Right, here's the issue I have, BIron. Let me spell it out once and for all.
Naturally, it's a somewhat silly but real reflection of tribalism in football, that I should want to see Scunthorpe United struggle, given my position as a Grimsby Town fan. The reverse is also true of course, and there's nothing really wrong with that. But I have never liked, do not like, and will never like historic football clubs being destroyed by careless and / or unscrupulous owners. I'd add MK Dons as the exception to that rule, but I don't have to since they're not an historic football club.
In terms of where you find yourselves today, in the National League North, 99.99% of the blame for that sits with Peter Swann - a man who has done untold and potentially irreversible damage to a local institution. He did so, ultimately, by putting his own interests ahead of the club's long-term future and either didn't consider or didn't care about the risks involved from the club's perspective.
I could tell you that it surprised and maybe even angered me that it took so long for Iron supporters to wake up and smell the coffee, but that's irrelevant now. You can't change the past. But you can, as a collective of supporters with a common interest, change the future, or at least plan today for the numerous different paths fate might take the club down.
So let's start with where we are right now, with the club under the ownership of one David Hilton / White (enter additional pseudonyms here). If we think back, just two summers ago, we, Grimsby Town, ushered in two new joint owners in Jason Stockwood and Andrew Pettit, much to the delight of the club's fanbase.
There were two main reasons behind this delight. Number one, they weren't John Fenty, and that's at least one claim David Hilton can hang on to. He's not Peter Swann. Number two, though, was much more important. They were people who had been born and grown up in the town, long-standing supporters of GTFC, and most importantly of all, had very transparent and traceable roots to their wealth, namely hugely successful careers in their own respective, legitimate lines of business. They also had some very clear and well defined values, which was a bonus.
I've heard and read a lot of rumours that don't paint David Hilton in a particularly good light at all, but since I can't vouch for the validity or accuracy of any of them, I'll steer clear of making spurious or even libellous claims. But there do appear to be a number of largely unanswered questions about the man, which collectively, amount to a very large red flag.
- Just how wealthy is David Hilton?
- What is the source of that wealth?
- Is / are the source[s] legitimate? And if we can tick the legitimate box, how about "noble"?
- Why all the name changes?
- Besides all this, why does he purportedly want to pump millions of his presumably hard-earned cash into saving Scunthorpe United, a club he has no prior connection to?
Aside from the above, there are broader questions about the way he appears to be running the club. What on earth is going on with Glanford Park? What's all this nonsense about a new multi-million pound stadium delivered within 2 years? The appointment of a manager very much out of his depth at a professional club? The scattergun approach to transfers? And what's with all the abuse sceptical fans have found themselves subject to on Twitter and the like? It's all quite peculiar, and whilst Peter Swann's end game was always abundantly clear, Hilton is certainly harder to size-up in that regard.
Your latest signing, Callum Roberts, raises far more questions than it answers. I won't lie, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw he'd signed for you. I thought he was one of the best players in the National League during our promotion season, and I felt could easily go and play at a higher level, as he technically did when he signed for Aberdeen last year. Hands up, in spite of his recent injury record, I wouldn't have been disappointed to see him rock up at Blundell Park this week.
But "rattled" certainly isn't how I'd describe my reaction. It wasn't one of "wow, that's a bloody good signing", but more one of "erm...that just doesn't compute - there's something not right there".
Aberdeen finished 3rd in the SPL last season; they are one of the biggest clubs in Scotland behind Celtic and Rangers. Roberts will have been on between £2k and £3k a week there, and given that he's been happy to rip up a further 2 years on his contract at Pittodrie and sign for a troubled and volatile club relegated to the NLN indicates he's probably been offered even more money at Scunthorpe, a club which will have probably less than 10% of his former club's income next season.
How on earth is that possible? It doesn't stack up, does it? The only way it can happen is if Hilton pays him £150k+ a year out of his own pocket, and why would he want to do that on top of everything else he's already having to spend to prop the club up?
Ultimately, Scunthorpe United are falling into the same trap that took them here in the first place. Spending well beyond what the club organically generates in revenue to bring a better standard of player to the club. That's fine if you have a benefactor of quantifiable wealth and a clear motivation to see things through come rain or shine.
But I'm just not seeing that. I see a man at the helm who's game plan isn't clear. Is he genuine in his plans for the club? Is he legitimately wealthy? Is he prepared to underwrite the club's continued losses until it is truly back on its own feet? Or is he none of those things? Is he something else altogether?
There simply isn't sufficient evidence in the public domain to make a definitive call either way, but the many gaps in what we know and the demeanour of Hilton's modus operandi make it difficult to feel like backing the positive horse is a sensible choice. Given what the club has been through already, a sizeable dollop of scepticism can only be healthy. That means continuing to probe, continuing to ask questions, even, if not especially, when the news appears to be positive on the surface, and planning, now, for the eventuality that things go well and truly títs up. It means being proactive, not reactive. That's a crucial distinction.
Fool you once, shame on them. Fool you twice, shame on you.
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