Life at Edgar Street these days is much more stable than it was seven years ago. Then the club was in limbo and chairman Graham Turner was wondering whether to carry on. He had handed in his resignation to the board, having moved 'upstairs', and given Phil Robinson the manager's job.
He gave a long interview to Trevor Owens of BBC Hereford and Worcester just after the 2001/02 season ended. The transcript was published on www.hu-fc.co.uk in early May 2002.
The very detailed interview started with Owens outlining recent events at Edgar Street, before moving onto Turner's (and Joan Fennessey's) possible resignation.
GT: Well I think there was perhaps a couple of weeks before the end of the season we had discussed it and decided perhaps our time here had come to an end and we indicated to the board that we were going to resign, we probably needed another couple of points to be absolutely safe to be playing conference next season so we wanted to get that out of the way and there was obviously unrest about the place. We felt we needed a fresh impetus; fresh faces around the place, supporters needed fresh optimism to buy season tickets. So we felt the time was right to take that action. The board asked then if we would just put everything on hold; we had discussions with an individual and it has become apparent that there is no consortium around to take over the club, in fact people are very reluctant to get involved and I think one of the problems is obviously that £1 million pound repayable to developers in May 2003, but we have spoken to one individual, a very good supporter of the club, who perhaps will support the club in some way financially and there is another supporter who has expressed an interest in buying shares and putting a consortium of supporters together. I have written to him to say yep put your consortium together; come and sit around the table with the board of directors, tell us how you are going to run the club, what finance you have got to put in and so on. So those things have gone on but obviously there comes a time and the local press have put in about doing different jobs and pay. They are not the main issues; they have gone on for quite some time. We have been in debt before at the end of the season and survived, this summer is no different. And the place has not suddenly come to a halt. Provision has been made for reinstating the pitch for next season, kit is being done for next season through M & M and all those sorts of things are still being taken care of. In fact, we have lined up a list of players next week to talk to from other clubs, been freed from other clubs. And if somebody comes in and wants to take up that list or bring fresh faces it’s a great chance now, an opportunity for people to come in and take it on with almost a clean piece of paper so far as the staff and the playing staff are concerned. So the only thing lacking is these people coming forward with the finance.
TO: Has it come to the point when you and Joan (for want of a better) expression that you are swimming as hard as you can but still getting pushed gently back by the tide.
GT: I think to some extent that the feeling was we need fresh impetus don’t we. You know we have had a disappointing season that’s obvious. When I access the season as a football man you look at perhaps reasons why the season has been so unsuccessful, so disappointing in the conference and you look back and injuries, nobody can help injuries, they are going to happen, but we have had our five senior players who between them have played less than 45 league starts. You look at Phil Robinson himself, Ian Rogerson, Scott Voice, Steven Pierce, and Scott Cooksey, its almost half our wage bill there and between them they have not started one league game with more than one of them being on the pitch at any one time. So that have been a major problem to us when you get a chunk of players like that missing and that is one of the contributory factors why we have had such a poor season. You cannot have such a big whole in the staff. I look now at what we have got left and what we got under contract and if you look at Baker, Clark, Wright, James and Parry, I think they are five players that most conference clubs would relish having in their club, in their staff. Scott Voice has yet to prove himself, he is still under contract and so there is a nucleus there of a decent side. Lets say that everything is carrying on as far as work is concerned as normal and I think it will be resolved over the next fortnight exactly what is going to happen in the future of the club.
TO: It just seems that the situation here is always bad. Ever since I have been interviewing you that’s been the case but is it likely to come to a head, has it got that bad?
GT: The club will not go out of business next week; it will not go out of business next month. The only way it will go out of business, I believe is May 2003. Terry James and the council have come up with some super plans for the ground. There is talk of being able to take care of Chelverton in those plans. People being prepared to buy the leases back which would take care or should take care of the clubs future; and I see that as the only real way that the club could go under so I think that when people start talking about losing the club it will not happen next week. We are obviously under pressure as far as some bills are concerned. We have had debts ever since we joined the club and this summer is no different. It might be a little bit higher this summer and we might need an injection of cash fairly quickly but that is no different than what we have been used to. So the panic over the club folding, there should not be too much there because the club will survive. It is just that we felt that we needed fresh impetus. I think that there are lots of big mouths around the place, plenty of resources as far as wealth is concerned and the people who sit on the fence shout the most, do the most criticising and yet when it comes to the crunch there is the invitation now. We have taken it as far as we can; we need a fresh impetus. It is time to come in. Everybody has taken two steps back or three steps back or disappeared and all you can see is backsides running in the distance and that has left us with a problem of what is going to happen. And as I say we are talking to one individual who will take it on further next week.
TO: As regards Terry James and the councils plans, Surely the time has come now when they need to come out and really spell out what they are going to do because potential investors would have something to hang on to if they thought the Chelverton debt could be sorted out as part of those plans, then there is light at the end of the tunnel for once it is not an on-going train.
GT: Well I think there are problems for the council, that’s obvious. You have got to go through the procedure of the unitary development plan and there is not a magic wonder way where they can instantly say this will happen to Edgar Street and everything will be taken care of. So I can see the problems that the council have got in coming out with firm proposals at this stage when it has not gone through the proper procedures. But there is that light there at the end of the tunnel where the things that have been suggested by Terry James if they do come to fruition will be absolutely incredible for the club. It will be a terrific start for the club again and we just hope that comes about. But I can understand their position and them being unable to come out with those concrete proposals at the moment and reassuring everybody that everything will be taken care of and any potential investors should not have to worry about developers. I do not think that is the case at the moment. I do not think they are in a position to be able to reassure people at the moment but the plans that have been suggested I think are a great boost to everybody and it should lead to people being prepared to take a chance that it will all come to fruition. But at the moment there are not too many around prepared to take that chance.
TO: Changing tack and talking about the playing side of things, earlier this week it was revealed that the decision had been taken to release Phil Robinson.
GT: Well Phil’s contract was up and the board of directors decided not to renew his contract and with the exception of Gavin Williams there have been no new contracts offered to any of the players. I think there is a little bit of method in that in as much as we hear from league clubs now financial crisis, there is all sorts of players going to be available through the summer, players in the past who would have no doubt that if they got a better offer or could better themselves they would move on. You make them an offer at this stage and it is always a tool to use at other clubs; can you match this, can you beat that and I will sign for you. I think the strength now is moving back to clubs and I think we are in a position to say there are no offers immediately. The letter will go out to say we are not making you an offer. But then again there is no reason in weeks to come whether the likes of Scott Goodwin, any of them, the club should not go back to any of them and make them an offer. If in the meantime they fix themselves with another club and got themselves signed up and settled well we have lost them. But if they have not and I doubt whether some of them will there is always that opportunity to bring them back but it gives us a chance to now to look at the open market to see what is available, a chance for a big clear out and some fresh faces coming in. And already we have a list of players that we are going to talk to. Obviously with the position the club is in at the moment offers can not be made to them but we will certainly find out whether there is an interest in Hereford United and then we can leave all that information for whoever may take the club on. But I think it is a wonderful opportunity now for the club to build on the six players we have got under contract and strengthen the squad from last season as because obviously with that flirtation with relegation I think it have brought it home to everybody that we have got to have a stronger squad than we did last season. And then we come down to Gavin Williams. We have had a written offer from Chester for him; we have had a written from another conference club who he is talking to next week but he has been back up to see us. Obviously he wants to know about the stability of the club, obviously he wants to know what my intentions are and I think if it can settle down then I would not rule out the possibility of Gavin resigning for us but we have competition from two other conference clubs who are bigger payers than us but I think Gavin has been settled and I think at the back of his mind he would like to stay at Hereford but obviously money as far as players are concerned is an important factor and we have to face the possibility that Gavin might be playing in the conference next season for somebody else. But if he is the club will get a fee for him.
TO: Coming back to your position then, at the moment your resignation still stands. Were circumstances to change and you were still to be involved next season would that be more possibility with the hands of the managers role given that Phil Robinson has gone or would you be looking to bring in another coach. How would that work?
GT: Well we have not, the board and I stress the board, the board have not released Phil with the idea that I am just going to go in there and fill his shoes. We have not done that; we have not made a hole for me to go back into. But what I stated is that after three years sitting around a boardroom table and probably 80 to 90% of my time has been on administrative things and the problems of finance, I would like it to go the other way and be 70 to 80% on the training ground and 70 to 80% being involved with the football team. And I suppose that is the only way I would stay on here and I probably would not feel the need for a coach or a player-coach. But there is a lot to happen before that can come about. I think that at the moment the resignation is still on the table. There is the invitation to everybody surrounding Hereford United, please come in and help the club out financially and take it forward.
TO: You have clarified your position as regards the retained list. What is the position as regards Ian Rogerson as obviously he had physiotherapy duties here as well.
GT: First and foremost Ian was a player and he has not been offered, the offer of re-engagement. He has not been offered a new contract.
TO: And when you sit back in quieter moments and look back over the last three and a half years, do you regret getting involved in the way you did.
GT: Regret it big time. I do feel and that is not to put a big slant on it in our favour but had Joan Fennessy and myself and to some extent Ron Jukes, had we not taken over the shares of Peter Hill and the way the club was going at that stage, we do look back and feel there was a distinct probability that the club would have gone under. What we have done is in that period keep the club alive, keep it ticking over for somebody else and we stressed right from the out-set as soon as we bought the shares that they were available to anybody who wanted to come in and take the club forward and could provide the finance to do that. And that situation has never changed. It has been three and a half years or four years or whatever it is of real hard graft keeping the club alive. You have only got to take this weekend for instance, bank holiday weekend; we have got a football marathon on, 24 hour football that will raise funds for the club. There is outside helpers doing it, but Joan Fennessy will be down on Sunday, Sunday evening, probably Monday morning as well. So that’s her Bank Holiday, and that’s the sort of work that has gone into keeping the club alive. And there comes a time when you say well hang on, can we go on doing this, we want to give our selves a chance if we stay we want to feel there is a chance that the team can do well so therefore we need the finance to do it.
TO: Final point of all, this is really going out on a limb and I am already prepared for you to shoot me down in flames but given now that the carrot always was that if you got back into football league the television revenue was there and that would help, at the moment at least that is not there so Boston for example who are going up this season are not exactly going to be a lot better off as things stand as we speak at this moment, is there any case at all for the club going into liquidation and starting again all be it at a lower level.
GT: If that had happened four years ago that would have been fine, before we took the million pound loan I think that would have been the best course of action to wind the club up, start again, start again with fresh finance, clean sheets, might have been two divisions lower but we could have gone forward. Now the situation is that we have a lease and that is Hereford United 1939 and 82 limited with Chelverton. If the club goes out of business and reforms as Hereford United 2002 then we have no lease with anybody and therefore we would not have a ground to play at. So that is the great difficulty of folding the club and starting again. So therefore it would be right at the moment the wrong thing to do. It is still the aim obviously to get back into the football league. The finances of the football league clubs are now coming closer to the conference because we do not get any television money, we do not get a great deal from Nationwide, so there is a levelling out of the finances so certainly the aim is to get back in there and there looks in all probability that there will be two promoted clubs next season, one through automatic winning the championship and going up and the other play-offs so there is a top five place to aim for and that is a massive incentive for conference clubs And I am aware that some of the clubs are in financial difficulties ,Telford for instance are off-loading a lot of players and it is probably significant when you look at the conference this season that the top four sides are the top payers, Doncaster, Yeovil, Dagenham, and Boston. And Boston have almost put their club in hoc to get their club up. I know that when we went there they were thinking of going into a C.V.A. at that time. So there have been problems with conference clubs financially and I think if we can get some stability, get a few more players here and get a fresh squad of players added to the six that we have got I think the team itself could be in a position to go forward but as far as I think Joan and myself are concerned that invitation now is there. It is time somebody else came in to take the club on and take the responsibility because there are some better times ahead simply through the plans for Edgar Street, simply through two up from the conference, so it is perhaps a good time for fresh people to come in.
TO: And if this individual does come forward to whom you are talking to at the moment there is every chance you might still be involved.
GT: I am not sure about that Trevor. I think there is a lot of talking to be done and I have said repeatedly particularly to supporters meetings that I would never leave the club in the lurch and I would not just walk out. If it does not materialise then how long we go on keep patching up I do not know, but as I said before things are already in motion to make sure that the club is in a strong position to start next season. That is the ground being done, the kit being arranged, players talking to, all the sort of things that you would normally do at the end of the season and very often the finish of the season means a lot more work. You know people think that the last match of the season that’s it, you have finished. There is a hell of a lot of work going on at the moment at the club and that will continue so there is no way we will just walk out and leave the club in the lurch but at the same time we keep repeating we have probably had enough of keeping it alive. It is time somebody else did.
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