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| David Keyte |
David Keyte gave Trevor Owens of BBC Hereford and Worcester a long interview last Thursday morning.
Here's much of what Keyte said in the final part of that interview.
Owens asked the Hereford United chairman about the debts due before the Conference AGM in early June. Keyte recently said that the club needed £300,000 to see the season through. That figure has been reduced by £78,000 which has been paid to HMRC. But they want another £69,000 in May.
"The breakdown of the £222,000 is that the taxman will be back in in May and June 6th is the AGM.
"It's very close really, we've got to prioritise the HMRC debt and the football creditors and of course we want to keep moving forward with the wages.
"It easier to think that we need the rest of the £300K by the end of May.
"The football creditors has moved on to more like £30k. Although we've not taken loanees on since Xmas, Sam Smith is a loanee from Cambridge so that bill keeps ticking up.
"I've had sleepless nights about it and I wonder quite where it is going to come from.
"There was a chairman's meeting at Telford and I talked to one of the lads from Kidderminster and he said you will be amazed what comes out of the woodwork when it really has to come out of the woodwork. As was their case. Nothing certain but in his view there is always somebody that comes through at the end.
"Administration is the worst case senario because we are the current directors, we are running a business that is not trading appropriately. At some point you have to accept that all the lines that you thought might come through have not done so. The option then is administration.
"As you know we have been trying to tactically work that within the Conference rules when if we had gone into administration before March 20th we would have taken ten points immediately and that would have been certain relegation which we are also trying to avoid.
"We are in a situation now where if we went into administration now it will be ten points next season but you have the breathing space to discuss things with your creditors and put a plan together to come through it. Much as Graham (Turner)dealt with when he first started. They had five years or three years of paying off creditors at so much in the pound. So it gives you a little bit of breathing space but at a cost of ten points next season which is the same as Aldershot have taken on this year."
Mention was made of going part-time next season.
"There are a few things there," continued Keyte.
"One the finances. There are lads picking up £400/£500 pounds a week as well as a day job.
"Our difficulty is we are out on a limb. You can see it for a Tamworth or Nuneaton when somebody working around the Birmingham area and they got to go training thirty minutes up the road on a Monday and a Wednesday.
"Will they come to Hereford, you know what the Hereford/Worcester road is like and how much would you come for?
"There would be slight savings, training grounds and that sort of thing but overall I don't think there are huge savings in player for player particularly if you want to lift the standard a bit."