Gordon Bennett

[plym12 0]

Hi, a Plymouth Argyle fan here.

I wonder if you could help me?

We now have Gordon Bennett as our Head of Youth.

I wonder if you could tell me what he was like when he was at Norwich, where I beleive he was more of an administrator.

Was he well liked? Did he do a good job?

Internet links to newspaper articles etc would also be appreciated.

Or send a Private Message.

Many thanks.

[Kathy 823]

I would say you have struck gold. Gordon Bennett was responsible for bringing the last batch of good youth players through the ranks before the set up went pear shaped and has only recently been restructured at Norwich. But also off the field he was a splendid ambassador for the club. He was one of those amazing people who remembers all the fans names and would always make sure the players treated them with respect. This may be slightly open to debate on this message board but a lot fans including myself credit him with saving the club from oblivion. after Robert Chase left we had 48 hours to save ourselves and he was the man who made the tough decisions, talked to the creditors and finally pulled us through. He will always have my greatest respect.

[canary cherub 1]

Gordon Bennett was club secretary in the early/mid 1990s when our notorious former chairman Robert Chase was in charge.  In 1996, when we were 24 hours from bankruptcy and Chase was finally ousted, he became acting chief exec.  For the next year or so he did a good job sorting out the mess and steadying the ship until the new board appointed their own chief exec, Neil Doncaster.

He is an adminstrator but in my opinion he has a genuine love of the game and an understanding that running a football club is not just like running any other business.  My only direct encounter with him was a positive one. We had a little problem with an organised group of racists in one corner of the ground.  I reported this to him and he undertook to sit in that part of the ground at the next home game to see for himself.  He did, and in a short time the problem was solved.

If his role is to get the most out of limited resources for the benefit of youth development, I think he''ll do a decent job.  He''s unobtrusive but he gets things done.

 

 

[Dizzy Rascal 0]

    You''ve got to be kidding me, what a name!

[Stevie Wonder 0]

He also seemed to forget to insure his car on more than one occasion if my memory serves me correctly!!!!

Damm fine fellow though. He did an awful lot of good as this clubs first ever chief executive and the current occupant of that role has struggled to live up to his reputation.

[Mr.Carrow 394]

[quote user="Kathy"]I would say you have struck gold. Gordon Bennett was responsible for bringing the last batch of good youth players through the ranks before the set up went pear shaped and has only recently been restructured at Norwich. But also off the field he was a splendid ambassador for the club. He was one of those amazing people who remembers all the fans names and would always make sure the players treated them with respect. This may be slightly open to debate on this message board but a lot fans including myself credit him with saving the club from oblivion. after Robert Chase left we had 48 hours to save ourselves and he was the man who made the tough decisions, talked to the creditors and finally pulled us through. He will always have my greatest respect.[/quote]

A good post. Top bloke.

[ca 1]

Ive met Gordon several times and he''s a top bloke, loves Bristol Rovers which is where hes from.

[Old Shuck 291]

Yes, you Pilgrims have done well to appoint Gordon Bennett. You have, indeed, struck gold. Decent man, listens, gets things done. Keep an eye on how things at your club start to happen now...

[nutty nigel 7,902]

I can only endorse what Kathy and Mystic had to say about the guy. Here''s an archived article from the old ECN site. It''s from the time our club was in deep trouble and his actions then are the foundation of the clubs policy now.

In the early spring of 1996, Norwich City Football Club almost ceased to exist. The fact that, come the late autumn, the club is gently knocking on the door of the FA Premiership''s promised land is a remarkable tale -- a story of a stricken club lifted off its knees by a handful of individuals; a story in which one person is key, the club''s new chief executive, Gordon Bennet. In his first major interview virtually since he arrived as the club''s youth development officer in 1989, the man who quietly assumed day-to-day control of the ailing First Division club earlier this summer puts the record straight.

Like all good doctors, Gordon Bennett mingles the good with the bad; the tears with the hope; the promise of a brighter future with the dark recollections of a troubled past. For as he arrived back at Carrow Road from his youth development role at the club''s Colney training HQ, Bennett discovered a broken club on the very brink of the abyss; a club whose very existence hung on the generosity of an 84-year-old Norwich businessman. "I was brought in in the last week of March and I realised within three days that the club was technically insolvent. To be honest I did not think that it would even fulfil its fixtures last season," admitted Bennett, as the administration of ex- chairman Robert Chase began to fall apart.

Indeed, by the first week of May, Chase had gone. "Probably the only reason that the club is still in existence is the fact that Mr Watling bought those shares and put up seven-figure guarantees at the bank," added Bennett, as Geoffrey Watling''s crucial purchase of Chase''s shareholding kept the wolves from the door. A club that, in the words of one senior official "had the income of a Southend and the expenditure of Real Madrid" had been saved. Just.

"From a position of relative crisis in the summer, we are now inching towards safety," said Bennett, introducing the next great player in the unfolding drama -- newly-appointed director Martin Armstrong. "Since then there have been a number of turning points, the first in June when Mr Watling said that he''d like Mr Armstrong to become chairman. Mr Armstrong, as chief executive of the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, couldn''t do it because the board of his building society were not prepared to sanction it.

"But in a board meeting that month, he made a very powerful speech in which he laid out what he would do if he were the chairman; how he thought the club could trade its way back, not to safety, but to prosperity. First, as Gary Megson was clearly not universally popular, something that was already showing in low season-ticket sales, that the board should consider replacing him with Mike Walker. Secondly, that we should do our absolute utmost to avoid selling any of our better players to improve our chances of Mike having a reasonably successful team and thirdly, we had to organise adequate long-term finance to be able to fund the previous two aspects.

In the shorter term, however, it was Bennett who was charged with the task of slashing costs -- "down-scaling" to economists, making long-time friends and colleagues redundant as the club''s new axe man. "It seemed to me that last spring, with my experience at both Bristol Rovers and West Brom, that as a hatchet job was necessary, it was best done by someone who knew where there were still fresh twigs that could flourish as time went on," said Bennett, formerly club secretary at The Hawthorns and youth development officer and chief executive in 13 years at Rovers. "But it was extremely difficult -- these were people that had been very kind and made me feel very much at home since I first arrived. It''s not a job that I particularly enjoy -- I''d much prefer to be with the kids."

As principal architect of the club''s youth system, Bennett was overseeing a Colney production line that had the likes of Chris Sutton, Darren Eadie, Andy Johnson and Keith O''Neill at its head. It is the defence of that achievement, those talents that drives Bennett on. And with the returning Walker matching the club''s slow financial restructuring with equal achievement on the field, so Bennett can launch a fierce defence of the club''s greatest assets.

The following will be music to thousands of supporters'' ears. "Mike Walker has been absolutely magic -- he has already repaid the faith shown in him many times over," said Bennett. "And I can state quite categorically that there is absolutely no way any of our coveted younger players will leave the club for financial reasons. They will only leave if Mike Walker decides they can go for footballing reasons.

"I would not be here now if I thought there was any doubt about that whatsoever," added Bennett, who turned down a 10-year youth development contract at another club to help steer City to safety. "I was youth officer at Bristol Rovers for six years, chief executive for seven and all the good, young players there were sold off to pay off debts. It was a soul-destroying experience and if I thought I''d wasted the last seven years at Norwich City Football Club just to see players flogged off I would have gone last summer. Indeed, one of the principal factors in me staying at Norwich City was the reasonable prospect of the younger players being kept at the football club and them forming the nucleus of a successful Premiership team."

Equally, Bennett has inherited a successful middle-management team, suddenly freed to manage once the shackles of the old regime were torn away. "One of the main reasons that everything off the field is going so well is that in club secretary Andrew Neville, commercial manager Trevor Bond and company accountant Ray Housego you''ve got three very able and experienced backstage managers and without them it would have been incredibly difficult to have progressed with Mike as far as we have," said Bennett. Armstrong''s fellow directors earn every credit from their new chief executive. "Mr Munby''s initiative in taking the club out to its fans and repairing the bonds between the club and its supporters has been an enormous plus. Mr Lockwood, Mr Nicholls and Mr Paterson should be admired for the way they''ve stuck at their posts and helped steer the club out of trouble -- it would have been the easiest thing in the world last May for them to walk away. To their credit, they didn''t."

Come the New Year, all the major players will begin to discuss installing a new business plan for the 1997-98 season and it is a sign of the club''s growing confidence that two plans will be on the table. "In January and February we will be producing two business plans for next season -- one to cope with the challenge of winning the Nationwide First Division championship and the other to cope with the challenge of a provincial football club thriving and surviving in the Premier League," said Bennett, offering a whole new policy and priority to the club''s future direction. "The football team has got to come first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth -- the new South Stand is a long way away. At least five years in my opinion," said Bennett, as the beloved bricks and mortar of the old regime are abandoned in favour of investments in flesh and blood.

"My guiding principle is that I will do whatever is in the best interest of those 12,000 hard-core supporters out there and for as long as I''m here there will be constant downward pressure on all non-football costs," said Bennett, whose day-to-day powers even extend to the fact that he is the only person at the club able to authorise expenditure over £50. As for his own future, that could still rest with the make-up of a still-awaited boardroom shake-up. But for many people''s money, Bennett is a breath of fresh air, a no-nonsense football man fast returning Norwich City to whom it rightfully belongs -- the fans. "I don''t know how long my tenure of office might be. A new board might decide it wants to get rid of a cantankerous, dictatorial, bad-tempered old chap like me! But it proves that if you look hard enough there are better answers to financial difficulties than simply selling a player -- that should be the last option not the first."

 

[gazzathegreat 0]

Yes, agree with all the posters above,  Gordon was a top man at our club.  He''d talk to all fans, was  genuine and honest and the man who was credited with bringing through some top youth players and indeed had a major hand in saving the club.  I am not sure why he left us to be honest, would rather have him than the man who in effect replaced him.  Good luck to him in his new role.

[First Wizard 0]

A true gentleman and top bloke, as Old Shucks says......you''ve struck gold.

Can we have him back please?.

[Ruudyforcity 0]

http://www.ex-canaries.co.uk/players/bennett-gordon.htm

As a youth development officer he recruited Craig Bellamy and Darren Eadie, as an administrator he helped save us from liquidation.  Hasn''t really had much success since leaving to join Aberdeen as Chief Exec but he does seem to have a nack of spotting young players in the south-west / south wales area so you could have hit gold.

 

Cheers

Ruudy

[Blainsey 2]

what a superb write-up, i found that very interesting.

Out of interest, i was a teenager (15/16) when all that business was going on so wasnt really aware of what exactly happened, we seemed to sell all our players for lots of money (sutton 5, fox 2.25, robins 1 etc etc) and also not spend much on incoming players, so where the hell did all the money go??

how did we ever get into that situation?

[Mello Yello 2,573]

We got into that situation at that time, because the rest of the NCFC board allowed it to get into that situation..........at that time.

If you have an inept and naive controlling board, you get what you deserve.

Would Gordon Bennett ever return to this club? I don''t think he''d even contemplate it....as much as I would rejoice at his return......

 

 

 

[Blainsey 2]

well i did kind of figure that one out! what i meant was where did the money go?

[plym12 0]

Thanks for your comments.

Bennett does seem a good football guy and has had a good career so far although it was blighted somewhat with a kerb crawling incident whilst at Aberdeen, ending with him resigning.

This seems an isolated incident or was there any problems whilst he was at Norwich?

Plymouth does have a good youth system but if Bennett can take it even further and produce first team players then he will have done a great job. He''s also appointed Mike Pejic to help him so it''s looking good for the future.

[Mello Yello 2,573]

[quote user="Blainsey"]well i did kind of figure that one out! what i meant was where did the money go?
[/quote]

I suggest you ask our ''regular'' accounting professional poster people - who''ll no doubt be able to enlighten your curiosity of where the Chairmen Robber Chase and his fellow funsters spent that dosh. These financial fixated fans, regularly explain the financial facts to those who dare question our ''current'' board''s financial nous - including the off the field spending on ''fings an'' stuff'' (that''ll make this ickle club really betterer in the long run) resulting in reaping the rewards in the not too distant whenever.   

We should also applaud our astute Directorship''s 5 year plan - that after 10 years is lookin'' to be on schedule (in another 5 years) hopefully. Whence then, ''Stadio de Delia'' will be surrounded with a plethora of trendy concrete visually drab but affluent apartamentos, occupied by those with euros to burn on local fine cuisine and corporate entertainment.........Oh, and a li''l birrer of footy to them that may be slightly interested to watch - through ''oik proof'' reinforced glass whilst consuming asparagus tips, caviar and glasses of Moet champers.

Hope that helps...... ;~P 

 

[canary cherub 1]

[quote user="Blainsey"]well i did kind of figure that one out! what i meant was where did the money go?[/quote]

lol Blainsey, that''s what we''d all like to know . . . some of it went on buying land (sound familiar?) but after we got into Europe there were extravagances like trips on Concorde for the admin staff and bespoke carpets for the boardroom monogrammed with the club badge.  He also became over-friendly with the notorious chairman of Atletico Madrid, Jesus Gil by name, who was involved in the construction business (and eventually went to jail after a jerrybuilt block of flats collapsed and people were killed).

When the present board took over, they issued a statement saying that "nothing illegal" had been uncovered.  As we all know, there are some business practices that aren''t illegal but probably ought to be . . .

 

[nutty nigel 7,902]

[quote user="Blainsey"]well i did kind of figure that one out! what i meant was where did the money go?
[/quote]

This is how it was explained at the time Blainsey in another archived article from the ECN site:-

For months Norwich City fans have been wondering how the club spiralled so quickly into a multi-million debt that threatened its existence. As shareholders digest the latest set of accounts to emerge from Carrow Road, Evening news football writer Rick Waghorn takes a close look at the figures.

In his opening statement new Canary chairman Barry Lockwood openly admits that in the summer of 1995 it was "a mistake" to keep the club on a Premiership footing. "It was a gamble which, of course, might have paid off," Mr Lockwood explained to the club''s shareholders. "Unfortunately, it did not." And the price the Canaries paid for that disastrous tumble into the First Division is now there for all to see.

Let''s start at the top with income - the money ringing through the club''s tills. Guiding your finger across the rows of figures merely reveals that ticket sales have stayed reasonably firm, but points means prizes means pounds. For there, in 1992-93, by finishing third in the old Premier League, City earned a £741,100 positional bonus; three seasons later as they stumbled home 16th in the Endsleigh First Division, their reward had fallen to a mere £57,000.

Look at the power of television. Beamed live into every home in England, Norwich City''s heroic UEFA Cup run was part of Premier League season that yielded £870,400 in television facility money. Two seasons on and that princely sum was more a pauper''s wage -- £234,100.

The overall effect? From a total turnover of over £9 million as City marched on Europe, it was down to less than £6 million as the club tumbled downwards. So as income crumbled and the Canaries'' fortunes sank, what was the impact of that decision in the summer of 1995 to maintain Carrow Road on a Premiership footing? Expenditure spiralled ever upwards. Indirect labour sets the trend -- the staffing costs for all those one-step removed from the actual playing and coaching staff. The arrival of a press department, new faces in the commercial department, the employment of a construction manager -- all helped add £400,000 to indirect labour costs.

Many enjoyed the luxury of a company car. Within a year vehicle running costs had doubled. As the fed-up fans gathered in protest, so the public relations consultants and the image-makers arrived at Carrow Road -- their bills are there, in amongst the £400,400 cost of legal and professional fees in the 1995-96 season.

So how did the club meet its rising expenditure if income was tumbling? "By player sales and overdraft borrowing," reports Mr Bennett. To the fans, the first was the departure of Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox and John Newsome; for the club, the second was bank charges and interest payments together totalling £557,100 by the 1996-97 season.

It was transfers that really spared the chairman''s bacon -- £8.5 million over the four years, enough to register a profit after tax and dividends of £2,694,000. But the sting lies in the tail - that figure nestling at the bottom. Capital Expenditure, Additions. £9,814,000. The Barclay Stand, the radio station, the training ground at Colney, the mill, the in-fills, the specially-woven Canary carpet -- the hundred and one thousands fixtures and fittings that found the chairman''s belief in bricks and mortar over-taking the manager''s demands for flesh and blood.

So allow for capital grants and take one from the other. A net cash deficit of £5,496,000 --enough to ensure that by June 30, 1996, the club''s creditors were looking for £9 million. Enter Delia Smith and friends, the four new directors who brought £2 million to the club last November as the return of manager Mike Walker brought fresh hope to the football field. As for its financial policy, the chief executive''s statement is quite clear. The board "is dedicated to maximising the performance of the team for the benefit of our supporters and fans."

Robert Chase''s compensation

Norwich City director Roger Munby insisted that former club chairman Robert Chase took no more than he was due when he walked away from Carrow Road with more than £137,000 compensation -- plus £83,670 in salary and expenses for the first five months of last year. The revelation, in new accounts sent to club shareholders, that Mr Chase received £137,040 "compensation for loss of office" after handing over power last May with City almost £7million in debt, sparked an angry reaction from supporters'' representatives.

Rupert Sheldon, the secretary of the Anglian Football Supporters Association, said: "It is disgusting that this man who left us in such an appalling state, both financially and on the field, has received this sort of money."

And Roy Blower, the chairman of the Norwich City Independent Supporters Association as well as a shareholder, said: "I am sure a lot of fans will feel let down by this."

But Mr Munby defended the figures last night, saying: "The final settlement with Robert Chase was made absolutely by the book. The terms of his departure were pursued precisely as set out in his service contract as chief executive and chairman of the club."

Mr Munby stressed that the "compensation" did not involve any ''incentive'' for Mr Chase to stand down from power but was comparable to the kind of settlement which is standard for paid executives with similar responsibilities in industry. "I can understand some people gulping at what seem to be large sums," he said. "But in terms of the office he held and the time and effort he put into the club the final settlement was not out of the ordinary. It represents the going rate."

Though Mr Munby was not at the club when the contract was drawn he said there was no question of disputing the terms when Mr Chase stood down, adding: "It was just one of the implications we had to look into at that time and I can testify that everything was properly drawn up and accounted for."

Other costs

Vehicle running costs for the 1994-95 season, £78,700; professional and legal costs for the 1995-96 campaign, £400,400; combined total of interest and bank charges ''95-96, £557,000; net cash deficit for the last four seasons of the Robert Chase administration, £5,496,000. It''s all there. Not every dot and comma, every pound and pence of where the money went, but the broad sums that left Norwich City Football Club on the brink of financial extinction have been revealed by the club''s latest set of accounts.

The accounts also show that Greenland Houchen, a firm of Norwich solicitors of which former director Trevor Nicholls is a partner, supplied legal services the club during the period costing £124,713.

 

[A Load of Squit 6,260]

[quote user="Blainsey"]well i did kind of figure that one out! what i meant was where did the money go?
[/quote]

Only about £850K of the £5.5M for Sutton went to the club the rest, went to the banks to pay off short term loans.

 

[nutty nigel 7,902]

[quote user="mystic megson"]

[quote user="Blainsey"]well i did kind of figure that one out! what i meant was where did the money go?
[/quote]

lol Blainsey, that''s what we''d all like to know . . . some of it went on buying land (sound familiar?) but after we got into Europe there were extravagances like trips on Concorde for the admin staff and bespoke carpets for the boardroom monogrammed with the club badge.  He also became over-friendly with the notorious chairman of Atletico Madrid, Jesus Gil by name, who was involved in the construction business (and eventually went to jail after a jerrybuilt block of flats collapsed and people were killed).

When the present board took over, they issued a statement saying that "nothing illegal" had been uncovered.  As we all know, there are some business practices that aren''t illegal but probably ought to be . . .

 

[/quote]

Mystic - I sort of remember from the time that the club were rumoured to have bought some land in Spain. Do you remember anything about something like that?

 

[Blainsey 2]

Blimey! thanks again for that extremely insightful! god it makes you wonder what sort of idiots are in charge of businesses!

although....i did see those carpets (on a tour of carrow rd), i thought they looked very nice!! lol.

Cheers again Nutty Nigel.

 

OTBC

[canary cherub 1]

[quote user="nutty nigel"][quote user="mystic megson"]

[quote user="Blainsey"]well i did kind of figure that one out! what i meant was where did the money go?
[/quote]

lol Blainsey, that''s what we''d all like to know . . . some of it went on buying land (sound familiar?) but after we got into Europe there were extravagances like trips on Concorde for the admin staff and bespoke carpets for the boardroom monogrammed with the club badge.  He also became over-friendly with the notorious chairman of Atletico Madrid, Jesus Gil by name, who was involved in the construction business (and eventually went to jail after a jerrybuilt block of flats collapsed and people were killed).

When the present board took over, they issued a statement saying that "nothing illegal" had been uncovered.  As we all know, there are some business practices that aren''t illegal but probably ought to be . . .

 

[/quote]

Mystic - I sort of remember from the time that the club were rumoured to have bought some land in Spain. Do you remember anything about something like that?

[/quote]

Yes there was.  It was never substantiated, but I guess it would be covered by the heading of "nothing illegal" nutty . . .

 

[Mello Yello 2,573]

Don''t forget "Lord Haw Haw Uncle Bob''s  Radio Capitalist Canary" - or whatever it was called? That was situated above the snake-pit.......What a fine airwaves contaminator, that was........[8][N]

Oh, and remember that stack of amplifiers that would put Glastonbury to shame, strategically positioned between the Barclay and the old Saarf Stand.......Dear ole'' Bobster, stated that the 9.5 on the Richter scale bass and 1 billion decibels volume, was to encourage the support and lift the team to perform.......When we all actually knew it was to drown out the protests........What a wag was our Bob.....[:P]

It don''t surprise me that our current Chairman who was a Director at the time - didn''t make any negative waves against ''Mr Bob''........I wonder if they still communicate?

Still, we''re shot of Bob now in all capacity.........(I think). [^o)]