| We've got our club back 19:15 - Oct 6 with 43355 views | judd |
7 minutes and 1 vote against.
Thank you, Mr Chairman and fellow board members.
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| We've got our club back on 01:28 - Oct 8 with 4318 views | ncfc_chalky |
| We've got our club back on 00:38 - Oct 8 by kel |
Judd took a lot of grief at the start but stuck to his guns and thankfully he was proved correct. I’ve known him for years (unfortunately) and I didn’t really take on board what he was trying to make us aware of but I’m glad he kept plugging away. More recently, he’s done a lot behind the scenes which some may not be aware of and I for one am grateful to him for that.
He’s still a bellend though  |
Absolutely right Kel,things like that have to be said and I totally agree with what you have stated
Judd is indeed a bell end |  |
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| We've got our club back on 07:32 - Oct 8 with 4107 views | James1980 |
| We've got our club back on 00:04 - Oct 8 by _Windydale |
Judd and guys closer to the club from a business aspect sniffed a rat in Bottomley. But I agree with Shun, for many followers who aren't close to the club, and maybe focus mostly on matchdays, Bottomley came across pretty well, in his interviews and rhetoric. He's a bad 'un, a self-centered narcissist, and a good job we have fellas like Judd, these sentinels that keep a watchful eye on the club. |
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/rochdale/forum/237852/page:1
As far as I could find this is Judd first alerted the forum to the past of the former CEO [Post edited 8 Oct 2021 7:39]
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| We've got our club back on 07:42 - Oct 8 with 4089 views | nordenblue |
| We've got our club back on 00:41 - Oct 8 by Shun |
Precisely, James. I think a few on here have very short memories!
And to nordenblue, he was a familiar face on the terraces. I certainly remember seeing him and his son at away matches. |
You've done well to spot him on the terraces Shun, the only time most folk saw him was when he out a shirt snd tie on and pretended he knew what he was doing...
There's regulars on here who granted go currently home and away a hell of a lot more than me, who've never once seen him on the terraces in the last few decades....
You'd imagine too if he's such this genuine fan we'd still see him supporting the club he has "all his life"..... you'd struggle to find another "fan" who'd happily throw the whole club under a bus, not to mention his apparent ridiculous pay rise during a global pandemic, some fan. | | | |
| We've got our club back on 08:27 - Oct 8 with 4002 views | judd |
That was indeed the first alert to his history, James, but there had been plenty of prior challenging, not just by me - I can think of at least 5 regular posters who challenged him not long after he started to assert himself on the club. Some, like me, were on the receiving end of phone calls or heard of him demanding their numbers from club employees or Trust board members.
I , and others, did benefit from an up close look at the weasel via Goldbond agent meetings and from a personal perspective, my involvement with Rochdale Ambassadors and Rochdale Training Association.
Don't forget that his appointment to the Board came at a time when everyone on this board was forensically examining what was happening at Bury. It should come as no surprise that he was looked into, which given his past, you would have thought he would have made the Board aware of.
Yours
A. Bellend | |
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| We've got our club back on 09:01 - Oct 8 with 3916 views | Dalenet |
| We've got our club back on 07:42 - Oct 8 by nordenblue |
You've done well to spot him on the terraces Shun, the only time most folk saw him was when he out a shirt snd tie on and pretended he knew what he was doing...
There's regulars on here who granted go currently home and away a hell of a lot more than me, who've never once seen him on the terraces in the last few decades....
You'd imagine too if he's such this genuine fan we'd still see him supporting the club he has "all his life"..... you'd struggle to find another "fan" who'd happily throw the whole club under a bus, not to mention his apparent ridiculous pay rise during a global pandemic, some fan. |
I can vouch that he attended every game for several seasons with his son. He drove up from Oxfordshire every game (incl Tuesdays). He sat on the same row as me. He seemed a genuine guy at the time. He got friendly with a couple of lads who owned a decorating business that also sat with us and they clubbed together to buy a box. That was probably his "in" to meet with directors and Dunphy. The rest is history.
He had me I confess. How wrong I was. But he had the Trust too for a long time. | | | |
| We've got our club back on 10:53 - Oct 8 with 3670 views | D_Alien |
| We've got our club back on 08:27 - Oct 8 by judd |
That was indeed the first alert to his history, James, but there had been plenty of prior challenging, not just by me - I can think of at least 5 regular posters who challenged him not long after he started to assert himself on the club. Some, like me, were on the receiving end of phone calls or heard of him demanding their numbers from club employees or Trust board members.
I , and others, did benefit from an up close look at the weasel via Goldbond agent meetings and from a personal perspective, my involvement with Rochdale Ambassadors and Rochdale Training Association.
Don't forget that his appointment to the Board came at a time when everyone on this board was forensically examining what was happening at Bury. It should come as no surprise that he was looked into, which given his past, you would have thought he would have made the Board aware of.
Yours
A. Bellend |
B. 'ell-end, surely? |  |
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| We've got our club back on 11:34 - Oct 8 with 3559 views | kel |
| We've got our club back on 09:01 - Oct 8 by Dalenet |
I can vouch that he attended every game for several seasons with his son. He drove up from Oxfordshire every game (incl Tuesdays). He sat on the same row as me. He seemed a genuine guy at the time. He got friendly with a couple of lads who owned a decorating business that also sat with us and they clubbed together to buy a box. That was probably his "in" to meet with directors and Dunphy. The rest is history.
He had me I confess. How wrong I was. But he had the Trust too for a long time. |
I’d agree with that but it appears he still has some who can’t see any wrong in him.
Most of them aren’t Rochdale fans anyway but are employed in some capacity by the club so shouldn’t be going around slagging off loyal fans who have done good stuff for this club and accusing them of having agendas. They know who they are though and people are now starting to see through them too. They then have the audacity to go running to the club complaining about getting grief on here. They need reminding that this is an independent forum for a start. |  | | |
| We've got our club back on 11:54 - Oct 8 with 3491 views | James1980 |
| We've got our club back on 08:27 - Oct 8 by judd |
That was indeed the first alert to his history, James, but there had been plenty of prior challenging, not just by me - I can think of at least 5 regular posters who challenged him not long after he started to assert himself on the club. Some, like me, were on the receiving end of phone calls or heard of him demanding their numbers from club employees or Trust board members.
I , and others, did benefit from an up close look at the weasel via Goldbond agent meetings and from a personal perspective, my involvement with Rochdale Ambassadors and Rochdale Training Association.
Don't forget that his appointment to the Board came at a time when everyone on this board was forensically examining what was happening at Bury. It should come as no surprise that he was looked into, which given his past, you would have thought he would have made the Board aware of.
Yours
A. Bellend |
It's frightening how he managed to inveigle himself into the club in the way he did. I can't see how anyone can still defend his actions. Even if he was given the benefit of the doubt and he really believed selling the club was the best to secure it's long term future. However the people he tried to sell the club shows a total lack of due diligence and downright incompetence. Which for me is more than enough evidence that he isn't fit to be running a school tuck shop, let alone a professional football club. | |
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| We've got our club back on 13:58 - Oct 8 with 3230 views | AtThePeake |
| We've got our club back on 11:54 - Oct 8 by James1980 |
It's frightening how he managed to inveigle himself into the club in the way he did. I can't see how anyone can still defend his actions. Even if he was given the benefit of the doubt and he really believed selling the club was the best to secure it's long term future. However the people he tried to sell the club shows a total lack of due diligence and downright incompetence. Which for me is more than enough evidence that he isn't fit to be running a school tuck shop, let alone a professional football club. |
And his most ardent defenders during that time are now conspicuous by their absence. |  |
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| We've got our club back on 14:43 - Oct 8 with 3124 views | dawlishdale |
| We've got our club back on 09:01 - Oct 8 by Dalenet |
I can vouch that he attended every game for several seasons with his son. He drove up from Oxfordshire every game (incl Tuesdays). He sat on the same row as me. He seemed a genuine guy at the time. He got friendly with a couple of lads who owned a decorating business that also sat with us and they clubbed together to buy a box. That was probably his "in" to meet with directors and Dunphy. The rest is history.
He had me I confess. How wrong I was. But he had the Trust too for a long time. |
He most certainly did not "have the Trust". Not for many years both before (when he was in the Executive club) and after becoming a Director. Plenty of big arguments with them. | | | |
| We've got our club back on 14:49 - Oct 8 with 3088 views | MoonyDale |
| We've got our club back on 09:01 - Oct 8 by Dalenet |
I can vouch that he attended every game for several seasons with his son. He drove up from Oxfordshire every game (incl Tuesdays). He sat on the same row as me. He seemed a genuine guy at the time. He got friendly with a couple of lads who owned a decorating business that also sat with us and they clubbed together to buy a box. That was probably his "in" to meet with directors and Dunphy. The rest is history.
He had me I confess. How wrong I was. But he had the Trust too for a long time. |
Only because he was playing the long game, he's no more a fan of our club than those from the former Gigg Lane.... |  |
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| We've got our club back on 15:05 - Oct 8 with 3043 views | dawlishdale |
From memory, I think there were three of us who were highly suspicious of DB on appointment (myself, based on dealings with him before he was on the Board, Judd, and NordenBlue)
However, the one thing that DB is/was good at was the ability to fool people into thinking he was working for the good of the club, when in fact, he was always working for himself and his own interests.
The disappointing thing was the difficulty faced in persuading fellow supporters that he was a "wrong 'un" . It wasn't really until the BBM contract fiasco that the penny dropped for most. It highlights the risks of appointing new Board members without due diligence of a satisfactory nature being carried out and moreover, in having a power vacuum or a weak Chairman. | | | |
| We've got our club back on 15:21 - Oct 8 with 2955 views | judd |
A single page, 21 posters of which 2 are Bury fans.
It appears people knew him as a fan and not for his business acumen, which was undoubtedly embellished when he held court. | |
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| We've got our club back on 15:26 - Oct 8 with 2942 views | Shun |
| We've got our club back on 15:21 - Oct 8 by judd |
A single page, 21 posters of which 2 are Bury fans.
It appears people knew him as a fan and not for his business acumen, which was undoubtedly embellished when he held court. |
19 posters, all pretty regular posters and well-respected names, seems pretty unanimous to me. My point is that there were no dissenting voices when he was first appointed all those years ago. If you did have your reservations, and I'm absolutely not saying that you didn't, then you didn't share them on here until later and there was nothing to the average fan that would alert suspicion on to DB. |  | | |
| We've got our club back on 15:47 - Oct 8 with 2883 views | judd |
| We've got our club back on 15:26 - Oct 8 by Shun |
19 posters, all pretty regular posters and well-respected names, seems pretty unanimous to me. My point is that there were no dissenting voices when he was first appointed all those years ago. If you did have your reservations, and I'm absolutely not saying that you didn't, then you didn't share them on here until later and there was nothing to the average fan that would alert suspicion on to DB. |
Fair point about anything being shared on here.
Also to be fair, he was a friend of friends and I genuinely hoped he would be the real deal, but it was not long before his true colours were being shown and as I said earlier, anyone close to the club through Goldbond quickly became aware of what was happening.
The Trust had had dealings with him via Exiles. Not the best of experiences, yet those frustrated by it kept their counsel too. | |
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| We've got our club back on 15:48 - Oct 8 with 2879 views | 442Dale |
Lessons will have been learnt by many after all this.
What it has all illustrated is that transparency and good communication is vital to get supporters on board and raise awareness.
The Trust has done this very effectively over the last year. Their commitment to reporting back to supporters with full details of meetings with individuals and the club have allowed us all to gain a good insight into what is happening. From there the membership numbers alone have shown how that approach engages fans. The Trust will be the first to admit that this could and should have been better over the years , any of us who have done a stint on their board should admit that, as far too often things would meander with little resolution.
As individual supporters we have also seen how we need to get behind the Trust as they’ve shown how much can be done on our behalf.
Similarly, on top of that, we now have a situation where the club are fully aware of how accountable they are to the Trust and supporters, with the lip service that was often paid and too readily accepted in the past (and we aren’t just talking about in the last couple of years) just won’t wash anymore. [Post edited 8 Oct 2021 15:49]
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| We've got our club back on 19:03 - Oct 8 with 2537 views | MoonyDale |
| We've got our club back on 15:26 - Oct 8 by Shun |
19 posters, all pretty regular posters and well-respected names, seems pretty unanimous to me. My point is that there were no dissenting voices when he was first appointed all those years ago. If you did have your reservations, and I'm absolutely not saying that you didn't, then you didn't share them on here until later and there was nothing to the average fan that would alert suspicion on to DB. |
23 posts, 19 unique Dale posters and 11 of those including yourself in favour/pleased with the appointment....The rest didn't even give a view one way or the other and were just replying to other posts, if we're going to use numbers let's get them correct... | |
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| We've got our club back on 19:38 - Oct 8 with 2442 views | kel |
“I am returning to live in the North, thanks to my wife Julie.”
Repaid her with tremendous loyalty, didn’t he? | | | |
| We've got our club back on 19:43 - Oct 8 with 2429 views | judd |
| We've got our club back on 19:38 - Oct 8 by kel |
“I am returning to live in the North, thanks to my wife Julie.”
Repaid her with tremendous loyalty, didn’t he? |
So he could join the board?
Yeah, right. | |
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| We've got our club back on 19:55 - Oct 8 with 2376 views | mikehunt |
How ironic the very last sentence (Swissdale) is. |  |
| The worm of time turns not for the cuckoo of circumstance. |
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| We've got our club back on 20:24 - Oct 8 with 2308 views | pioneer |
| We've got our club back on 15:05 - Oct 8 by dawlishdale |
From memory, I think there were three of us who were highly suspicious of DB on appointment (myself, based on dealings with him before he was on the Board, Judd, and NordenBlue)
However, the one thing that DB is/was good at was the ability to fool people into thinking he was working for the good of the club, when in fact, he was always working for himself and his own interests.
The disappointing thing was the difficulty faced in persuading fellow supporters that he was a "wrong 'un" . It wasn't really until the BBM contract fiasco that the penny dropped for most. It highlights the risks of appointing new Board members without due diligence of a satisfactory nature being carried out and moreover, in having a power vacuum or a weak Chairman. |
i think the relevant point in all of this is the idea we can sell shares to only the "right" people is in the realms of fantasy. he was a long standing regular committed supporter sponsor and apparently executive box holder. Just the sort of person you would want to buy shares presumably.
I eagerly await news of how the new shares are to be offered to ensure we are a "fan owned" club.
.We have always been a fan owned club. Bottomley was a fan, rawlinson was a fan........
and while i applaud the leadership and efforts of the trust in what has happened over the last few months it is not that long ago that the trust had a club employee as part of its leadership. something several folks questioned in terms of governance.
To paraphrase Churchill, this is just the end of the beginning. | | | |
| We've got our club back on 20:31 - Oct 8 with 2275 views | judd |
| We've got our club back on 20:24 - Oct 8 by pioneer |
i think the relevant point in all of this is the idea we can sell shares to only the "right" people is in the realms of fantasy. he was a long standing regular committed supporter sponsor and apparently executive box holder. Just the sort of person you would want to buy shares presumably.
I eagerly await news of how the new shares are to be offered to ensure we are a "fan owned" club.
.We have always been a fan owned club. Bottomley was a fan, rawlinson was a fan........
and while i applaud the leadership and efforts of the trust in what has happened over the last few months it is not that long ago that the trust had a club employee as part of its leadership. something several folks questioned in terms of governance.
To paraphrase Churchill, this is just the end of the beginning. |
Are you sure it was a club employee? | |
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| We've got our club back on 20:57 - Oct 8 with 2185 views | HullDale |
That thread from when Bottomley joined is an abject lesson in how hindsight is a wonderful thing. Some fans lauded it as a great appointment, some were nonplussed, some won't have been aware it had even happened, some had minor misgivings and some probably had serious concerns from the off.
Its only looking back now we can see just how much of a mistake it was - we couldn't have known at the time.
Other clubs will benefit from our experience of him (if he appears anywhere else in football) in the same manner that we have recently benefitted from Charlton fans about Southall, or Swindon fans about Curran.
Its a fair point about how do we ensure the shares go to the right people... there are a couple of actions off the top of my head that could be taken to lessen the likelihood of this happening again in future:
- No single shareholding individual, company or consortium (with the exception of the Trust) to hold more than 10% of the club - the Trust is caveated with their proposed new commitment to balloting members about all shareholding votes;
- No shareholder with more than 2 or 3% of the club to have any form of paid employment at the club above mid-management level (I'm thinking shop manager / ticket office manager level);
- Absolutely nobody on the board of directors (be it director, non exec director or co-opted director) to be a paid employee of the club;
- A commitment from the club to maintain active engagement with all shareholders, above and beyond the regulated AGM. I have some sponsorship with the club and have not heard a thing from them since the start of the season - its even more important to maintain dialogue with shareholders than it is with sponsors.
I'll rack my brain, there may be more (& there may be a good reason why these aren't feasible), but this is a line in the sand in the way the club is owned & run - its probably also a great time to update the articles of association to be suitable for the 21st century (as soon as we can guarantee the 75% votes required to pass amendments through an AGM or EGM). |  | | |
| We've got our club back on 21:31 - Oct 8 with 2092 views | R17ALE |
| We've got our club back on 20:24 - Oct 8 by pioneer |
i think the relevant point in all of this is the idea we can sell shares to only the "right" people is in the realms of fantasy. he was a long standing regular committed supporter sponsor and apparently executive box holder. Just the sort of person you would want to buy shares presumably.
I eagerly await news of how the new shares are to be offered to ensure we are a "fan owned" club.
.We have always been a fan owned club. Bottomley was a fan, rawlinson was a fan........
and while i applaud the leadership and efforts of the trust in what has happened over the last few months it is not that long ago that the trust had a club employee as part of its leadership. something several folks questioned in terms of governance.
To paraphrase Churchill, this is just the end of the beginning. |
If I can pull you up on one thing. Rawlinson was never a fan like the average person on here. To him, it was a Gentleman's club - an autocracy where he stood at the helm.
Bottomley played the role of the fan to suck people into believing he was a super fan. He played a long term game and nearly won.
Selling to the right people is common sense if you think logically. If someone offers £200 for 100 shares they're hardly trying to gain a large stake. But if someone, previously unknown, offers £50,000 for 25,000 shares, that will flag up.
Bottomley and Rawlinson got as far as they did because our radars were rusty due to decades of the overcoat men. I think we've all wised up and learned valuable lessons this year.
In contrast, the overcoat men weren't fans at first either. One was City, the other United.
But, and this is the point, they were good men.
Not tvvats. [Post edited 8 Oct 2021 23:31]
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