Bickerton linked with Hereford United

Of all the names recently linked to a possible purchase of Graham Turner's shares in Hereford United, the name of Rob Bickerton continues to be mentioned.

Bickerton was chairman of Macclesfield Town but joined Shrewsbury Town in January 2008 after seven years with the Silkmen.

"My background and experience, other than building my own businesses up, is that I've been in football for the last 7 years," explained Bickerton when he joined Shrewsbury.

"The first two of those were as finance director and that other 5 were as chairman of Macclesfield Town football club and within football it is perceived that at Macclesfield I did a good job.

"During my time there Macclesfield over achieved with one of the smallest budgets in the league by reaching the play-offs and the Northern final of the LDV. The time was right to move on from Macclesfield as there was someone who was keen to become the chairman there.

"I will be responsible for things which are business related and my natural background is running a business and what I have at Shrewsbury is full profit and loss responsibility."

However Bickerton didn't have a long stay at Shrewsbury. He left just 18 months after being appointed and at the time had no comment to make other than to confirm he had left.

"Rob has left by mutual agreement and we will not be making further comment other than to thank him for his efforts during his time with us," said Shrews chairman Roland Wycherley as reported by the Shropshire Star.

"This is an important stage in the club’s development, so the board will take this opportunity to conduct a thorough review of all off-pitch operations and staffing. I have asked club director Derek Passant and former chief executive Steve Wellbeloved to conduct this review and report back to me and they will start work on this immediately.

"It is now two years since we moved to the new stadium and it is vitally important that we maintain momentum and develop the business so that it provides the necessary resources to succeed on the pitch."

Whether Bickerton has made an offer for Turner's share remains to be confirmed.

However whilst he was at Macclesfield as chairman the club was owned by Amar and Bashar Alkadhi, two Iraqi-born businessmen. This fact might suggest that if Bickerton is involved in any bid for Turner's shares he may need the help of others to finance any offer.

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