STOTT’S GOT BIG PLANS FOR HATTERS
FALSE dawns and promises could sum up the last couple of decades at Stockport County.
A club with a rich history everywhere but the balance sheet, where relegations outweighed promotions, and where the managerial merry- go- round has spun so quick you could dry the first- team kit on it.
Yet when the Hatters step out at Edgeley Park against Yeovil tomorrow they will do so with a swagger.
Local businessman Mark Stott, 48, is the man whose deep pockets and enthusiasm has lit up the National League club.
Completing his purchase in January, he cleared its debts, then began investing for long- term success.
Stott made a fortune, lost plenty of it in the global crash of 2008, then built back bigger, selling part of his property business to a German asset management company for £ 615m in 2019.
He said: “We want to put this club back where they were 20 years ago – and back then we were beating Manchester City in the Championship.
“We have a seven- year plan to get back there but we could do it in five or six.
“With some investment we can get to League Two, stabilise and then go again.”
Investment has seen the club acquire City’s old Carrington training ground, splash £ 100,000 on it – including a full- time chef – and start an impressive refurbishment of Edgeley Park, including changing rooms modelled on the
Etihad. Stott kept faith with boss Jim Gannon and added: “We asked Jim what he wanted and he said a full- time squad, a decent training ground and a budget for players. So that is what we gave him.”
Gannon has picked up talent from higher leagues, including Wayne Rooney’s younger brother John, and has a budget of £ 1.1m for 22 players, which will be stepped with each rung of the ladder overseen by new director of football Simon Wilson – latterly of City.