LancsGordoRoad
Vital Champions League
I`d forgotten about that....
don't shout for scally to go!
- Thread starter wxgill
- Start date
I`d forgotten about that....
jokerman
Vital Football Hero
Aye, but we’re all blind, or have blind spots.
LancsGordoRoad
Vital Champions League
Therealwaldo
Vital Squad Member
I’m not going to rise to your bait generally but you grossly oversimplify the issues around GISC ( Alan Liptrott). Firstly there was a very cosy relationship between the GISC, Tony Pulis and Tony Hudd (the reporter on the local paper). The day before our play off final with Man City, Tony Pulis produced a dossier with alleged financial irregularities that he threatened to make public unless Scally paid him what he thought he was owed. I’m not making accusations here about where that dossier came from but suffice it to say that there is prima facie evidence to suggest it was at least related to that cosy relationship.No bitterness, just a weary impatience with a chairman who incresdingly seems to have produced more balderdash and bluster over the years and who seems unduly insensitive to criticism, whether justified or not.
Also, I struggle to think of any other clubs in the Football league who are forced to close their club shop or ticket office because the electric power supply was disconnected (as bills were not paid). Sure, this could have been down to an administrational oversight, rather than an inability to pay, but either scenario would point to a worrying dysfunctionality within the club.
'Perhaps if I was feeling stronger, I would refute much of it point by point'. I find it noteworthy that you chose not to!
After he left, Tony Pulis with the assistance of Max Clifford and a certain Roy Pack sent the dossier to the FA Compliance Unit. If financial irregularities had been proven, Gills could have been deducted points and potentially lost our place in the Championship. The FA threw the claim out as being without any substance. Pulis also substantially lost his case against the Gills only being paid what Gills accepted they owed him.
You might think Scally was over sensitive. In this case I think he was angry with every justification. For his actions at the time, I’ve never forgiven Tony Pulis. He deliberately set out to harm Scally and couldn’t have cared a monkeys if it took the Gills down with him. So far as he may have (allegedly) had help locally, I have similar feelings towards them.
Perfectly put. But...
The group isn’t a chat group for like-minded women to talk about their marital problems, make-up and their holidays in Tenerife. The purpose of the group is to share important information about school. Why blocked would be excluded is a bit odd.
jokerman
Vital Football Hero
Solidarity with the Bamiyan Buddha Bombers!
ThreeSixes
Vital Football Hero
Do you mean blacks rather than blocked?
Sounds like men are excluded too. Is it only women that are responsible for their children in your kid's school?
Are you going to find out what happened, or are you happy with your "racism' conclusion?
The most surprising thing imo is that 30 parents out of 32 would sign up for a mum's WhatsApp group
madrid_gill
Vital 1st Team Regular
I'm in the WhatsApp group for my kids' classes. Although for the eldest it was because I somehow ended up being the class parent representative, and in the other group I think my wife probably added me, so not sure if they count.
madrid_gill
Vital 1st Team Regular
I thought he meant blokes
ThreeSixes
Vital Football Hero
Yep, I was reading the thread from bottom!
Thanks. Even I was struggling! I did mean ‘blokes’. Autocorrect issues.
If you read my post, I specifically said that I didn’t think that they are racist.
HarrowGill
Vital Youth Team
I'd rather he had spent more time dealing with running the club properly, rather investing his time and energy trying to destroy a supporters club group over a domain name. It's not whether I give a rat's arris about the Anoraks or not (I don't particularly), but I am sometimes fed up of the embarrassment and disservice he sometimes brings upon the club.
Also, even in the Premiership, Charlton would only play Arsenal or Man United at home once a season and at the time they were hosting top flight football, we were playing the likes of West Brom/Birmingham/Wolves/Crystal Palace in front of 8,000+ fans, rather than 4,700 at home to Oldham Athletic. So the comparison seems somewhat disingenuous. The crux of my point remains; if you were a prospective football fan and lived anywhere from Margate to Dartford along the North Kent coast or elsewhere in the wider Kent and Medway catchment area, and you were interested in football, then the chances were our pricing strategy at the time didn't offer any incentive to visit nearby Priestfield, particularly if you were earning an average wage or on a budget. Believe it or not, Premiership clubs can still struggle to sell out home tickets for games against the likes of Villa, Southampton, Everton, Watford etc (except for local derbies) and this may have explained Charlton's aggressive encroachment beyond South London into Kent.
And whilst I am hardly the biggest fan of Pulis, it was still mostly his team that achieved promotion in 2000 under Taylor (who was astute enough to realise not to fix a team that wasn't broken). And whilst I don't expect Scally to ever be civil towards Tony Pulis, the melodramatic programme notes and hyperbolic references to 'the most evil and vindictive person I have ever met' still make me cringe to this day.
As regards KM News, they provided objective and balanced reporting (mostly) on the progress of Gillingham Football Club, so their expulsion and imposed banish from the club made little or no sense.
As regards the comparison with Trump - sure, most businessmen learn from their mistakes. But to go bankrupt more than once would suggest an inability to learn from those mistakes. One reason why we may never ultimately witness the construction of a new Gillingham stadium is because of Scally's dispute with Maidstone-based construction firm Gallagher. In 2000, he did not come good with the promised payments for the reconstruction of the Rainham End and Medway Stands on time, and many of the construction workers (including supervisors and foremen) were paid belatedly months later through backdated cheques as a result. Is this why the construction group were so eager to sponsor and build Maidstone United's brand new ground years later? Perish the thought! Trump was also notorious for cheques bouncing and also owned a sports franchise - the New Jersey Generals- who folded in the late 1980s - hopefully not a cautionary tale from the past.
And yes, he wasn't the only one of 71 football chairman to sign up to the ITV Digital deal. He was the only one, however, who seemed to plan our budget and finances solely around this financial agreement without any contingency in place should it go belly-up, hence why he was the only chairman complaining to all and sundry (to no avail) when the organisation collapsed and the revenue stream disappeared.
And whilst I don't doubt that Covid has affected the operation of other clubs, their pre-Covid matchday operations would likely to have been far more robust and efficient, with minimal queuing and over-emphasis on minimising matchday costs or overheads, hence why we seem to be making more of a struggle to transition to a profitable or stress-free, post-Covid matchday experience compared with other EFL clubs and why it seems as though disproportionately more Gillingham fans seem to be left out of pocket and out of patience as a result. From a business perspective, I can appreciate why he did routinely did this, but running a football club isn't like running an ordinary business.
valenciagill
Vital Football Hero
Make your mind up !
I thought you were suggesting you saw racism and white privilege every day , but now you are saying you don't think it was racist.
Baghdad_Rob
Vital 1st Team Regular
If I recall correctly, Scally wanted the GISC to be the official supporters club, the members of the GISC voted to remain independant (as is their right) so Scally set up his own official supporters club. And then the GISC got antagonised as the club valued the opinions of the members of the official club over that of the GISC. From memory, Scally "destroyed" the GISC by ignoring them.
The issue was actually with just Mr Liptrott but with Scally having antagonised the whole of the leadership with the whole official supporters club thing, the GISC started to act (from what I could tell) as if Mr Liptrott's union. Certainly a lot of the pubicity stunts to shame Paul Scally over the ban were paid by GISC (I believe - I am happy to be corrected).
I think you are being somewhat disingenuous too. Obviously they'd only literally play Man United and Arsenal once as they would with other teams like Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea and all the other top clubs at the time. Ditto with us only playing WBA, Wolves etc.
At the end of the day, I'd argue that the promise of watching Premier League football is going to be a greater pull even when not the absolute creme de la creme. And it is most likely that the casual fans with no specific allegence will probably be watchers of Match of the Day and could identify most of the players in the Premier League but less so the likes of Bob Taylor (not the Sir Bob of Gillingham).
I suppose whether or not you think the reporting was fair or not is subjective and I doubt either of us have any screenshots to demonstrate fairness or not so lets let this point go.
Should be noted that Trump himself has never been declared bankrupt. He put several casinos in Chapter 11 Bankrupcies in the early 90s during the recession at the time and used the law to restructure the debt and keep the businesses running. I believe he did the same in 2008/09 during the financial crash and kept the businesses afloat.
There is more than one construction firm you know beyond Gallagher.
I'm guessing Gallagher was keen to be building Maidstones new ground as it is a contract that would bring in the money. And sponsoring the ground is advertising at the end of the day.
Quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_Digital
"ITV Digital's collapse had a large effect on many football clubs. Bradford City F.C. was one of the affected, and its debt forced it into administration in May 2002.[60][61]
Barnsley F.C. also entered administration in October 2002, despite the club making a profit for the twelve years prior to the collapse of ITV Digital.[62][63] Barnsley had budgeted on the basis that the money from the ITV Digital deal would be received, leaving a £2.5 million shortfall in their accounts when the broadcaster collapsed.[63]
In total, fourteen Football League clubs were placed in administration within four years of the collapse of ITV Digital, compared to four in the four years before. "[66]
Sounds like Scally wasn't the only one who seemed to plan our budget without any contingency plans for a potential collapse. And I am sure other owners also complained about ITV Digital when they went into administration but you never took any notice because why would a Gillingham fan be focused on another club.
A big assumption. And probably one neither of us could prove either way,
ThreeSixes
Vital Football Hero
No, you specifically said you didn't think they were "out and out racists" (i.e racist in EVERY respect). If you think someone isn't an out and out racist, then you are still calling them a racist, especially when you are using them as the sole example of the racism that you see each day.
It was a real and recent example of white privilege. Are you and VG going to engage in the debate or just fire attacks at my post? Joker explains it better then I did - suggest you read his post.
ThreeSixes
Vital Football Hero
Billy_Bleach
Vital Squad Member
You've had a result there mate.
Baghdad_Rob
Vital 1st Team Regular
It is only racism if you believe the reason why they weren't asked to join on day one is because the group collectively made the decision not to invite them.
Most likely everyone made sure those in their particular cliques were present in the group. I would suspect that the person who set up the group probably only initially invited half the parents (that was on their friends contact list) and then other people were invited as contact details were obtained.
From experience of setting up Zoom meetings, you invite 'everyone' but there is always a few "I didn't see X on the list" which get sent separate links to the meeting. Been a few times where it wasn't even noticed people were missing as it isn't unusual for people to lurk rather than contribute.
I'm curious as to how long the group existed before your wife noticed their absence? I want to work our how subconsciously racist she is.
