TOPIC: Michael Knighton exclusive

In tomorrows Cumberland News


He' not a billionaire is he

Profpieman wrote: maybe he feels he should be, but id have him back over these 2 (3) idiots.
he might have been a c*nt at the end but when it was going well it went really REALLY well. he knew how to put on a show. the 2 (3) we have now don't even want us there.

Just read interview. Nowt new just the usual ramblings of how great he is/was.

Never been back to the city since 2002 but would welcome an invite back!

So we can get an ex-owner from 15 years ago to have a chat, but not a squeak out the current two?

For all the shite at the end, he did a lot of good at the start, rescuing us from another of Jenkins dismal reigns... sound familiar? Knighton left us a stand, Fred cleaned up the flood, the analogue three rocked up with a tin of paint and a tub of polyfilla...

Aye, the wrong colour paint as well, but hey, let's make do.

It's almost embarrassing that we've now even got Knighton fighting our corner for us...against Andrew Jenkins.

Football...bloody hell.

orfc wrote:

Things are bad at the moment but lets not get misty eyed about ex owners.
Knighton had a stand built which was not paid for or finished meaning the club could get no more grants for development and is out of line with the pitch.
Fred did some good but finished by sacking McDonald paying compensation to him and Cheltenham then giving John Ward a 4 year contract.

P*ss poor interview in my opinion.
Nothing in there thats informative or exclusive.
Just a few ramblings about the old days and his opinion about the billionaire.
It is described in the paper as 'a detailed and wide-ranging interview' where in reality it is anything but.
I bought the Cumberland News for the first time in more than a year to have a read of this.
Might as well not have bothered.Typical N&S; rubbish.

musher441 wrote:
Did you honestly expect anything else?

Mashie Niblick wrote:
Haha!!
Not really!

I take it he never admitted all his dodgy dealings with the players contracts and leaving us to foot the bill for the stand he got a loan for ?

Some people are quick to forget what that [censored] did to our club at the end.

At least he didn't want to sell our ground to a property developer.

bluealf wrote:
and how is the situation we find ourselves in, again, any different? it would probably be worse if nixon hadnt sweet talked jenkins into keep footing the shortfall bill these last few years.
at least with knighton we had some really good years to look back on, with this pair of clowns it's been a downward spiral for the last 5.

bluealf wrote:
And yet we wouldn't be here now without him. Folk forget just how dark the Summer of 1992 was (Then again, a lot of our fanbase only got interested due to the feel-good factor surrounding the early Knighton years!)...

CCU wrote:
And yet he left us in much the same state when he left, of course his start was exciting after some very bad times, paying out 100k fees for players, winning games and his vision of the future but and the big but is he raped the club at the end far worse than the current incumbents as bad as they are.

Oh and I hope that wasn't a dig in my direction, I was stood in my spot in the WRE as we plummeted from the 2nd tier downwards with some of the worst football and footballers the club has ever seen.

I have served my time in that department.

Rose tinted specs must've been on sale.

bluealf wrote:
We were a far more saleable outfit in 2002 than 1992 though. Nobody was interested in 1992...

There is no defence in the world that will make MK a good owner and somebody to be looked upon as such.

There was no-one more vociferous in trying to get rid of Knighton than me. I did all the banners, marches, the bizarre slow crawl up the M6, and nearly got myself in serious bother a few times during it all. The day he left was one of my greatest days as a CUFC fan.

However.......

I do agree that, despite the disaster it all turned into, he did get it right at the beginning. VERY right.

He hand-picked the most important appointments first, and got them spot on - the coaching staff and gaffer
He turned the commercial side into a goldmine - thanks also to Martin Hudson
With the help of Tashy Mick, he identified the right players, and got them in very cheap - the Reeves money was the only real outlay I can remember
Most importantly, he engaged with the fans, and generated that real interest, buzz and excitement that you need in order to be successful

Personally, I think his plan to get us to the top tier was very achievable...then along came SKY and pulled the rug out from under his feet. The Premier League had only just started when he took over, but it soon made his targets disappear out of sight. This is when I reckon he decided to cut and run.

However, there are still a lot of things he did that any prospective owner could learn from. And crucially most of them didn' t involve a large expenditure - just a bit of ambition, a degree of showmanship, and getting the coaching staff right.

Michael Knighton.................... FGB

You know things are bad when even Knighton is criticising the board.

I'll admit I was one of those along with a few mates who only started going to Carlisle games after Knighton took over even though I'd kept an eye on the results as you do throughout childhood.

I am the only one left out of the bunch who is still going and have been for many years.

Any good Knighton did is far outweighed by the bad. Anyone even considering wanting him back needs to give themselves a good shake.

Initially saved us yes, but he was the biggest cancer in the history of the club after he lost interest. If only the fans today could raise half the effort it took to oust him, Nixy and co would already be well down the road.