{ the news }
 
An independent supporters' website dedicated to Mansfield Town FC
Archived News from January 2014

JOHN RADFORD Q&A - AN EVENING WITH JOHN RADFORD
10th January 2014 22:24


An Evening With ... John Radford, in the Sandy Pate Sports Bar, Monday 6 January 2014, 7.30pm

Full video available for StagsPlayer subscribers (71 minutes):
http://www.player.mansfieldtown.net/latest-news/article/3614193/date/20140110095200/page/0/name/video--an-evening-with-john-radford

Host Mark Stevenson. Around 100 people in the Sandy Pate Sports Bar. Standing room only.
Chairman John Radford arrived to a rapturous round of applause.

Mark Stevenson: (Some questions about John Radford's early years)

John Radford: I was hard work for my parents, I never liked losing at anything. I’ve always tried to do some sort of business, I’ve always been a bit of a wheeler and dealer, worked in a factory, sold ice creams, made pizzas at one point. As far as my childhood’s concerned, I had a happy childhood. Three sisters, one brother, I was the oldest, I tormented them something silly as Tina will tell you. I spent my first 5 years in Shirebrook. My dad was in the forces and got posted to Germany so I spent a few years in Germany, then came back across to Mansfield. When my dad came out of the army, we went to live in Oak Tree Lane estate. I have fond memories of the Oak Tree Lane estate. I've always been proud of my town and of the Stags.

Mark Stevenson: What are the ingredients to your success?

John Radford: In everything you do, you have to work hard. If you want to succeed in anything, you have to work hard in whatever you do.
I've always kept up with technology and been on the ball with it. I'm of the age where computers were just coming out, so I was quite sharp as far as programming and things like that are concerned, so that's really helped me along. I've spent too many hours in front of a computer screen crunching numbers and that really helped.

Mark Stevenson: Where were you before you purchased the club? You had opportunities to purchase it before you did.

John Radford: I don't think I was financially sound enough to purchase the club at the time. The guys [Andy Saunders et al] came in and they managed to keep it from going into total liquidation. So the timing for me was right when I came in. I was concentrating on growing the company [One Call], I had massive growth through the years of 2005 and 2010. The company doubled every year or trebled every year, so I was working very hard.

Mark Stevenson: when you did take over, what were your primary reasons?

John Radford: Like everyone in this room, I didn’t want to see our club disappear. At the time, we didn’t own the ground. And if I’d not got involved, I sincerely believe that this place would now be knocked down and Mansfield Town would have dropped down 4 or 5 leagues and would probably be like AFC Mansfield playing at Forest Town or something like that. And I didn’t want that to happen to the club. And I was able to save it at the time. I looked at it, we were a million pounds in debt, the guys had done everything with their heart, and I was able to help them out, sort out the debt and eventually win the ground back. I never thought I’d be able to do that but I’m really pleased that I was able to do. I was pleased that I was in the right place at the right time.
I’ve made mistakes. I’ve made contractual mistakes. But my heart is totally with this club.

Mark Stevenson: What mistakes have you made?

John Radford: When the club was in liquidation and the guys were, as Steve [Middleton] will tell you .. their backs were against the wall, I should have made them sign away that they had no come-back on me. Because Perry has .. every penny he put into the club, he has taken back out. At that time, they’d have signed any piece of paper saying “yes, we know we’re dead in the water, we know we’ve got a million pounds of debt. We can’t financially pay out, thank you very much and we’re not going to take anything from the club”. I wish I would have done that. That was one of the contractual mistakes.
On managers. Possibly yes. Sacking Holdsworth. I had to pay him off 2 years worth. I regret having to pay him off for 2 years, not regret sacking him. He never got another job, he just kept copping the money off me.

Mark Stevenson: If, god forbid, you were to pass away tomorrow, what sort of state would the club be in?

John Radford: It should be in reasonable state. It’s getting better and better every month. It still needs finances putting into it. On the accounts, we targeted a £40k loss between July and now, and we’ve actually made a £197 thousand loss. But that then starts to become achievable. Included in that £197 thousand loss, we’ve had quite a bit of development in the ground that you see going up, our training ground issues have been a problem.
But I’m putting things in place so that it’s a sustainable business. And that’s what I intend to do. And I don’t want to leave the club vulnerable. I don’t want to leave the ground vulnerable again. I want to make sure that this football ground is secured no matter how the club gets sold, sued or whatever. I’ve secured the ground, I’ve secured the stadium. [Applause]

Mark Stevenson: Those figures don’t sound sustainable, if you were to go tomorrow. If you were to leave tomorrow, this club would be in a real mess, would it not?

John Radford: Have you passed your car test by the way? [Laughter] What I mentioned, since July to now, a £200 thousand deficit, look at the bar you are sat in now compared to what it was before July, look at the fact that you’ve got the floodlights back up across the road, look that you’ve got the 5-a-side pitch there, look at the fact that we’ve got Woburn Lane now, this time next year that will be developed and it will one of best training facilities in the area. I go through the figures with Paul Broughton, with Steve (Middleton), yes I think it’s sustainable. But by the end of the season/next season, it will be a lot better. But I’m ambitious and I want promotion, so that sometimes causes me a few problems.

Mark Stevenson: In your own head, are we ahead of schedule?

John Radford: We’re about on schedule. We’ve had a setback in some areas, but we’re on schedule of where we need to be. If you’d asked me 3 years ago if we’d have been in league two, I’d have said it would have been a hard thing to do as it usually takes 5 years. So I am on schedule, definitely.

Mark Stevenson: You’ve said your primary ambition is to get us to the Championship. Realistically, how quickly do you want us to get there?

John Radford: I’d like to be in League One next season if I could. I’m going to get a little bit of grief from the manager I guess! I’m not happy where I am in the league at the moment at all.

Mark Stevenson: Has promotion passed us by, realistically, this season?

John Radford: My manager has the third highest budget in this league. I’d expect to be in third place.

Mark Stevenson: That’s a fact is it, you know that for a fact?

John Radford: That’s a fact.

Mark Stevenson: Bearing that in mind then, what has been your mindset for the past 3 months barring the last 3 results which have been positive, what has been your thought process?

John Radford: I’m looking at what’s best for the club. If we’d lost the last 3 games, I was dreading coming here and getting probably a hell of a lot more grief than I’m probably going to get. But as far as my thought-process is concerned, it’s now a case of steadying the ship. Good managers don’t become bad managers quickly, as Darren [Shaw]’s told me on many occasions. The games we’ve lost, it’s been little tipping points. Now at the beginning of this season, how many people would have told me to sack the manager?

General answer: nobody

John Radford: So that’s where I was. At the time, people were saying, sign him, make sure you sign him for 2 years. There were other clubs coming in for him. He’s a sod! This is all going on film, so he’ll see this! He struck while the iron was hot, to make sure he got a 'reasonable' contract. It’s not a contract that is unsackable, or anything like that, and no-one’s job is secure Stevo (laughter).

Mark Stevenson: Thank you chairman.

John Radford: If changes need to be made, I will make changes for the best of the club.

Mark Stevenson: That was never disclosed at the time was it. When did that happen?

John Radford: [Can’t make out answer]

Mark Stevenson: Why was that never disclosed?

John Radford: Because sometimes you ... sometimes you don’t want to make a fuss about it. I wanted to keep my cards quite close to my chest and see what happens as far as Paul’s development. I still think he is a reasonable manager and he can keep us in this league. But we’ll see. It just wasn’t. Perhaps I should let you publish that now.

Mark Stevenson: Yes I’m sure it will be making its way onto the internet as we speak. What is your relationship like then with the manager?

John Radford: It’s ok. It’s fine. I fall out with him if I’ve lost a game. I don’t like him for 48 hours. I know if I have a 10 minute meeting with him it becomes 2 hours. I don’t like some of his choices of players. What hurts me is some of the players that we’ve signed for long term contracts and they never get on the field. That hurts the club financially. It’s not all roses between me and the manager but he is doing a good job and he does listen to my guidance and I let him play his team on the field, but I have to set rules. And this is just coming with the 3 years experience that I’ve had. The first year, he could do what he wanted, and now it’s getting tighter and tighter.

Mark Stevenson: You are tightening the reins then?

John Radford: Yes I’ve tightened the reins on the manager just a little bit.

Mark Stevenson: In which fields? In what aspect?

John Radford: Well last year you come to this time of the season, and he wanted to sign every Tom, Dick and Harry. And it’s a case of: you’ve got a team there that can do well. And probably reasonably the same things this year. I said no to him, which I’d not really done. So I’ve learned to say no to the manager and no you can’t bring that person in.

Mark Stevenson: How much interference do you have in terms of .. do you get involved in team selections, do you get involved in what players you think should be brought in?

John Radford: Absolutely not, no. That’s not my job at all. I don’t tend to know enough about football to get really involved in team selection or anything like that, that’s his job, he’s played professionally and he’s doing it 24 hours a day. My job is to make sure the finances of the club are right and support the club.

Mark Stevenson: Just how much backing will you give Paul Cox in this January transfer window?

John Radford: We’re in discussions at the moment. I don’t know. It’s an awkward one. Because the recent results, we’ve got 7 points out of the last 9, before that it was diabolical. The thing is if you bring lots of players in, you’re upsetting the players that are in that position, if you bring a right back in, the current right back’s not going to like that is he. I think the team needs gelling the team down personally, but Cox does have a bit to spend.

Mark Stevenson: In summary then, what is your aim for this season?

John Radford: As I said, I’ve got the third highest budget in this league. I want to get promoted. But I definitely don’t want to get relegation and I don’t want to be in a relegation battle.

Mark Stevenson: Let’s end this section on a positive note, what would you say is your biggest achievement to date, chairman?

John Radford: Well, Hugo was born the other day. [Applause] We only got an hour’s sleep last night so I’m coming in to the work for the first time today .. so I’m really tired. Biggest achievement as far as the football club is concerned is getting us back into the football league. And second to that, getting the ground back.
Just one other thing before we got to the break. There’s been rumours of other directors coming into the boardroom, and the boardroom does need other directors. I’ve brought Andy Sutton into the boardroom, [Applause], along with Steve Middleton, Paul and Tina. He’s going to get involved with communication between the football club and the local area, MPs and things like that. Mainly because I don’t get to spend all my time in Mansfield and he has a lot of time to get involved with that, along with Tina and Paul, so he’s going to be Communications Director. . [Applause]

Mark Stevenson: Andy, can I just get a quick word with you now, as my new line manager! [Laughter]. Sutty, what were the reasons for you personally getting involved?

Andy Sutton: The main reasons I've joined the club is to help it move forward with Woburn Lane, to develop that, to work with the council and the planners. My immediate priority will be the Woburn Lane training facility project, and to make sure it is up and running as soon as possible. It’s on a big slope, so my main job is to get it level and get the football pitches up and running.

BREAK

Question, Trevor from Sky: Do you think Paul Cox is the man to take us any further? He has done a very good job I must admit, and you are a very loyal person.

John Radford: I’d have changed my manager 5 or 10 times now if I was easily swayed. It was just over this time last year when there were signs outside the ground saying “Cox Out”. You have to hold your nerve a little bit. Who do I replace the man with? The team is just starting the play, the last few games, as a team. We started the season well, and that really upped our expectations. My expectations have always been high, so there’s a lot of pressure on the man, and there’s a lot of pressure on the players. But my straight answer to you is Cox is going to be here until the end of this season definitely. [Applause]

Question, Steve Danby: You’ve got the ground back from Haslam. But is there any chance that he could get it back, by any means?

John Radford: Yes he could. I bought the ground for x amount of pounds. I spent 3 or 400 thousand pound on legal fees to start with, because we thought we had a right to take the ground. But we couldn’t prove that. So then we had to go down the route of buying the ground, and I got a reasonable price for the ground. But he did put a covenant or a debenture on the ground, that if I was to try and develop it or turn it into flats or whatever, he would get half the profit from that. And that debenture stands for 20 years or 17 years. There is a 7 year pay-off which has got 4 years left. Because when I bought the ground off him, I didn’t pay the whole amount up front, I paid £500 thousand to start with and then the rest over a period of 7 years. Payments every March for the next 4 years. That’s being done in the background to pay off the outstanding debt because you can’t get a mortgage or anything like that on a ground like this. So yes, he could, if I stop making the payments. Or he could take half the profit if we change it to anything other than what it currently is and I’ve no intention to change it from what it currently is. He wanted to make sure if I wanted to turn it into a retail park, he would get the profit from that, but I’m not going to do that, so it causes me no problems at all.

Question: How many dirty nappies have you changed?

John Radford: I did the first 10 nappies.

Question: One of the things that many are dissatisfied with is an apparent hoofball? I think it probably does affect attendances. Do you have any influence on the type of player or the style of football that we play?

John Radford: Oh God I’d love to see it kept on the ground and passed around. But the thing is we got out of the Conference with playing that sort of football and we started this season reasonably well by playing that sort of football. Speaking with John Ryan at Doncaster Rovers, he took them, with a few managers, from the Conference to the Championship, and he said to me when you go from the Conference to League Two, there’s not too much you need to do, your team should be able to get you in the top 7 position and get you into League One. There’s not much to need to do at that stage. But he says when you get to League One, that is when you’ve got to bring some guns in and some boys in who can keep the ball on the ground and can play pretty football. But in this league, there is a chance, I’m not saying we should continue down that line, but there is chance you can get promoted with this not so pretty football. It probably keeps a few fans away, but I’ve always had said to me, you get back into the league, the fans will come back, you get the ground back, the fans will come back. I want the fans to come back. I need 4000 in here every week to make it break even. I want to be top of the league and I want to be getting the fans back in, so I agree with you but I don’t think if you change the style of play that it’s going to bring too many fans back into the ground. And the manager plays that style of play which is not so pleasing to the eye, I’m afraid.

Question, Steve Danby: Last July we had a fantastic time in Malta? How are the plans going for ..

John Radford: Yes it’s been sorted out and you’ve pretty much nailed the dates down, haven’t you?
Paul Broughton: We’re down to within two or three dates.
John Radford: So hopefully by the end of this month we can let everyone know the dates.

Question: Are we going to get a player in for Matt Green because we haven’t got a goalscorer.

John Radford: The manager’s given me a few options at the moment. It’s people that’s scoring goals, isn’t it. See, I’m out of my remit now .. Clucas, how many goals has he scored this season .. 10, 11 yes? We have the potential already within the squad. It’s having a regular team out there that will make the difference. Green was getting goals all the time but in the first few games he didn’t get the goals to start with did he?
He[Cox]’s taking a bit of a chance on the young boys at the moment, with Palmer and Sam. It’s a fine line. I’ll upset Coxy if I say who he’s wanting bring in .. He’s wanting to bring in .. Managers are very cautious people and they want to bring in someone that has had a track record in the league. But finding someone who’s had a track record in the league, in recent years, in the last season, and getting them to this club, is a hard thing to do. If they are scoring goals they tend to stay where they currently are. So then you’ve got to look for some of the younger boys to come through who have got potential. I, as a chairman, am not happy with us bringing in a 35 year [old] striker who has not played for the last year. I shouldn’t really say that to the camera, so take that bit out. He hasn’t showed me anyone that I would be happy with at the moment. Sometimes it’s better the devil you know.

Question: Do you feel as if you have the finances to get us to the Championship or beyond?

John Radford: I’d be very happy if we went beyond the Championship! My Mrs thinks we can do that! I’m going to try. I have to run budgets. I’m over budget at the moment. The problem is I own the company and my directors give me budgets and I’m busting the budgets at the moment. We’re bringing other directors on board now and I’ll always talk to people to come and help with the finances of the club. It would be nice if we could get a few more to the games. People say to me why don’t you reduce the tickets by half. If I halve the price of the tickets, I don’t get twice as many people in, unfortunately. We’ve got activity down here now, that’s why the bar’s open now, we’ve got a 5-a-side going, I’m trying to make it as active as I can to get the fanbase back up for Mansfield Town football club.

Question: Why does Paul Cox come on the radio at home matches saying we played the better football, because from what I’m seeing we’re playing absolutely rubbish football? I don’t know what game he’s watching.

John Radford: I don’t think I should be slagging my manager off in public. The points he’s earned per game has been good if you go back over the last year, his average point ratio has been good. He’s had this bad spell as a manager. I can think of a few games even where we lost where we played pretty football. But we seem to be winning games playing the long ball. Things are changing steadily.

Question: Is there any truth in the rumour that John Ryan may become involved with the club?

John Radford: It’s just total speculation. John Ryan is a big Doncaster fan, so I don’t think he would want to put money into Mansfield Town. He’s spent all his money on Doncaster Rovers.

Question: Why do we not sell tickets on the day to away fans in the North Stand?

John Radford: This all comes down we wanted to get our safety rate up and we want to get a relationship with SAG (Safety Advisory Group). That is happening throughout the league. This is also influenced by police. I think occasionally we have allowed fans to buy them, but we don’t advertise it. It’s because we don’t want a big police bill. Our police bills are the same sometimes as Forest, we get the same category games as Forest. You’ve got to keep your cash bills for the police force down. It’s a long term process to try to get the North Stand back. But in the short term, that’s not going to happen. If it’s an all-ticket game, we can argue we know which fans are coming because, for example if we’re playing Exeter, they’ve got to buy the tickets down in Exeter, so we know for arguments sake there’s 105 fans coming so we don’t need 50 bobbies in front of them. If you don’t know that information, the police can say well Exeter have got some hooligans coming up and 1000 fans and we will bill you for 50 or 100 bobbies. It’s having the information before the game starts.

Question, Alan Wilson: Has Hugo been signed up to the SSA yet?

John Radford: No, but I’m sure he will be.

Question, Alan Wilson: What are the more detailed plans about Woburn Lane?

John Radford: It’s going to be an exact copy of our main pitch. And I’m sure we’ll make it so you can go and watch the training if you wish.

Question, Pete Thompson: What are your thoughts on standing at football stadiums? And can you have a think about somewhere for smoking please?

John Radford: Bishop Street could be a standing area, but it’s not at the top of our priorities at present.
Paul Broughton: Smoking: It’s something we’re looking at, but we need to agree this with SAG (Safety Advisory Group).

Question, Christine Buxton: [inaudible]

John Radford: At the start of the season, we had one of the biggest squads. We’ve got a few players who are on two year contracts who we’ve not used, so as chairman, I do get a little bit annoyed about that. But, Paul has his habit, at this time of the year, of turning his squad into team, and hopefully he can do that, and he’s under a lot of pressure to do that. All I can ask you, as chairman, is to give him a bit of slack. And I know how frustrated we all feel when he loses 4 or 5 games on the trot. But he’s here for this season, let’s bear with him, let’s give him our full support and let’s give our boys our full support on the park. [Applause]

Question: The style of football is atrocious. The worst I have seen in 52 years. Are you happy with the style of play that the team use?

John Radford: There’s not much out there with a good solid recent history. I’d love it to be pretty football and I can honestly say that there’s quite a few games that I just don’t enjoy because of the way the football is played. We started the season reasonably well and it is starting to get better. We are starting to gel as a team. It’s a results game, football, isn’t it. At the start of the season, everyone wanted Paul Cox. Halfway through the season, with hindsight, we can all grumble and we can all moan, about the style of football, but last season that manager got us out of the Conference with that style of football. And that style of football can get us out of this league, and so I’ve got to let him run with that. I think the second half of the season should be really good for us. So what I said earlier, please, Cox is here till the end of the season, support him. I sympathise with you over the style of football but let’s hope it gets better and hope we get into the play-offs at least this season.

Question: Since we’ve been having these “Evenings With”, all the players have said that Micky Moore has made a big impact since he’s come back. Who was instrumental in bringing him back?

John Radford: I spoke to Micky Moore last season. Paul Cox did need extra people on the training ground, and Micky Moore was doing reasonably well at Nuneaton so it was obviously myself and Paul Cox. I’m not going to take full credit for it because Paul wanted him back as well. He’s doing very well at training at the moment and getting shape and everything, and that should start coming through on the pitch.

Question: When we won the game against Cheltenham, how did the club react?

John Radford: I think the boys .. it was like they’d won the FA Cup

Question: Have any senior players visited you John to discuss football matters over and above Mr Cox?

John Radford: Yes.

Question: Was Micky instrumental in bringing Adam Murray back from Worksop?

John Radford: They made up [Adam and Paul]. Adam needed a bit of game time. I’m glad it fixed itself. Adam is instrumental to our game and is a good voice on the pitch. I don’t think Micky was too involved with that.

Question: You’ve mentioned Paul Cox playing some players and then not playing them again. Do you think Paul Cox is too stubborn for his own good?

John Radford: Yes. But that’s his job, he’s the manager and I have to let him get on with managing the football team. He did a very good job for us last season and the season before. He’s had a bit of a hiccup this season but it seems to be coming back round again. I think he is stubborn and he’s knows that.

Question: If you could pick your first eleven, who would that be?

John Radford: (laughing) I’ll put it up on the website for you, I’ll go through it with Stevo [Mark Stevenson].

Question: Who is your all-time favourite Stags player? Mine is Chris Greenacre.

John Radford: I quite liked Kevin Bird. I’d say Rodney Arnold. [applause]

Question, Alan Wilson: You’re after this 20 goal a season striker. How many players would you have to get rid of, to get that one in?

John Radford: Calvin Andrew was supposed to be that person. You tell me the name of a player that last season scored 20 goals and would actually leave their club to come to Mansfield Town. It’s finding that player. Don’t get me wrong, Calvin Andrew is a good player, things just didn’t fall right for him. So … how many, I’d say it is a 1 in 10 situation, so you are signing 10 to get 1.

Question about Bishop Street

John Radford: To just go and develop Bishop Street would be a little bit silly. I’ve got more important things to spend my money on at the moment: making sure I’ve got the training facilities, and making sure we’ve got a squad in place to keep us in this league and get us promoted.

Question: Is Calvin Andrew still at the club?

John Radford: Calvin Andrew has left the club.

Mark Stevenson: That will be announced tomorrow. Technically his contract expired today so that’s the reason for the communication lapse.

Question: Is there any other contract news?

John Radford: Coxy’s looking at a couple of players. And we’ve got a couple of players that we are making it known that are available to go to other clubs. Ryan Tafazolli has also signed a new deal, he’s got two years with us now. The players that we’ve got out there to go out, what I’m not prepared to do is let them go to other clubs in the same league as us who might be causing us problems, so I have blocked a couple of moves unfortunately. But that is just to protect the club as I don’t want players going and helping another team in the same league.

Question, Darren Shaw: John, you were the chairman of a Conference team, and you are now the chairman of a Football League team. Thanks for taking is back to the Football League. [Applause]. What are the main differences between being a Football League chairman to a Conference chairman?

John Radford: We get a lot more coverage now, you don’t have to go and buy the Non-League Paper anymore, the wages are more and the away fans are better, and we go to better grounds. It’s a lot better, it’s a lot more privileged to be a Football League club chairman.

Question: If you could choose any player to sign for Mansfield, who would it be?

John Radford: Messi would be nice. Rooney would be nice. Van Persie would be nice. I would say, if it’s one player, probably Giggsy. The span that he’s played and the effort he’s put in is a great example. Ryan Giggs is my player.

Question: What was the reaction from your counterparts at the Spireites when you cheered our coaches?

John Radford: Their boardroom was so hostile towards us unbelievable. There’s no love lost between us. We were polite with each other. Let’s hope we can take another three points off them.

Question: You said that the manager is here until the end of the season. Is that the dreaded vote of confidence?

John Radford: Football’s a funny game. He has got my vote of confidence.
I really do hope the football gets nicer looking, as well as getting the points as well.
I appreciate the amount of time you guys spend supporting this club and the effort you put in every weekend. I do appreciate all my season ticket holders, all our supporters. As chairman, I want a few more in. The club is in a lot better shape than it has been in the last 10 years.

transcribed by Martin Shaw

-------------

Stags chairman backs manager Cox for the season
chad.co.uk, 07 January 2014

Mansfield Town chairman John Radford has thrown his weight behind Paul Cox by insisting his manager will be at One Call Stadium until the end of the season regardless of Stags’ final league position.

http://www.chad.co.uk/sport/mansfield-town/stags-chairman-backs-manager-cox-for-the-season-1-6356667

During a night of revelations at a Question & Answer session held at the club on Monday evening, Mr Radford revealed that the Stags’ boss had signed a new contract at the beginning of the season, but did not disclose the length of the deal.

Cox was under pressure from supporters after a recent run of 13 games without a League win, though that pressure has eased after the side took seven points from their last three games ahead of this Saturday’s home clash with League Two leaders Scunthorpe United.

Answering frankly to fans’ questions, Mr Radford also announced that the Stags had the third highest wage budget in League Two this season.

Speaking about Paul Cox, Mr Radford said: “He is here until the end of the season, so I want fans to support him.

“My expectations are high and there is a lot of pressure on Paul and the players. His average points per game as a manager is good and I still think he is a reasonable manager who can keep us in this league.

“We started the season reasonably well, and (despite a bad run recently) we are starting to get better.”

Local businessman and lifelong Stags’ fan Andy Sutton was unveiled as the club’s new communications director.

Mr Sutton will be tasked with liaising with local authorities to enhance the club’s training areas for the first team and the Stags’ expanding youth academy.

Mr Radford also reported that, although the club had budgeted for a £40,000 loss between July and the present date, that deficit had increased to £197,000 in the red.

However, he said the shortfall shouldn’t be a cause for alarm as expenditure had increased due to the renovation of the Sandy Pate Sports Bar, the new five-a-side 3G pitch at the side of the stadium and other key improvements made to the ground last summer, which were essential to fulfil Football League criteria.

Mr Radford added: “We all want success for this club and I appreciate the time and effort the fans give to this club. The club is in a lot better shape now, certainly than it has been in the last 10 years.”

-------------------


 

Latest | January 2014