City: Dragon's Eye

I did two interviews with Dragon's Eye today. At 9.00 this morning, it's fair to say they were hopeful that Sam would agree to be interviewed. They recorded a clip of about a minute. About lunchtime they called me to ask if I would go on live or 'as live' this evening. Clearly they were less confident about getting Sam. But equally, they were awaiting more news to come out about the club. In the end, nothing did.

I went in at six to record the piece to camera and obviously by then they knew Sam wasn't going to appear. My original interview became one sentence for their film.

I thought overall it was a useful summary of where we are. One of the revealing moments was when Lib Dem Council Leader Rodney Berman said that Sam had said if he had to sell more players then he would. Berman is I think saying what has to be said by the council at the moment, and I wouldn't expect him to say anything else than to be optimistic that the deal can go ahead. That's fair enough. The Council is basically saying it is there ready to help. But the business plan is still down to Sam and there is clearly a funding gap. Not as 'easy-peasy' as he told Dragon's Eye last June.

Former Labour leader of Cardiff Russell Goodway was I think very reassuring on the way in which the Council had sought to protect any new stadium that was being built, so that whatever happened, it would remain in Council ownership.

The accountant they used gave the same conclusion as I got from an accountant I talked to today. Basically, we're bust without the stadium deal.

As I said, I have now written to the club about the state of the accounts, with a number of questions, some suggested to me by other fans and shareholders. I spoke to a City fan who is an experienced corporate lawyer today, and his advice helped me to amplify some of what I was asking. The letters, to David Temme and to the company secretary in London, went off from the Assembly tonight. I feel it is reasonable to allow the club to get them tomorrow, then I will publish them. But the questions are what fans would be expecting me to ask.