Quote: Gurus_Beard "I wonder at what stage in his smokescreening and intricate, web of lies, is Mr Hood going to admit the core reason behind the debt surfacing in the last 2 weeks?
At what stage will he admit that it is a huge VAT bill dating back two years that has lead to this shambolic mess?
At what stage will he stop falsifying spurious claims that HMRC are becoming in some way merciless in collecting monies owed. They're not. They are in the business of negotiation as with any creditor as any tax mitigator explain and undertake on the clubs behalf.
At what stage will Mr Hood admit that by naming the season tickets "memberships" he felt that no VAT was payable in the last 2 years of pledges and consequently being responsible for the current shambles? (That he even thought that possible is laughable and indicative of his narcissistic, yet ironically naive, nature)
At what point will he simply admit he is thoroughly incapable of running a shower, let alone a professional sports club?
At what point will he not realise how clumsy it appears, having stated publicly that he and Bennett could secure the bank overdraft at least "ten times over", that not making up the £480,000 to £500,000 between them (yes a whopping £20k!) knowing it would a) bring an air of positivity to a Saturday morning announcement and b) provide a huge level of comfort to fans if not creditors? That they haven't illustrates the level of the problem.
At what point will Mr Hood think fans are stupid enough to believe HMRC would issue a Good Friday bank holiday deadline, that is then magically forgotten about by all parties?
At what point will Mr Hood think we are all even more stupid to see how the deadline shifts to suit his own mantra from 5pm Good Friday to "post reconciliation of crowd/attendance figures" at 10pm, to Saturday morning to post Easter weekend to account for bucket collections? This was always going to be a live and evolving figure. He knew this prior to the initial announcement.
At what point is he going to HONESTLY admit that he knew all along the ground lease sell to the RFL was simply to facilitate a debt from a six figure loan (twice) from the governing body and they made no unexpected demands on paying it back "early"
At what point is he going to admit, the overdraft withdrawal had genuine reasons behind it and it wasn't merely RBS toy throwing to irritate the club and instead was based on their solid commercial analysis?
At what point is he going to admit his series of catastrophic errors and simply step down from the burning decks?
At what point is he going to address the huge elephant in the room that the overall figure is far greater than he admits?
At what point does he feel offering and making public domain, new contracts for Whitehead and Bateman 4 days prior to the huge debt announcement makes any commercial sense given the likelihood of the club going into administration? All contracts would be subsequently null and void and with vultures circling (rightly) in the form of Warrington, Leeds, Hull etc, no transfer fee would be obtained and hence simply adding by definition of increased salary payments, to the overall debt (salaries which incidentally it seems you can't pay this month).
At what point is he going to respond to Chris Caisley's public suggestion one way or another? At least saying "erm, no" would illustrate he has a backbone.
The fans, sponsors, staff and players have never at any point deserved such blatant smokescreening, lies and contempt he has shown. Nor does him cow towing, nodding and aligning himself with Eamonn McManus and Neil Hudgell's critique of the governing body, in any way, mitigate his shambolic handling of a once great club.
This is a sad, sad mess, created by a Chairman with business sense more suited to Greece. It's time for you to do the honourable thing. Leave. Because we all know you won't ever be honest.'"
1. Don't you, in your obviously much more informed position, think that this is the wrong place to be asking these questions, we are after all merely fans here.
2. Can I claim my £5.00 please as I know who you are, I can then happily take it to Odsal and hand it to Peter Hood myself with your best regards.
