Where do Stockport County go from here?

To say I am surprised would be an understatement. I am shocked. I left Edgeley Park at 9pm last night when we were 3-0 down as, quite frankly, I had seen enough.

But to me that is no reflection on Jim Gannon or the current crop of players. Yes the results are not good enough. Nobody has said they are good enough or acceptable. But Jim was working with his hands tied behind his back and blind folded at the same time.

In the programme Jim talked about how he had 18 players to work with plus a few lads on work experience – is that good enough? We are a professional Football club and we have just 18 players.

One of the first things that came out about County was that the board had taken the decision to NOT have Medical Cover to save us around £25,000 this season. I personally do not find this acceptable for a Professional Football team not to have this cover. The excuse we have been given is ‘we are not Football League anymore and we need to stop thinking we are’. Lewis King was injured against Southport on the 1st December. He went in for his operation on the NHS on Monday 14th January – this was after it was brought forward a week. We are paying players whilst they are injured and not even in recovery.

Alex Meaney suffered an injury. Help the Hatters signed a cheque for £1,750 so that Meaney could have his operation done privately. County took this money and spent it on something else. Not his operation – as Meaney still had his operation done on NHS.

So far in January we have lost Euan Holden, Paul Turnbull, Danny Rowe, Cameron Darkwah, Demi Omoboye, Andy Graham, Ben Say and Sam Mitten. We are also on the brink of losing Danny O’Donnell. This is 9 players off the wage budget. I am not saying we should have 9 players in, but this must create space to bring in 2 or 3 first team players? We have brought ONE in and that ONE was paid for by Help the Hatters and RESB who also paid for the loan of Connor Jennings.

The next issue is the shares. The Gibbons decided they were selling their shares and publically stated that, attracting interest from the Supporters Co-Operative and RESB who wanted to get on board. The shares were worth circa £25,000 but in realistic terms they are worth nothing. We have no assets that are worth anything except the players who we could probably get a maximum of £100,000 – we also had a talented manager but he has been sacked. Instead Mr Vann who we have not seen or heard from in the last two years decided he could find £25,000 to buy these shares DESPITE not being able to put any money in to boost the playing budget of Stockport County. Why does Mr Vann want these shares? What are they useful for? What is he getting out of getting more shares? Is it to stop outsiders getting involved and finding out what is going on? The board are more than happy to accept money from outsiders for players yet when it comes to putting money up themselves they are no where to be found.

Next thing. CEO – appointed yesterday. Ryan McKnight. A ten minute interview appears on Youtube with Pure FMs Pete Liggins. He talked about long term vision, he used the term ‘County’ rather than ‘Stockport’, he said all the right things. Not ONCE did he mention Jim Gannon or how he wanted to work with Gannon. This seems like it has been planned for ages.

After the Woking game our Lordship Mr Snape came out on Pure slagging off Gannon and the team. Last night somebody at half time shouted to Snape ‘get your hands in your pocket’. Angrily Snape reacted ‘Its his team’ pointing at Jim Gannon. He was ushered off by Spencer Fearn and into the board room no doubt to work out a plan of how they can get away with this.

There are numerous other things that can be said but they are just a small example of how Jim had his hands tied and what he was actually working against. He was working against a board who were not prepared to back him but were prepared to distance themselves from him. All the wrong messages came out since the beginning of December.

Who do we bring in next? Some names that have been mentioned Gary Lowe, Martin McIntosh, Tony Hancock, Micky Mellon, Gary Simpson etc.. all names that would come in. In reality the board want a yes man and someone who is prepared to work with their hands tied and do what they say. The best thing to currently do with Stockport County is think of somebody, think of somebody else and it is usually someone that didn’t even enter your mind.

Comments are welcome as this is all my opinion but the facts I state above are true and come from the club themselves or people that have physically gave money such as sponsors and Help The Hatters.