Yesterday the Guardian published an investigation into what has been going on at Worcester Warriors.
It's a very interesting read not only because it's close to Hereford and in some ways a reminder of the last days of Hereford United but also because of the characters involved including one Jed McCrory, a former director of Swindon Town and various other minor-league football clubs, who met former Hereford United chairman David Keyte in March 2014.
A look back:
McCrory became known to Hereford supporters when BN revealed that he had met former chairman David Keyte in March 2014.
Later it was revealed that McCrory along with Keyte had met Geoff Hughes from Herefordshire Council on February 24th 2014.
For reference here's an article published by BN on March 19th 2014
It's understood that one of the
two possible investors in Hereford United that have talked to chairman
David Keyte is a consortium headed by Jed McCrory who has been involved
with Swindon Town.
It's not known whether talks are continuing but it is known that McCrory has been in Hereford in the last week.
BN was told of his interest over two weeks ago and posted a 'speculative' article mentioning McCrory on March 3rd.
The following morning BN was
contacted by someone close to the club and asked to take the article
down. BN refused citing the view that taking the article down would
provoke more not less interest in what had been written.
This week another person close to
the club asked BN how they had heard about McCrory's interest. Suffice
it to say it appears that the name was talked about in the VP club after
the home game against Wrexham.
Another name is that of Jed
McCrory formerly chairman of Swindon and before that 'owner' of Banbury
Town. 43 year old McCrory recently tried to buy into Kidderminster Town
but failed.
McCrory was chairman of Swindon
Town until he sold his stake to Lee Power. The Evesham based businessman
led a consortium, Seebeck 87, which purchased 99% of Swindon from
BetFair co-founder Andrew Black just over twelve months ago. However
Power bought some of McCrory's shares last April and the remainder in
December.
Whilst buying Swindon, McCrory was also talking to Cheltenham according to the Bath Chronicle.
"We did have an approach from the consortium who are now at Swindon, but
we weren't convinced and you have to be very careful. You have to be
very thorough with your due diligence and the fact they wanted to become
the controlling stake holders was a problem," said chairman Paul Baker.
Not long after McCrory met
Kidderminster chairman, at the time, Mark Serrell. However, later, the
board of directors at Aggborough turned down McCrory despite his claim
to be have access to £5m of funds possibly from a company called iQuest
Capital Ltd who are based in Cheshire.
"The board did meet with Jed and
he put his proposal to us which we decided to decline," said Ken Rae the
new Kidderminster chairman.
McCrory has also looked at a takeover of Barnsley.
In late January it was suggested
by the Barnsley Chronicle that a deal to buy the club for £5M could be
'just days away'. But it didn't happen.
Owner Patrick Cryne later said he would only sell to someone who he believed would build the club in the future.