Well that was certainly an interesting week in the life of a Chester fan wasn't it?!?
The City Fans United meeting at the club a week ago Thursday was surely one of the most uncomfortable to sit through and listen to where we were right now.
An immediate target of £50k was set to help the club stay afloat as under current projections the club would run out of cash by March, which was of course the month back in 2010 that the former club went into liquidation in the High Court.
The alarm bells were certainly ringing louder than ever. The first half of that meeting was all about what had happened, and how it had happened. The inquest.
The second half of that meeting was how things could be put right, and that was the most important part of the meeting as if we couldn't identify that, then there would be club in the very near future.
The feeling inside the Blues Bar come the end of the night was a feeling of shock at what had come out in that meeting, but also of the will to come together and fight as one for our club to survive.
3 nights later and a meeting at the ground with the existing board members, and by the end of it I had rejoined the board. Reason being I couldn't stand back and let my club go through the most critical phase of its last 8 years, without trying to do my bit for it again.
Biggest challenge for me is to ensure my family life do not suffer from my rejoining of the board. Football has to come second sometimes!! I stepped down from the board 4 years ago as the first of my two boys were born, now I have two 3 and 2 year old boys who demand all the time in the world from both me and especially my wife. Every family will know the demands kids of young ages possess and we're no different.
So, with that in mind, the first few weeks are going to be very hard, but this time the club now has a great media team that we set up previously where as 8 years ago everything needed doing on that side of the club!
Since rejoining last Monday night, we've tried to have a positive impact as possible out there and we're certainly seeing everyone pulling together. The youth match was something special, where else would you have seen this happen!? The Chester family came together and raised nearly double the money that would've come through from the first two home now league games of the season. Amazing.
The challenge of course now is to keep that intensity up and not just raise the £50k required immediately, but also to look at building the reserve of £100k up again whilst the club looks after itself. It feels very different this time, the will is out there to ensure that we do not end up in this situation again.
Last time we knew what we were up against, it was one family hurting us, but we battled that and delivered a club we could all be proud of. Along the way we've lost what that club was all about, but we've been given a chance to restore all that we believed in, so we WILL turn this around.
We just need everyone to be with us every step of the way, and I thank everyone now for their help that they have shown so far but also in advance as your help and support, and involvement is needed right from the off.
Thanks, Jeff
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