A group of “experienced” businessmen have vowed to rescue Albion Rovers if the club are relegated from League Two.
The five-member consortium, fronted by former Director of Football David Caldwell, have stepped up their efforts to take the helm at Cliftonhill following the Albion Rovers Q&A as chiefs open up on Cliftonhill, John Brogan, the Lowland League and keeping the club alive last week.
Caldwell claims the shareholders are “vastly qualified and experienced individuals” with “expertise in operations, compliance and governance, finance and social enterprise and having business expertise along with my football experience” – who currently wish to remain anonymous.
Mr Caldwell said they “would look to rescue the club if the time came” where they were relegated and “if the main boardroom architects of the demise resigned”.
The ex-Rovers supremo admitted that the collective were concerned that “relegation will see the club’s turnover potentially halved” and the consortium “already have a plan with many things in place” to save the strugglers.
The former football chief at Cliftonhill urged members of the current board “to walk away and accept their failings.”
He told the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser: “If anyone is in doubt around the challenges the club face and were looking to last weeks Q&A with the chairman and financial director as a reinforcement of their faith in the leadership at the club they may be feeling disappointed now.
“At this time, I would like to be clear and separate the football element at the club and commend previous and current management, support staff and players for their endeavours over previous and current seasons.
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“If you accept management and players shoulder much of the burden and blame for performances that contribute to a demise of a club, it’s also prudent to accept certain fundamentals need to be right at a club before it can be successful.
“The board are there to provide a foundation, structure and leadership to ensure the club is successful. Have they been successful?
“Look at the facts. They were relegated last season, there are reduced gates, they are struggling in League Two with three managers in two seasons and a massive turnover of players.
“At the beginning of the season they were trying to achieve something that’s had no success in the past (signing junior players) which was quoted last week as being an ‘experiment’. While the club are positive about selling club assets to fund experiments it’s not good business practice in my book.”
Caldwell additionally praised gaffer Kevin Harper for clawing back the points gap with Berwick at the bottom of the table.
He added: “Kevin’s promises which he made at the AGM now coming to fruition.”
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Albion Rovers did not wish to respond to Caldwell directly, but chairman Eddie Hagerty put his focus on keeping the club away from a potential relegation play-off.
“We’ve done 40 per cent of the job, so we are keeping our feet well planted on the ground,” said Mr Hagerty.
“Emotionally this season has been a battle but Kevin is doing a great job at using the full resources we have at the club. The players have had to be strong to get through this.”
