Turning point in our history

Quoted from barralad

At the time the vast majority of fans were pleased he had got to grips with it. It seems to be another inconvenient truth but there was only him who was willing to do so. Despite repeated claims on here that there are plenty of people who may be willing to invest absolutely nobody stuck their head above the parapet at that time and, of course, that was before there were any benign loans.As a fan, he should be applauded for choosing to do so as an alternative to bankruptcy
I don't know what bankruptcy means in terms of a football club but if one of the inevitable conclusions would have been liquidation then I remain very glad that we didn't let that particular genie out of the bottle......

Quoted from Quagmire

JF appointed to the board on August 6th 2001, which is 8 months prior to ITV Digital going bust.  I can't remember what the options were for the club when that happened but I do remember Mike Rouse being paid off at some point but I think that was a fairly nominal amount (50k I think).

In terms of the £3million being used to pay off 'previous boards mistakes' you've only got to take a look at the club accounts, profit/loss in particular to see that the bulk of this debt has been created with JF at the helm.

Since dropping into League Two in 2004, the overall loss over the next 10 years now stands at over £2.5million

2005  -29,630
2006  +407,301
2007  -857,513
2008  +114,603
2009  -639,202
2010  -40,264
2011  -936,177
2012  +142,404
2013  -453,571
2014  -227,411

Source:  http://www.extra-gtfc.co.uk/accounts2/chart1.html

Profitable years in 2006 & 2008 due to Cardiff/Wembley appearances, 2012 Ryan Bennet fee?

You mention Woods being a poor appointment but there's a few others.

Graham Rodger sacked 5 months into a 2 year contract, plus players he signed like Beagrie (likely to be on good money) being paid off - a loss at the end of that season of 850,000

It looks like we went way OTT with the budget given to Woods in our first season down in this league, a loss of almost £1million - it doesn't matter how much money you've got to throw at the problem if you don't have the right man spending it.

What would the loss have been in 2013 had we not made it to Wembley in the FAT?

I know some will label me as a Fenty basher etc but you can't claim that the £3million that he is owed is down to 'previous boards mistakes' when you look at the club accounts.

Incidentally, I know people 'blame' PH for taking the FA Trophy so seriously but is that a directive from above that he MUST do all he can to get the club there when you consider the only profitable years we have had recently have been Cardiff/Wembley years?

Ultimately none of this matters.

Whilst the new stadium remains a possibility JF will remain in control - it's his only real chance of having his loans paid off and would also create the legacy of him being the one to deliver a new stadium to the club/community/town rather than the current one of him being the man to take the club into non-league whilst racking up a mountain of debt.

The turning point will come if the new stadium is vetoed and stopped from happening.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Great bit of starting their Quagmire. Do you have the previous few years' figures handy?