The Real Problem At Accrington Stanley

[DAV007]

Originally Posted by maccawozzagod

I also think Dave would have done well for Stanley had the tax debt not happened - however the way that he has dealt with the problem is the reason he is getting the flak now. Wrong man at the wrong time unfortunately for him.

Disagree.
He thinks he can make the club sustainable even profitable and seems to be doing the job for the wrong reasons; for example the position and status of chairman.

He hasnt got the cash to ever make a success of Stanley which is a huge long term project with slow progress and will probably struggle to break even for the next 10/20 years without players to sell on/cup runs/tv revenue.

Community is the key to stanleys future and there is no money to be made in such a club.

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by Minister Onymfo

The fact Eric isn't p*ssing the punters off must be an attraction in itself :-).

a) Remain unconvinced about that

b) How deep is the rift ?

[Fatso]

Originally Posted by deeayess

It's not just getting fans through the turnstyle that's the problem. Have you ever tried buying anything from the club online or on ebay or tried to get the club to reply to emails? Last season I had a programme subscription as I only make games if my team aren't playing, and i would be lucky if I got half a dozen sent to me. At one point I picked up about 3 months worth towards the end of the season despite numerous emails. I only got the chesterfield one after Mr T intervened. This season I didn't renew and will get them as and when I'm down or off ebay. The Stanley ebay site in it's 3rd incarnation was OK but if you read recent feedback it will go the way of the previous 2. anything I have ordered from the stanleystore is more in hope than expectation and the stock is now so limited I struggle to find anything to buy.

Indeed - the couple of times I've bought stuff online from the shop, it has taken a long time to arrive. Furthermore, a friend of mine ordered something 2 1/2 - 3 weeks ago, and it's still not arrived.

To my mind, if you order something online - from any website based within the UK - it should be no more than one week from the moment you make your order, and the moment it arrives at your door.

[teach]

Totally agree with the comments about ordering stuff on line. I put in an order for £50 worth on 12th September. On 20th October I had a e-mail from Rob Heys asking whether or not I'd received anything. I e-mailed back the same day saying nothing had arrived. Still nothing.

[deeayess]

It's a common thing with Stanley. Had it not been for MrT and his intervention I doubt I would have go mine too. He is the one person at the Crown Ground I have absoloute faith in because he always does what he says. Ilyas and Peter would be up there too but I haven't met them yet.

[footymad1]

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!

[Outback Ozzy]

Wow - welcome to Accy Web, for a first post, absolutely spot on, just don't stop now.

[cashman]

Hell of a first post, nail straight on the head.

[ukcowboy]

Cracking first post Welcome to the 'madhouse'

[Kiwi John]

Nice effort there FOOTYMAD1... with literary skills such as you've demonstrated, (and the logical matter within), you are far to advanced for most of us on here. But as OUTBACK O says.."Don't stop now".
Welcome.

[yonmon]

Originally Posted by Kiwi John

Nice effort there FOOTYMAD1... with literary skills such as you've demonstrated, (and the logical matter within), you are far to advanced for most of us on here. But as OUTBACK O says.."Don't stop now".
Welcome.

John...I agree with you entirely !..

This is indeed a most welcome and. if I might say succinct (?) message from Footymad !....I'm going to enjoy reading his postings !!.... so FM1 do continue to delight, along with us, in the current convolutions which unfold daily as the SOS saga is playout before our eyes !.

'ON STANLEY!!!...ON!!!...TO GREATER THINGS !!!'

[Tin Monkey]

One of the worst examples of this is on the SOS site, where it said that if people didn't want to donate directly, they could buy a shirt or some other merchandise from the club shop. This is despite the fact that the shop doesn't have many (any) shirts available. I know someone who spent money on a shirt and never received it. In fact the only time they received any response from the club (despite numerous emails) was when they issued a Paypal refund request due to the non-delivery of paid for items!
How many other 'well-wishers' are in the same position? How many of them would be willing to spend money with the club again?

The thing is, we've been saying the same thing for years now and nothing changes.

[lancsdave]

They don't even want help when you offer it

[Stanleymad]

merged 2 threads again please if there is a simular thread post in that before new ones made.

[Wynonie Harris]

Footymad, this is probably the best first post I've ever read on here and articulates the feelings of most of us perfectly. As others have said, please continue!