New Owners for the Nuts and Bolts

Ashford United- via an article at Kent Online- have confirmed that the club is due to change hands in the summer.

Owner Don Crosbie announced in November that he was looking to sell and retire after nearly twenty years at the helm, and it now appears that his search for new owners has been successful. In an interview, he explains:

“It should all be done and dusted by May 31.

I’ve been here a long time and when you stop enjoying it, and my health isn’t brilliant, that’s the time to step down.

I got offered some really good prices but it had to be a football-related person, someone that was really into football and wanted to see the team and the club do well.

So I forewent the best financial offers and went for what I thought was the best offer for the club football-related.

It wasn’t about the money. If it was, I wouldn’t have been here all these years - I would have sold ages ago.

You don’t go into football to make money. The secret, like here at Ashford, is to run it so you don’t lose money.

We’ve got a very stable set-up and obviously the 3G pitch has been monumental in taking our club forward.

With all of our teams, the ladies, the girls, it’s been the No.1 thing that I did.

It’s proved so successful, so that’s the legacy of transferring us over to 3G because, don’t forget, it’s cost nearly £1 million altogether on the two pitches we’ve had.”

He went on to explain the importance of the club building its own squad, with a clear pathway from the youth setup to the first team:

"The people coming in know football, they know the pitfalls and what you’ve got to be aware of.

But they are very supportive in understanding academies and how you’re better off spending your money and investing your time and effort into bringing youngsters through.

Of course, you’ll have your outside superstars in the team but you don’t have to have 16 or 18 from outside.

You can bolster the squad to save your budget with talent you’ve actually brought through and understand."

Read the whole interview here.

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