OUR NEW ERA SPARTS HERE!
Blyth owner reassures fans
NEW Blyth Spartans owner Irfan Liaquat insists he will silence any doubters and wash away scepticism over his takeover at the National League North club.
The Tyneside-based businessman took control at Croft Park earlier this week and set out his plans for the club’s future on and off the pitch in a media briefing held on Wednesday afternoon.
However, cursory glances towards Liaquat’s Companies House records and uncertainty over where funding for his plans have come from have caused some scepticism amongst Spartans supporters.
Liaquat refuted any claims over his intentions and revealed he is keen to get Spartans ‘in a very good place’ as soon as possible.
“We would be naive if we didn’t believe we were going to get that (scepticism),” he told The NLP.
“We are going to stick to our vision points, we have five or six that we are going to achieve and I have created a very strong team here. I brought in a sporting director, which isn’t heard of at this level. He’s got a very good business brain on him, he’s well known and he’s played at the top level. This is the first win for the town and the club.
“My line of work is real estate, I’ve worked at a high level, I deploy money on behalf of big outlets in the UK and across Europe and one thing I can do is calibrate very well and we’ve already had discussions with some big corporates to increase the sponsorship and we are looking to get key, high-level sponsors.
“We will grow on and off the pitch and we want to be in a good place very quickly and there is a lot of work involved in that but I have key players around me and we will get there.”
One of Liaquat’s first moves was to appoint former Luton Town and Derby County striker Steve Howard as the club’s first ever sporting director and he will play a lead role in supporting Spartans manager Jon Shaw as he looks to improve a squad that has been hit by a major injury crisis in recent weeks.
However, the former Premier League frontman insisted there has to be a method to their recruitment plans over the coming weeks and months.
“There will be investment and Irfan has told me his plans but we have to do it at the right stages because if you just chuck money at it, it’s not going to work,” Howard said.
Ethos
“I always said this, when I played for Derby and we got promoted into the Premier League, we weren’t the best team on the pitch – but we were the best team off the pitch.
“I’ve said to Jon we have to have that ethos within the club and we have identified a few players to bring into the club.”
The takeover means after a quarter of a century guiding the famous Croft Park club, chairman Tony Platten and vice-chairman Kevin Scott have bid an emotional farewell as they confirmed they had sold the club to Liaquat for £1.
The agreement has also left Spartans debt-free after reported debts of around £700,000 were cleared as Platten and Scott leave the new owners with ‘a clean sheet’ moving forwards.
The duo will remain keen supporters of the club and will attend games on a regular basis – but urged the local community to get behind Spartans as the new ownership carry out their plans to take the club into what they hope will be a bright future.
Platten said: “If supporters want this club in the National League, and I know there’s talk about League Two, if the people don’t come through the gate, they won’t get that far, no matter how much money is spent.
“The message is, come and watch football at Croft Park, it’s the same message we have always reiterated. We have seen teams plough millions into football clubs and it hasn’t worked for them.
“The population of Blyth, Cramlington, Seaton Sluice, Seaton Delaval and other areas need to support the club moving forwards.”