Gretna pay high price for living the pipe dream

THE day in the summer of 2002 when Brooks Mileson wandered into Gretna's Raydale Park to discuss a youth funding venture might now be regarded as bleakly fateful. Within a year Mileson, a self-made multi-millionaire, had been persuaded to buy the club and set in motion a chain of events which yesterday came to a shuddering halt at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

Gretna's motto can be seen everywhere around the club – Living the Dream. The reality, though, has been a club living beyond its means.

Yesterday came proof of this, with a formal notice of an intention to enter administration filed in the capital. The emotional cost has still to be revealed, with players and other staff at the Dumfriesshire club expected to be victims of the cut-backs which will be demanded by Wilson Field, a Sheffield-based firm of administrators.

"I hope we are not like Reggie Perrin and disappear into the Solway behind us," said chairman Ron MacGregor yesterday. "But I think it is now a case of downward movement after the heights we knew."

Just when this end-game would arrive has been dogging the thoughts of many for some time now. Last month saw the players go without payment for a week, a turn of events which signalled something was afoot at the club. And then last Thursday only 501 attended their SPL fixture with Dundee United at Fir Park, the remote ground – at least as far as Gretna are concerned – where this grim season has mostly been played out. Few have been able to arrive at any other conclusion except this being a classic case of over-ambition, and of a club having relied too much on one man's good will and health.

"Any club which relies on one person funding them is in a precarious position," said Fraser Wishart, the chief executive of the players union PFA Scotland "Whether it is Motherwell a few years ago, Chelsea or Gretna football club. It only takes one change of circumstances to put a club in this position."

Wishaw saw it as a cautionary tale, although it is also a unique one. Nine years ago Gretna played in the FA Cup. Three years later they switched from the Unibond League to the Scottish Football League. By 2006 they were in the Scottish Cup final and a season later had sealed their promotion to the SPL with a last minute goal in the last game of the campaign.

No wonder people got carried away. No wonder too few concerned themselves with such tedious details as book-keeping, or questioned the cavalier way players were hired on long, fund-sapping contracts. Back in 2003 Helen MacGregor, then club secretary and wife of current chairman Ron, admitted the wages being paid to the players made her eyes pop out of her head. This was at the start of a push which saw Mileson become ever more thrilled at what could be achieved and he indulged then manager Rowan Alexander.

"Rowan's point of view was that if he fancied a player, he would just go to Brooks," said Ron MacGregor yesterday. "David Bingham was an example. He is now playing away at Cowdenbeath but is still on a contract here. Helen and I used to say, 'look Brooks, these contracts are too long in terms of what other clubs would be offering'. But Brooks would go, 'if Rowan thinks he's what we need, then yes, yes.'"

Milson's desire to see Gretna succeed may still be strong but he has other battles to fight first, primarily on the health front but also in terms of his own financial affairs. Craig Mileson, his son, remains involved with the club, but has been put in an awkward position.

"He has a close and warm relationship with his dad but I think it has been difficult for him to know all the ramifications on the business side," said MacGregor. "Craig is with us week in week out and he has not said there is a family crisis. We brought him in as a director and if Brooks had chronic health problems it was the indention he might take over once he learned the craft. My ideal vision now would be to see Brooks in good health but not taking everything on his own shoulders."

Mileson must concentrate on his own well-being now, but the trust fund codicil that is supposed to guarantee Gretna support throughout not just his own life, but also his sons', seems worthless now.

"I made my money out of the average guy in the street with my brokerage office," said Mileson in 2003. "It's just my way of repayment. They are the ones who have helped me earn a good living over the years."

But the advances made by Gretna did not impress everyone in the streets of the town. When Mileson's investment promised a new era for a club previously run by committee it was love it or leave-it time. More than a few chose the latter course of action, mourning the loss of community and innocence. The Scotsman visited the town in 2003 and it didn't take long to find a dissenter. Ian Johnstone was playing the one-arm bandit in the Gretna FC social club, a mere goal-kick from the ground. Its own future is now in peril following yesterday's news.

"That was once a village team – now it means nothing to the people of Gretna," said Johnstone five years ago. "It's gone to one bloke. What happens when he pulls all his money out?" Yesterday provided the answer, although the circumstances, with reference to Mileson's illness, made it seem all the more sorrowful.

SPL WILL GIVE CASH ADVANCE

THE SPL will give Gretna an advance on their share of the combined commercial income of the league in order to try and ensure the club fulfil their remaining ten fixtures.

Even the club who finish bottom of the table, as Gretna now certainly will with their imminent ten-point deduction when an administrator is formally appointed, receive prize money of £720,000 from the SPL through its television contract with Setanta Sports and other sponsorship revenue.

"We allow clubs to take a loan set against fees they are due from us for the whole season," said SPL marketing and communications manager Greig Mailer.

"That facility has been extended to Gretna as it would be to any other club who required it.

"The priority for us now is to have an early meeting with the administrator and see what their plans for the club are going forward and how we can assist those plans in any way.

"Clearly, it is important to us as a league that Gretna complete their fixture list this season."

Beyond this season, Gretna will also be entitled to parachute payments from the SPL of £250,000 for their first season outwith the league and then £125,000 for the second season if they fail to return.

Fears for club if new backer is not found

A PARTNER with a leading firm of accountants believes that Gretna's biggest problem in administration will be finding someone who wants to own the club.

Charles Barnett of PKF, the firm who helped Motherwell through a two-year period of administration from 2002 to 2004, believes that the club's remote location and small fan base reduces the chances of a new backer emerging on the scene, and warns that there could be more pain even if the club stays in business.

"Could the club become the next Clydebank?" asked Barnett, in reference to the now defunct Scottish Football League side who went out of business in 2002. "It could, if nobody wants it and nobody comes forward to finance it.

"How many people came in and tried buy Motherwell, even when the club had been cleaned up in administration? John Boyle ended up back in charge. Outside the top two or three clubs in Scotland, I don't think that there are many people out there who are just waiting to take over a football club.

"When the administrators come in, they will have to be looking at who is going to take this club over, and there is not a great football following in the Borders.

"A club in trouble needs someone in control to drive it forward. The administrator will have to look at surplus assets that can be realised.

"If it survives – and there are very few clubs that have not come out of administration – there is a really strong chance that Gretna will fall through at least one more division. Their better-paid players will all find new clubs, and they will be left with a weaker squad. Next season will be a very difficult year for them."

However, Barnett stresses that Gretna's position is not typical of Scottish football finances at the moment.

"It's very much a one-off," he said. "I don't think it's a return to the bad times when Dunfermline were in trouble, and Dundee, Motherwell and Livingston all went into administration. Most clubs are keeping an eye on debt levels now."

The accountant also pointed out that Gretna's problems need not be attributed to the fact that one individual owns and controls the club.

"You have to account for illness," said Barnett, "but look at Dundee United. Eddie Thompson is ill, and he has put in place arrangements to ensure that the club can still operate in his absence."

Decline was there for all to see, yet very little was done to stop it

• Gretna supporter SCOTT LESLIE on how a fairytale rise turned to dust

THE signs haven't been good at Gretna for some time now and while it was widely expected that the club wouldn't be able to sustain themselves at the level of football the club had progressed to, the sudden change in fortune wasn't expected to occur as quickly.

It was clear in January 2007 that all was not as it seemed. With the club ten points clear at the top of the First Division from nearest rivals St Johnstone, experienced players such as Steve Tosh and Derek Townsley, key players and mainstays of the side, were allowed to leave in cost-cutting measures which were described as otherwise at the time.

The then manager Rowan Alexander was placed on sick leave in March and veteran goalkeeper Alan Main signed a pre-contract agreement to rejoin his old club St Johnstone and was ordered to stay away from Raydale Park.

Promotion was almost thrown away and having been ten points clear at one stage, Gretna only secured the title on the last day of the season when James Grady scored an injury-time winner at Ross County. The departure of key players had weakened the Gretna team, and it was obvious that the club weren't in a position to compete in the SPL.

There were no signs of a new stadium and no sufficient strengthening to the team, with the likes of Abdul Osman from Maidenhead being signed rather than the experienced and quality players which had been promised.

By January this year it was obvious that the club were out of their depth. Groundsharing with Motherwell at Fir Park, over an hour away from Gretna, was never going to work long term, and the cost of this to the club must be frightening.

A mass exodus of players in January which included the likes of Martin Canning, Allan Jenkins and Colin McMenamin saw the Gretna squad further weakened. Tony Caig and Kenny Deuchar left for American football and the only players brought in were young and untried loan players from English league clubs.

Good young players with potential, but nowhere near ready for the challenge of playing for a team trying to avoid relegation from the SPL, although by now it was clear that Gretna were no longer trying. To make matters worse, or perhaps it was for the better, manager Davie Irons left to take charge at Morton. His assistant Derek Collins soon followed.

At the end of it all, it has to be remembered that a man's health is in doubt here and it is hoped that Brooks Mileson makes a swift recovery. He has brought some great times to Gretna FC, which without his money wouldn't have happened. But these dreams which he made come true have swiftly turned to nightmares, and it has to be asked why he let things go on for so long before the truth started to reveal itself.

He didn't build his fortune without being a good businessman and although his poor health has restricted his work in recent years, he surely knew what state the club were in.

It is a sad end to what has been one of the best stories that football has ever seen.