Driving home from work this evening i tuned into talksport radio just to catch the day's sporting headlines. They then announced what was coming up later, with one of the topics being should restrictions be placed on football clubs spending. What shocked me about this is the person they're going to be discussing this with is Paul Duffen, who 'experienced the highs with Hull City before it all went wrong'. Could be interesting to hear what he has to say for himself, but i'm not expecting to hear any admissions of wrong doing from him. Gonna be on between 8 and 9 tonight, won't be tuning in myself but hopefully some of his answers will get back to the city boards.
good god! that man should be trying to keep out of the spotlight when it comes to his involvement with hull city.
Paul Duffen quote on talksport tonight " There were some well publicised financial troubles with Hull City whilst i was in charge, but that was nothing to do with me, my remit was to improve the team on the pitch". Un ****ing Believable
He was bound to come out with some sort of bull ****, a bit of honesty is all we ask for, surely that's what us fans deserve after what we went through because of him. If signing the likes of Sonko for Turner was him improving the team then i'm the Pope's Mother!
Does your son keep in touch? If speculation' to be believed, the apparent financial problems would have come sooner had that transfer not have been made. So from that perspective it did improve the team relative to what it could have been. I would add that there's some not small doubts about the figures quoted for that transaction.
I'm sure Brentford would agree, but at least the Sunderland player (Possibly Darren Bent) interviewed with Michael Turner at the time's happy to have regained his record of being their record transfer. Him and Michael were having a good natter about the pressures it brought and if Michael would cope now he held that record.
So if it wasny Mr Browns faullt for shopping at Aldi but paying Harrods prices and it wasnt Mr Duffens fault for paying those prices especially the wages, then who's fault was it? Mr Duffens for not adding to the 100 plus million that went through their hands?
****ing too right, come on Percy let's here the same old ****e about what a great bloke he is and you're great chums on Twitter.
Unfortunately, I don't seem to be his Twitter chum any more, my question about missing funds for boxes and the sacking of Commercial Director Andy Dawson got me banned from replying to any of his Tweets. please log in to view this image
Shame you're not still tweeting him. You could have also asked him to explain the expenditure signed off by him, for the 'Black Boudoir'. The old boardroom in the West Stand became little more than a storage room. Duffen wanted something a bit more 'plush' and what replaced it resembled something out of a knocking shop in which he could entertain guests. Black upholstery throughout. The room cut a corner off ne of the main function rooms, inhibiting views out to the pitch. Also you could have asked him about how he wanted much of City's heritage binning. i.e. all the old Herbert Ballard photos from 60's. Whilst some of the prints of the likes of Turner/Ash etc look good, Duffman didn't want to look backwards and if it weren't for one or two City staff, a lot of our history would have gone to the skip. Fortunately you will see some of it re-emerge from safe storage and it will eventually make it's way to the City museum. And without giving much more away, you could have asked Duffman why when invited to the Pensioners Xmas do (with Browny) Duff decided the wine offered (and purchased by the Pensioners) was not 'lavish' enough. It was reasonably priced plonk from Sainsburys, but he decided that he would get something a bit more upmarket (don't know the name - I don't drink the stuff) and sent one of his minions off to buy alternatives. And theres more ..........
Not so long back Duffen claimed he was leading a consortium that were interested in buying Portsmouth fc. What do you have to do to fail the fit and proper person test. Is it possible to fail this test? Some unusual goings on at Plymouth at the moment, Peter Ridsdale is involved, another one of the usual suspects.
As far as I know, if you're legally allowed to run a business in this Country, you're fit and proper. It's a phrase that people attach far too much significance to in my opinion. Part of the problem with football is that it's effectively a gentlemans club that's evolved into a multi-billion pound business. This leaves holes for the unscrupulous to abuse. It needs a root and branch overhaul with stricter admission policies. The difficulty would be administering it retrospectively. It would leave some owners deciding which of their clubs they want to go to the wall for a start.
It used to basically just mean you'd never been to prison, though I think it's been tightened up a bit now. Though as long you've only been in a foreign prison, it never really applied anyway. And if you're a tax exile you automatically qualify.
