colpie

I respect your opinion and understand your scepticism. Appreciate you replying to me.

It’s completely understandable, there was a part of me that wanted to engage when comments were coming out, but with everything else I decided against it to try and do some work and hopefully be taken on face value after that work, rather than identifying areas and not being successful in those. Nothing worse that having hopes for something or someone and them not delivering. If all had gone well I would have been delighted and open to show what we wanted to do and how fans could help, as it’s nobody’s club other than the fans. I would have been in an honourable position to try and deliver goals for the fans and eliminate the raging concerns that have gone on, even putting myself in the firing line if needed. Good luck for the remainder of the season.

That was the plan, and it helped both sides, they got to know me and I got to know them.

We were lead to believe it could be done, the next phase was me joining the board, but with only approval of the current board, then start working with them, which I did immediately, bringing in and negotiating a deal with PlayerData for player development and analysis (something that brought in an extra staff member to help with performance and training) building the current seasons commercial document for generating revenue (something that hasn’t been done for a couple of seasons maybe) all done with volunteering my time around full time employment, that’s not being in it to make a quick buck, it’s about being involved in a club, making decisions, looking forward, getting rid of the attitude of “it’s been done before and didn’t work” that was the goal. The only thing I’m doing here is to show to you from your early comments, that I’m not a circling vulture, I have good intentions and it’s as simple as that. Self actualisation is the phrase I use when looking at projects to be involved in, do I want to get paid for the work I do? Yes, who doesn’t, but in the time I was with the club, it was costing me and helping the club. Not really the trait of a vulture or someone wanting a quick buck.

It was more a mutual business connection that done the intro and pitch to us, but in summary there’s legs in your thoughts.

I was invited to meet the chairman and other board members. I expressed an interest about joining the board. Spoke with them all on a couple of occasions and the manager. It was decided between the board that I would join and I would work in all the areas I would like to help and improve, hospitality, commercial, recruitment, setting up the DFC Community Trust. When talks broke down about investing, (3 months after I joined the board, with talks going on for a lot longer than before I joined) I remained with the board, dedicating my own time in assisting where I could. In the end I preferred my time to be focused on my personal goal, so I resigned my position as I felt I wouldn’t be of benefit to the club going forward while I’m looking to start on something else. Im sure the board members and the manager wouldn’t have thought I was “at it” or my seat there wouldn’t have been given. But I do respect your opinion on it.

We were approached about the possibility of investing, so we explored. I’m sure you are convinced that coming to speak to the fans would help our cause, but why do that before any negotiations? Seems a waste of both of our time until we knew there was a deal to be done, and at the same time cause more uncertainty than you all felt already.

I get all of what you are saying. At the time of the posts, I wasn’t in a position to discuss anything that was going on with an NDA being signed, so apologies for the silence. Now I have had a few weeks to settle down and refocus, I did think it was time to give some feedback, not after a few wines or a drop of anything else. A late night reflective mode and knowing no matter what time of day it would be, there would be some obvious kick back for a reply. I just genuinely think I should give my side of things to help people understand the difficult dynamics you can come across within the business side of football. I spend years as a fan thinking why don't things happen as easily as it sounds to, sign this, sack that for example. Not sure if this entirely answers your comment but I hope it goes some way.

I guess the motive was to reply to some of the comments made with my point of view rather than speculation or creative imagination. Also happy for you to give me your point of view on me as a person, as we have never met I’d imagine you are a highly skilled judge of character. While on the board it would have been unprofessional to “go rogue” and speak out about my ambitions, personally and professionally. Which are, to use the past 11-12 years of working in football self employed in Scotland (my home) and in the North of England, work inside a club at in influential level, using the contacts made, not just in football, but commercial and other projects. Control the day to day running with a partnership and build something a little different, having a different approach to how clubs at this level work at, perhaps take some calculated risks to explore alternative revenue and exposure. Something that has a good 6-7 years of planning going in to. The current situation with the land did make our plans a little complicated, and why my partner flew over to have face to face talks with the owners of how we can come to an agreement where we would manage to the football operations, with the current board and support in all areas we could, not just keeping afloat. That agreement couldn’t be made, common ground couldn’t be found to give both parties security. Not just as simple as someone saying to the club, here’s some money and I want nothing in return, that something in return was to control the day to day. I would say that the current board deserve a medal in what they do for your club and their efforts to continually dedicate their free time in running it for the owners. My decision to leave was one I didn’t make quickly, but when you have plans and desires to achieve something in life, you have to put all focus in to that, and it would be unethical to seek another club while on the board of another.

I’m all up for folk having their say, however, I think comments like this, and others I’ve read, show a little lack of class in what they now about a person. A genuine attempt was made to invest some money into the club, along with more hands on experience in club management. Lots of money and time spent to communicate and travel across from the States to stay in scotland for 2 months to take in 6 games home and away, get to know the area, the structure and potential of the club. Vultures tend to circle for something free…this attempt was anything but free to show we were serious, in the end it was clear that our ambitions weren’t accepted, so we moved on.