Stephen Pearce...didn't get out of our club

[Gisby]

His book, when he decides to sit down and write it, will be a very interesting read. 

[kevinhectoring]

10 hours ago, PistoldPete said:

He was a Director, and a professional accountant. It was his job to stand up to anything that’s wrong. 

many accountants on here were saying the amortisation policy was fine  As were the auditors.    
Every board would be a revolving door if people did as you suggest.  

 

 

[PistoldPete]

10 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

many accountants on here were saying the amortisation policy was fine  As were the auditors.    
Every board would be a revolving door if people did as you suggest.  

 

 

I agree with all the finance professionals on this forum ( apart from that podcast guy Maguire  who visits occasionally), who all agree that the amortisation policy did not break any rule.  But if you are a Director you have duty of care that's more than just being an employee. Morris policies generally were risky ...even if the only risk was of having to write off players values Pearce should have been against it really.

 

[jono]

I suspect SP was told to “find a way” to make the figures add up. He did, and whilst it was legal in accountancy terms, it wasn’t in EFL terms, especially when goaded by the likes of Gibson.

Then .. and the real reason for the mess - was because MM didn’t want to underwrite further losses (created by his own ego) so he borrowed money against the club from the commercial equivalent of Wonga. In domestic terms he took out a mortgage that he couldn’t pay while he tried to sell the house - and predictably failed. 
 

mines a double hind site please ! 

[europia]

From the outside it doesn't seem plausible that during all the time Pearce worked under Mr Morris that he wasn't complicit in the financial mess. However, Mr Clowes appears to be a decent person running the club on an ethical basis, so it's only right to trust his judgement. 

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

May be he just enjoys picking up a tidy packet and a free comfy seat with the best view

[Guest]

23 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Maybe so, but I'd prefer someone in the post that was willing to walk away in the face of such a character and blow a whistle, as opposed to submitting and going along with it, ultimately helping lead us to disaster.

Blow a whistle on what basis?  No laws or rules were broken.  I have been in a similar position along with colleagues, whereby we were unable to overrule anything that the 100% owner of the company decided to do.  We had a duty of care to advise, and when required tell him we did not agree, but at the end of the day he could do what he liked within the law.  The possible scenario for SP was either put up or leave. In the end, he may have (rightly) thought that MM would eventually go, and he could be vindicated without leaving a job he possibly likes and was committed to.  In my case the owner was not going anywhere, it was a horrible position to be in - and I had to leave…

All of that is conjecture based on personal experience, but it is important to provide a possible alternative narrative to the “bad man that should have done more” theories..  We will probably never know what happened so we have to judge him by his actions moving forward.  I don’t think Mr. Clowes is anybodies fool, and he will have reasons to keep him on whatever they are..

I think we collectively need to stop churning over this, and enjoy our current feel good factor.  We are probably all now sensitised to financial issues due to how close we came to oblivion - so it will be natural for us to keep a closer eye.  I can’t imagine that there are so many fans of one club that know what amortisation and many other financial technical terms mean! ??

[DavesaRam]

1 hour ago, jono said:

I suspect SP was told to “find a way” to make the figures add up. He did, and whilst it was legal in accountancy terms, it wasn’t in EFL terms, especially when goaded by the likes of Gibson.

Then .. and the real reason for the mess - was because MM didn’t want to underwrite further losses (created by his own ego) so he borrowed money against the club from the commercial equivalent of Wonga. In domestic terms he took out a mortgage that he couldn’t pay while he tried to sell the house - and predictably failed. 
 

mines a double hind site please ! 

Actually the amortisation method wasn’t illegal in the EFL rules because it wasn’t in their rule book until early last year, as previously mentioned. 
 

It wasn’t until Mr McGoo stuck his nose in that the trouble started. And the method is common practice in the real world of business and commerce.

[jono]

8 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

Actually the amortisation method wasn’t illegal in the EFL rules because it wasn’t in their rule book until early last year, as previously mentioned. 
 

It wasn’t until Mr McGoo stuck his nose in that the trouble started. And the method is common practice in the real world of business and commerce.

Oh yes, no doubt in my mind that the EFL were unduly influenced. The end result may well have been the same eventually - we were on a slippery slope of our own making after all. Yet the EFL, instead of being honest broker were instead shown to be weak, ineffective and cowardly in the face of pressure from other parties with a conflict of interest. 

[DavesaRam]

1 hour ago, jono said:

Oh yes, no doubt in my mind that the EFL were unduly influenced. The end result may well have been the same eventually - we were on a slippery slope of our own making after all. Yet the EFL, instead of being honest broker were instead shown to be weak, ineffective and cowardly in the face of pressure from other parties with a conflict of interest. 

This all goes way back before the amortisation issue, and I have mentioned it in another thread. Mel upset the EFL when he challenged their pathetic negotiations of the last tv deal, including suggesting a breakaway league. That threat seemed to come to nothing, but in fact it did come to something, because it made the EFL set the crosshairs on us, and then wait to pull the trigger when the chance came up. Hence Mr McGuire sating "How about this for a target, eh?" That set the ball rolling, and then another of Mel's landmine plantings started ticking - when he stole Martin Waghorn from under Middlesbrough's noses, so now the curly one was also .............................. waiting.  And so it all happened. So no, if the amortisation issue hadn't arisen, the EFL would have just waited for something else, and that may still have been Steve Gibson's "doings"

[plymouthram]

On 20/01/2023 at 10:43, Alty_Ram said:

Interesting to see that Wigan only got a suspended points deduction this week (i.e. no deduction) for multiple breaches as regards paying players. To quote the EFL site:

"Wigan Athletic has received a three-point deduction to be suspended until 31 December 2023 after admitting to multiple breaches of EFL Regulations.

The sanction imposed is for failing to adhere to the terms of the Standard Contracts that were in force between the Club and its Players for the late payment of player wages on three separate occasions."

After the way they were dealing with Derby and then the intervention by MP's, I think Rick Parry and his gang have looked at being more lenient with other clubs. I hope they would'nt be with Middlesboro if they were in financial melt down.

[littleover ram]

To be fair he did score the goal in the 2007 play off final to take us up