Notts County Football Club: A History since 2000

[LilCrazyKim]

Even before Derek Pavis sold the club, things were pretty wild. At one point we went from the top flight to fourth tier in space of five years. But things really stepped up a gear when he put the club on the market. After rumours that the Sultan of Brunei was a fan of the club and eager to invest (yes, really), the club was sold to an American business called Albert Scardino and his buddy Peter Storey. They planned major investment in Notts, based on the lucrative ITV Digital deal, a strong squad drawing gates of 8,000+ and a nice loan from an investment bank in the US (that sounds weird now, but it's true!).

A lot went wrong quickly, and we were soon in administration. Our manager (Jocky Scott) managed to make a team with a strikeforce of Mark Stallard and Danny Allsopp incredibly dull, we got into relegation trouble, the anticipated crowds didn't materialize, and ITV's gamble that subscribers wanted to pay for lower league football backfired massively. Oh, and we shouldn't forget that the planned American investment failed to appear because the bank in question had their offices here:



That's right: Notts County Football Club were forced into administration partly as a result of 9/11. The ensuing saga went on for so long that the Football League implemented new rules to prevent clubs being in administration as long as we were again. At one point things were so bad we played a game against Luton Town that was billed as potentially our last ever. Finally, after eigh**** long months, the club emerged from administration under the ownership of the Notts County Supporters' Trust. Pretty neat, huh?

Except, of course, that the Notts County Supporters' Trust is a case study in how not to run one. Like all good voluntary committees, infighting started. Eventually, the trust (and by extension the club) came under the control of one particular faction led my John Armstrong-Holmes.

In fairness, we always just about hung on to our Football League status under trust ownership. Unfortunately, by 2009, there wasn't the money available to cover the losses the club was making. The trust thus did what any group of concerned supporters would do when the future of their club was at stake: sold it to a conman masquerading as Bahraini royalty as part of a complex fraud scheme. Legend has it that the chairman was convinced of the genuineness of these new owners by being taken on holiday to the Middle East and being allowed to ride on one of these:



And so in came the supposed Bahraini royalty. They brought in Sven Goran Eriksson (who was as conned in all this as everyone else) to give the scheme an air of legitimacy. And we brought a stream of high-profile players on the promise that we'd soon be in the Premier League, including Sol Campbell. But nefarious things were afoot. Campbell left after only one game: a 2-1 loss to Morecambe which is probably better remembered for Kasper Schmeichel nearly scoring a scissor-kick injury time equaliser.



John Armstrong-Holmes, apparently realising that camel-riding isn't adequate due diligence, was starting to feed stuff to the press that things at Notts weren't all as they seemed. By the end of the year, it was pretty clear to everyone that we'd been had. The club was sold to Peter Trembling (someone else who was conned) for £1 and he soon sold it to Ray Trew (also for £1). Trew was able to save the club from going bust and the team rallied to win the League Two championship, effectively sealed on a memorable Tuesday night when we played Rochdale in a title decider before 10,000 people. Somehow, we came out the whole thing in great shape: crowds were up significantly, the old aged fans stereotype wipped out pretty much over night, seemingly a sensible owner. Just a great feeling around the place.

Then, early the following season, we got our first real taste of what the Trew era would be like. He'd appointed Craig Short as manager in the summer. We weren't setting the world alight in early 2010-11, but it was still very harsh when Short was sacked after only 5 months and the club comfortably mid table. In came Paul Ince, apparently for no other reason than it being cool to have a famous manager.

Paul Ince was sacked after 5 months as a result of a nine match losing run. That established the pattern for the rest of the Trew era. During nearly 7 years in charge, Trew got through no less than ten managers. Although we narrowly missed out on the League One playoffs in 2012, that instability eventually caught up with us. After appointing Jamie Fullerton despite him having no previous managerial experience, Trew called it quits and left in a huff. Except he struggled to sell the club for months, leading the exciting situation where we had a chairman who gave zero sh*ts, and a team that had its hands tied. Queue another long losing run (a record 10 this time) before the club was finally unloaded.

So in comes Alan Hardy, who on paper is the ideal lower league chairman. Wealthy, successful, a local man. And things initially look good: relegation is avoided and the next season (still on a relatively tight budget) we have our best season in years. Then of course we reach summer 2018, the money starts coming in, and we start buying every attacking player that can move (and some that apparently can't), apparently without any thought as to the need to not concede goals. A daring strategy, and one that's clearly paid off. Then on Sunday we had Hardy accidentally post his dong on Twitter, delete his account and announce he's selling up, all the space of twelve hours. Really, it's just another footnote in this absolutely batsh*t football club's existence.

[SwalePie]

Very good read. Nice to watch Kasper almost bury that scissor kick too

[Chinola]

Good summary, but as somebody who did a lot of digging at the time I don’t believe Trembling’s narrative he had been conned. Maybe it’s me but he was up to his eyes in it.

[LilCrazyKim]

Good summary, but as somebody who did a lot of digging at the time I don’t believe Trembling’s narrative he had been conned. Maybe it’s me but he was up to his eyes in it.

I know there was the Panorama episode and there's been a few news articles in the years since (it's only relatively recently we found out it was JAH feeding information to the Guardian I think?) but the whole thing would make for a great book (though I wonder how many would be willing to talk).

[Elite_Pie]

Excellent trip down memory lane Kim, but with one glaring omission.

You should have linked the number of The Samaritans at the end.

[SwalePie]

I know there was the Panorama episode and there's been a few news articles in the years since (it's only relatively recently we found out it was JAH feeding information to the Guardian I think?) but the whole thing would make for a great book (though I wonder how many would be willing to talk).

In case anyone didn't see the Panorama episode: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2oiyyq

[cher1]

Did JAH say it was him feeding info to The Guardian, or did it come from Matt Scott?

[SwalePie]

Did JAH say it was him feeding info to The Guardian, or did it come from Matt Scott?

I'm not sure now, that feels like it's about 200 episodes back in the never ending sitcom that is NCFC

[cher1]

Haha Swale, very true. It just seems a bit odd that 1. he'd have anything to do with The Guardian and 2. he'd want to highlight what a colossal cock up he'd actually made in terms of checking out (or not) the new owners.

[SwalePie]

Haha Swale, very true. It just seems a bit odd that 1. he'd have anything to do with The Guardian and 2. he'd want to highlight what a colossal cock up he'd actually made in terms of checking out (or not) the new owners.

I know...unreal