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COMPANY VOLUNTARY ARRANGEMENT
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After the initial impact the next key feature for Titley and Reeves was to obtain a Company Voluntary Arrangement. This is a common feature of ‘administrations’ and effectively is a vote of the creditors to be paid over a fixed period – and therefore allow the company to trade. This was crucial if the Club were to start the 2009/10 season as it would allow the ‘Golden Share’ to be transferred to a new company. Without the ‘Golden Share’ transfer the Club would not be able to play in the Football League.
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The meeting was held at EP on 3rd July and the CVA was approved. The only significant vote against the proposal was from HM Revenue & Customs.
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SELLING THE CLUB – THE MELROSE FIASCO
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Part 1 of this sorry tale ended with the news that one bid was being progressed. No names were mentioned in Titley & Reeves’ reports. However, it was common knowledge that it was a consortium being fronted up by former Manchester City striker, Jim Melrose.
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So confident was he, and presumably the Administrators, that this would proceed to completion, that he was given free licence. He was instrumental in the appointment of Gary Ablett as manager, (Gannon by this time having taken the reins at Motherwell, and to boot, had taken Peter Ward and Alan Lord with him). Although a fine player at the top level, with both Liverpool and Everton, Ablett was totally inexperienced in terms of management in senior football. He had spent 3 years as reserve team coach / manager at Anfield. Melrose gave a number of interviews, having clad himself in a County training top, (with his initials printed thereon!), and there were tales of players being signed.
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The news engendered a bit of enthusiasm amongst the faithful and there were working parties to try and get the Manor Farm training ground, in Timperley, up to scratch. But there were three underlying and serious problems with all this.
Firstly, Melrose was unable to get FL approval for his consortium to take over; secondly, he was unable to reach agreement with Kennedy regarding the ground; and thirdly, which probably influenced the FL to a fair degree, he didn’t have the cash. This was evidenced by a statement in the Administrators Progress Report, (published on 26th November). It concluded by saying “… the sale fell away”.
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ADMINISTRATORS (LACK OF) PROGRESS REPORT (26/11/09)
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Obliged to issue a report after 6 months, Titley and Reeves produced one, which was published at Companies House on 26th November. It was little more than a tale of woe. It considered what they had done; where things stood, and concluded that they were still hawking the Club round, sweetening it with a sentence which stated “We are confident that we can now make significant progress to concluding a sale and have asked interested parties to formalise their financial proposals”. Which with the benefit of hindsight left us no further on than we had been months before.
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Two other things of note are mentioned in the report. One that everyone was aware of. Mark Maguire had been taken on by them to run the Club on a day-to-day basis. That news had led to much rolling of the eyes given that he was held culpable by the fan-base for the situation we were in. I don’t fully go along with that, but he had more than a degree of responsibility having been in at the start of the Trust’s ownership and then striking the David Farms deal. Presumably, Titley and Reeves thought that someone with a knowledge of the Club would be useful. I thought otherwise.
The second revelation was beyond eye-rolling. It was eye-watering. The report showed the fees that Leonard Curtis would charge. In the period from 30th April to 29th October they proposed to bill £314,511. A staggering amount and more than the outstanding debt to David Farms that had led the Club being put into administration!!
Put it into the context that in the same period they had operated a business which had generated £486k in day to day income, and had been obliged to sell players to the tune of £727k. As it turns out the eventual exit saw them writing off much of this, putting it down to an experience that I doubt they would be looking to repeat.
While all this was going on the new season had started. The Club was still in administration and Gary Ablett was in charge of playing matters. Whilst relegation that had been avoided, (even after the points deduction in 2009/10), it was looking odds on this time round. At the time the Progress Report was published in late November we were second bottom; had exited the Johnstones Paints Trophy and Carling Cup. We had beaten Tooting in the FA Cup. However, the 2nd Round tie, (at home to Torquay), was to be another demonstration not only of ineptitude on the field but also the impact of the relationship with Sale Sharks. We had to play it at the Moss Rose with EP being unfit not only for football but rugby as well.
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Previously: In Administration – Part 1 Next: In Adminstration – Part 3
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