Therealwaldo
Vital Squad Member
Except that Tony Smith could have done exactly what Paul Scally did but didn’t. Scally didn’t bring any money. The club was in administration and Scally got a CVA agreed. Smith could have gone down the same route.
Gills in 1995 - financial issues
- Thread starter MedwayModernist
- Start date
That’s not exactly a balanced view.
The financial woes during Scally’s time have all been the result of exceptional one-off events: ITV digital, Centerplate and COVID. 2 of those events are entirely unpredictable and exogenous.
I suppose he could have been more prudent and held a buffer of contingency for rainy days. That would be a practice at odds with any other club; and I’d bet that the usual crowd would moan about lack of player investment.
He has also tried to diversify the business in to leisure / catering to make the business more sustainable on the longer term.
Tony Smith, by contrast, simply failed to grasp the opportunity to fix the systemic problems facing the club. He failed and it is a shame he paid a hefty financial price.
To echo my original point - it’s strange that Smith is portrayed as the hero and Scally the villain.
Captainreblue
Vital 1st Team Regular
Tony Smith didn't try to fix anything, he simply put money in to keep the club going as a fan until such point as he couldn't anymore. As I understand it it was never his plan to take long term control of the club or fix the problems, it was to get us through to the end of the 94/95 season.
PS ran up £13m worth of debt on his watch and only had ITV digital to blame (forgetting the fact PS proudly boasted at the time how we'd be in a prime position compared to others as we hadn't spent any of the ITV due money before we'd received it) up to the point the debt was restructured/cleared although now it's a good reason/excuse to cover for mismanagement. Centre point is irrelevant as he won the case and we got paid out. Covid ill give you, although we don't know the full facts or impact.
There was a £1m plus overspend on the building of the GRS, a £2m overspend on the construction of the MS and not sure what the RE cost.
Scally set up the conference and banqueting facility (which cost more than it should) in his words "to bring in the necessary funds to support the football side of the business" (think the target was 500k a year) only to a few years later outsource it to Compass which ultimately lead to the Centre Plate case. Not seen any evidence yet that the banqueting brings in anywhere near that, although any contributions currently stop the shit going above our neck.
Since our restructuring we've recieved quite significant transfer fees, yet it's always been spent of running costs and debt, despite us being debt free (PS words) since our debt restructuring in 2007?
We clearly have differing views on this issue so this will be my last post on this thread and as you've said it's getting boring. Clearly you believe most of what comes out of PS mouth as gospel, unfortunately I've seen different first hand. Yes PS has done some good things in his time here but please don't pretend the financial mismanagement of the club were caused by things not of his making.
Without TS GFC almost certainly would not have made it through to the summer of 95 for PS to even consider buying the club and secondly without TS giving his 'support' (as suggested above) to PS deal, I doubt PS takeover deal would have gone through.
Last edited:
I was shocked in reading the Chairman’s article about his 25 years in charge that the Medway Stand cost “around £14m” to build! I really hope that every penny of that £14m went on the stand and not elsewhere on other projects under the guise of being related to the Stand construction costs.
https://www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/news/2020/june/chairman-25-years/
https://www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/news/2020/june/chairman-25-years/
Last edited:
Who are you trying to fool?
Tony Smith wouldn’t have set out to lost £1.55m. Of course he would have wanted to stop the haemorrhage. Clearly he couldn’t.
alphabet_king
Vital 1st Team Regular
Are you valencia gill in disguise? Its quite clear what youre implying here without actually saying it.
alphabet_king
Vital 1st Team Regular
I think youre right to a point, but you have missed out the significant overspend on the medway stand/rainham end.
But then you've also missed marlon getting nicked, where we turned down a 3m bid beforehand hoping for 5, then he got nicked and ended up being sold for just under 1m. Terrible luck!
Just speculating having heard a number of rumours overs the years.
I don’t think it can be argued that the Medway Stand rebuild was badly mismanaged, I remember they had to take the height of one of the corners down a level due to planning issues.
It’s a shame as The new Rainham End and Gordon Road Stands seemed to be built more efficiently and quickly.
Obviously the Medway Stand was a much larger project and we only have to look at the new Wembley to see how costs can spiral out of control with these projects.
MedwayModernist
Vital Squad Member
We really did have a terrible run of bad luck around then.
Palace screwing around with Asaba stopped us getting a £750k fee, Marlon got nicked to stop us getting the fees you mentioned, ITV digital then happened, and then Nyron who was an absolute worldy for us got properly injured around when we could have sold him, and ended up going for a bosman before the u24 rules came in to force.
PhilK66
Vital 1st Team Regular
Same guys are building HS2 perhaps?
PhilK66
Vital 1st Team Regular
In more recent times add in Simon King, Dack etc
SE1_Gills
Vital 1st Team Regular
Classic Gills luck mate
alphabet_king
Vital 1st Team Regular
As someone else has mentioned, similar has happened with Dack also with respect to injuries though. Both when he was with us, and at blackburn he got a serious season ending injury just as he was starting to be touted for a 20m quid move.
Tucker likely to go for well below what we could have got for him pre-covid as well, i reckon.
chris who
Vital Champions League
Luck Marlon was in trouble before he ever signed for Gills that must have been known to Scally at the time.If you sign someone who was not the best of characters. You should not be surprised if it bites you in the bum.
alphabet_king
Vital 1st Team Regular
What criminal trouble was he in before us? I dont think ANYONE expected him to be involved in what he was. Thwn there are ppenty of players who have little run ins with the law and never go on to commit the kinds of things king did. I think i read he went to prison 3 times (the first while with us). Shocking. No one expected that.
chris who
Vital Champions League
Marlon first appeared in court a long time before he arrived at Gillingham.
Not the greatest quote but I knew I had read it a very long time ago .
https://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wig...om-prison-does-he-deserve-another-chance.html
Given the rules I find it unlikely that Scally splashed the cash without full knowledge of his earlier offenses however minor or major they were.
Might have turned out differently had we had a experienced boss in charge at the time.Scally must have known it was a risk .To a extent the risk worked as well.
Last edited:
SE1_Gills
Vital 1st Team Regular
RotherhitheGill
Vital 1st Team Regular
That looks roughly like Wayne.Kerrs £10m difference 
MedwayModernist
Vital Squad Member
In football in particular, players are always given second chances, and given how talented (and young) he was at the time, I bet it didn't take much convincing from him and his advisors to Hess/Scally that any problems he had in the past were due to him being young and naive etc.
I mean, he then got a decent job at Watford and Wigan, playing for both in the prem iirc, and this was after he'd been locked up whilst at Gills ffs.
Sometimes you have to take people on good faith, and unfortunately sometimes you get burned (I once got burned after a guy I referred to join my employer decided to just sack it off after 2 months and not tell anyone where he was - we aren't in touch anymore!).
