Fish didn't own the club....Christopher Needler did...inheriting from Dad and super Tiger Harold. Without Fish we probably wouldn't exist today.
If the Tigers were just a hobby to Harold, then to Christopher they were a massive inconvenience. The man never had an ounce of affection for the club that daddy had built and he presided, mostly in absentia, over the fall and fall of the Tigers. The “Needler chequebook is closed” refrain was heard at Boothferry Park more often than “come on you ’ull”, yet the man, for reasons of his own, stubbornly refused to let anyone come in and take over the club.
Until that is – a certain Southern tosser hove into view. With the club already on its knees, with its assets stripped and internally rotten to the core Christopher finally took the money and ran – all the way to the South of France.
Fish was a paid employee of Chris Needler and he was the acting chairman of the club. Fish sacked the club secretary 'to save money' and took that role on as well. He also claimed that he did both roles for nothing when in fact he put in an expense sheet of £80k when the club was finally sold.
Several offers were made for the club whilst Fish was there, all were turned down, despite Needler and Fish saying the club was for sale for a pound. It wasn't.
'Southern Tosser' David LLoyd actually saved the City from dropping out of the FL altogether. It was he who finally got rid of Dolan and Lee and it was he who rid the club of 'reluctant owner' Chris Needler by buying the club and ground off him.
A clause in the sale of the ground was supposed to be that any proceeds above a set figure ( I forget what it was) went back to benefit 'sport in Hull' I doubt if it ever did. Lloyd was badly advised by Tim Wilby, although his plans to move the club to a 'super stadium' were spot on, unfortunately for him he chose the wrong manager and didn't have sufficient personal wealth to realise his dream.
He split the club from the ground and eventually sold the club to the Sheffield Mafia, who didn't actually pay for it, hence Lloyd eventually locking us out of the ground to rid the club of the bandits who had gotten hold of the keys.
Adam Pearson picked up the reigns from there on, although LLoyd had done the spadework, and the council delivered with the KC Stadium thanks to the KC share windfall/floatation.
Lloyd had his fingers burnt with us and his dabble with Hull FC was also a financial disaster for him. Wilby was sent on a scouting mission to Australia and never heard of again, court appearance and jail sentence excluded.
Agree about the odd good times under Dol*n and Fish but I put that down to the fact that we after we had suffered a couple of decades of humiliation the odd unexpected victory would always taste sweeter.
I don't agree that Fish did a good job for Hull City. In his defence he had both his hands tied and was on a hiding to nothing but Adam Pearson showed how easy it would have been to turn the club around with just the minimum of investment and a lot more foresight and ambition then Fish ever showed.
Perhaps he was out of his depth?
