The Supporters Trust in line with its objectives of transparency, communication and involvement to represent the views of its members would like to clarify its position over the appointment of Steve Thompson as Team Manager at Notts County.

The Club Board agreed to a sub-committee being formed to source, interview and recommend candidates for the vacant managerial posts. This sub-committee consisted of the Club Chairman Jeff Moore, Director Howard Wilkinson and Chief Executive Geoff Davey. This course of action was supported by the Trust Supporter Director. The sub-committee have been working hard in the past few weeks to bring the right man to the Club. During this time the Trust sought suggestions from its members as to the qualities that they required in a manager. The response to this request was one of the largest received to date from Trust members and a list of the submitted thoughts and comments were collated and passed to the sub-committee for consideration. High on the list of desirable qualities was a successful track record at this or higher levels within the Football League. An Evening Post article last week suggesting various candidates for the post has resulted in additional comments being received by the Trust in relation to specific named candidates.

After much consideration the sub-commmittee submitted a recommendation to the Club Board. The Trust Supporter Director made the Trust aware of the recommendation. The Club Board, on which the Trust has one Supporter Director, makes the final decision. The recommendation was for Howard Wilkinson to take a lead role in determining football strategy and guiding the Team Manager. The Team Manager was to be Steve Thompson who had been selected for his motivational skills and his knowledge of players at this level and in particular his ability to build a team at short notice.

Whilst it was not feasible to solicit the views of all our members about the appointment, the vast majority of those who have made their views known have expressed concern about the possibility of Steve Thompson's appointment (message board/email/phone calls/in the street). Whilst supportive of the Club's intentions to put together a strong management team headed by Howard Wilkinson it was not possible for the Trust to support the decision.

Once we were informed that Steve Thompson was the preferred candidate for the Team Manager position the Trust Board made its concerns known to Club Chairman Jeff Moore. Many of these concerns relate to a previous turbulent time when Steve Thompson was Team Manager along with Colin Murphy. It is clear that many Notts fans still view this period as a highly traumatic one. A delegation from the Trust Board met with Jeff Moore and he outlined his beliefs that given the current situation at the Club with respect to budgets and playing staff, Steve Thompson was the best choice for the role. The Trust Board expressed their deep concerns about the appointment given members' requests for a proven record of success and Steve Thompson's previous record with the Club. The Chairman reiterated that he believed that given all of the circumstances, Steve Thompson was the best choice available. The Trust Board made clear that they could not support the appointment and would be asking its Supporter Director to formally give notice of this to the Club Board.

The Trust have called for some time for a strengthened Board and are fully supportive of their work to restructure the Club. Given the feelings of supporters over Steve Thompson and the Trusts role to represent its members, on this one decision it is not possible at this time for us to give our support to the appointment of Steve Thompson. This is based on the feedback from our members concerning the qualities they would like to see in the new appointment, the recent track record of Steve Thompson and the fact that the Trust wanted an appointment that all fans could rally behind. We have though fully listened to the Club's position on why they have settled on the appointment of Steve Thompson and welcome the fact that the Club will be explaining this to fans. As the decision has been taken by the Club Board, we hope it is the right one and Trust members will be the first to applaud the Board should things turn out well as we all hope.

Having strongly raised our concerns, been listened to and given full opportunity to express our viewpoint the Club Board still believe that Steve Thompson is the right man for the role of Team Manager. While the reservations remain having taken a chosen selection route and employed executive officers we respect that decision and will move forward together.

Thanks Stuart for the clarification of the role of the SD/Trust Board in the appointment of Steve Thompson.

I am very disappointed with this mornings news but am pleased that the Trust have not just blindly followed the rest of the Club Board and listened to members' views/reservations.

Dave

Just to add...

On this morning's BBC Radio Nottinghams Breakfast programme Jeff Moore refused to say how long ST's contract is for.

Is this the same Jeff Moore that called for transparency and good governance when he was appointed Chairman of our club?

Dave

...

Is Howard Wilkinson also tied to the club for three years? Will he sit in the dug out during games?

I was looking at Steve Thompsons record at Cambridge 04/05 and prior to his appointment they were receiving about a 25% points return till New year after which I think Steve took over and acheived a 33% points return an increase of about 32%.

Aparently he's a good coach and motivator.

So the Club have took a huge risk... bigger than what I was prepared for.

The Test of the boards commitment to the future of notts is not this decision itself but how they support it with signings.

The real test for steve is to be challeging from the get go. That will silence his critics for awhile but there is NO BREATHING ROOM, NO EXCUSES, NO "IT WASN'T OUR DAY". We must shoot out the starting blocks we need some emphatic victories or else that three year contract won't be worth much.

btw is the three month clause included?

Whoever made the decision to bring Jeff Moore to the club has a lot to answer for. Even to me the club seems to have been in self destruct mode since he came in. If that is not the case, it is still the impression and that is almost as bad. The guy could redeem himself by giving the supporters some clear idea of his vision for the club but if he won`t even reveal the length of the new managers contract that`s unlikely to happen is it.
Have to say I`m laying the blame for this fiasco (recent PR failings, the appointment of a manager who is less popular than Tony Blair) squarely at the feet of the Trust. A couple of years ago at the AGM we were told that we would be increasing our shareholding to 40+% and that we were looking to increase the number of Supporter Directors. We are now in a position where we are still at 30.2% and have only one out of nine directors. We can, and evidently are, being ignored. How has this been allowed to happen? Did the Trust have any involvement in bringing JM to the club?

Not normally one to suffer from a knee-jerk reaction but currently have an enormous headache due to banging my head against the table several hundred times this morning and getting this off my chest has helped ease the pain.

On another thread, Keri wrote

quote:

Finally, a vote of all Directors will be taken before the appointment is announced.

Did this vote take place? How did our SD vote?

More questions

How was the decision to make Howard Wilkinson de facto manager of the football side of things reached and/or ratified? Reading the Trust statement it appears that the three man committee reached the decision, but there is no mention of even any discussion of this decision by the club board. Can the process of this appointment/promotion/demotion please be explained and will Howard Wilkinson be receiving a salary for his efforts?

In an ideal world this information would come from the club, but I'm not holding my breath.

While I'm about it, this doesn't smack of "good governance."

Can you tell I don't have a lot of work on?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phil Marshall,

I'm sorry what does this mean?

Much more relevant

Why are "Next Accounts Due: 30/04/2006 OVERDUE"