SAM HAMMAM/ DREAMS & REALITY.

Who can forget the arrival of the smiling, genial Sam. The sun shone, the bands played, we marched and sang and we listened enthralled to tales of wondrous progress as players were bought and plans for a brand new stadium were revealed. It was a good time but it was always doomed to be a palace built upon sand, and quicksand at that !

We failed to take heed of the trailing smell of disaster at Wimbledon FC. Those fine and faithful supporters began to rebuild their team from scratch after Sam finished calling that team his special baby while he attempted to uproot it and take it to any area where it would become a paying proposition, including Cardiff where our club would have been undermined.

Frankly, he saw a means of making a great deal of money and he tried to enlist us to help him. It's what Millionaires do. They don't rake in the cash by building orphanages ! After various difficulties arose and Sam's wild spending dropped us in the mire he made his greatest mistake and hired a Financial advisor named Ridsdale who had already destroyed Leeds United and came close to doing the same thing to Barnsley. It just goes to show that you can make money in large amounts even if you haven't a brain in your head; Of course, as both Sam and Ridsdale proved you can also lose money in large amounts.

That takes a negative kind of genius which both Sam and the Ridsdale possessed unfortunately for us. Well, to paraphrase the song:--
" Don't cry for us Sam and Ridsdale.
The truth is you never loved us-----"


CAL

Morning Cal, I love the way you do your posts and very rarely disagree with them, but on this one I have to, I got to know Sam very well over 6 years and still speak 3 or 4 times a week to him now. I cant compare Ridsdale with Sam, I really believe Sam Loved Cardiff City, but was Mad, spent money like an idiot on buying players, but not on himself like Ridsdale did, I belive he went Evil, when Ridsdale stabbed him in the back and if I was Sam I would of felt the same, he worked 24/7 and to see his baby being taken off him sent him in a rage, but he never did put us under.

I could go on, read Shattered Dreams

Actually sam has now lost Millions and Millions.

Would Peter Ridsdale have come on board when we were in the 4th Division like Sam did ?

Also Cal, Ridsdale has been living on all The Sales of Sams players.

Morning Annis,
Thanks for the reply and for not being offended. These are my views and open to refuting and criticising. I have a copy of your book which I found interesting, informative and a good read. I don't creep around people so if I thought differently I would have said so. As the head of the "Outer Circle " club I know very little about anything though I do feel that neither the board members nor the manager nor Datto Chan ever give me a ring though I wait patiently at the telephone.

Seriously though, I judge Sam by his behaviour at Wimbledon. Remember, He expressed great affection for that club but he flogged it like a piece of meat when he could see no way of making more money there. Could we be sure that he wouldn't have shifted our team to Dublin or some other soccer starved place if the ground was not built. You know the man. I only know his reputation.


CAL

Morning Annis,
Thanks for the reply and for not being offended. These are my views and open to refuting and criticising. I have a copy of your book which I found interesting, informative and a good read. I don't creep around people so if I thought differently I would have said so. As the head of the "Outer Circle " club I know very little about anything though I do feel that neither the board members nor the manager nor Datto Chan ever give me a ring though I wait patiently at the telephone.

Seriously though, I judge Sam by his behaviour at Wimbledon. Remember, He expressed great affection for that club but he flogged it like a piece of meat when he could see no way of making more money there. Could we be sure that he wouldn't have shifted our team to Dublin or some other soccer starved place if the ground was not built. You know the man. I only know his reputation.


CAL

Fair play to you Cal on those points I Can not disagree with you, maybe I just fell in love with Sam and still want to believe he loved us as well. If you rem Cal, I hope I was straight down the middle in Shattered Dreams about how Sam ran our club.

Never having met Sam I learned most of what I knew about his mercurial character from your book. He's something of a Pied Piper and so we could all have been charmed by him. Why he felt that Ridsdale would be a good bet for sorting the Club's financial mess I will never know. I'll probably have to read the book again!


CAL

Never having met Sam I learned most of what I knew about his mercurial character from your book. He's something of a Pied Piper and so we could all have been charmed by him. Why he felt that Ridsdale would be a good bet for sorting the Club's financial mess I will never know. I'll probably have to read the book again!


CAL

Sam, said that he thought because Ridsdale had been in a bigger mess than himself and wanted to redeem himself, Sam thought why not go to some one who has been through it all, as it turned out, one of Sams worst ever decisions.

Fair play I have never thought about looking up the full story of what happened at Wimbledon under Sam. I know bits like he bought them for next to nothing took them through the leagues and eventually sold them for £30m.

During his reign they moved from Plough Lane to Selhurst Park (I don't know why?) survived on crap gates in the PL by developing players and selling them on at huge profits, plus they won the FA Cup in 1988.

That apart I don't know the full polotics of what happened there, but on the face of it Wimbledon fans did have an unbelievable 10+ years.

has anyone wrote a book about wimbledon be an interesting read