In the formal part of the meeting, which took about 10 minutes, the usual resolutions - re-appointing some of the directors, re-appointing the auditors, approving the accounts and technical ones about giving the directors authority to allot shares were all passed overwhelmingly.
The informal part of the meeting afterwards was what most people had come for, which was a Q and A session. There were no members of the management team there, so PDPS took the questions. There were no hostile questions, or planted ones to stir up trouble. I'd say the people in the room, who were all Gills supporters who had actually put their money where their mouth is, were pretty solidly behind Paul Scally and what he is trying to do. As far as I can remember, the questions in order were:-
Question about the current trading position.
PDPS said the year to 31st May 2004 was likely to show a loss of £500,000, but we were likely to break even in the year to 31st May 2005. In July 2005, player contracts worth in total £1.5mill were up, so that would free up money to bring in new players at lower salaries, or retain some existing players on lower salaries. Said ITV Digital loss for GFC was £6mill, and that this was mitigated by the Conference, Banqueting and BRC now making serious money. New call centre is tasked to contact every business in Kent to tap into a "massive market", and expect supporters to receive calls about what's on offer. Said the only way to get rid of them is to buy something. These are the income streams which will generate the money to push the club forward short/medium term.
Question about Football League suing the lawyers over ITV Digital fiasco.
PDPS more or less repeated the League press release, and said that at the end of the day there probably wouldn't be that much paid over to each of the 72 clubs.
Question about Darius Henderson.
PDPS said that Darius was talking to Swindon, but Gills had now had a faxed offer from Bristol City, so he expected Darius would want to talk to them. Henderson's agent thinks that his slice of the action should be about £20,000. PDPS expected that DH would be at another club by the weekend, but he didn't know which.
Question about poor recent performances.
PDPS said he was as disappointed as anyone about what had been served up against Sunderland and Reading. Clear that we needed to strengthen in midfield and central defence, but worried that existing players don't become bad players overnight. Has been talking to the players collectively and individually to try and help sort out what's wrong. One problem is a loss of confidence about playing at home.
Question about when new players are coming in.
PDPS said not yet, but they are working very hard, and outlined several deals which have been close and then fallen through. We were on the point of getting Gary O'Neill Wednesday morning, Portsmouth agreed, he'd agreed but late Thursday there had been a fax to say he's gone somewhere else. Similarly with a Birmingham player, which had been worked through PDPS and David Gold being big mates, but the agent had convinced the player that he would be better off at Sunderland. Then an unnamed player who couldn't get anywhere near a Premiership place was ruled out because he was on £6,500 per week.
Question about embarrassing performances at the back end of last season, and that we should have bought in defenders rather than strikers.
PDPS repeated what he had already said, and added that at the end of the day we needed to apply man-management skills to resolve the problems, and he was confident that the manager was doing that.
Question about the pitch.
PDPS said he didn’t want the players to use that as an excuse, and it was the same for both sides. The pitch will have to be relaid, and it will cost £100,000. Considering legal action.
Question about what is the fear factor that PDPS had spoken about in an answer.
PDPS said it was being afraid of losing, afraid of putting in a poor performance. Wasn't the fear of not having a contract at the end of the season, because they don't usually sort those out until Christmas anyway. Shouldn't be fear of injuries because he felt that we now had a professional medical team and, touch wood, injuries were under control. At the moment we've only got Tommy Johnson - at this point there was spontaneous laughter all round, including the top table - and Barry Ashby injured.
Question about more functions and matchday events specifically for shareholders.
The questioner outlined the sort of thing that he had in mind. PDPS said he'd take the ideas on board.
Question about need to rebuild the squad with younger players.
PDPS said that there was a period of transition needed, and the manager was aware of this. Repeated some of what he said above, and pointed out that some of the players whose names crop up as moving on had recently been voted for POTY awards.
Question about general thinking and lack of direction in transfer dealings. Why did we buy Henderson and Pouton only to loan them out and/or get rid of them?
PDPS said that both of them had been loaned out after injury, with the intention of getting them match-fit for Gillingham’s team. Henderson's success had led to transfer offers, and it was now the manager's opinion that he already had sufficient cover in the striking positions.
Question about relocation, and in particular a plea not to go to Maidstone. Was Medway out completely?
PDPS said that he was definitely still talking to Medway Council, and they had been much more positive than for many years. Practically every farmer in Kent with a couple of spare potato fields had contacted him, and he had looked at over 100 sites. So far nothing in Maidstone had met his requirements. We needed to look 50 years ahead, not 5 years ahead. What was needed was a 100 acre site with close road and rail access, substantial parking on site, and not have people sitting in their cars for about an hour after the match before they could start their journey home. As far as funding is concerned, a football ground only will not pay its way. There had to be other facilities, sports areas, cinemas, casinos, conference and banquetting hotels etc which would be used 24/7 and would generate money for the football business. The money to build the ground and associated facilities would come from building housing on the site as well. Talked of the "football village" concept, and envisaged what was at BlueWater in relation to a shopping experience would be at this site in relation to a football experience. He envisaged that all this could be up and running in five years, at which point he will have achieved all he set out to do when he took over at Gillingham, and he would then hand it over to someone else.
Question about what was the size of 100 acres compared to Priestfield.
PDPS said the total area of the Priestfield complex was 5 acres.
Question about Saturday night music at Blues Rock Café.
PDPS said he'll give some thought to it, but the BRC was packing them at weekends.
Question about the Iwan Roberts ban and appeal.
PDPS basically repeated what he said on the website about this.
Finally, someone got up and said that he thought PDPS was the best thing that had ever happened to Gillingham Football Club and the applause started before he had finished speaking.
All that lot took about an hour, after which we adjourned to the Piano Bar for some wine and nibbles.