Can anyone remember when our esteemed Chairman said, "I have an announcement to make!" What was it about? Was it about the development of the East Stand?!
Was it “I’m handing Dolan & Lee a new three year contract” – straight after being relegated, by about Easter, rock ****ing bottom to Division 4.
I do remember, under Chetham though (I think), pamphlets being handed out at the first game of the season about future plans for the club, which included a plan for a redeveloped all seater Kempton.
Was it that he was auctioning off his collection of Hull City programmes, which he did quite recently? He got £500. Actually it was plans for a new 'Best Stand' based on a similar one built by Peterboro. He had no plans in for it or any money to back the scheme up at the time. Everyone thought the announcement was that he was going to resign.
Took a lot of criticism as did Dolan, but worked hard to keep us afloat when no one else would. I don't know how he managed to go into court & come out saying that we had x amount of days to pay off whatever we owed to whoever. We survived by strings for years, no one would touch us & when they did, they turned out to be ****s, David Lloyd being worse than Fish. It wasn't until Pearson came that we seemed to lift mentally as a team, as the fans. Tough days but I had some of my best times in the Fish/Dolan era, depressing sometimes yes, but at times amazing.
He took a lot of deserved criticism. The club were up **** street without a paddle because of the way they were running it. He managed to go to court because he ( the club) didn't pay their bills. Investment in the club was virtually zero for years. They were tough days, agree, and Dolan did pull a couple of rabbits out of the bag with his signings. Fettis, Windass and Darby being perhaps the pick of the bunch. But there was no excuse to the way the club was amateurishly ran into the ground and it was done mainly whilst Fish was the chairman. We were untouchable for sponsors and fans deserted us in their thousands. I don't class beating Scarboro 1-0 at home as 'amazing' to stop in the Football League or beating Carlise 1-0 at home after a run of eleven games without a win the as 'amazing' either. They were **** days and I hope we never see the likes of them again.
Was it that the injured players would all be back next week? Or He had a cunning marketing plan to make the club more appealing in foreign countries by shortening the club name to Hull City near the Humber Bridge and River Humber AFC?
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.
Me neither, when I first started going was early 90's so that's when I recall hitting against the odds. Yes Fish did **** up giving Dolan & Lee new contracts, however there were always highs for me, off the top of my head, 7-1 v Crewe on the day we had a minutes silence for Raich Carter, Linton Brown hat trick, very memorable. 5-1 v Exeter, 4-1 v Rotherham Steve Moran hat trick, 3-1 v Bradford Deano scores after about 1 minute or less, people still coming in the ground & then Deano getting sent off after about 20 minutes, beating Plymouth 1-0 with 9 men on a Friday night to go top of what is now L1, I think it was still Div 3 back then. Back then it was bad times more than good, but I can still say that some of my early Hull City days were amazing.
And the reason it took so long to sell the club ? Needler's asking price. Lloyd overpaid for the club but he gambled that his superstadium idea would get council backing and his investment would pay dividends. When it all fell apart he started his Mr Grumpy impersonations.
You can laugh, but it was much much worse than any perceived shenanigans undertaken by the Allams. Like Tubbs, I hope we never see those days again.
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?
