Pot Calling Kettle Black?

It is not that long ago that we bought a certain Chris Tate from Scarborough, for a club record of £150,000. I don't want to go into detail about why we paid so much for someone who would not have looked out of place on the beach giving rides to young children.

But, we all know what happened. He was useless, and was allegedly seen drinking out of an ashtray while on all fours. Whether this was imitating a donkey or some drinking game was unclear, but, his Halifax career did not last long.

So, off he went back to Scarborough for a reduced fee of £48,000. This was quite a lot of money for Scarborough even though earlier on in the season they had received £150,000 for the same player. But most Town fans were just happy to see the back of Chris Tate, saying Emmerdale's version would have been much more use.

Things though got worse that season for the Seadogs. The cash pot emptied without filling back up, and the club went into administration. Because we were still owed £48,000 by Scarborough, we were classed as one of the creditors.

To be fair to our fellow football club, we voted in favour of the CVA which would mean that the Shaymen would not receive any money for Tate. They might even have offered him back to us, but we had more sense to politely tell them where to go.

So, we lost in total that season £150,000 and a player. So it now seems a bit rich that Scarborough are kicking up a stink about the late payment of £30,000 from Northampton for Darren Stamp.

Scarborough Chairman, Malcolm Reynolds told the official Scarborough website:

“I’m angry that the payment hasn’t appeared. We didn’t expect payment ahead of the 14 days deadline but I think it reasonable to assume that a fellow football club would honour its obligations, which were set down by an independent tribunal.”

But then again. Is it a bit unfair to blame Scarborough for the Chris Tate saga?

Lets look at some of the facts!

Jim Brown was Chairman of Halifax Town. Enough said there.

We did not even have a manager when Tate was signed. Why were we signing players when we had no manager?

Was Tate a player worth £150,000 or worthy of still being our record signing?

John Russell was Chairman of Scarborough. Enough said there.

Halifax Town would have been one of the major creditors at the time, and Brown had been seen with John Russell quite a few times before the CVA meeting was called. Talk about doing favours for the mates. The whole Chris Tate deal stank of a rat as soon as Tate kicked a football in his first game for Town.

I just wonder whose pocket our £150,000 ended up in!