No idea. Difficult to see him having less though.

I don't have an agenda. I'm just puzzled why you might think that two very public projects involving significant third-party partners could be just 'bluster and spin'. Surely the partners would have spotted that?

2 very significant projects that never proceeded due to withdrawal of both parties?

Thought the second one folded due to a change of policy by the Council?

Can't recall the exact details of the first one but didn't the University pull out due to some disagreement or other? The NHS were still up for it though and were partners in the second project.

So why did the council and the university drop out? The boulevard one was pulled under the previous council administration. I'm not expecting you to know the answer BTW, the same as I don't, however if there had really been the will there to build a training facility then I believe it would have been built or at least underway by now.

there was a will on FC's part, but the Council decided to play politics with the whole thing and the funding was cut by the time decisions were made, I am as critical as you Jake of the previous board in some aspects of their management, but I honestly believe they were trying to improve things, maybe not as vhemently as they should have, but the intent, imho, was there.

I'm sure they didn't want things to get worse but, like I said, they lacked the vision to see what could be achieved and therefore none of it ever got done

I think that is a bit unfair, remember the board didn't really function properly, Kath was very much in charge and the others were more "invested supporters" than actual decision makers, I know for a fact it was the Weatherills that forced the sale to AP, I hope we end up with a shared training facility with City, it seems a bit of a nonsense not to.

I'm sure we'll have the much needed training facilities fairly quickly now that pearson is in charge. I always like the weatherills and thought they were the most capable of taking the club forward

For me, Costello Sports Stadium has always been a good choice. The infastructure is there and with a little bit of investment it could be the ideal venue. It plays host to occasional track meetings and school end of term sports days but other than that the outdoor arena area only seems to be used by the athletic club for training.

What a great interview and bring on next season and the following seasons.....next season maybe too soon but after that.....watch us go.

I'd love to know what really went on on the board over the last few years.

Sounds like Pearson made a bid in 2002, but at this point the balance sheet was crud so guessing there'd probably have been a pretty low valuation at that point. After 2005 we started to turn in a profit (quite a big one in a couple of years), and supposedly Kath turned down prospective bid(s) as being too low. After some years of stagnation, Pearson rocks up with £3m which the Wetherills persuade the others to accept and implies a split board in terms of ambition. So sounds like they acted in the club's best interests and that, applying a conspiracy theory, Kath would have been happy to have kept us "in our place" (behind Leeds Rhinos) and to continue to collect a chairperson's salary. If all this comes off, therefore, and we re-emerge as a decent team under Pearson, maybe we should build a statue to Wetherill as the unsung catalyst of change.

Quite possibly. Would have liked to have witnessed the negotiations though. Wonder where we would be now had Pearson's 2002 bid been successful?