Hi Dave. Hope you and the lads are well man?forevertufc wrote:Completely agree with Andy's sentiment. I do not want to come across as if, I'm insulting Thea Bristow's generosity, or integrity, however, I'm not going to insult the intelligence of Thea Bristow either.
This suggestion that Thea, was some how this simple old lady that whilst chair of TUFC, did nothing but sit at home cuddling the cat, whilst watching endless episodes of loose women , waiting dutifully for Conan to ring up and dupe her out of another bundle of cash, is in, itself both cruel, evil and insulting.
Thea Bristow would have attended board meetings, would have agreed with and signed off on the decision making process, Thea played her part in the appointment of a done nothing, know nothing,no contacts, no chance of ever keeping the club in the league or getting it back there manager, Thea played her part in preventing the current board from taking control of the club in March, which would have enabled them to put many of the fix's there having to do overnight, in place in a reasonable time frame, immunity not granted.
Whilst I'm personally grateful for what the Bristow family did for this club and always will be, it needs to be said, and Mattpuma was right to do so, he only said what, trust me, many are thinking, and perhaps to scared to say.
I wasn't directly having a pop at your post so apologies if it came across as that. I think you make some good points about the level of involvement Thea had in boardroom wheeling and dealings. I paint her as, like you describe, a simple old lady who loves cats and frequently signs cheques blindly to buy shite footballers on the recommendations of two blokes, one most famous for nearly running over a squirrel and the other for being called 'Tarzan' whereas you are of the opinion that she was a little more aware of what was going on behind the scenes than people think.
Well she certainly sanctioned much of the spending but it's ludicrous to suggest that she actually instigated the processes to acquire AK and CH as well as a near full playing squad of duds. An analogy which may explain my view is this. I win Euromillions. I win 15 million. I opt to become a racehorse owner as I love horse racing so I approach a trainer. As it's the south west i'll plump for David Pipe. So I approach Mr Pipe and tell him i'm on the lookout for some decent racehorses for him to train so he goes to the sales and buys several on my behalf. He's an experienced trainer so I trust his judgement. I sign the cheque, he knows his onions and he buys the nags. The horses all turn out to be equine versions of Billy Bodin, they run about a lot, are wonderfully groomed and turned out but they're losers. Is it my fault that I have put all my eggs in one basket in good faith and trusted the opinions of others? A bit naïve perhaps yes but I don't see how in that instance, I could be held accountable for the bad judgement of those who were there to run things. Likewise with Thea.
She was 'advised'. She wasn't the decision maker. Others made the decisions and she trusted those decisions. Others probably said that CH was the perfect fit, an old legend, cutting his teeth, with plenty of 'supposed' contacts and determined to be a success. Oh and relatively cheap too. I can't imagine Thea sat at home going through all the pro's and con's of such an appointment. Like I said, naïve but nothing more serious than that. She let the others do all the 'homework' and to make two humongous mistakes without impunity. Knill and Hargreaves.
I know I blame the board for a lot of horrendous practices but there are also two managers and a near full squad of footballers who should never be allowed to work in the industry again. Thea helped appoint AK and CH but once again, these two clowns squeezed the cash out of her to go out and buy some real stiffs. Not one or two but bloody loads of them. All over Plainmoor. To add to the useless crew already here when Knill took over. Did Thea suggest to Knill about signing Karl Hawley? Was he HER idea or was it Knill who convinced her he'd be a good fit and that Torquay should sign him if they could? Exactly. She wanted to co-operate and help her managers the most she could so she did. I fail to see that by agreeing to things and sanctioning the cash that this makes her in some way partly to blame for others being shitter at their jobs than Ed Miliband.
I mean come on. The last 2 or 3 years have been a relentless cascade of absolutely bizarre decisions and events of monumental comedic proportions and there is absolutely no way that anyone from outside the coven could parachute in to the club as an outsider and not think, "HANG ON A MINUTE?!! THIS IS **** MENTAL!!!"
Sadly Thea did do this and you have to ask why? How did she not see? More importantly, an very intriguing and pertinent question Jerry asked about her son, why did he not step in? What did HE think about all this? I'm damn sure if it was my parents being taken to the cleaners then i'd have summat to say about it. All very odd.
Were the directors involved so very charming and helpful from day one that Thea felt exceedingly comfortable and in the safest of hands? She was a multi millionaire fan with zero business experience actively wanting to step in and help her club. I'm sure her arrival was welcomed with the widest of open arms.
There will probably always be more questions than answers but although Thea may not have owned a cat or watched loose women, she was certainly 'seen coming' as we like to say in northern parts.
I'm 100% happy to absolve Thea of doing anything wrong but put trust in the human race.
Great to see Breedy involved in the new set up and it's worth remembering that he and the rest of them actually got off their arses and did something about what was looking like a terminal problem. They didn't sit around moaning and spending months intellectually considering the rights and wrongs of joining the trust. They got together. They love the club. They got together and they came up with a plan. They put their bollocks on the line and to hell with it. They did it. They did it. They did it. A life lesson to me most certainly. Inspiring.
