culmstockgull wrote: ↑19 Sep 2018, 19:19Regardless of his motives, he is no super rich white knight, Torquay United is a business venture, nothing more nothing less, whether that is a good thing for the United purists is yet to be written, judge him on what he does at United in comparison to other owners and so called chief executives we have had.
Anything I post is not demonization but pointing out the actuality of the situation...
I am not denying Clarke Osborne is a business man and that the Club should (and must) be run as a business and this is what the two people who now sit in the directors seating at matches as 'Presidents for Life' patently failed to do during their time in possession of the responsibility of running the club.
It was pointed out soon after the return to the Football League under Paul Buckle and Alex Rowe's board, that the club was being run in an unsustainable manner with no effort to lessen the very necessary capital injection to cover operating losses in favour of seeking additional revenue streams and business income; and that is how it continued throughout under the muddled ownership of Thea Bristow. She now sits there almost revered beside Ian Hayman and their escorts uncriticised by the local doyen of the press, Dave Thomas and I can't help but feel every time I see this that a large portion of protectionism and denial of the actualite is going on.
The whole point of the continuation of keeping on the front page what Clarke Osborne and Gaming International have been involved in over the past thirty years with sporting venues, is all about keeping people's feet on the ground and not allowing them to be seduced by a person who has yet to produce one single project such as he is talking about for Torquay United.
People closed their eyes to the profligacy of the previous era before the ruination of the last regime's ticking time bomb that had been indecently handed to them on a red hot plate by Thea Bristow and the rump of her outgoing board; surely it cannot be allowed for further delusion to continue in the manner that it had and in the manner that the Herald Express would have us believe.
If only judging Clarke Osborne on what he does at United in comparison to other owners were that simple ~ it is not; as most people are coming round to the notion have become aware of.
Yes; Clarke Osborne saw an oportunity of a land grab and fed the monkeys of the last board enough peanuts so they would become incapable of hanging on in their tree any longer. Yes; there has to be an end game (and a profit) for him and yes; Gaming International have capitalised the running of the Club to the tune of c£1 million in the manner of loans (not share purchase) and more than likely been able to set that off against tax demands on other operations within the group. To that end; they are behaving no differently than when they were propping up the Dave Phillps board.
But what we are talking about here (and always have been) is the avoidance of allowing the Club to go down the road that Coventry City did, which your local MP knows plenty about; and the disadvantages of being willing partners to ceasing to be a local authority tenant in favour of being a private one of Gaming International.