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The meeting today with Rob Lloyd was welcome, even if by necessity it shone little in the way of light on any possible future under his regime.
Clearly he is not yet ready to offer detailed plans. After the litany of broken promises we have endured in recent months, years and decades, this is to be welcomed. For, as one fan told him, “you realise no-one here believes a word you are saying”, and any promise is simply another statement for cynicism to grow on like mould on cheese. He was savvy enough to realise this, and held himself in check, no matter how he was pushed.
Lloyd is a self-assured man but managed to avoid being cocky. Under intense pressure he refused to deviate from his line, which was all about taking control, stabilising the clubs finances and getting it operating as a business, before looking for ways to increase revenues through marketing, commercial opportunities and increasing capacity. He stressed there were no well-developed plans in place simply because the discussions with supporters, local authorities and other partners had not happened yet, and it would need some real working with the numbers in order to work out how to do it.
All that is positive. He was less forthcoming as to the identity of his high net worth individual backer. He said he hoped to make it clear when the club was under his control, but did not commit to this. Potentially, this raises the odd question as to the Fit and Proper Persons Test which, if it does anything, is supposed to tell us who the clubs owner is. Not that it has been too red hot on that score yet in our case.
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Another positive was that he was surrounded by a group of Pompey based advisers, in Lester Anderson, Brian Ross and Mark Mudie, all season ticket holders at the club and the people who have sold its potential to the investor.
Lloyd deserved the round of applause he got at the end, having gone into the lions den and lived to fight another day.
The one really clear promise he made was the one we needed to hear. No-one from any previous regime will be allowed to stick around. There will be no refugee executives hiding in the trophy cabinet, no mysterious links to the same old names.
After the weekends headlines in the Mail on Sunday this can only be a good thing. The sight of Peter Storrie asking the permission of Danny Azougy to pay Willie McKays bill is another reminder of a past we could well do without. The sight of our CEO asking a fraudster for permission to pay a bill to an old colleague sums it all up. If it is true that Storrie was being paid win bonuses, and I have no way of knowing whether it is or not, then I despair.
We simply have to move on from this awful, slow-motion car crash. The remnants of the past must be swept away and a new start achieved.
Whether it will be under Rob Lloyd and his team we don't yet know. If it is, at least these would be people we could hope to do business with. If it isn't, then we have to hope that whatever else a new owner can promise us, a completely fresh start is top of the list.
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