It’s been a dreadful season for Maidstone United and relegation back to the Vanarama south looks like more of an ‘if’ than when for the Stones, we had a chance the chance to sit down with Chief Executive Bill Williams to discuss the season and the plans for the club.
It really was a pleasure to sit down with Bill, he is one of those people who you could just sit down with and speak about football all day. Just over 50 years since Bill first stepped through the doors at Maidstone I can honestly say you’d struggle to find many who are more passionate about the club than him.
To say my chat with him was interesting would be an understatement, this really was a great deep dive into the club, the mindset and the plans moving forward for the Stones.
We started our chat by discussing the failed investment deal with the main sponsor of the club Alan Manchett. It’s fairly well known that this deal was pretty much done when it fell at the final hurdle but this isn’t the only investment deal that has been proposed to the Stones over the years.
“It’s not the first offer we’ve had over the years we’ve had about three what I would call genuine bidders come in, and we’ve had a few others that were just con-artist really they just came in and wasted everyone’s time, they had no money and the usual stuff you get a few of them in football”
“But we’ve had three genuine offers and the last one was obviously from Alan Manchett who everyone knows is a huge supporter of the club”
This deal, was very public and was even announced to Stones fans but unfortunately fell at the last hurdle, this deal was so far progressed that Manchett had met both the staff and the players at the club to discuss his plans, but Bill also wanted to make it clear that the deal falling through wasn’t anyone’s fault it was just one of those things that happen in business.
“In Alan Manchetts I won’t say in his defence because that wouldn’t be the right words to use but he had got his plans, he spoke to the staff here, spoke to the players everyone knows that.”
“He was going to invest so much money into the team and he was going to turn the whole commercial side round and we were all up for it but it didn’t happen and it’s just taken us a few weeks to come to terms with what Terry and Oliver have still got to do with this club because they are the owners they are the custodians and what Bill Williams can do with his last little throw of the dice as he goes onto another life”
“We find ourselves in a position we’re we thought we were all going, and there was going to be a change but that like all business transactions, like when you’re going to sell your house it doesn’t always work, there’s a little pitfall, theres something wrong with the small print, there was no huge problem with the ownership and Alan it was just the small print wasn’t right and it didn’t happen”
The fallout from that deal falling through, hit the ownership and management team fairly hard which is to be expected after working so long on a deal for the last hurdle to be the stumbling point.
“So, I think it’s taken nearly five to six weeks which has been a huge problem for the ownership and myself to get our heads back on in the right position and say look how are we going to stabilise this ship and start rebuilding it”
“Because now it’s fallen back into our laps where we thought we weren’t going to, it wasn’t a big sigh of relief because we would all be sad to leave because we all love the club, it’s not a case of we don’t love the club but we’ve come to a junction where we’ve taken it as far as we can”
He also shed some light on the need for investment into the club, specifically at the time that they were speaking with Manchett about his investment proposal.
“When we was in trouble and speaking to Alan (Manchett), it was the perfect time to change ownership. I think I’m my opinion, it may be different in others and it was very close because it needed invest at that time into the team”
“It’s needed 4/5 really good players similar to what they’ve done over at Gillingham, and I hate to use them as an example but their the nearest example, they’ve taken a wad of money, slapped a bit of cash or the table and that’s what we needed to do but as a club we weren’t generating that and as owners we didn’t have that money to give”
Bill went onto address the fan reaction to the deal falling through and the backlash received on social media.
“In life, everyone is entitled to their opinion but if you’re going to have an opinion and have a strong opinion you must know the facts”
“I don’t mind you know anyone calling me a **** or a ****** or a ***** like they do, but what gives them them the right when, it’s the only profession in the world where the fan thinks he’s got that, I don’t know that ok note to say I can call the owners and that what I like without knowing what’s going on”
He also went on to dispell the notion that the owners just want the money out of the club.
“No, nobody wants the club for money you can look at that in companies house”
“They’ve never taken a penny out themselves they’ve got it to this certain level were its now a freehold they’ve got the extra land, nobody knows what this club is worth, I don’t know and we’ve never bother to find the worth, but I’m telling you in about five years time it will be worth at least ten million”
“It’s a very good club and yes if someone was to come in they should give them something back for it, all these fans out there let me put this to them they’ve bought their house and whatever that cost may be they’ve paid 200,000, 300,000, 400,000 half a million pounds if they are in this area for it and somebody comes along and says I’ll give you 50,000 for it your never going to take it, now I’m not saying that’s what happened here with Alan Manchett it hasn’t it’s more than that”
“Everyone as a supporter thinks the ownership should just give it away because it suits them”
“The two owners, now I can’t speak for them but I can speak for myself were very disappointed that the change over didn’t happen when it was needed, but in fairness they’ve had a rethink and resit down and they will again underwrite this club”
It’s refreshing to hear a Chief Executive speak so openly about the goings-on of the football club and I hope that his message will help to further explain the situation at the club and why that deal fell through.
We went on to discuss the progress of the club under its current owners and how as above without further investment the club has come to an impasse where it needs further investment to keep going upwards.
“I think I agreed with you that we are most probably a National League south club I hate to say that because I was hoping that I would leave this club after all the years I’ve been in here, I took them into the football league well I was part of taking them into the Football League, I was hoping that my swan song would be taking them into the Football League but I wasn’t able to achieve that”
“But the club it’s a simple thing we have to some how, even if we run exactly as we are now under the same ownership who are good honest men, who are the best custodians you will ever ever have of a professional club, no doubt about that I don’t have to kiss their backsides I’ve been in football all my life, these are two men who will not let them fans down or let them lose a club or get it into a state where they could lose it”
“Now where we are if we want to progress we have to find more money in our trading year but year and now when we’ve done that we will then be in a position to go back to the National League and say all the mistake we’ve made we won’t make them again and we are now able to compete financially”
It’s pretty clear, that investment or an increase in revenue is needed at the Stones for the club to progress on through the National League and onwards to the Football League.
Moving on in our discussions we talked about this season which has been one to forget for Maidstone and what exactly went wrong, Bill puts it down largely to the recruitment side not going right this season and not being able to afford the wages being demanded by some targets.
We also discussed why it is important that they get it right next season to ensure that the Stones don’t find themselves on a slippery slope down the leagues.
“I mean it looks like we’ve given in, I lay awake in bet trying to get the formula right in my mind of what we can do to survive, it’s always come down to money, the players we’ve identified the players and they want more money than we can afford”
“Cause that is a reality (Falling down the leagues) Weymouth is an example of that, you can get loads of examples, you have to be very very care you don’t get on that slippery slope as you say”
“I think that it’s as soon as we announce the manager he’s got quite a bit of time left in this season you know to make sure he keeps the right players who he thinks are going to be able to perform at the top end of the division and he should have enough time to recruit the five/six players that he needs, but I think it is going to be down to recruitment”
“I think we have to give our fans the type of players we’re they go oh yeah it’s going to be ok and they will then buy their season tickets, come and support use, but we must give them something but we have to create a winning side”
“There’s been a lot of discuss of if we are to change at the club and go a little bit more towards that Premiership and Championship model of having multiple people around the manager such as Director of Football so on and so forth assisting in the decision making, not it hasn’t be decided but it is a thought process”
“There’s not one manager, recruitment manager etc that has got every one right, we all make mistakes it’s about capping those mistakes, see why this year, we’ve had players, well Hakan, I like Hakan and he is the last manager we’ve had he in good faith every player he signed he really believed they was going to step up to the plate, but a lot of them haven’t stepped up. It’s been a really really bad year of recruitment and nobody is blaming anyone for it because that happens”
“You know it’s happen to use all, it’s happened to Jay (Saunders) where everything he touched worked and another year everything he touched didn’t work, but it’s so vital now that you get the right players in”
Following on from this, the question on most Stones fans lips was around the manager and if caretaker boss George Elokobi is going to get the position full time or if someone is going to come in to take his place.
“George has been offered the job, he is thinking over it but I can tell you that we’ve interviewed six people for the role and we are taking a change on all of them”
“But if you look at managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho etc someone must have taken a chance on them at some point”
The club are seemingly not looking to rush the decision on the new manager and happy to let the potential options have a real look at the project and make sure it’s right for them before making anything final.
Bill and I finally went on to discuss his role moving forward with the club and the fact that he will be taking a step back from the day-to-day running of the football club to focus more on football.
“Someone new will be in this office in the next 3 days, they’ve asked me to step back and focus more on football and that suits me”
“There’s many things I’m not good at but **** me an I good with football, there’s top professors in the world and I think I’d be right up there with them”
“I’ve loved every minute of it, I mean I can’t tell you over the years 50 years I can’t tell you what a wonderful time I’ve had, but it’s been a huge honour”
Finally, Bill had these final words for Stones fans
“Yes I think it’s been very very difficult it like last year was special this has been difficult I’m certainly not going to apologise for anything because everyone at this football club I know does it for the right reasons we haven’t gone out there with any reason other than to win the league or finish high up the league so but there’s nothing to apologise for I just feel bad and I know the other two directors with me feel bad that we haven’t achieved what we wanted to do in this league we are going to be here Erm for next season and we hope that we don’t lose any support at all we’ll be doing it the same way that we do and have always done make sure that the club is in very very safe hands we will be trying though to throw a few more incentives out there and it will most probably be thrown at the fans again to try and support us in some way maybe a lotto or bring a friend or do something as there the only people really who can keep us going so we’re here we’re fans like all off you and we’ll do all that we can to try and win the National league south cause that’s were I think we’re going to be”
Writers View
I mean this 100% that was possibly the best experience of my life, to speak to someone so passionate about his club and about football was simply incredible.
I do genuinely believe that all of the owners and Bill have the absolute best interest of the club at heart and will only sell when the right man comes in.
It will be a very sad day when football losses Bill Williams for good. Bill thank you so much for speaking with me and I hope to do it again soon!
