News
Thank God that’s over
Published by Simon Head on May 6, 2008
“You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go.
I owe my soul to the company store”
That’s a fair assessment of Gillingham Football Club’s situation right now. It looks like Gills’ chairman Paul Scally has taken us right back to where he found us. The big difference this time, however, is that we’re worse off, have a larger debt than when he took over, and we no longer own our ground.
Gillingham’s relegation to League Two at the weekend saw the club’s, and Scally’s journey go full circle. When he took over after paying the princely sim of £1.00, Scally galvanised the club and put the club on on a solid footing. The team saw two promotions, two Wembley finals and one FA Cup Quarter Final, plus a host of cup and league giantkillings along the way. The club was undeniably doing the business, punching above its weight with the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Portsmouth, Wolves and Sheffield United.
But the chairman took his eye off the ball, spent around £9m on the main stand (which was budgeted at £3.9m) and borrowed heavily from the bank to cover the costs. Then an excuse came, with the collapse of the ITV Digital contract. But the horse had bolted – the chairman had spent way beyond the club’s means, and that, combined with the failure of the club to regenerate its ageing playing staff, saw the club struggle, then finally fall back to English football’s third tier after a dramatic match against Nottingham Forest at The City Ground.
Fast forward a couple of seasons to present day, and Gillingham were involved in more final-day drama once again. But this time, the club’s relegation was inevitable. Too many results needed to go our way, and despite a valiant performance, the only one they could influence fell by the wayside as Gillingham went ahead, only to lose 2-1 against Leeds. After the match, Scally launched into a rant on Radio Five Live about Ken Bates’ programme notes, saying that he had gone down in his estimation etc etc. I can only assume he has a short memory, as only three or four weeks ago Scally himself used his very own programme notes to berate his own club’s fans, labelling them, “scumbags” and “morons”.
So, after over a decade of great success, Gillingham are back in the old Fourth Division. The standard of football and the quality of the players has dropped considerably in recent seasons, just as the club’s financial position has become all the more precarious. The solution? Gillingham chairman Scally will buy Priestfield lock, stock and barrel for £9.8m (remember how much he spent on just one stand ten years ago…) to leave the club with an operating debt of “only” £3-4m, still significantly more than we had when he took over. Only now we have virtually no assets.
So, GFC is another season older and deeper in the mire. We owe our soul not to the company store, but the Bank of Scotland. After the mismanagement of Gillingham Football Club during Scally’s watch, we can only hope that the club will remain, too. The season ticket application forms for this past season shouted “TARGET CHAMPIONSHIP”, and we were told that the prices reflected the need to help finance a promotion-winning side. Nine months later we are relegated, the fans are labelled “scumbags” and “morons” and the club is at the mercy of its creditors, most notably the bank.
Hopefully next season will give us Gills fans something to smile about, because in all honesty, this season has give us precisely nothing.
You must be logged in to post a comment.