Stockport County Enter Administration

**randomcomment** · 01/05/2009, 11:01 AM

A beautiful club with amazing fans and an excellent young manager in Jim Gannon -

Stockport County announces with regret and the deepest frustration that the Club has today been put into Administration by David Farms Limited, Aylesbury who hold a debenture over the club.
While still trying to grapple with the impact of this move on the future of County, Chief Executive, Seán Connolly, summed up his frustration and that of Chairman, Martin Reid and Financial Director, Paul Cheetham: "We have been working round the clock for the last few weeks putting together a package that would have guaranteed a secure future for County. We had the support of Cheshire Sports, by far our biggest creditor, who fully supported our approach. We had introduced a number of investors to help bring the club forward. The Trust would have continued to play a strong role. We were in the process of drafting heads of agreement and we were absolutely convinced that the deal could have been completed within the next 36 hours and we had informed David Farms of this early morning. As part of that deal the debenture holder would have had the loan of £300k paid back.In fact we offered to pay a large sum to them this morning as an earnest of our intent.Now, I don't know what any of these parties will feel or do. One thing, none of us is going to give up on County as yet even though officially we no longer have a role in the Company which is now being run by the administrator."

Connolly went on to say that part of the deal was that the Club would relinquish any option it had on Edgeley Park and that it had already begun negotiations with Sale Sharks and the local Council to develop a new stadium that would be state of the art and guarantee a wonderful facility for both clubs and for Stockport. He also said that the matter of points' deduction was not now at all clear where before we calculated on losing 10 points this season.

Chairman, Martin Reid said: "I am absolutely gutted.To have been so close and to have the rug pulled from under our feet is soul-destroying. After all the work by Paul and Seán and the great support from Sale Sharks I can now only hope that Stockport County can rise from the ashes."

He confirmed that the origins of the debenture lie in an agreement made without the prior knowledge of the Trust Board.

**KK77** · 01/05/2009, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by randomcomment

A beautiful club with amazing fans and an excellent young manager in Jim Gannon -

Stockport County announces with regret and the deepest frustration that the Club has today been put into Administration by David Farms Limited, Aylesbury who hold a debenture over the club.
While still trying to grapple with the impact of this move on the future of County, Chief Executive, Seán Connolly, summed up his frustration and that of Chairman, Martin Reid and Financial Director, Paul Cheetham: "We have been working round the clock for the last few weeks putting together a package that would have guaranteed a secure future for County. We had the support of Cheshire Sports, by far our biggest creditor, who fully supported our approach. We had introduced a number of investors to help bring the club forward. The Trust would have continued to play a strong role. We were in the process of drafting heads of agreement and we were absolutely convinced that the deal could have been completed within the next 36 hours and we had informed David Farms of this early morning. As part of that deal the debenture holder would have had the loan of £300k paid back.In fact we offered to pay a large sum to them this morning as an earnest of our intent.Now, I don't know what any of these parties will feel or do. One thing, none of us is going to give up on County as yet even though officially we no longer have a role in the Company which is now being run by the administrator."

Connolly went on to say that part of the deal was that the Club would relinquish any option it had on Edgeley Park and that it had already begun negotiations with Sale Sharks and the local Council to develop a new stadium that would be state of the art and guarantee a wonderful facility for both clubs and for Stockport. He also said that the matter of points' deduction was not now at all clear where before we calculated on losing 10 points this season.

Chairman, Martin Reid said: "I am absolutely gutted.To have been so close and to have the rug pulled from under our feet is soul-destroying. After all the work by Paul and Seán and the great support from Sale Sharks I can now only hope that Stockport County can rise from the ashes."

He confirmed that the origins of the debenture lie in an agreement made without the prior knowledge of the Trust Board.

Didn't realise that's Sean Connolly who worked for the FAI in the 90's.

**randomcomment** · 01/05/2009, 11:38 AM

Yeah that's him. Worked for Dundalk in 2005 also. The fans over there thinks he's done well since he's come in (only 2/3 months ago). Gannon looks certain to be poached by a bigger club now, perhaps even a Championship club

**Den Perry** · 01/05/2009, 2:07 PM

I had an argument with my mates last week on this one. I am of the viewpint points being deducted is unjust. However, they argued that if clubs don't run their finances properly they deserve what they get. The example I was using was Luton town, and now we have Stockport and Southampton. Now as far as I'm aware, Luton and Stockport did not go mad on wages and transfer fees, but are just finding it hard to survive because of the way the TV money etc is distributed among the bigger clubs etc.

any views on this?

**randomcomment** · 01/05/2009, 2:26 PM

Stockport are worse off because they don't own their ground so their only assets are their players and staff. Taking 10 points off teams is ridiculous, they stopped throwing people in jail for being in debt in the Victorian days. By all means, a club found to be guilty of gross mismanagement of finances should be kicked out on the spot (Drogheda), but some clubs simply cannot make ends meet.

**holidaysong** · 01/05/2009, 3:03 PM

Originally Posted by randomcomment

...and an excellent young manager in Jim Gannon

He was anything but 'excellent' when he was with us..

**randomcomment** · 01/05/2009, 3:22 PM

Playing all his home games in Century Homes Park!! Anyway I wish the Dundalk begrudgers would shut the feck up and acknowledge that he has done a fantastic job at Stockport and is generally regarded as one of the best young managers outside of the Premiership.

When he took over Stockport they were rock bottom of League 2, five points adrift. In his second season they missed out on the playoffs on the last day by a point. In his third year they won the playoffs and got promoted. I'm convinced they would have got a playoff spot this year if they weren't forced to offload their best players and deducted 10 points.

Look at Sam Allardyce.. do people still say 'Yeah but he was ****e at Sligo'??

**holidaysong** · 01/05/2009, 3:24 PM

For the record, we only played in Monaghan for half of that season.

**pineapple stu** · 01/05/2009, 3:30 PM

Originally Posted by randomcomment

Look at Sam Allardyce.. do people still say 'Yeah but he was ****e at Sligo'??

Probably not, since he was never there.

**randomcomment** · 01/05/2009, 3:33 PM

Galway?? Limerick?? one of them

**superfrank** · 01/05/2009, 4:10 PM

Limerick. And I don't think anyone would say he was ****e there.

The points deduction is fair. If a club can't be run properly, at any level, then it should have to scale back or face consequences.

**eamo1** · 07/05/2009, 10:54 AM

I think a transfer embargo of decent length is a fair enough punishment for some clubs.Other clubs(like Drogs etc) deserve more then 10pts deducted for gross mismanagement.

**gustavo** · 07/05/2009, 5:21 PM

Originally Posted by randomcomment

Playing all his home games in Century Homes Park!! Anyway I wish the Dundalk begrudgers would shut the feck up and acknowledge that he has done a fantastic job at Stockport and is generally regarded as one of the best young managers outside of the Premiership.

When he took over Stockport they were rock bottom of League 2, five points adrift. In his second season they missed out on the playoffs on the last day by a point. In his third year they won the playoffs and got promoted. I'm convinced they would have got a playoff spot this year if they weren't forced to offload their best players and deducted 10 points.

Look at Sam Allardyce.. do people still say 'Yeah but he was ****e at Sligo'??

Doesn't change the fact that he was ****e at Dundalk ,which is what their fans are saying