Teigngull wrote: 08 Feb 2018, 19:24
Why do they think we are worried about what happens to Plainmoor ?
Parker, Henderson & Thomas refer to the elephant in the room being Plainmoor, what the hell are they on ?
The elephant, giraffe, rhinosaurus or what ever bloody animal you want is as far as I'm concerned is Clarke Osborne's previous, especially the issues concerning Bristol Rovers, Hereford United , Swindon speedway etc etc am I completely thick or are they missing the point ?
Exactly my take on things Teign.
It’s interesting isn’t it, when they themselves highlight the work that they (the HE) did in exposing Chris Roberts for what he was and they take their share of credit for that - although ultimately I suspect it was the actions of the Directors Ian Hayman and Brian Palk and perhaps even Debbie Hancox (nee Bateson) who were ultimately responsible for Roberts’ downfall.
If you cast your mind back then, the same discussions were going on - those that didn’t want to leave Plainmoor at any cost, while others were excited by the idea of a “shiny new stadium” down at the Recreation ground - with all the benefits that might bring - multi purpose stadium, better rail links etc etc. Nothing has really changed, has it?
But where the Herald Express are totally missing the point is that, whilst there will always be those who are reluctant to ever see TUFC move away from Plainmoor - that really isn’t the issue here! Ultimately the tide turned for Roberts when the local media started to “dig a little deeper” into Roberts the individual and his track record. It was only then that they found out he wasn’t exactly who he purported to be!
Now, whilst Roberts was ultimately exposed as a liar with no money - he was an easy target and it wasn’t too long before TUFC were rid of him.... with a little help from the Herald Express.
The difference now is that our current owner is far more sophisticated, far more clever and perhaps most importantly of all ... far more wealthy than Roberts ever was. He has pumped (allegedly) somewhere close to a seven figure sum into our club maybe - but the question we all have to ask (including the Herald Express) is ... are Osborne’s motives that far removed from what Roberts had planned for us? Would we ever have “thrived” under Roberts if he had had his way? Ultimately we will never know but one thing is for sure, if he (Roberts) had of succeeded he would undoubtedly have made himself, and his wealthy backers, a fair few bob off the back of TUFC.
Now it appears that delving into Roberts history was fair game for the Herald Express back then and they rather smugly claim credit for their part in his downfall, but when it comes to Clarke Osborne it appears that they steadfastly refuse to focus on the REAL issue here (NOT THE LOSS OF PLAINMOOR!!!) but his track record of NEVER building a stadium and of shutting down various sporting clubs - I.e Reading Speedway and others whilst also having a negative impact on football clubs such as Bristol Rovers and Hereford. These are the questions that need to be asked, but the Herald simply don’t want to!
There has been some brilliant investigative work done by ”Haldon Rambler” on the BTPIR site - which unless I am mistaken has been solely uncovered by use of the internet and the likes of Companies House public records - no inside information here, just simple investigative work by a pure amateur!
Fair play to him for putting the effort in, but the reality is that this information is all freely available and doesn’t take much finding out .... but only if you want to!
Roberts and Osborne have/had a very similar “vision” for TUFC - one was exposed as a liar and a fraud .... the other has plenty of money and a track record as a very successful property developer.
Finally, the HE team make much of the fact that Dave Phillips and his board were also talking about moving TUFC to the Willows back when they ran the show ... as if to say, so what is the problem? Well guys, there is one massive difference - one is that all the guys that made up the Dave Phillips board were lifelong TUFC fans - the other has no interest in TUFC, the football team, whatsoever! Surely you can see that?
They (the HE team) also lay a lot of store by the idea that the Council are also a big player in all of this and YES of course they are BUT we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it was, correct me if I’m wrong, Mayor Oliver who FIRST approached the Thea Bristow led board with the offer of selling TUFC the freehold of Plainmoor? I believe Thea (and her Board) gave it a few days thought and then went back to Mayor Oliver and said YES they would like to buy the freehold! Now, for whatever reason, it turned out that Mayor Oliver withdrew, or at the very least postponed that offer to sell. But, at that time, would any TUFC fan have been too concerned if that particular transaction had gone ahead? Probably not, given the million of £££s that Thea had pumped in - and the same could probably have been said, back in the day, when Mike Bateson attempted on more than one occasion to do the same (buy the freehold of Plainmoor).
All of which begs the question of what if the Mayor had of struck a deal with Thea Bristow and her board and then club + the Plainmoor freehold had then fallen into the hands of a “property developer” be that Clarke Osborne, or whoever. Where might the club be now ?
Fortunately through the diligent work of TUST and the hounding of councillors and the local MP amongst others, it is ultimately the fan base who have brought this potential threat to the very existence of TUFC to both a local and a national audience over the last year or so .... its just a shame that the local newspaper, does not see fit to look beyond the “end of their nose”
