The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

A question for the trust,if the contingency plan is to form a pheonix club will the youth system carry on as is and has it or will it have/had talks with the head of youth development.hopefully this question will be irrelivant once we hear the said statement

Redsnapper wrote:As long as you're a trust member ;)

Of course I am, but I received my supporters trust letter, only a few days ago, not giving me enough time to send the little slip back to say I was attending tonight.

diamondgeezer1 wrote:

Redsnapper wrote:As long as you're a trust member ;)

Of course I am, but I received my supporters trust letter, only a few days ago, not giving me enough time to send the little slip back to say I was attending tonight.

I had a similar problem - and will be going tonight. The invite finally arrived via a courier firm - it wasn't exactly a good advert for their services.

And I am a complete muppet because my little brain thought the meeting was tomorrow (Friday) and so I've completely missed it.
I knew today was gonna be a sh1te day when I dropped all my coins on the car park floor this morning as I tried to feed the machine.
C'est la vie.

Was there tonight.
A number of possibilities for the the club but also so much uncertainty and as the chair put it
'We are like mushrooms - always in the dark...'
But what we do know is there are some key dates, June 11th -Conference registration for next season and June 13th - hearing of winding up order for the club.
Then there is a Trust members meeting on 14th, 7:30 pm at tonights venue when we should know the true position and options for the future and what the Trust can do to support R & D.

Apparently KC is desperate to get new owners and is working hard to do so - hope he has learnt from his choice of the present crew - amazing they ever got hold of our club..!
But then again KC did eventually see the errors of his ways and swap Hill for JE as manager, but it cost him a lot and it was so obvious - but hey whe're not all Lord Sugar, what do we know..? ;)

Dukes wrote:Was there tonight.
A number of possibilities for the the club but also so much uncertainty and as the chair put it
'We are like mushrooms - always in the dark...'
But what we do know is there are some key dates, June 11th -Conference registration for next season and June 13th - hearing of winding up order for the club.
Then there is a Trust members meeting on 14th, 7:30 pm at tonights venue when we should know the true position and options for the future and what the Trust can do to support R & D.

Apparently KC is desperate to get new owners and is working hard to do so - hope he has learnt from his choice of the present crew - amazing they ever got hold of our club..!
But then again KC did eventually see the errors of his ways and swap Hill for JE as manager, but it cost him a lot and it was so obvious - but hey whe're not all Lord Sugar, what do we know..? ;)

Agreed - noting that the next meeting on 14th June or thereabouts will be open to new Trust Members as well. It's really frustrating we don't know how much KC is charging for use of the facilities, or how much is owed in total.

The worrying thing for me was that the Trust has already been approached to help fund at least one of the outstanding debts - and wisely they declined, and I believe will continue to do so until a credible way forward is found that is acceptable to the Fanbase. The lady from Supporters Direct who was there mentioned the steps that AFC Wimbledon had taken to ensure that a speculator couldn't wrest the club out of their grasp.

It was also interesting to hear from Supporters Direct how low a phoenix club might have to start - one or two league below UCL premier is a possibility. It was also explained how some of the other phoenix clubs have managed to start at a higher level than that, but such conditions might not apply to us - e.g. own ground, continuity of affiliated youth set up etc - and how in several cases local councils have bent over backwards to help, even in terms of advice if they cannot offer financial assistance, yet the local council for the Diamonds have not been willing to even do that.

It was also pointed out that had we planned a Phoenix club it was already too late to apply for membership of a league for next season before we were made aware of the troubles at the club.

Apparently KC is desperate to get new owners and is working hard to do so - hope he has learnt from his choice of the present crew - amazing they ever got hold of our club..!
But then again KC did eventually see the errors of his ways and swap Hill for JE as manager, but it cost him a lot and it was so obvious - but hey whe're not all Lord Sugar, what do we know..? ;)[/quote]

How the current owners got hold of the Club is simple - they agreed a price that KC was happy to sell for. We cannot lay any blame for the current debacle at KC's door. He has bankrolled the Club for the past 4 years at a cost well into 7 figures and he decided that he had enough of doing so and therefore looked for buyers. If I was in his shoes and someone met his asking price then I would be happy to do business - he was not to know that the buyers were so incompetent.

The ball is firmly in the Beasants court now. We have no knowledge of any extent of the financial trouble the club might be in, we have no facts and figures.
My best guess is for the club to continue "as is" until after the Conference AGM, then (possibly) the club gets taken into administration to protect it from the winding up order, then hope an investor steps in. However we are not in any position to make these decisions as we do not have the information as to why the club is currently, supposedly, in so much debt in such a short space of time. We just have to sit tight and wait for the Beasants to make their next move with the club, and just hope that somebody "up there" is looking after us.

Of course, if anyone suspects somebody of committing benefit fraud there is always this site
https://secure.dwp.gov.uk/benefitfraud/

Just off the top of my head, from what I remember about last night. Of course this is all 'allegedly' ;)

-Was interesting to hear why Helen Thompson left, basically she was forced out... because there wasn't ANYTHING that went on at the club that she didn't know about.... (allegedly!!)... I think we all knew that beforehand anyway.

- Helen was also banned from Nene Park, hence why the meeting was at Raunds Town.

-Max put £2.5 million in to keep the club going in his last few at the club (correct me if I'm wrong, I may have misheard)

-Raunds Town would welcome us with open arm's.

Not sure if Raunds would welcome us with open arms, maybe a passing Raunds fan could let us know.

I'm not sure what step Raunds play at and what sort of Grading the ground has which could determine what level a Phoenix club could play at and at what level the new Club could ever achieve.

Whilst at the beginning we may get good support however the prospect for some fans of being stuck below a certain level and never have any prospects of achieving even Conference football may see the fan base continue to decline.

Once you have sampled first class it is a culture shock to go back to a lower level.