Our ‘friends’ up the 180

Seem to want rid of their chairman and Hursty back…

https://www.iron-bru.co.uk/forums/topic/the-club-is-dead-until-swann-leaves/

They can dream.

No one would leave the thriving set up we have here to reenter the Glumford morgue.

I suppose if they were prepared to throw enough money Hurst’s way, including the promise to pay to transfer his squad from here….

11 replies since 1700. We’d be on 20+ pages in that time if we were in the same position as them. Really worrying times for them lot. Hilarious for us mind.

Much like ourselves I imagine it'll get worse before anything gets better and a change of regime in the boardroom is the only thing that will start to turn things around. Years of being poorly run take their toll and new ideas and energy are needed.

Fúck ‘em.

End of message.

This.... from Poojah...

Fúck ‘em.

End of message.

Post of the week  

They want a new manager and some investment - I think we know someone who can do both who is available kicking his heels on some TV programme called Quest…

If they invite Alex May to their next home game and tell everyone he was Swann’s guest the rest will look after itself won’t it?

as much as they are our rivals I feel for them, I know a few scunny who have gone for years and stood down from attending, swans killing their club badly.

The minute he took control of the ground itself, he ruined them. They need him out

Quoted from OneLove

as much as they are our rivals I feel for them, I know a few scunny who have gone for years and stood down from attending, swans killing their club badly.

I also know a few scunny they all laughed like fuk at us when we went down the first time and last season  , laughed at our play off defeats. I personally hope we cross paths with them come may (not the little felon) feck em

Sounds like they're in a spot of bother and need a good man to sort it out Or maybe even a superman, a man with special powers to get a tune out of even the worst bunch of players and a man who can even change light bulbs.
Sounds like a job for Shelton man and Bobby bull his loyal sidekick. And if there's a possibility of a bit of property development they have another friend who will instantly fall in love with the club after a week
Would we be happy for them if that happened? Well personally I'd wet myself with joy!!

You only have to look what happened to Gainsborough Trinity to see where the Scunts are heading!

They've carried on where they left off last season. If last season had been five games longer, they'd have gone down instead of us.

The reality of all this is, if we don't promoted this season, then we will be playing them next season.

Just a statement.

Apparently Swann doesn't even attend their matches.

I do have a bit of sympathy for them. They might be a division above us but I wouldn't swap places with them. That just goes to show that football isn't always about winning on the pitch.

There's a bigger picture. We might not win promotion this season, and they may still stay up. Who knows? Even so, still wouldn't swap places with them. Off the field we're looking much stronger and I think we all know that, in time, that will pay dividends.

Whereas, in time, Scunny will fall into non-league. Maybe not this season, but when they do, given the way they're run, and what it'd cost for them to get a clean break from Swann, they may stay there for a long time.

This has been nailed on since the end of last season. Absolutely bizarre transfer policy there. And yes, as soon as Swann took control of their assets it was over.

Quoted from cannylad68

Apparently Swann doesn't even attend their matches.

Why would he if he's going to get abuse?

Quoted from Ipswin

Why would he if he's going to get abuse?

Would they though ? Fenty didn’t get much excrement in all the years of failure he presided over us are they so different to us ?

'We will be cut adrift by Halloween and there’s no way- even with a new gaffer- we will get out of it. Squad is a complete shambles and they resemble nothing of a league 2 team. Changing formations and bringing in different players is like rearranging the deck chairs in the titanic.'

This comment was my personal favourite from that thread. A joy to watch this.

I'm led to believe that their chief scout is Swann's son.

If they go down, I doubt they'd ever get back up. National league is their level, perhaps Nation League North or possibly lower. Tin pot ground they don't even own and no fans.

Quoted from cannylad68

I'm led to believe that their chief scout is Swann's son.

I think it's safe to say the Swann family know absolutely nothing worth knowing about football.

I know we say that we had it bad, but have they got it worse?

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I think it's safe to say the Swann family know absolutely nothing worth knowing about football.

I know we say that we had it bad, but have they got it worse?

As someone who’s very close friend is a home and away proper scunny fan and football fan (never mocked us when we went down and was the first person to congratulate me when we went up) I’d argue they’re heading for a worse situation than us…granted, ours was bad for a very long time and had Fenty been able to sneak his bent mate in to the club who knows how bad it would’ve got but it’s certainly a mess at scunny.

My mate is convinced had town managed to get going a couple of games earlier last year when PH came in then we’d have stayed up at their expense…

Swann prefers to act like the big time Charlie at the races . Obviously he’s laughed at by the real horse racing fraternity

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

Swann prefers to act like the big time Charlie at the races . Obviously he’s laughed at by the real horse racing fraternity

Does one of those ‘real racers’ have anything to do with another lower league team from this region?

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

Swann prefers to act like the big time Charlie at the races . Obviously he’s laughed at by the real horse racing fraternity

Sending you a PM

They are only a two points off third bottom and there is a very long way to go.

We undoubtedly have a better team than they have, but this of one hell of a tough league to escape from.  It is easier for them to stay up than it is for us to go up.

So I think some of the gloating is a little premature. Let's see where we all are in May.

Quoted from Poojah

Fúck ‘em.

End of message.

Exactly

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

Would they though ? Fenty didn’t get much excrement in all the years of failure he presided over us are they so different to us ?

To be fair to Swan even when he was backing them with big money the fans never turned up.

Quoted from cannylad68

I'm led to believe that their chief scout is Swann's son.

He is. When he was appointed they made the point by saying he was the manager's pick, not the chairman's. There's another Swann (not sure if it's the same one) in the boardroom too.

Quoted from bax

He is. When he was appointed they made the point by saying he was the manager's pick, not the chairman's. There's another Swann (not sure if it's the same one) in the boardroom too.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00123622/officers

They’ve also got another son, Will.

Quoted from cannylad68

I'm led to believe that their chief scout is Swann's son.

Think they would be better off with Lord Baden Powell.

Quoted from bax

He is. When he was appointed they made the point by saying he was the manager's pick, not the chairman's. There's another Swann (not sure if it's the same one) in the boardroom too.

Amazed we avoided nepotism considering cronyism was alive and well at the club. Maybe Fenty didn't have any kids who wanted anything to do with it.  

Quoted from Gaffer58

Think they would be better off with Lord Baden Powell.

atleast they will be prepared

What they need is a partnership of new owners and a experienced manager............



Fenty, May & Holloway.        

Quoted from Grantham_Mariner

What they need is a partnership of new owners and a experienced manager............

Fenty, May & Holloway.        

The dream team.........

from, our perspective.

I find it most amusing that during a recent interview,
when the questioner asked him of his thoughts about
the changes at Grimsby, Swann's reply was and I quote,
" Don't you dare put me in the same category as Fenty,
I am a completely different character .

Make what you like of that.

Fenty 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Quoted from Caveman

I find it most amusing that during a recent interview,
when the questioner asked him of his thoughts about
the changes at Grimsby, Swann's reply was and I quote,
" Don't you dare put me in the same category as Fenty,
I am a completely different character .

Make what you like of that.

For what it’s worth, I think Swann’s legacy at Scunny may well end up being a multiple or two more disastrous than Fenty’s at Town. That’s not a defence of Fenty in the slightest, but rather a reflection of the existential shìt show that surely waits in store for them.

Still plenty of healing and recovery to do at GTFC, let’s not lose sight of that, but I would be genuinely fearful of the future if I were a Scunny fan right now.

Quoted from Caveman

I find it most amusing that during a recent interview,
when the questioner asked him of his thoughts about
the changes at Grimsby, Swann's reply was and I quote,
" Don't you dare put me in the same category as Fenty,
I am a completely different character .

Make what you like of that.

Yeah Fenty doesn’t like horse racing.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Yeah Fenty doesn’t like horse racing.

If you backed Michael Chapman's horses you wouldn't.

Quoted from Caveman

If you backed Michael Chapman's horses you wouldn't.

😂😂😂😂

A true catastrophe is happening there. Two warning signs (on the pitch) I noticed early on were Cox saying they will 'play football as much as they can', not very inspiring is it? And in another interview Cox saying that he'd plastered all around the club and dressing room quotes of people writing them off and saying how excrement they are. I understand doing that to an elite footballer may tempt their ego into passion but doing that to a group of lads that are, in fact, pretty excrement is absolute suicide.

Hearing that Swann is offended to be compared to Fenty is hilarious. There's about 10 stone difference, that's it.
His son is chief scout, he tries to pick the team, he's swallowed their assets and seen off managers such as Alexander and Hurst. The man is definitely in Fenty's league. Oh and he's sure we would swap positions with them given the chance. hahahahahahaha that is all.

Quoted from RobDef1

A true catastrophe is happening there. Two warning signs (on the pitch) I noticed early on were Cox saying they will 'play football as much as they can', not very inspiring is it? And in another interview Cox saying that he'd plastered all around the club and dressing room quotes of people writing them off and saying how excrement they are. I understand doing that to an elite footballer may tempt their ego into passion but doing that to a group of lads that are, in fact, pretty excrement is absolute suicide.

Hearing that Swann is offended to be compared to Fenty is hilarious. There's about 10 stone difference, that's it.
His son is chief scout, he tries to pick the team, he's swallowed their assets and seen off managers such as Alexander and Hurst. The man is definitely in Fenty's league. Oh and he's sure we would swap positions with them given the chance. hahahahahahaha that is all.

Add to the Managers list Robbins who’s done a decent job at Coventry.

Let’s not be too unfair about the Scunts, both Swann and Cox are taking them in the right direction.

4 years after Slade left us in 2006, we were relegated into non-league. The next, and only other manager to leave us in or around a play-offs since is Paul Hurst in 2016. 5 years later, we were back in non-league.

Scunthorpe sacked Alexander in March 2018 when they were in the League One play-off positions. As we approach 4 years later, it's looking like they will be relegated into non-league.

The only difference is that we didn't sack those managers, they chose to leave but the recruitment that followed was questionable.

It looks bleak for them now. But we've all seen enough football to know that things can change so I wouldn't write them off yet. Remember last season when we were proper clowns all season long. They were't far behind but they had that 7 days where the won 3 games and it saved them. Football can turn around, expect their manager (who appears to be a proper clown) to go soon and then a potential bounce.

Quoted from Kris2

Amazed we avoided nepotism considering cronyism was alive and well at the club. Maybe Fenty didn't have any kids who wanted anything to do with it.  

Didnt he get his daughters to model the new kit once over? penny pinching instead of models?

The problem they have is the £11m debt that was "written off" when they handed over the ground. If they oust Swann then he will not simply give up on that debt which is now on his accounts. He will simply sell the land on which the ground sits on (which is what he has been trying to do for the last few years) and the club will fold and disappear. They may get a ground sharing agreement with say Brigg but they potentially will not recover from folding or getting kicked out of their (not) ground. As a football fan I would not want that to happen to any club but fear that this is the inevitable path they are going down.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/iron-bru-podcast/id1441914669?i=1000537391434

Worth a listen just for a laugh

Quoted from Mrbump53

The problem they have is the £11m debt that was "written off" when they handed over the ground. If they oust Swann then he will not simply give up on that debt which is now on his accounts. He will simply sell the land on which the ground sits on (which is what he has been trying to do for the last few years) and the club will fold and disappear. They may get a ground sharing agreement with say Brigg but they potentially will not recover from folding or getting kicked out of their (not) ground. As a football fan I would not want that to happen to any club but fear that this is the inevitable path they are going down.

I agree with you. Swann may want to sell but he has nothing to sell but a name and a position in League 2. They have no other assets as his company owns anything that is sellable. Come to the end of the season he more than likely will have a name and a place in the NL.

I can't see any buyer taking on a club in this position, and if they don't/won't/can't pay the rent at Glanford park then Brigg Town, or even Gainsborough, are options. Both these grounds don't meet NL standard so it looks as if they will hit the proverbial wall.

Apart from nearest neighbours we also have links with them, Ron Ashman and a certain George Kerr come to mind. If George hadn't played at Scunny then he more than likely would not have managed town in one of our glory periods.

OK. After listening to that, reluctantly, i do now feel for Scunts fans. 'Its the fans fault, its the councils fault, its covid, I continue to back the club, ill leave when I want, have I mentioned covid, all these questions are unfair to me, all the other clubs are doing naughty things but I'm not.'

all...too...familiar

Quoted from Mrbump53

The problem they have is the £11m debt that was "written off" when they handed over the ground. If they oust Swann then he will not simply give up on that debt which is now on his accounts. He will simply sell the land on which the ground sits on (which is what he has been trying to do for the last few years) and the club will fold and disappear. They may get a ground sharing agreement with say Brigg but they potentially will not recover from folding or getting kicked out of their (not) ground. As a football fan I would not want that to happen to any club but fear that this is the inevitable path they are going down.

So he was chasing his dream of getting Scunthorpe higher in the football pyamid, spending above the revenue Scunthorpe could recoup, over the years resulting in £11 million in debt.  When his missus stopped his pocket money, he basically robbed Scunthorpe of all their assets in return the £11m is written off.  

So in the future Glanford Park will be Glanford Estate.

Quoted from RobDef1

OK. After listening to that, reluctantly, i do now feel for Scunts fans. 'Its the fans fault, its the councils fault, its covid, I continue to back the club, ill leave when I want, have I mentioned covid, all these questions are unfair to me, all the other clubs are doing naughty things but I'm not.'

all...too...familiar

It’s uncanny, and almost scary from a Scunny perspective, just how much Swann sounds like Fenty in that interview. The same rhetoric, the same excuses, the same failures.

One thing Fenty never did though is asset strip the club. That could yet turn out to be cataclysmic for them.

Quoted from Poojah

It’s uncanny, and almost scary from a Scunny perspective, just how much Swann sounds like Fenty in that interview. The same rhetoric, the same excuses, the same failures.

One thing Fenty never did though is asset strip the club. That could yet turn out to be cataclysmic for them.

Wasn't there a comment of buying £8 million pounds of shares... who the hell values those shares...

Quoted from Poojah

It’s uncanny, and almost scary from a Scunny perspective, just how much Swann sounds like Fenty in that interview. The same rhetoric, the same excuses, the same failures.

One thing Fenty never did though is asset strip the club. That could yet turn out to be cataclysmic for them.

That last bit is what has tipped my attitude towards pity. Don't want to see them fold, or ground share for that matter, but its coming.

Zero sympathy for Swann, some sympathy for Scunny fans.

He basically called the price tag at £8 million and basically admitted that he sort of treats it like FIFA. His arrogance is stupefying yet unsurprising having met the bloke. Christ, I thought Fenty did well to get £3 million back for Town, how the hell is Swann expecting £8 million for that bag of spanners.

Part of me says intercourse 'em, but a bigger part wouldn't want to see them go to the wall. Apart from the local rivalry, there is the issue of another small northern club possibly going under and probably being replaced in the pyramid by a southern team like Stevenage. We've already seen Bury and Macclesfield go recently, with the latter being wound up for debts of around half a million, which put's Scunny's predicament into context.

Apologies if I've missed it, but hasn't Swann cleared their debt in exchange for the stadium?  So there's no imminent financial threat, other than Swann cutting and running?  

I care as much for their plight as their fans would care for ours in a similar situation. Having had the misfortune of living there I know how much they HATE us. It’s all they’ve got, their pathological resentment of the ‘cod heads’.  Fucck em.

Quoted from MarinerDevil

Apologies if I've missed it, but hasn't Swann cleared their debt in exchange for the stadium?  So there's no imminent financial threat, other than Swann cutting and running?  

In other words, the club is worth jack excrement.

His shareholding is £8 million.

Quoted from MarinerDevil

Apologies if I've missed it, but hasn't Swann cleared their debt in exchange for the stadium?  So there's no imminent financial threat, other than Swann cutting and running?  

They have zero assets and are spiralling down the leagues whilst remaining loss making. Swann’s response to that is to tighten the purse strings further, spiral some more and repeat the process again as crowd numbers and other incomes continue to dwindle - they are already getting lower crowds than the likes of Sutton United and less than half of what Town are currently pulling in with virtually no away followings at BP.

So Swann owns the ground and training facilities, and wants £8m+ in order to part company with those assets and the club itself. No one with the football club in mind is going to pay anything like that figure.

So Swann has a bit of a problem on his hands - he has assets that he values at north of £8m that are worth nothing like that in their current form, and by his own admission businesses in the hospitality industry which have been ‘battered’ by Covid. It’s been well publicised that the land Glanford Park sits on is quite valuable due to the surrounding retail environment that has built up around it. Probably less valuable now given the challenges bricks and mortar retail are having, but that chunk of land is worth significantly more as a prospective cinema (for example) than as the stadium of a struggling, skint football club.

Swann has no real connections with the football club or the town of Scunthorpe. He isn’t a fan of the club.

What he ultimately does will probably come down to a question of what he cares more about: Scunthorpe United or his £8m. If I were a Scunny fan, I would find that a deeply uncomfortable place to be.

My prediction: if they get relegated this season (and there’s a good chance they will), things will unravel very, very quickly.

Quoted from Poojah

They have zero assets and are spiralling down the leagues whilst remaining loss making. Swann’s response to that is to tighten the purse strings further, spiral some more and repeat the process again as crowd numbers and other incomes continue to dwindle - they are already getting lower crowds than the likes of Sutton United and less than half of what Town are currently pulling in with virtually no away followings at BP.

So Swann owns the ground and training facilities, and wants £8m+ in order to part company with those assets and the club itself. No one with the football club in mind is going to pay anything like that figure.

So Swann has a bit of a problem on his hands - he has assets that he values at north of £8m that are worth nothing like that in their current form, and by his own admission businesses in the hospitality industry which have been ‘battered’ by Covid. It’s been well publicised that the land Glanford Park sits on is quite valuable due to the surrounding retail environment that has built up around it. Probably less valuable now given the challenges bricks and mortar retail are having, but that chunk of land is worth significantly more as a prospective cinema (for example) than as the stadium of a struggling, skint football club.

Swann has no real connections with the football club or the town of Scunthorpe. He isn’t a fan of the club.

What he ultimately does will probably come down to a question of what he cares more about: Scunthorpe United or his £8m. If I were a Scunny fan, I would find that a deeply uncomfortable place to be.

My prediction: if they get relegated this season (and there’s a good chance they will), things will unravel very, very quickly.

Exactly this. The Swanns invest heavily in horses and I'm pretty sure the family prefer the glory of Ascot & York to away days at Oldham and Newport. With a seemingly dwindling fanbase and a reluctant to invest owner, not to mention a clueless manager, things aren't looking great.

I don't expect him to admit but I suspect, despite his protestation to the contrary, he would rather be in our shoes at present. Sell out attendances, home and away, onfield success, positive cash vs budget, what's not to like?

I listened to the bit where they referenced our attendances, he dodged that one didn’t he with a dig about non league, based on this season to date he better get the sat nav pre loaded for some of the places we’ll get to this season.

Didn't know he owned the training ground as well.  Very worrying for them.  So realistically, they get bought out by someone with way more money than sense, or Swann gives up after a relegation to non-league, sells the assets and runs.  Best case scenario: they're ground sharing and relying on fans to prop up the club.  

After all the cr@p we've taken off them in recent years I have little to no sympathy.
Let's not forget all the gloating from their fanbase as they rose up the league's whilst we fell down like a pack of cards being blown over by a fish merchants farts...
Karma is a wonderful thing, what goes around comes around.
While Swann was bankrolling them they couldn't wait to jeer and take the p!ss out of our demise, well I truly hope Swanns reluctance to put anymore money in bites them squarely on the backside!..
Do I feel for their fans, not one iota!...

Scunny fans seem to hate us, but I’m not particularly bothered about their club. I would prefer that they survive, and the natural order is restored once more, but after the sheer hatred and gloating they showed to us in 2010, my sympathies have definitely reduced.

Quoted from MarinerDevil

Didn't know he owned the training ground as well.  b.  

Have you seen the training ground ? It's a little grass field in between the ground and the motorway .

Quoted from Poojah

It’s uncanny, and almost scary from a Scunny perspective, just how much Swann sounds like Fenty in that interview. The same rhetoric, the same excuses, the same failures.

One thing Fenty never did though is asset strip the club. That could yet turn out to be cataclysmic for them.

It could for them. But we came close to it with Fenty. He didn’t need to take over the assets because his loans were being paid back.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

It could for them. But we came close to it with Fenty. He didn’t need to take over the assets because his loans were being paid back.

Perhaps, but he never quite had the balls or stupidity to rack up the kind of debts up that Swann did at Scunny. I think this is possibly where there is a difference between the two characters.

I'm conscious of not making this sound like a defence of Fenty - it isn't. The man suffocated this club, and I don't even want to think about where things might have headed had Alex May become seriously involved. But it is a matter of fact that his famous 'benign' loans to the club were to cover the cost of debts primarily to HMRC which the club itself could not afford to pay at the time, largely as a result of the ITV Digital collapse. I won't get into whether we should have gone into admin, how he came to be in charge of the running club or what happened over the course of the next couple of decades - his loans were to help cover debts the club had already accrued. He didn't create the debt in the first place.

That's not true of Swann and Scunthorpe. In the recent podcast, he was lamenting that League Two clubs are only permitted to spend up to 50% of turnover on players' wages. At their peak, Scunny were spending somewhere approaching 250% of turnover on playing staff. That's simply not a business model in any industry unless you've got the money, will and cojones to see it through to the bitter end. I'm not sure what kind of pipe dream Swann was chasing, but he took massive, unnecessary risks in taking them to that point, failed to see it through and then retreated to limit his own financial exposure (which was already many times the value of the club).

He's been absolutely reckless to the point where it seems difficult to see how Scunny turn this around as a football club. I'm not just talking about this season; personally I think all of the negativity which is currently surrounding the club will eat them up, but even if it doesn't and they survive, I don't know where they go from here. They are in a vicious spiral of the like I see no way of them pulling out of. If there's a Scunthorpe United playing at National League North level or above in five years' time, I'll genuinely be surprised.

Swann reckons he's nothing like Fenty, and I agree. Let me reiterate this point, this is NOT a defence of Fenty, the standout worst owner in this club's long history. But I think the next few years will demonstrate that Swann was by far the most dangerous of the two.

We got Fenty largely thanks to ITV, kind of in the way that people get cancer through passive smoking. It wasn't their fault, they didn't deserve it, but it happened anyway. Under Swann, Scunny have been happily smoking 60 a day without giving a moment's thought to the risks, and the prognosis isn't good. It isn't good at all...

I completely agree with you on the chain-smoking Scunnies.

Regarding what Fenty’s loans covered, I completely disagree. They covered his purchase of the club and his mistakes. See Mark Stilton’s articles on Cod Almighty.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

I completely agree with you on the chain-smoking Scunnies.

Regarding what Fenty’s loans covered, I completely disagree. They covered his purchase of the club and his mistakes. See Mark Stilton’s articles on Cod Almighty.

Fair enough if I got that wrong. The crux of my point was ultimately Swann very consciously built up debts to the value of 8-10x the natural value of the club, presumably in pursuit of personal financial gain.

That is grossly irresponsible and self serving on a scale few clubs have experienced. Or more pertinently, survived.

Another club that could go under before too long due to financial recklessness. How many times will we see this before the FA actually decide that more restrictions need to be put in place to prevent this from happening? As much as I dont like the scunts its all in the name of local rivalry and to see them go under would be a shame as these local rivalries are the bedrock of a good fan base. Who doesn't love to see their local team get one over their neighbours?

Swann has always been reckless with investments, just ask the folk of Gainsborough…

I’ve never figured out what his end game at Scunny was and neither had my mate. They’ve shifted their allocation for Harrogate in a week or so but the suggestion is, should they get beaten (highly likely), it could get nasty and ugly.

Swann became very defensive when compared to Fenty, had a dig and said ‘at least I invested money’ or words to that effect but in truth he is very much like Fenty. False promises, bizarre business dealings, surrounded by sycophants and eventually will cause the ruin of the club…

Quoted from Poojah

They have zero assets and are spiralling down the leagues whilst remaining loss making. Swann’s response to that is to tighten the purse strings further, spiral some more and repeat the process again as crowd numbers and other incomes continue to dwindle - they are already getting lower crowds than the likes of Sutton United and less than half of what Town are currently pulling in with virtually no away followings at BP.

So Swann owns the ground and training facilities, and wants £8m+ in order to part company with those assets and the club itself. No one with the football club in mind is going to pay anything like that figure.

So Swann has a bit of a problem on his hands - he has assets that he values at north of £8m that are worth nothing like that in their current form, and by his own admission businesses in the hospitality industry which have been ‘battered’ by Covid. It’s been well publicised that the land Glanford Park sits on is quite valuable due to the surrounding retail environment that has built up around it. Probably less valuable now given the challenges bricks and mortar retail are having, but that chunk of land is worth significantly more as a prospective cinema (for example) than as the stadium of a struggling, skint football club.

Swann has no real connections with the football club or the town of Scunthorpe. He isn’t a fan of the club.

What he ultimately does will probably come down to a question of what he cares more about: Scunthorpe United or his £8m. If I were a Scunny fan, I would find that a deeply uncomfortable place to be.

My prediction: if they get relegated this season (and there’s a good chance they will), things will unravel very, very quickly.

I may be wrong but looking at Companies House Swan’s share capital was around 8M in addition to his 11m loans. Given he wrote the loans off in exchange for the clubs property assets I’m assuming he wants £8M just for the club with him keeping the property assets personally.

Up to 2020 there was just shy of £20m in accumulated losses, that’s a huge figure to spend and end up bottom of the league with no assets.

In 2020 they also managed to sell the naming rights for Glandford Park for 2m and still lost 952k!

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but when we were at our lowest ebb, and Scunny were in the Championship, I'm sure there was a report one season that said only Scunny and one other club in the entire football league turned over a profit (excluding transfers).

At that point (and I don't know when Swann got involved) it was my understanding that they were an incredibly well-run club. Riding high, on the crest of a wave, bringing in more cash than we ever did when we played at that level, and investing it wisely.

Again, not sure if I misunderstood that original report, but whatever the detail was, it shone Scunny in a good light. We were poles apart — they were smashing Sheff Utd away something like 4-1 and we were losing to Braintree 5-0.

Just goes to show, things can change relatively quickly in football. Nothing lasts forever, so enjoy the good times and prepare sensibly for the lean times.

Quoted from RichMariner

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but when we were at our lowest ebb, and Scunny were in the Championship, I'm sure there was a report one season that said only Scunny and one other club in the entire football league turned over a profit (excluding transfers).

At that point (and I don't know when Swann got involved) it was my understanding that they were an incredibly well-run club. Riding high, on the crest of a wave, bringing in more cash than we ever did when we played at that level, and investing it wisely.

Again, not sure if I misunderstood that original report, but whatever the detail was, it shone Scunny in a good light. We were poles apart — they were smashing Sheff Utd away something like 4-1 and we were losing to Braintree 5-0.

Just goes to show, things can change relatively quickly in football. Nothing lasts forever, so enjoy the good times and prepare sensibly for the lean times.

Scunny had a really good run of signing and selling on players, particularly strikers. Between 2007 and 2014 they made the best part of £15m profit selling Billy Sharp, Andy Keogh, Martin Paterson, Gary Hooper, Chris Dagnall, Martyn Woolfoord and Sam Winall. They'd sell their best player, and then have the knack of signing another who would go on to replicate that success. They also had Paul Hayes during that period, who went for a pittance on a tribunal.

It can't have been fluke - it was clearly the result of a very effective effective scouting and recruitment policy. Is it a coincidence that something drastically changed shortly after Swann took over in 2013, and they started splashing around money they didn't have on players that weren't all that good?

Their rise to the Championship was entirely sustainable and genuinely earned, as difficult as that was to swallow at the time. Whatever Swann did, it amounted to sticking the club in reverse and then slamming his foot to the floor.  

Quoted from RichMariner

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but when we were at our lowest ebb, and Scunny were in the Championship, I'm sure there was a report one season that said only Scunny and one other club in the entire football league turned over a profit (excluding transfers).

At that point (and I don't know when Swann got involved) it was my understanding that they were an incredibly well-run club. Riding high, on the crest of a wave, bringing in more cash than we ever did when we played at that level, and investing it wisely.

Again, not sure if I misunderstood that original report, but whatever the detail was, it shone Scunny in a good light. We were poles apart — they were smashing Sheff Utd away something like 4-1 and we were losing to Braintree 5-0.

Just goes to show, things can change relatively quickly in football. Nothing lasts forever, so enjoy the good times and prepare sensibly for the lean times.

For all the rights and wrongs at Scunthorpe and how badly they may have been run they are still in the EFL while we are down in the shithole of the NL for a second time.

Quoted from Marinerdan

I may be wrong but looking at Companies House Swan’s share capital was around 8M in addition to his 11m loans. Given he wrote the loans off in exchange for the clubs property assets I’m assuming he wants £8M just for the club with him keeping the property assets personally.

Up to 2020 there was just shy of £20m in accumulated losses, that’s a huge figure to spend and end up bottom of the league with no assets.

In 2020 they also managed to sell the naming rights for Glandford Park for 2m and still lost 952k!

£2 million to change the name to Glumford Park does seem like a tad excessive

Quoted from Marinerdan

I may be wrong but looking at Companies House Swan’s share capital was around 8M in addition to his 11m loans. Given he wrote the loans off in exchange for the clubs property assets I’m assuming he wants £8M just for the club with him keeping the property assets personally.

Up to 2020 there was just shy of £20m in accumulated losses, that’s a huge figure to spend and end up bottom of the league with no assets.

In 2020 they also managed to sell the naming rights for Glandford Park for 2m and still lost 952k!

They didn't really 'sell' the rights though, did they? Sands Venue is another Swann property over in Blackpool.

Quoted from Poojah

Fair enough if I got that wrong. The crux of my point was ultimately Swann very consciously built up debts to the value of 8-10x the natural value of the club, presumably in pursuit of personal financial gain.

That is grossly irresponsible and self serving on a scale few clubs have experienced. Or more pertinently, survived.

When it comes to narcissism (and personal wealth), Swann makes Fenty look like an amateur - which in itself is extremely ironic.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

They didn't really 'sell' the rights though, did they? Sands Venue is another Swann property over in Blackpool.

Not at all, effectively they lost at least 3m.

So.... if the worst happened to them, which way would the EFL go...?

Save one team in the bottom 2, or promote 2 automatically?

Quoted from acko338

So.... if the worst happened to them, which way would the EFL go...?

Save one team in the bottom 2, or promote 2 automatically?

It's not just Scuuny, they are numerous other clubs in a right financial mess.

Quoted from acko338

So.... if the worst happened to them, which way would the EFL go...?

Save one team in the bottom 2, or promote 2 automatically?

The EFL hate the conference and will do anything to protect their own!

But the Scunts to be sure are not the only EFL club that are in dire financial state. Although we have had twenty, thirty years, sorry since the Findus stand was built, of no real investment until now, at least today, the club are in good shape.

I’d personally be glad when the Scunts and others are expelled from the EFL and they make extra room for us, to return to glory.

But I fear, in trepidation that they would close the door, and invite the PremierSh1t u21 teams instead!

Quoted from Poojah

Scunny had a really good run of signing and selling on players, particularly strikers. Between 2007 and 2014 they made the best part of £15m profit selling Billy Sharp, Andy Keogh, Martin Paterson, Gary Hooper, Chris Dagnall, Martyn Woolfoord and Sam Winall. They'd sell their best player, and then have the knack of signing another who would go on to replicate that success. They also had Paul Hayes during that period, who went for a pittance on a tribunal.

It can't have been fluke - it was clearly the result of a very effective effective scouting and recruitment policy. Is it a coincidence that something drastically changed shortly after Swann took over in 2013, and they started splashing around money they didn't have on players that weren't all that good?

Their rise to the Championship was entirely sustainable and genuinely earned, as difficult as that was to swallow at the time. Whatever Swann did, it amounted to sticking the club in reverse and then slamming his foot to the floor.  

That was Lee Turnbull who was at Bradford.  I was a bit jealous tbf that we didn't have something similar.  Peterboro use to hoover up the best players fro. The lower divisions I don't think they have done that for a while though.

Quoted from The Yard Dog

It's not just Scuuny, they are numerous other clubs in a right financial mess.

I am so glad that we now had a well run club with wealthy but sensible owners. We have a level of financial security that many clubs above us can only dream of.

Quoted from exiledmeggie

The EFL hate the conference and will do anything to protect their own!

But the Scunts to be sure are not the only EFL club that are in dire financial state. Although we have had twenty, thirty years, sorry since the Findus stand was built, of no real investment until now, at least today, the club are in good shape.

I’d personally be glad when the Scunts and others are expelled from the EFL and they make extra room for us, to return to glory.

But I fear, in trepidation that they would close the door, and invite the PremierSh1t u21 teams instead!

I don’t think they’d let U21 teams in despite what Pep says but I also think the EFL would do all they can to stop 3 clubs coming up from the NL despite there arguably being 7/8 clubs that could easily make the accent.

Castles made of sand, fall in the sea. Eventually.- J Hendrix.