A few - not many in truth - have commented that I have gone quiet over the past two or three weeks where as supporters would have expected me to add clarity to recent events as you always do.
I do not know whether those sentiments are echoed by the majority but I should not like the Club's true supporters to think that the drama surrounding HMRC had, in any way, diminished either my enthusiasm for the Club or determination to deliver the promised land!
I said at the time of discharging the payment to the tax man (on the day of the Gillingham FA Cup game) that I would make a fuller statement the following week. The short comment about the formality of the court hearing on the Monday was not it!
The transaction to enable the £2m payment to HMRC was part of a larger arrangement which simply (understatement!) accelerated its conclusion. Like all complex legal/banking matters there are often subsequent conditions which need to be addressed, swept up if you like, and the past two weeks I have largely been engaged in doing just that.
The period leading up to making the funds available was intense and the last couple of weeks have been only a little less so. Therefore please accept my apologies for not keeping you in the loop which I plan to rectify over the next few days now that I am able to turn my attention to other Club matters.
I shall, next week, be issuing a series of blogs to cover such subjects as:
· HMRC how did the position arise
· How was the debt paid
· The consortium
· My thoughts about the current squad size
· The future
So once again, sorry if you think that supporters have been kept in the dark but that was certainly not the intention. Some matters must take priority, others are commercially sensitive and there are only so many hours in the day.
I look forward to opening up the airways however there are one or two items you can be assured of. Recent events did not creep up unnoticed and whilst the inadvertent use of HMRC Bank Plc may not have been well received in all quarters the Club's approach was one of control and expectation of policy promoted by the Football League in discussion with HMRC.
In the event, HMRC had the Government coffers to protect and in doing so had no regard for the screamingly obvious commercial position that would facilitate payment or the delays and circumstances of which they were directly or indirectly responsible.
If this gives the impression that the gods are looking down from Olympus and competing with each other to see who can screw our Club the hardest, then so be it. As football supporters we are all cursed with a genetic propensity for moaning but the tax man's efforts to unglue all that is good about our wonderful Club was beyond the pale. Not just the passion that is created during 90 minutes on a Saturday, or as with today on a Friday night, but the outstanding contribution the Club makes to the community, social inclusion, charities, civic pride and the children of our Town. Do not tell me this would not have been unravelled if HMRC had won.
I know where I am taking this Club and will not be distracted by the detractors.
To be continued.
Up the Blues!