Peter Swann Statement

Nice long winded statement from Peter Fenty Swann. Keith Hill has agreed to stay on regardless of what happens this season. He will probably sack him in a few weeks now.

The parallels with Fenty are frightening. His statement contains the spelling and grammar errors we became accustomed to; my favourite being "please do not disrupt anymore games." He also states that his door remains open and he is yet to find an investor to take over the club.

[url]https://www.scunthorpe-united.co.uk/news/2022/february/unity/[/url]

Can we stop worrying about that pub team from down the road?

Quoted from Dave Gilberts Left Peg

Can we stop worrying about that pub team from down the road?

It’s a football forum, if you don’t like it, go elsewhere

Is Keith Hill such a catch that "agreed to stay on" regardless is seen as a positive?

This is the most telling part of the statement for me.

Quoted Text

We have worked within the parameters of a club breaking even on its own income after years of investment and a dream of reaching the Championship, but that shouldn’t come with a heavy price for the club, which is why we are at breakeven with a smaller budget.

That’s exactly what’s happened - under Swann’s stewardship, Scunny quite literally pursued the pipe dream of reaching the Championship while routinely averaging sub-4,000 crowds by borrowing loads of money the club didn’t have with no clear plan for repayment.

And anyway, to what end? Let’s say they had gone up, what next? They’d have got relegated, that’s what, unless they borrowed probably in the region of 8 figures per season, which would have been catastrophic long-term.

Anyway, they didn’t and they failed, and now they have to massively tighten the purse strings to a point that it gives them little chance on the pitch. What’s going to happen when you do that, having got your fan base hooked on unrealistic expectations and a level of football well above what the football club can naturally sustain? People stop going; their average attendance this season is lower than the likes of Sutton, Barrow and Stevenage and looks set to be possibly their lowest in over two and a half decades.

So then you cut costs again. You sell your best striker and your captain. Then you almost certainly get relegated into non-league, and crowds drop again. If they’re in the National League (or lower) next season, I predict they will average gates well below the 2,000 mark.

And then you decrease expenditure some more, and the cycle continues. They are in an absolute tailspin and it’s going to be very difficult to pull out of it. They are absolutely fùcked in my opinion.

Fenty’s game was very different; quite the opposite in fact. He lacked any ambition or vision whatsoever. Everything was always based on the previous year’s balance sheet, and so you tread water while others gradually rise above you. He lacked the imagination to see that if you increased the budget (modestly), brought in better players, played better football and achieved better results then income would increase and it might, just might, all pay for itself.

But at least an approach seated in balancing the books at all costs leaves you with a club, albeit starved of investment at the end of it, I’ll give the man that much. Quite what Swann will leave in his rear view mirror doesn’t bare thinking about for Scunny fans.

He’s taken a club, which for all the local rivalry and píss taking was a steady League One / League Two outfit and had recently reached the Championship (twice) through genuine merit and turned it into an untouchable, burning wreck.

Yes, I’ll admit it - I want Scunny to get relegated and experience the same pain and frustration that we’ve had to endure in recent years. But I don’t like it when genuine football fans, who to all intents and purposes I probably have a lot in common with, have their football club stolen or destroyed.

Peter Swann is a dangerous, dangerous man and it’s hard to see this not ending disastrously for Scunny.

It would be nice ( in my dreams ) if we replace them in the EFL at the end of the season. Mind you 16/18 points out of the next 6 games might help.

Quoted from lee65

Is Keith Hill such a catch that "agreed to stay on" regardless is seen as a positive?

Keith Hill is a very, very good manager at L1 and L2 level. They have about the best manager they could realistically have appointed.

If he manages to keep Scunny up then you can guarantee next season they’d be nearer the promotion zone than the relegation zone.

Fenty never appointed a manager with Hill’s track record.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Keith Hill is a very, very good manager at L1 and L2 level. They have about the best manager they could realistically have appointed.

If he manages to keep Scunny up then you can guarantee next season they’d be nearer the promotion zone than the relegation zone.

Fenty never appointed a manager with Hill’s track record.

I don't know didn't Newell and Holloway have decent track records before arriving, promotions on both CV's and managing at a higher level.

As for Keith Hill,  I agree he is a very good manager and I was surprised he ended up there.

If anyone can save them, it's Hill. The league table looks very ominous for them and if they lose on Saturday to Oldham then they are close to needing snookers even at this stage. Aside from our opening dozen games, Scunthorpe have been my only source of footballing amusement this season. Let's hope they join the cesspit, I don't see us escaping this season but if only we could pull our away form together and replace them.

Hill was a good manager at that level.

Bolton was a basketcase so you can arguably discount that.  His record at Rochdale on both occasions is very, very respectable.

Very impressive win rate at Tranmere yet sacked on the eve of the play-offs, since emerged he had perhaps lost the dressing room and his approach was causing problems.  Tranmere are widely held as a well run club from the top down.

I dunno, there's a reason he's ended up at Scunny and if I was as betting man I would say it's because both parties are as desperate as each other.  Just doesn't quite add up to me.