Quote Originally Posted by SwalePie View Post
Honestly I despair at the level of intelligence of some people. Paragon's corporate Twitter account earlier posted a tweet that they'd had a successful start to the year, securing £11.7m in new orders so far in January. Great I hear you all say, that might help us in the long term if AH decides to further invest and if the orders are profitable once completed.

So then, why do the more moronic little band of Notts fans have to go on there and reply to Paragon (Not AH) demanding it be sent to Notts and moaning about the interest on the loans etc... such a bloody embarrassment and guaranteed to annoy the bloke with the purse strings of the club. Can't they just attempt to think first?

Is it just me that thinks this is idiotic?
No Swale, it's not just you who thinks they are idiotic. There's no need for such attacks on the Chairman, never mind his other business interests.

Cue the cries of "happy clapper", "nodding dog", "up AH's arse" etc from all those who resent the posting of reasonable, balanced views!

Nobody is saying Alan Hardy should be exempt from criticism. I've criticised him myself on various things. Right now there's a perfectly valid, constructive criticism that Alan Hardy's recent decisions have not worked and that as chairman and owner he must bear ultimate responsibility, based on the predicament in which we find ourselves. But if that's how we measure things, then you only have to go back one short year to Winter 2017/18 to find a time when we were in the promotion places and most if not all fans (probably including some of the idiots) were praising the same Chairman from the rooftops for breathing new life into the club.

So what's the true, fair assessment of Alan Hardy then? Well, to quote Kipling (Mike Bassett style) we should meet triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.

Alan Hardy was not the Messiah a year ago, and he isn't Satan's Little Helper now. He's a wealthy guy, successful in business but still relatively inexperienced in football club ownership terms, and he's seen in two short years the full range of highs and lows that investment in a football club can bring. No amount of business experience can prepare you for this unique, cut-throat industry in which you basically just burn money on a game of chance. Like an addictive poker player in a casino, you're never more than one good or bad decision away from triumph or disaster - or in football terms - one good or bad manager or result away from either a great or dismal run of form which could lead to promotion or relegation.

The people resorting to personal abuse of him and casting aspersions about his investment will invariably be folk who would never achieve or earn enough in their lives to consider buying and investing in a football club, let alone know how to run one. They just sit behind their computer screens or mobile phones spitting venom at people like Hardy, either because they envy his general status and wealth, or because it turns out he isn't a football magician who can guarantee them success and satisfaction. So, the snipers copy/paste every positive or optimistic statement Hardy ever made and thrown it back at him as a broken promise.

Some football club chairmen/owners probably do invite fan hostility, because they actively mistreat their entire support base or strip their club of assets. There is no way Hardy fits that description. At worst, he's a bit too keen on being centre of attention and too fond of Twitter, which leaves him open to the nastier elements. But all of us have our faults!

Hardy has gambled millions of pounds of his money, I believe in the genuine hope of achieving success for Notts County Football Club, and yes as a bit of an ego trip for himself as a sports fanatic. A year ago it looked like a good gamble, and right now it's looking like a losing one. The only certainty is that as long as you're willing to keep spending to stay in the game, you never know where the next decision or twist of fate will take you.

Notts County isn't the size and type of club that can afford to just welcome in, chew up and spit out owners on a whim, in the certain knowledge that there are more potential blue-chip investors waiting to put their heads on the chopping block. If we're lucky there might be another local businessmen with proven resources and genuine intent mad enough to buy a lower league side, but there's no guarantee. Alternatively you might get interest from a few hedge funds … or maybe the Twitter account of a relative of someone loosely connected to someone important in America … or you might stumble across another Russell King.

Ah yes, Russell King! If you ever doubted that some football fans are idiots, just look at those who STILL virtually laud Mr King for giving them their best season in living memory. Of course, they are right in one sense, because the Munto season was spectacular, but it was built on fraud and left the club with horrendous debts which Ray Trew inherited. I still believe Ray Trew started out similar to Alan Hardy, driven by the same combination of good ambitions to create a successful club, mixed with some ego gratification, but when his gambles didn't work, his relationship with the fans became so vitriolic that the whole environment became toxic.

Is this REALLY a mindset we want to recreate in Alan Hardy? Is it not possible to voice constructive criticism and understandable concern about the current situation without turning such comment into nasty personal attacks on the owner and his other business interests? Is it not possible that right now our chairman is feeling even more depressed than the rest of us are, but he's trying to stay positive and at least appear confident, because the people he's leading need him to be?

Praise is cheap when things are going well, but I would think that any goodwill and support the Notts fans can give to Mr Hardy right now would seem like gold dust in comparison.