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Andy Lonsdale, an advisor to Hereford United's majority shareholder Tommy Agombar, has given an interview to the Hereford Times. For the record here are some of his quotes.
"If we had not come in when we did – Hereford United would now be dead.
“David Keyte could not go forward and the local businessmen did not come forward. “David Keyte was on his last legs and all the other directors – Grenville Smith, Bob Pritchard and Nick Nenadich – not one of them stepped up – and one of them has called us amateur.
“If we are amateur and we have saved the club – what does that say about them?
“They have killed the club.
“The club was £1.3 million in debt under their watch – not ours – and they call us amateur.
“All we have done is try to mop up their mess.
“We are getting hammered over the state of the club – but we never caused it.
“The Football creditors have been owed money – and that was not created under our watch.
“We are here to build for the future.
"We have not destroyed Hereford United Football Club – that was done before we got here.
“Tommy Agombar has got some great footballing contacts and so too has Mark Ellis and Joel and I.
“We are going to use those for the benefit of Hereford.”
“The cheques were written out to pay the football creditors and big sponsors were due to drop the money in but, at the last minute, the sponsors backed out.
“That was due to the bad press from Bulls Banter, Bulls News and the Hereford Times and they said 'Sorry, we can’t be associated with this'.
“There were two backers and they both pulled out.”
“You have had a lot of comment in the local press about us being bad people.
“You had the local MP Jesse Norman asking for comment. I e-mailed Jesse Norman about three weeks ago and have not had a response.
“How can a local MP voted in by the locals endorse a phoenix club knowing that nobody will get paid if Hereford United went into liquidation?
"How can a local MP endorse that and he has not even offered to speak to us.
“I want him to listen to us and let’s engage in conversation and so he buys into our ethos."
"We started paying them yesterday - about 10 or 12 - and the rest should be paid today as long as we have all the bank details and references.
“We will pay today, tomorrow or Monday.
“The Southern League have been very good to us.
“We had to put up a bond to the Southern League and if we can’t pay the football creditors, why should we be allowed to play in the league?
“There are people coming out of the woodwork.
“David Keyte agreed to give all the first team a £500 bonus for when he couldn’t afford to pay the wages.
“We have to pick up the tab for that and we are looking into that.
“A lot of people did not have contracts.
"They showed David Keyte a lot of loyalty and they didn’t show us any – yet they still expect us to pay.
“They didn’t have a contract –a lot of people here only had verbal contracts.
“We are doing everything by the book – as far as that is concerned.”
“I have had to resign from the club (Bedfont and Feltham Football Club) due to the Hereford fans which I was really happy about.
“They got hold of the FA and said that I was involved with two clubs.
“Because I want to see Tommy Agombar see this through, I made my decision to resign.
“I had been there 17 years but, because of the fans’ hatred here, I have had to resign.
“ I am not very happy about that but I am not going to walk away from this club because I gave Tommy my word that I would help him."
“Jon’s (Taylor) father owns a property company.
“But Jon’s a football man and he is passionate about his football.
“What does your father do and does that have an impact on the job you do?
“If you dig too far back you might find out that your father owned Edgar Street
“I was exonerated by the council and Bulls News have spoken to a local resident about his side of the story – they haven’t asked me for my side.
“The council set up a strategic review and I was exonerated."
“Mark Ellis has taken six to eight weeks out of his life to rebuild Hereford football club.
“He is not getting paid a penny and, for someone to do that, they have got to believe in what they are doing.
“Mark has put the team together and he’s getting stick all the time.
“I am a great believer in Mark.”
“He will be here until the first game and then spending one day or two days a week here on a consultancy basis.
“He is an asset for the club and his credentials are real.”
“I have met one man at this club – Colin Addison – since I have been here and he’s a lovely man and that’s the sort of people we want to be dealing with. He’s 74 years old and he’s a legend.
“It can’t be nice when you get Bulls Banter, Bulls News and Hereford Times all against you.
“When we first got involved in the club, we were told the overall debt was £300,000.
“But every week I came down, the debts got bigger and bigger.
“Due diligence was done when Andrew Green was involved but he’s no longer involved with the club.
“We are running a football club – we are not Herefordians or Hereford supporters. But we are going forward – we do not want to dwell on the past. This club has got a massive future.”
