The crisis at Chester continues

Well it's been a while since I updated this blog, so I thought it only right to give it another update considering a lot has happened in the last month!

What has happened exactly?

Well since Jimmy Harvey was brought in, on the field things have improved, aside from the last couple of games, where City have gone down to defeats to York & Tamworth, the Blues have picked up points and for the first time in 99 games managed to win back to back games, in fact they won 3 in a row!

Off the field though, the drama continues, firstly, the Conference issued a deadline for Chester to have paid their football creditors, and the deadline passed without payment, however the Conference & Football League both saw fit to give an extension to today's date, November 16th for the debts to be paid.

In the middle of all that, City Fans United, the new Chester City FC supporters group, designed to try and unite Chester fans, was officially launched, and already having to deal with the possible loss of the club, and thinking of a future, possibly with a new club.

Following that, the news then broke that Stephen Vaughan had been banned from acting as a Company Director for the next 11 years, following his involvement in a "carousel fraud", which the club advise has no impact on them as Vaughan stepped down as a director in 2007, possibly aware of what was to follow further down the line.

It does have an impact though as Vaughan cannot be in any position, where he can affect the running of the club, and we all know he has 100% shares in the club, under the conditions of the ban, he can only have a maximum of 30%, so it's likely that he will sell his shares on to another family member, or indeed the chairman, Ian Anderson.

If he was to pass the shares on to one of his sons, then it would surely be questionable as to whether Vaughan had stepped away from the running of the club.

So, back to the November 16th deadline, yep, today. Well we have now found out that the Conference have extended the deadline (again) to November 30th, which many will complain about, as it gives Vaughan another reprieve, but in actual fact it may be part of an attempt to take Vaughan out of the equation, as his ban kicks in, in just 9 days time.

So, the future of Chester City FC is still uncertain, and the life machine is to be kept on for another 2 weeks, after that, well see what happens.

New Manager in at Chester City

6 days following the sacking of Mick Wadsworth, Chester City have announced their new Manager as Jimmy Harvey, the former Morecambe manager.

Harvey comes to the club with no ties having departed from Forest Green Rovers in the summer after he was sacked for applying for other jobs despite being Rovers Manager at the time.

It's Manager number 11 in 8 years under Stephen Vaughan's stewardship, which to be fair, has been rudderless in recent years, and with the current crisis of the projected loss of £660k, it remains to be seen just what Harvey can do about the club's perilous position.

Will Harvey be allowed to spend any money on players, or does he have to make do with what he's got, which right now, is a paper thin squad of average players who cannot achieve back to back wins in the last century of games.

Harvey must be allowed to bring players in if he & Chester City are to stand any kind of chance of surviving, not just the drop, but also out of football altogether.

The fans will welcome in Jimmy Harvey to the role, but will be sceptical as to whether it will make any difference.

Good Luck Jimmy.

Chester MD says 6 weeks to live!

The future of Chester City Football Club is once again thrown into doubt, as the Managing Director of the club, Bob Gray, has blamed the club's current financial problems on the lack of investment and says that the club is facing closure if no investment comes forward.

This is in total contradiction to the statement that Stephen Vaughan (then owner, and possibly still owner of CCFC) put out last year, saying that he could fund Chester City forever, yet now, his muppet of an employee Bob Gray tells us the opposite.

It's clear as daylight that Vaughan is just running the club into the ground, posisbly hoping that the Council remove the lease on the club's ground, which could eventually make way for the purchase of land at the Deva Stadium, where Vaughan could possibly end up making money, but that is only a suggestion.

There is a lot of dirt attached to the Vaughan family, the fact that he screwed Barrow a number of years ago, taking them into administration, and nearly putting the club out of business, then turning his attentions to wrecking Widnes Rugby League club, by once again taking them into administration, and most recently of course, putting Chester City into administration in the summer.

We had hoped that would be the end of it, but no, Vaughan, somehow fixed it for the administrators to choose his son's bid to own the club again, which was based around the debentures on the club he had, and once again got to own it, claiming that it was a fresh start, and City would despite their sudden lack of a licence, go and achieve a top six finish - if it wasn't so cringeworthy, would be laughable, but there is not many smiling at the Deva these days, in fact there's not a lot of anything at the Deva these days.

Vaughan has singlehandedly ripped the heart of the club, and right now it's on a life support machine, struggling to tick again.

There appears no way back for Chester's long suffering fans, who are now facing the closure of the club they have supported for most of their life, in fact the history of the club goes back 124 years, and now it's all set to come to a close - unless Vaughan sells up.

One of the interested parties is John Batchelor, who has fronted a bid from Gillico, a company, who we have now found out, have been part of the bid to buy Chester City for £1.5m, however this has been much scrutinized and it turns out there is a possibility that Red Bull could be involved in a sponsorship, that would mean a name change to Red Bull Chester City, something that would be again, laughable.

Is there no end to Chester's dodgy owners?

It seems not, but unfortunately, there seems only one way out right now, and that's to hope Vaughan sells to a local businessman who has got the interests of the club at heart, and is prepared to keep professional football in Chester.

Vaughan it seems is just intent on wrecking every Chester fans' life right now.

VAUGHAN OUT

A new low for the Blues

Following on from last night's 2-1 defeat to Forest Green Rovers in the Blue Square Premier League, it finally became a reality that we will be playing Blue Square North football next season, as City blew the chance to move to 11 points breaking even following their 25 point deduction at the start of the campaign.

Sunday, Chester were brilliant in the derby battle, chasing Wrexham players down as though their life depended on it, last night however, was a complete contrast, and City found themselves just letting the Forest Green players carve them open at every available opportunity, with City failing to keep the ball when they did manage to get in possession.

This is a new low for City, and under the rudderless stewardship of Stephen Vaughan, the club is sinking quicker than the Titanic, and will do well to even get out of negative points, certainly before Christmas, if not the season.

Something has to give surely, as City owner, be it Stephen Vaughan, James Vaughan, Stephen Vaughan Junior - oh what a farce it all is, continue to oversee the lack of players coming in, and witnessing a City squad now down to just 15 players, it's all a sad cry from years gone by, most notably in the Harry McNally era, when he would have demanded so much more from his club.

Harry will be turning in his grave seeing Chester where they are now, it is all down the Vaughan Family, they have posioned the club to the degree where the fans are just simply giving up, knowing that their hard earned is not being invested in the team, only making the vaughan's empire wealthier by their donation of £15 each game.

Something has to change, Vaughan should walk now, before he finally kills off Chester City Football Club, which right now feels as though it is dying, and a sad day for all City fans is coming ever close.

Go now Vaughan.

One month on...still no change

It's been just over a month since I posted on this blog, so time for an update following the stormy summer that was had at the Deva Stadium.

Well that stormy summer has now turned to an awful Autumn, as City maintain their place at the foot of the Blue Square Premier League table, thanks to the 25 point deduction handed out to the Blues before a ball was kicked.

Sure, it was always going to be hard to pick up the pieces after that deduction, but the fact is the current squad are not good enough to get out of the hole they find themselves in.

City are 23 points away from safety, so in theory, only 2 points better off than they were when they started the season, which is hardly the barnstorming start that we needed, but in reality, none of us really expected.

The job Mick Wadsworth found himself in should be renamed "Miracle Worker" as the task is certainly an unenviable one, but so far those miracles have been hard to find.

A point at Luton was the high point in the first four games as City found themselves up against the fancied teams of the League, in Cambridge, Oxford, Luton, and Mansfield, which by anyone's standards was a difficult line up of games to have, especially when you're desperately in need of points to survive.

Chester since then have improved, but with a record of won 2, drew 2, lost 2, as they defeated both Histon & Gateshead, drew with Altrincham & Eastbourne, but fell to defeat against Tamworth & Stevenage.

So, if the Blues had not been deducted the 25 points, they would actually be sitting three places clear of the relegation zone by now, and not firmly rooted to the table.

Despite the tally of 9 points gained this season, the fans have continued to drift away, probably quite predictably, as most are still extremely unhappy that Stephen Vaughan remains in charge of the club having guided them into Administration in the Summer, following his reluctance or inability - call it what you like - to ensure last season's transfer embargo was lifted, which basically put pay to any chance of staying in the League last year.

The final straw for a lot of Blues followers came in the match against Histon, when James Vaughan returned to the club he left Australia for, without any official statement to say he had re-signed, and went straight into the line up alongside his brother Stephen, who had made very little contribution to the team, bar a good performance at Luton.

During that win over Histon, the substitution of Stephen Vaughan was met with resounding cheers, possibly more so than when the goals went in - fans had decided enough was enough, they want the Vaughans out of Chester City Football Club.

The cheers or jeers, proved that fans can have an influence on team matters, as following this game, manager Mick Wadsworth decided that the two Vaughan brothers, needed to head out of the club on loan, and Stephen went to Northwich Victoria, and perhaps an indication of just how little he is rated, is the fact that he has made only one appearance as a substitute in his three games at the club.

The last game at the Deva on Saturday saw the fans behind the goal, who normally stand, sit down such was the lack of enthusiasm in the ground - the owner has certainly played his part in stripping the club of its heart and soul, and many have now become so dis-interested, they have stopped coming, and may not ever return, hopefully if there is a change of management at the very top, we may see some come back, but the damage could already have been done.

So, still not happy times at the Deva, hopefully the pain that Chester City fans have experienced must be amongst the worst football fans could have seen.

Chester are granted affiliation

After what seems the longest running saga in the history of the game, Chester City have finally been given the nod to get their season up and running.

The FA have just approved City's application following their meeting with the Football Conference.

There is still a debate over the points deduction that was made against the club by the Conference, which will still fuel debate.

The bottom line is though, that Chester City are back in action again, and for that I'm thankful - now to find a new owner that will take this club back to respectability.

The support for CCFC gathers

Ahead of tomorrow's meeting between the FA & the Football Conference, the Chester City fans are looking to highlight the club's plight in front of the national media at the Deva Stadium.

Blues fans will be wanting to show that the club deserves a licence to play football, and that the supporters will not let the club die easily.

However, the club's supporters are also adamant that they are not in favour of Stephen Vaughan obtaining the club again, but accept that the licence needs to be granted first, and then the bridge needs to be crossed to discuss future ownership of the club.

Either way, the FA & Conference will hopefully thrash out a deal for crisis club Chester at their meeting tomorrow.