Originally Posted by
jackal2
My impression of Smurthwaite from a distance is that he's a fairly typical football chairman with a fairly typical football chairman's story. A mixture of football fan, egotist, risk taker and dictator. These are the kind of people who are generally crazy enough to even want to own a lower league football club, and then they spend most of their time trying to square an impossible circle between fans' expectations and financial reality. This usually ends in tears, with the supporters turning on the owner and eventually viewing them as the devil incarnate, and the owner feeling resentful that they receive no appreciation for any good work they did, and so the divide just grows.
If it was a choice between Smurthwaite and Notts County going out of business, I'd take him, but unless he somehow manages to inspire a consistent climb up the leagues, it would only be a matter of time before he becomes a target for fans' frustrations, just as happened with all the recent owners. What we really need is a billionaire benefactor with enough money not only to fund success but also iron out their mistakes. Not easy to find!