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| Rob Purdie - Picture From Andy Compton |
At the end of 2014, Purdie wrote an article for BN entitled 'A Foot In Three Camps'
Over
the last 13 years of my career I have spent 8 years worth of it
involved with Hereford United. 5 years under Graham Turner (who out of
respect I still refer to as gaffer), 2 1/2 years under David Keyte and
the past 6 months have been with the UITC working out of our office at
the back of Edgar Street with affiliation to the first team who of
course were under the control of Tommy Agombar and Andy Lonsdale (to
name a couple). 3 different ownerships, if we group the last 6 months
into one, and 3 totally different experiences to talk about! Everything I
say is through my own experiences, honest and are my own opinions. Some
people will agree with them and some will disagree but here are my
thoughts and reasons of why I believe the passion of Hereford will
always be the key to this city.
Gaffer had his share of fans that did not quite agree with everything he
did but he had success with the club that anyone would of struggled to
match. Along with probably Dario o'Grady of Crewe I don't believe any
club outside the premiership has, or will ever have, an asset as good as
the gaffer was to Hereford United. Loyalty is rare in football and he
gave that to Hereford even when there was no gain in sight for him. It
was unquestionably the best 5 years of my career, every year playing
with a new batch of players that were hungry to improve, work hard for
the manager and try and have success with HUFC. That was gaffers
quality, his dedication to find and sign the exact players that would
fit into the team and the city, and he did all of this at an affordable
price to the club.
He left for Shrewsbury having taken Hereford as far as he believed he
could, he left a solid league 2 team with money in the bank and a bright
future, and sold it to the right man at the time, David Keyte. David
was a hereford fan that wanted to use his passion to take us that step
further but unfortunately it was the beginning of the demise that has
seen us temporarily lose our club. I believe this was purely down to
naivety and not understanding that football is a different business to
any other, although I think towards the end anger, pride and bit of
spite were thrown in.
Getting relegated from league 2 was not the start, it was the money given out in league 2 where it all began. At the end of my first 5 years the gaffer really wanted to keep me, he offered me a very good deal but said he couldn't go a penny higher due to the league 2 budget he was trying to keep, 3 1/2 years later I returned to the same club, in the same league with the same fan base to find players on almost double the wage he had offered me and they also had the added bonus of there accommodation being paid for them along with bills! This is where all our the problems had started. The season we were relegated from league 2 we had numerous players on 4 figure a week salaries and not paying a penny for their own 2 bedroom apartment or house. In my first ever year at Hereford I was on £210 a week and losing £75 of that to pay for my digs, call it stingy from the gaffer but I gladly did it to have the chance to prove myself and play at Edgar Street in front of the Hereford fans. I don't blame any player for accepting a big contract, the fault lies with the person sanctioning the deal!!
Pay ups to coaching staff added to the problem which again lessons should of been learnt from the early dismissal of Simon Davey, the poor decision to bring Gary Peters in on a 'I'm only here to advise but my opinion is the main one' role which didn't work. In the relegation year it got to a point where as captain I called a player meeting to see what the players felt, I then went to speak to the manager Jamie Pitman and finally called David Keyte to try and advise him from a players point of view. No player should feel the need to ring the chairman about any matter, and no player would have dared ring the gaffer (Graham Turner) and try to advise him, he knew what he was doing every single day and if he got it wrong then he changed it and we followed him. A week later Rich O'Kelly was brought in, unfortunately a week to late for that season. Relegation came with bigger headaches. Players still on their contract with no clause for it to change, one player once quoted me 'they asked me if I wanted a 10% rise or fall in wage depending on promotion/relegation or it just stays the same regardless. We finished 3rd bottom last season so why would I take the risk!?' It shouldn't of been his choice!! All this may seem irrelevant to what caused the end of HUFC as we know it but it is all part of how we got here. If anyone at a football club is mainly driven by money then success will be limited, and I use the word 'mainly' because money can be used as motivation but like respect has to be earnt, not given on a plate or stole!! The passion, professionalism and strength of Hereford United football club was going downhill and resulted in us needing a last day escape last season. Big players with tremendous attitudes like Luke Graham, Dom Collins and Kingsley James, to name a few, stepped up! Peter Beadle and Steve Jenkins were the right decision at the right time, Martin Foyle and Andy Porter had done everything they could for the sinking ship and were discharged (again lessons not learnt and pay ups were due later on) but we got to the end of the season a conference side and it was the start of the big turn around, or so we thought.
The club was sold to Tommy Agombar, a businessman from London who was a
football fan. He saw a chance to make some money, nothing wrong with
that, but his disrespect to every herefordian, Hereford fan or not, was
unbelievable. I think he only had to do one thing, stand in front of
fans and reporters and say 'I'm a business man and I see development
opportunity here along with a football club deep in history and pride, a
town of passionate people so along with a strong team on the pitch
competing as high as we can I hope to also add to the city with some
needed development. I cannot do that and pay the bond the conference
want so we are unfortunately going to have to start from the southern
premiership but I will get through the creditors as soon as I can and
start to restore some pride in this football club' that would of got
people on his side and then he could of started to pay the creditors! If
he was genuine then that would of happened before a ball had been
kicked, instead he put his energy into acquiring the leases. It soon
became clear he was only here to make as much money as quickly as he
could, football was a distant second in his plan. The dismantling of the
previous squad and staff was as swift as the lies about paying
creditors. So many out of pocket and constantly told they would be paid.
With Mark Ellis installed they wanted a team to sell although with
players apparently on non-contracts they could move around for free and
probably make money for their agents touting them, no need to ask who
their agents were linked to! I put no blame on the players, they didn't
know what they were coming into and were young players groomed into what
the owners wanted, some were very good players but while being around
all 40 something of them at some point over the last 5 months I not once
got any feeling that they cared about Hereford. I'm not saying they
didn't care at all and some of them were nice guys. Bilal, Javia Roberts
and Sheldon Martinez would always ask how we were getting on but never
did I really see the passion that I had seen in so many players like Ben
Smith, Andy Tretton, Tony James, Ryan Green, Steve Guinan, Jamie
Pitman, Matt Baker, Wayne Brown, Craig Mawson, Andy Ferrell, DCB, Tam,
Adam Stansfield, Luke Graham, Danny Williams and Andy Williams to
literally name a few. Too many players to write down, infact I can't
bring a player to mind that didn't have that passion to do well for
themselves, for the gaffer and for the fans in my first 5 years, but
quite a few since. That was the biggest change I saw, it started from
the owners because they didn't care about Hereford itself and it
filtered down from there.
Tommy remained a voice after he had failed the ownership test, at one point threatening to fine the players because they had refused to train until they had been paid. Fining players money that they haven't even been paid isn't quite what you would expect from a footballing man! We at the UITC had to sit on the fence for most of the last 6 months, one false move and we would be thrown out of our office and the badge taken off our shirts, something we were threatened with a few times and couldn't afford to happen. Myself, Steve Brotherwood, Jonny Evans and Nick Nennadich have tried to install passion and commitment in our lads so that one day they maybe able to wear the first team shirt with pride. They were asked to train with the first team in pre-season and returned to tell us they didn't want to train with them again because of the experience. The lack of professionalism from the first team was something I was disappointed in and that all starts from the top! Lazy and messy owners breed lazy and messy coaches which breed lazy and messy players. Jon Taylor was a nice guy and I think he saw a chance to promote his managerial career. We talked when we crossed paths and he was trying to build something. I think he lost his way when his job was touted to other people, something that shouldn't happen and part of me feels sorry for the no win situation he was brought into.
I only watched one game this season, a 4-0 win at home against
Dorchester but I could see the lack of discipline on the pitch, the
laziness that had been bred. The changing rooms, gym and VP room were
constantly in a poor state around the ground to the point where I asked
my youth team boys to help me clean the gym on several occasions just to
make it feel like the place I had worked so hard in with Tony Ford and
Jon Trewick all those years ago. Every time, it was trashed again by the
next day! I watched one training session with my assistant Steve and
physio Jonny and was again let down. Jon Taylor wasn't there but I
watched 25 minutes of keep ball. In those 25 minutes not one word was
uttered to any player from the assistant manager. In training I can't go
one minute without giving my players advice or encouragement. That,
along with the game I saw, hurt because it made me realise the club I
had so much love and passion for really was dying!
Fast forward and Andy Lonsdale became more of a prominent figure but nothing big changed. The winding up petition and court appearances were becoming draining for all, it needed to go one way or another but all that was forthcoming was the word 'adjournment'. One thing I will say is that Lonsdale along with Simon Pullen did want to improve the football side. After they spoke in a meeting with UITC 2 weeks before the final court date I fully expected the club to start paying the creditors and to attempt building bridges with HUST and the fans. They had a plan to start moving the club forward with Andy Lonsdale now majority shareholder and Tommy out of the picture (literally no control at all), I saw the tiniest glimmer of light. Alas that was diminished in court when the judge ordered the winding up of HUFC, finally the excuses weren't good enough. That true Hereford passion from a chairman willing to risk everything, like Graham Turner did, down to the player sat in the stand not involved had disappeared. It had disappeared a while ago and only got worse over time. The ROK and Beads had briefly installed some of it in their stints, Alfreton at home last season was the first time since the gaffer was in charge that the meadow end had made every hair on body stand up walking out of that tunnel...if you have a passionate owner, passionate staff and passionate players all doing it for THE RIGHT reasons then here at Hereford you have an unbelievable crowd, a unique crowd at this level, that is willing to back you against anything that tries to get in your way, and that takes us to the future.
Because we have that passion in the right people, Hereford will be back.
From the businessmen in hereford to HUST to every single fan around the
world Hereford itself will survive. Whenever I play against Chester or
Telford I am not playing against a reformed team, I am playing against
the same local Telford I did years ago, and the same Chester that pipped
the best squad of players I have ever played with to the title by a
point in 2003. Hereford will rise again, I hope that i experience it on
the pitch or on the sidelines but if it has to be in the stands then I
will sit there knowing the meadow end will make my hairs stand up on
many more occasions. There will be promotions, there will be giant
killings, Ronnie Radfords goal will be played the next time we face
higher league opposition in the FA Cup and there will be a time when we
are back where we belong.
13 years ago Hereford was a city I had never heard of, it has become the
city I call home. The football club brought me to Hereford and along
with the people it has made me want to live out my life here. I have
made friends and family and that is what only a great football club and
city can do. Other ex players, notably Tony James have found the same
and many more would of stayed in the city if their jobs had allowed it.
That isn't the same for every football club, but one day it will be the
case for Hereford again! I look forward to the next time I can cheer on
the team closest to my heart!
Rob Purdie