Karl Oyston Steps down

Posted on August 18, 2010

Well, Karl Oyston has stepped down as chairman something he said he was going to do in the last few weeks. They’ll be lots of blogs, comments, articles etc about why he’s gone, what this means for the club. For me it’s important to remember what he has done. As much as he frustrated us with policies over the years things have improved at the club.

He took over on the 3rd April 1999, we lost to Walsall 2-0 that afternoon. The season after we were relegated but ever since then it’s been a upturn in fortunes.

Football League Trophy winners 2002, 2004
2000—01 (Division 3 to Division 2);
2006—07 (League One to The Championship);
2009—2010 (The Championship to the Premier League)
New Stadium with 3 sides – a fourth almost complete.
Avoided administration (29 clubs have gone into admin since 1999)
Avoided the problems of the ITV Digital collapse.
Kept the club in a good financial health compared to many
Six managers – Nigel Worthington, Steve McMahon, Colin Hendry, Simon Grayson, Tony Parkes and Ian Holloway. E.g. not trigger happy and apart from Hendry all good appointments.
Managed to grow teams over the years without paying out vast amounts of cash to football agents.

Not a bad list of achievements, considering other clubs such as Derby, Hull, Cardiff, Chester and Leeds have had irresponsible chairmen we’ve been very fortunate to have Karl in charge.

So, big thanks to Karl and I wait with anticipation our next Chairman.