BN looks back to May 2002. Hereford United had received some investment from a couple of supporters and chairman Graham Turner had returned to the training ground.
A few quotes from interviews given by Turner this week in 2002.
"What I desperately wanted to do was get back on to the training
ground and, now that things have stabilised, it has settled the issue as
a far as I am concerned. We have a position in the club where a very
small group of supporters has agreed to put in a five-figure amount and,
ultimately, they will take control of the club.
"This small group of supporters is different from the trust supporters. The money is to ensure that the club survives over the short-term, which we are considering as until May 2003," he continued. "This money will ensure that any shortfall is helped to be met. But we cannot go for broke on players because that would not be a responsible step to take in the circumstances. We still owe a lot of money.
"The clock is still ticking and Chelverton have not given up hope of working with the council in terms of redeveloping the Edgar Street site. We are still hoping there can be co-operation between Chelverton and the council.
“Ian (Wright) will start a rehabilitation programme within the next week or so, he has had a double hernia operation. Matt Clarke had one just before the end of the season and Scott Voice has been out for quite some time. All will have rehabilitation programmes through the close season and I expect them all to be fully fit when we start training in the first week of July."
No friendly games have been announced and Turner explains why. "We have had talks with a couple of Premiership clubs being prepared to come and play us so what I have done is left all the dates open and now it does not look as it is materialising, one or two clubs have had complications, trips aboard, other competitions so it is a matter of hard work now and getting it all sorted out very quickly," he said. "Usually I have had it done well before the end of the season but the offers of a couple of Premier clubs coming down was too much to turn down at that stage; we left all the dates open for them but now we have got to scramble around and get what we can. We had two terrific ones last season, particularly the one against Man. Utd when they sent eleven internationals. We were hoping for something similar from another Premiership club this season this pre-season, but it hasn’t materialised and we move on from there and we’ll get it done as quickly as we can.
The finances were one again described as very poor by chairman Turner. "There have been certain pressures to keep the club alive and the problems financially are well documented," he said. "We do have great difficulty paying our way but we’ve got a couple of supporters who are prepared to back the club financially with a modest amount. It is not going to allow us to go overboard with spending we certainly won’t be paying any transfer fees out, but it has just supported the losses and with that confidence and probably delegated other work around the place I’m able to put my tracksuit on and I’ve said to the players who are with us and the players I’ve interviewed I’m going to be totally involved now again in the football. I’ll take the coaching and training, picking the side and obviously we hope for better results this coming season. But I’m quite excited by it all again, perhaps it lifts a burden of finance and the enjoyment of working with players”.
BBC H&W's Nicola Goodwin, who interviewed Turner, later commented that he looked relaxed sitting in the boardroom in his tracksuit. He is really excited about getting back into management and feels that he can make a difference. He is aiming very high, and does not think Hereford United is slipping away and wants to get the very best players that money can buy so he is going to wait and see who else is released. If he cannot get players of the standard he wants, he will look at the players he has released. Hereford is a club on the way back, said Turner, who has identified his targets for next season and they are of a high playing standard.