Five Years Ago Today Stig had a simple question for Mr Thomas Agombar who, at the time, was involved with Hereford United.
Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Why are you still here?
Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Why are you still here?
I don’t for one second expect you to give an honest answer to this question – it appears that would go against everything this regime believes in – but it’s the one question Hereford United supporters need to know the answer to.
It’s fair to say there are many other questions we’d also like answers to but this specific one is probably the basic question that creates all the others.
Before I go on, in case you’re wondering why I’m directing the question to Tommy when in fact he is not allowed to have anything to do with our club any more (after you failed the laughable Fit and Proper Person’s Test), I’m directing the question to him simply because us supporters know he continues to pull the strings – quite possibly on behalf of other people – as he has been seen shouting at players after matches and was also heavily involved with one-to-one meetings with the club’s latest batch of unpaid staff last week.
I’ve heard it said he’s a ‘football man’ but clearly his interest in football does not extend to matters at Edgar Street.
If he did care about the football I suspect he’d have tried to keep our club in the Conference, he’d have probably tried to keep hold of some of our long-term, loyal staff by actually paying them when you took over, and he may even have tried to keep more than one fifth of the ground open.
If he cared about the football I suspect he would probably have tried to engage with the club’s supporters too, rather than lying repeatedly initially, before then moving on to now ignoring us completely. He’d also probably have stopped his ‘advisors’ Mr Nathan and Mr Lonsdale insulting supporters in the local press and on unofficial forums.
As a ‘football man’ he’ll no doubt know that our club’s averages attendances have roughly hovered between 1750 and 2750 over the last few years. In fact, just for the record, in this exact week back in 2008, 3004 people watched us play a home game against Scunthorpe United, before that version of Hereford United then travelled to Leeds United (you may have heard of them, Tommy) to play in front of over 25,000 people on Saturday 27 September.
These games were in League One by the way, Tommy.
The fact that this version of Hereford United could muster only 339 people to watch it on Saturday (and we understand not all these paid) should demonstrate to Tommy that he’s not wanted at Edgar Street and that, if he was a ‘football man’, he’d acknowledge and have some understanding of the upset he is causing supporters of our special little club and how he is ripping the heart out of our small, but mightily important community. Not that he’d care, obviously.
If he cared about the football he may also have taken a little more time to select a management team with at least a small amount of proven ability at Southern League level rather than a manager who seems to have more experience in property development than football management, and an assistant manager who, with the greatest respect, can probably only include managing junior football teams at local club Pegasus Juniors on his footballing CV.
Football wise he may also have found a better place for his squad to stay than on camp beds in a hospitality lounge at the stadium, but I suppose there are worse ways for ‘athletes’ to prepare themselves to represent a club you claim to be so ‘passionate’ about. I can’t think of many though.
In addition, if he cared about the football, on taking over, I dare say his priority would been trying to build some sort of squad rather than immediately meeting Herefordshire Council to try to transfer the leases relating to Edgar Street from the club itself to one of his private holding companies. (I do appreciate his claim he ‘didn’t know nothing about no leases’ but if it’s OK I’m going to take that claim with a pinch of salt as I take into account the accuracy of most of the other public comments him and his mates have made.)
For the record, I’m happy to not look too deeply at the fact that he decided it was a good idea – as a business or ‘football man’ - to buy a club 300 miles from his home in London with known debts of £1million plus.
I’m no financial wizard but unless there was an ulterior motive for coming to Hereford (surely not?!!), I can’t help but think there may have been a couple of clubs down in the south east he could have purchased that are far more stable financially had he simply wanted to be like his friends and own a football club. In fact, he’d have done well to find a club anywhere in the country more obviously financially stricken than ours. Just bad luck and we weren’t deliberately targeted I’m sure though.
So, it remains pretty obvious he’s not here for the football. For clarity then, I wonder whether he’d finally like to let us know why he is here?
Around the time creditors quite rightly turned down the fantasy CVA, the most recent disappearing Directors Mr Edwards and Mrs Thuerlings came out with the laughable notion that they believe there is a product to sell at Edgar Street. I suppose their maybe but that product isn’t football if this regime is involved.
It’s not hard to put forward the case that he’s here to make money out of the plot of land our club stands on but at the moment the council seem to be playing hard ball (long may this continue) and are making life awkward for him.
So Tommy, why are you carrying on this charade? Is it basically that the pot of gold you’re after is so big it’s worth racking up more debts to try to prolong your game and get to it?
Whatever this plan of yours, I’d like to say that although the Football Association and the Southern League may be willing to let you ride roughshod over us supporters – both organisations should hang their heads in complete shame for their lack of any duty of care, I’m confident that long suffering fans like me aren’t going to stand by and let you make money out of something that’s so special to us without putting up the biggest fight you can possibly imagine.
The record breaking, pitiful gates you are causing at Edgar Street are not down to apathy so don’t think you can play that card either. The gates are at an all time low because most supporters knows the difference between right and wrong and are not willing to stand for the deceitful, disrespectful and disdainful way your regime has treated us and put money in your pockets.
And that’s your biggest problem now, this has gone too far and whatever your plan is you’re not going to be allowed to get away with it. You may know every single legal loophole to extend this game but, if needs be, we’ll play the long game too.
We’re not the country bumpkins I suspect you thought we were and we will fight tooth and nail to protect something we care about – or at the very least to ensure that individuals with such questionable motives don’t get what they want.
So come on, you may as well answer the question I posed at the very start – why are you still here?
As I said, I’m not holding my breath for an answer.