Relief. Mary Gibbons today tendered her resignation after an ongoing, quite bitter feud with a section of the County support.
Gibbons, ‘acting chairwoman’, released a statement on behalf of herself and husband Tony, who has also resigned as a Director, today stating that she was issuing their resignation with ‘considerable regret, and with immediate effect.’
This statement, issued at 1.50pm on Wednesday, 18th May, 2011, will be presented to all Stockport County shareholders at 2pm before the start of the shareholders meeting.
It is with considerable regret and sadness that I have decided to resign my position of vice chair lady of Stockport County, with immediate effect. I have, along with my husband Tony, also resigned as a director of Stockport County with immediate effect.
We would like to thank all those supporters who have loyally backed our club during this particularly difficult season. Relegation has broken all our hearts; we share the anguish it has caused – not only for the fans but also for all those wonderful people who work so tirelessly behind the scenes. We particularly thank them for their loyalty.
County’s future now rests with the other board members, who we urge to act in the best interests of the club at all times.
We are fully aware of on-going discussions that we believe will secure the club’s future and provide an exciting foundation on which to rebuild County. We urge the current board and shareholders to do everything in their power to bring these discussions to a positive conclusion. Tony and I will remain County fans, and look forward to being able to watch the club we love prosper in the coming years. It has been a privilege to work for such a wonderful club and it will remain an honor to stand shoulder to shoulder with our wonderful fans next season.
Mary Gibbons
One does have to say…finally. The tension between the supporters and the Gibbons’ was becoming somewhat personal and angry over the 2015 Consortium’s error-prone tenure in charge of The Hatters, and she appears to have listened and gone on her own terms.
Vital Stockport ourselves have been critical of the ownership, and I make no apology for wanting the best for our club – but I’m glad she has gone on her own terms, and I sincerely hope we see both Mary and Tony back at the ground as fans next season.
But in terms of running the football club, I think it’s safe to say we’ve had enough ‘well-meaning amateurs.’ Let’s do this properly, appoint a good (ex) manager, and build from the bottom. Our problems are not over, by a long way. But let’s give ourselves a chance.
ANIMO ET FIDE.
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To all those who hounded Mrs Gibbons out of office, I hope you are all very proud of yourselves!!! Well done – perhaps one of you will want to put your money and effort where your mouth is and try running this sorry excuse of a football club yourselves. Through her own hard work and personal money she saved this club when chancers like Melrose were sniffing – dont forget that. Another sorry in the chapter of Stockport County FC ends – anybody out there interested in taking over? Dont think so. All that remains is for Parasite Kennedy to get his revenge and wind the club up before he buggers off to Salford! What a sad mess, what a fiasco – what next!! Oh! I read in the MEN that Gannon is hots on favourite as next manager – rough times ahead!
Rylester, I think over time there will be some stories leaking out about these past few months which may paint things in a different light ! Anyway, it is all about the future now. Gannon in as manager and shareholder do you think? If so there is going to be one almighty shake up. All we can do is hold on tight and hope for the best!
Ah yes rylester, of course we forgot that the Gibbons’ were so perfect. How about the time that they asked a major sponsor for £25k to pay the wages, he agreed with the condition that he be placed on the board of directors, Mary Gibbons agreed and then changed her mind, yet still tried to cash the cheque anyway, and then rang him up and screamed at this major sponsor for ten minutes about it being all his fault that the players weren’t going to be paid, and then went on to email the playing and working staff and tell them it was the sponsor’s fault that they weren’t going to be paid! Oh, we conveniently left that bit out along with all the other horrendous errors they made, did we? JUST BECAUSE THEY SAVED THE CLUB DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE IMMUNE FROM CRITICISM. I can’t put up with your Gannon hatred either.
I didn’t want to start getting involved with arguing about the Gibbons again and slating them, but if people are going to stick to that “THEY SAVED THE CLUB YOU CAN’T SHOUT AT THEM” line then I’m going to respond. They’re gone. Move on.
To be fair, I think a lot of the dirty linen will be aired over the next few weeks but today I am breathing a sigh of relief tinged with a little fear about what comes next. We could be out of the frying pan and into the fire of course!
scfc sam – no Gannon hatred implied, stated, intended or otherwise but look at the facts – sacked by his last 3 clubs after he walked away from County – Great CV that! Please dont assume that because I dont think Gannon returning would be for the best that any hatred is implied!!! Naievety and lack of experience was maybe the Gibbons biggest fault and they certainly are not immune from criticism but the constant hounding and belittleing of the woman is pathetic at best, childish at worst.
ps. Just ask the Vale fans opinion of the man, how he conducted himself, what he achieved, his relationship with the board players and supporters and remember – I dont recall Christ making a return – yet!!!!!!!!!!!
You are right Rylester – any appointment of Jim is fraught with risks. He may not get another job in football if it goes belly up with us.
Ok people let the blamemongering begin Who did what to whom and when? Seriously why are we on this site? ’cause we all are County daft and that to me is the common bond. Ok so we’re in the **** but bitching amongst ourselves is gonna get nobody nowhere. I will put on record that I would like to thank the Gibbons for all their efforts, a little naive perhaps but the intent was for the good of the club. I’m not a Gannon hater but I have to agree he is not right for this club. He worked miracles for this club for which all the real fans will be grateful but he’s had his day and as you say his CV doesn’t make good reading. I’m still hoping Ray Mathias comes good in the interviews as after the last couple of months I believe he is the right man for the job but then again I’m not on the panel. That’s my tenpennorth but we as fans have to stick together for the common good of this football club. We may not always agree with each other on decisions others make but we have to be solid. At the end of the day there is still a club going by the name of Stockport County so come on guys let’s all sing from the same hymn sheet.
yeh but gannon is better than any1 else we can get. PERIOD. and he has some accountancy skills to help us stay on budget. Lincoln have just released that they will be 500k down over a season due to loss of revenue from the football league and that is the same with us so i pray for gannon let him do it his way and we might have a good time in blue square premier.
Have to disagree with you b2ksamos, Mr Gannon seems to be a little self righteous. Look at his last three clubs. I once heard the quote “My way or the highway” and that didn’t only apply to players, anybody who upset Jim got to know about it in no uncertain terms. I respect what you are saying but have to disagree.
Vic – you are spot on. There are also other things I’ve heard about Gannon, which have not been reported, that makes me not want the man back at the club. If Mathias wants the job, give him a shot, I think if he had the job from when Wardy was given it, we’d have stayed up.
Thanks for your efforts Mary you did your best for our club and good luck to you.
I personally never liked Gannon (even when he was doing well for us) and it seems many of you guys feel the same, we can’t all be wrong can we?? I so hope he doesn’t come back, his last three jobs have been horrendous, look at how many players fell foul to Gannons “my way or the highway2 mentallity” look at players that seemed to want away from the club when he was in charge the likes of Owen, Rose, McSweeney, Dicker, etc etc apart from Owen the players mentioned are all playing at a higher level at the moment. No one from outside the club know’s what is really going on and we all have opinions but for me I dont want to see Gannon back at SCFC, however we have to remember that he did get results when he was at the club so it may be a good thing if he did come back.
I liked Ablett, I like Wardy, but they didn’t do it for the club so I would sooner see someone there I dont like who is successful rather than someone there who I like but is ultimately unsuccessful, hope that makes sense.
Re above message…..Sorry was thinking we were still in league two as even Owen is playing at a higher level than us now
I know where your coming from Edgeley re which league we are in. Penny wont fully drop till the players cross the line for the first game or when I look at the league tables in the paper.
For me Gannon should not be appointed. He did us some good last time he was here but he did more damage in the way that he conducted himself. The same must be said with the clubs that where he was appointed and then left after arguments.
I am not sure if this has anything to do with it but Gannon has today come to an arrangement with Port Vale over his pay off. So now he is free to look for new employment, I just hope that it is not at County. There are better managers out of work that know what is required to get us out of this league. Lets hope that the current board take this into consideration with the applications that they have received. I would have thought that the first thing on the agenda would be to bring new investment into the club by means of new directors. Those people should then make a board decision on who gets the managers job. Why do we always do it the wrong way round. I know time will not be on our side but I am sure it is best to get things right at the beginning rather than having to change again half way through the season. Lets hope that all this happens sooner rather than later.
Didn’t know about the Vale pay off. Very interesting. The word I am hearing is that some bookmakers have closed the County next manager book. Gannon was favourite at the time. On balance I would have Jim back, his contract needs to be iron-clad, the owners need to be strong and Gannon himself needs to realise this could be his last job if it goes belly up. I added a poll in the forum to test the water as I know people are split on this.
Sky sports news says that that Vale and Gannon have resolved the money issues so maybe that frees him up to join us. I know he has his moments but i would happily take them if it means were back to winning games again and being a competitive side!!!
Gannon is an excellent tactician with some really quite radical ideas on how to play the game. This has been stated many times by proffessionals in the game. More mature players find this hard to deal with. whereas younger players no no difference and he gets the best out of them. You only have to see how well some of the young players he brought on are now doing. His major faults is his inability to see anyone elses point of view, he calls a spade a spade and some people dont like it. He was exactly the same as a player, take no prisoners. Football is littered with successfull managers who insist their way is the only way take it or leave it. As for coming back to County I do have concerns but on balance I think I would like to see him back. I think he could build a good and successful young side, I also think to start with at least his appointment would substantially increase the gate.
Nobody’s disputing what he has achieved for this club and for that we are all grateful but, his track record since then, here, Motherwell, Peterborough and Port Vale says it all. 3 months and his rattle goes out of the pram. With where we are now we need someone who is totally committed to County not someone who sulks the minute someone disagrees with a decision he makes. No I’m sorry Jim’s time has gone, Give Ray a chance new blood etc but it’s got to be done now. Has anyone heard how these interviews are going? because as per usual it’s deathly quiet from upstairs