The Jonathan Jackson Column

06 August, 2002

Another Dull Day At VP

What is going on at Valley Parade? Or is that a daft question for a club that seems to spend nearly as much time in the limelight for the wrong reasons as media hogging neighbours in Pudsey?

Take today for instance, here I am sat at work east of Pudsey, PC hot-wired up to any whiff of a news flash on the web about the Board meeting in London that could decide our fate, when out of the blue, BANG........Richmond is gone and in comes Gordon Gibb.

Immediate thought was, Gordon Gibb, name sounds familiar, wasn't he the 5th Bee Gee. Then normality returns and this Mr Pretty Flamingo himself, the same Gordon Gibb who "dropped out" of City's rescue plan as it "couldn't be made to fit" with him in it !!

On the face of it, a straight forward "buyout" of Richmond's share in the debt, a family friend who has stepped in to save ally from further distress, whilst achieving what appears to be a long standing ambition of owning a football club. The investment GR hinted at on 1 July 2002 perhaps.

The next bombshell is that it appears (from reading between the lines) that Rhodes snr is also off as the "new" shareholders are going to be GG and Rhodes jnr, who will be 50/50 and carry out the roles of Chairman and Chief Exec. (Bye Bye Shaun Harvey !)

It quickly becomes apparent that this is now a TAKE-OVER situation.

Good for the future surely, but the cynic in me is screaming questions that are unanswered at this early stage.

Questions like:

• Why couldn't the take-over have happen before the CVA?
• Could this have had a detrimental effect on the CVA had it been known before?
• Is someone being stiffed here?
• How moral is a take-over 5 days after a CVA?
• What happens to the guarantees put up by GR & DR. Will DR get his deeds back early?
• Will this end the CVA early?
• Was the CVA a stalling tool?
• How long has this been on the cards?
• What does the condition of City's return to the league, namely "repaying its debts the PFA by Friday 9th August" really mean?

Can someone please enlighten me. SOON.

In the meantime, to Geoffrey Richmond. Thanks. You may have taken the club to the verge of extinction, but it sure was interesting an ride, and had some unbelievable highs.

Perhaps you haven't done enough to have a set of centenary gates named after you, (Stafford can be the only one worthy of those if only for his post fire dignity) but if any future Chairman achieves as much as you have then we will be a very lucky club.

I hope that history is kind to you.

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