ok, calm down my friends, not me, but this was said to have been spotted at a pub in Wigan today, I can't verify it but also have no reason to think it's fake, anyone know who owns it?.... please log in to view this image
Ok, thanks. Factually inaccurate but hey, opinions are opinions and i respect that but not one i agree with.
Can understand frustrations but still think overall Scally has done a good job. Without a very wealthy chairman we could not have done much more. Going to the championship has given some supporters too much expectations. Thinking we should be their all the time. In never happened in 100 years before.
There is supposed to be a plane flying over Priestfield tomorrow protesting against Scally according to a facebook forum!
Do these protestors have someone in mind to take over the club from Scally? I could understand if someone had offered to buy but PS was refusing to sell, or if we were on the verge of going out of the FL or out of business completely, but just to complain for the hell of it seems a bit pointless, especially given our relatively comfortable position at the moment. PS has often said that he'd sell to the right buyer, i.e. someone who could invest in the club, and unless there is evidence to the contrary we should take him at his word. The problem is finding that person or organisation. If the present protesters are not that person or organisation then they should save their money and energy and redirect it to supporting the club.
With the team playing as well or better than anytime in the last 3 years, I assume the sign is owned by some kind of nutter. Earlier in the season such frustrations would perhaps be understandable, though without a plan or financial backer a bit pointless, however, at this time when the team are fighting to climb the table it seems totally without reason.
Really don't understand these idiots who want him gone. Without him we wouldn't have a club or we wouldn't have a stadium fit to standards or have had our most successful period in our history. Of course there are things he does that I disagree with but we honestly couldn't afford to have owners come in and kill our club like clubs like Luton, Leeds, Portsmouth, Blackpool, Coventry and Leyton Orient have all suffered from in recent years. Ok he hasn't got any money but at the end of the day, we're financially stable with a good squad of players, decent facilities and a fantastic legend for a manager so overall I'm happy with Mr Scally.
Think a lot of (fans) think Scally is making too much money for himself over 200k a year but no investment in the team.
No investment in the team? Only last season we signed players like Paul Konchesky, Jamie O'Hara, Scott Wagstaff and JET (reportedly on £6k when a week at Gills) and kept hold of Dack. Financially it crippled us with all of those high wages which lead to Pennock only getting in cheapo's in the summer. All of the food outlets have been completely redone and invested in over in the Rainham End which is a million times better than the previous caterers offered. The Factory has been completely refurbished into more of a well rounded drinking establishment. Scally doesn't have stacks of money to call on and the job forced the bloke into a heart attack and open heart surgery last year. So what he takes £180k-£220k a year in wages, we're still financially stable under his stewardship. I would much rather us sign free transfers than spend £100,000 here or £200,000 there which we can't afford and cripple us like many other clubs our size have done before us. Historically we're a League One club, not not a premier league club. People need to remember that.
Calm down mate. I rather have Scally than some other chairman but i am just saying what other people think.
Yeah it wasn't a rant at you per say pal, just at the situation. I know he's not a saint by any means but some of our fans to annoy the hell out of me at times when it comes to the Anti-Scally parade.
Mr.Scally certainly divides opinions ! History will show that 25 years ago, he 'saved ' the Club - not by 'buying' it, but by persuading creditors to take a pittance of what they were owed (or risk getting nothing ).The Club then had a period of on-field success. I have never seen where it has been shown that any 'real & personal ' money from Scally has been put into the Club ---- that is not to deny the fact that there must have been some shrewd business skills used to obtain money to improve (most of) the ground. The money that was around in the early Scally years, seems to have long gone. There has been little used on signing much quality in the last decade or more. At the same time we have been blessed with having some players ( e.g Jarvis, Freeman, Corbett, Bertrand, Jackson, Gazzaniga, Egan, Dack ), who we have sold for a lot of money. Some fans will ask " Where is that money ? " The same fans will not be placated any sooner when we read about the behind-the-scene nonsenses, in which the Club, and Mr.Scally personally, have been involved ( Pulis, Allen, McCammon, Centreplate, The USA crap that will cost us another £1M, etc etc). -not forgetting the not-so-small fortune being spent on lawyers. Fans will see all of these events as a distraction from Scally's duty to the team ( and fans ). Fans will consider that much of their money has been unnecessarily used to extricate the Club from situations - some, if not most of which, could / should have been avoided. Their money was not being used to buy quality players.......... and fans will easily recall the tax-exile existence afforded by Mr.Scally during his many years in Dubai ( nice work if you can get it.) - Scally will not have endeared himself to many of us during his 'sabbatical.' During the same time, the Club's fortune's on the pitch began to suffer - and what did we get from Mr .Scally ? - more Court cases / employment tribunals / lawyer costs -- and shocking waste of money giving some has-been players generous contracts, and appointing some managers ( Stimson and Edinburgh ), who did a lot more harm than any good..........and, of course, let's not forget some of the nonsense that Mr.Scally has had in dealing with the fans - especially season ticket holders........................shall I carry on ? I am grateful for Scally's ability to have persuaded creditors to sacrifice what they were owed - to allow the Club to be in existence today. I could applaud him for not bankrupting the Club in any effort to 'buy success' - that money doesn't exist - but what does exist is Scally's ability to take a LOT of money, each year -- that's the real & personal money us fans have invested - which many will see as going straight into Scally's pocket - whilst he fiddles about with the pennies he uses for players. Up The Gills ! edit - thanks, brb - I finally took your bait in this thread ! ps - good luck on 21st.
Always I want to pick up some of the points you mentioned. Yes perhaps Mr Scally hasn't invested much personal money into the club (although still has in terms of the Three Directors LTD loan etc), I'm not entirely sure where people expect Scally to have this magic pot of money he has to rely on to pump into the team. Scally owns no other outside businesses and his only income is directly from the club. If you look at accounts from down the years he has taken smaller salaries in years of trading that were generally poor. Perhaps there is an argument that he doesn't do enough with the money behind the scenes? I think there's also a valid argument with regards to how costly running a football club is these days. It has been documented that a lot of players these days have a lot more incentives built into their contracts on top of their basic wages. Some have signing on fees, appearance fees, goal or clean sheet bonuses and now more recently agents fees. All of the income the club makes has to go somewhere and being able to fund this with either making small profits or losses each year is admirable. Some of the legal battles have been unnecessary expenses and I don't disagree on this point and I would also rather we weren't involved in regular legal battles, however some were avoidable. Centreplate walked out early on a legal binding contract thinking they could get away with it and the chairman was well within his rights to fight his corner. In terms of the money from Jarvis and Gazza and people like that, most of that money single handedly funded our title winning season. Players joined on big wages under Allen and he had the luxury of building a title winning side with a large budget for the league. He signed Cody from Coventry who still had a year of his contract there with a lot of comments at the time being that we had paid up the rest of his contract. Akinfenwa joined on high wages and as said before, the refurbishment of the Factory (which I imagine wasn't cheap) and the upgrade of the facilities in the Rainham End also came from that money. Last year the club opened up a brand new gym in Priestfield for the players which would have had to been completely refurbished with brand new gym equipment purchased and installed for the teams benefit. So I would say this, just because we're not paying mega bucks for players in the transfer market, it doesn't mean money isn't being spent elsewhere to improve the club.
We have never been a rich club, our fan base has never been large enough to run the club and have the money needed to spend big on players. Scally runs the club as a business and not a rich mans toy, as such his salary is not high compared to other owner/chairman of similar sized companies. Do I always agree with everything he does, no, do I think he cares about the club, yes.
Pegleg - thanks ( and also grumpygit - who makes good points - although Scally does take more than the Prime Minister receives for her job - which I personally think involves more stress. ) Pegleg - I have never said, or thought that Scally has / should have a magic pot of money. I agree with grumpygit ( and many others ), that GFC is not a rich club - and nor will be unless we get bought out by an oil sheik ! --- But, as far as I am concerned, it doesn't matter what financial deals a player may have - as long as they try 100% ( which appears to be the case at the moment ). My more expansive post covered certain non football related activities and politics - of which a lot of fans do not want. Many fans subscribe to the popular notion that football is a ' results industry.' They will not be impressed with a Chairman who is seemingly spending a lot of time in the High Court. I accept Scally was right to fight Centreplate - although I'm not so sure about some of the employment tribunal disputes. Fans see a lot of money going to lawyers. Fans will see a lot of money going into the pocket of Mr.Scally - and remembering his 'holiday' in the Middle East etc etc - all at the expense of fans - who - even if you can accept our realistic and limited achievable success, will consider that maybe Scally is doing very well ( maybe too well ), on the back of money that is not his in the first place. ------------- whilst I may share some of these sentiments - I write them as an explanation of some of the animosity that is felt towards Mr.Scallly [just saying]
Before Scally came in, I honestly thought i had lost my football club, there was no one else, there was no magician, only a guy named Paul Scally. For that I will be internally grateful, yeah he rubs me up the wrong way sometimes, actually quite a lot, but the fact of the matter was we had a ground that wasn't just past it's sell by date, it was dead. The club was dead, do i need to remind of any of you of the parrot sketch, yup, Scally bought a dead parrot! Well when that bird of paradise was still alive, I loved them old days, and i often reminisce about them, but that's more to do with today and how much football has changed from a financial and social class structure, than anything Scally has done wrong. People have tried to screw our club over left, right and centre and with the exception of probably the Watford chairman, other than that and maybe poor admin around the McBacon (did you know that it's 50 years of the Big Mac this year) something about too much limp lettuce in the bun, I don't see where our Chairman has done much wrong. Did anyone ever bother to read that Watford tribunal case, if they had they would have known a certain person was skint. I'm not talking club broke, but personally broke. Yeah, i know, I can hear you laughing, actually i'm still having a smug smile myself over that one, but that's what was reported and how do we know any differently. Ok, the tribunal did not speak favourably, but hey, would i buy our club, the club i love, the club i've supported since a kid, you got to be joking! The Championship was our death bell, it brought on a lot of glory hunters, but now reality has hit home, we are a League One Club, always have been, always will be and if your looking for anything more with your Scally Out banners, then go support another club. After all who else wants to buy a load of Scaffolding poles at inflated prices, do you not know Carillion went under. And as pegleg has said, the catering has got better, the Factory has improved, you get decent deals such as the cheapest tickets ever at £5 a throw...oh actually skip reading that bit if you are a STH...oops too late. But best of all the team are on the up, and someone wants to fly a banner to dent moral, please.... brb giving it straight since 1873 #Dinosaur #MontyPython #Parrot #Heineken #BigMacAnniversary
