent communication from the club, this is the best (and only) source of up to date information on how the club that I love has been battling to survive. As the club itself is in dire straits this is absolutely crazy – regular, “official” transparent communication from the club (Mr O’Neill) should be at the forefront of any other action that is taken. I felt compelled to comment this evening due to some of the (quite frankly horrendous) posts on this site. I agree with 90% of the comments on here but there is a minority of them that I find to be totally incredulous. How anybody can question or doubt the credibility or intentions of Ilyas Khan or Peter Marsden is beyond belief. Without these two individuals the club would have been wound up on 28th October. Fact. Ilyas has been nothing but totally transparent. If the club (Mr O’Neill) had acted with the same transparency over the past 8 weeks (and much further back) we would have collectively recognised we were going to be significantly short of the £308k and had our eyes fully open to it well in advance of the 28th October. The lack of transparency from the club is utterly astounding – when trawling back over the past few hours to refresh myself on press releases, programme notes (!), interviews, forum posts etc I cannot believe how the club (Mr O’Neill and Mr Whalley) have acted in recent times. To let the club build up the level of debt that it has done is obviously a recipe for disaster. I’m not sure what kind of a future Mr Whalley and Mr O’Neill thought the club would have by running up £100,000’s of PAYE debt (amongst other items) but they came very close to being remembered as the men who led ASFC to be wound up a second time. In Mr Whalley’s case in particular this would have been extremely unfortunate given the footballing success we have had in recent times (I will not comment on how I believe the financial side of the club has been run for many years now). Transparency is the key here. The lack of communication from Mr O’Neill and the club is unforgivable. The way that the club have ran the SOS campaign is like an A-Z of how not to run an SOS campaign (not updating the “thermometer” on a daily basis, lack of regular comms from the club, no information on how the club director’s are “leading the way” with the fund by articulating how much money they have donated themselves, not allowing "the books" and / or true total debt to be published etc etc etc – it adds up to a total Google Page Ranking disaster – and at the worst possible time). Mr Khan offered to match the donations of Mr O’Neill and other club director’s - had Mr O’Neill (& others) agreed to put in £100k at any point since early Sept the £308k would have been paid. They (and he – Mr O’Neill) did not put their money where their mouth is and unfortunately actions do speak louder than words. I have nothing but admiration for the effort the fans, including Mr Khan and Mr Marsden, have made – the best and most loyal set of fans in football (ok, I am very biased!). They do not deserve to be treated like idiots by Mr O’Neill and the club. It is not time for a witch-hunt so apologies if this seems like too much of a tirade – this isn’t my intention. All I want to do is to try to (passionately) say to the people who doubt Mr Khan – look back at his words and actions over the past 6/7 months (not to mention for the past 20 years). This message board will allow you to do that. You will find nothing but words of love for Accrington Stanley and total transparency in his words and actions (sorry for keep repeating this word but the lack of this is the key to what has gone wrong with our club). I will end this post by comparing this to just some of the (albeit few and far between) words of Mr O’Neill in recent times; Mon 26th Oct – “Yes we are going to beat it, of course we are going to make it” “On a scale of one to 10, we are a nine now” "All the bank transfer will be done on Tuesday” “A few fans have said they are not sleeping. Let me do the not sleeping” Wed 30th Sept – “When I took over I was confident we could pay off the debt” Wed 29th July – “There’s lot of things we can benefit from having Marcelle with us at Accrington Stanley” Sat 20th June – “We’ve an agreement with the tax office and providing we make all the payments on time, then there’s no embargo” Lots of these things have been said before on this forum so thank you for reading!