Thank you eric whalley
 

Despite all the kerfuffle over the takeover, despite the tax bill, despite his sometimes unapproahable manner.....Eric Whalley dragged this fine club into the football league from division 7.

Me and many others will be eternally grateful. I have had some of the best times of my life at Stanley and many of them are a direct result if Eric WhalleyS hard work ( and his family)

So, a new dawn. But let's never forget the oart he played in our colourful history.

Thanks fella :)

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Yes he might have given the club a start mate, BUT im afraid for me the downsides FAR outweigh the up !

Good riddance

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Echo what’s been said. “We would not be here today” without the time, money and effort over the years by Eric and his family. Heritage is everything; and Eric Whalley is part of our Heritage. Forever Red; Forever Stanley.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

time to move on...... thanks for the good times

now lets start to push on to a new dawn in Stanley's History

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

EW

Thank you

Even in my early days we had nowt, EW brought in good house keeping AND a decent team:)

WM top post!!

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Agree with Loweiy and Mr. T. we must thank EW, but we must also now move on, nice to have you back Jase, catch up soon!!

:) :) :)

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Here Here !
Eric you made history! You are forever part of our history!

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

He got my credit back in 2006 for his part of getting us in the league as the chairman, but afraid he soon lost it after when he nearly took us back into non existance late 2009. Ive now moved onwards.

In all fairness & greatness in major commendation...................it was John Coleman & Jimmy Bell with our sqad upto 2006 that got us thro to the league :D ...& likewise the duo again are pushing our current squad upto dizzy heights atm.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Divorce is always a nasty business. It's best not to fixate on the pain of the end, but remember the years that were good.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

And which chairman in his wisdom employed the man who had just been sacked by Ashton before providing excellent resources at non league level for our initial two promotions??

EW isn't a saint far from it.....but I think some should pause before directing the amount of vitrol they have towards him. After all many who frequent the Crown Ground today would not be here without EW and the success he has brought.

Cheers Eric for all you did. From taking us from Frickley to Fulham via Fanborough. But time to go and heres to a bright new era. :)

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

And many of us remember that he'd have happily seen it all go to the wall if Ilyas hadn't stepped in and saved the club.

In light of everything, I can't believe that this thread even exists!

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Football is an emotive subject. You can have God status one minute and be the Devil the next minute. A manager of another local club found that out last year.

Better if everyone gets it off their chest and then gets on with the future. No good all you lot falling out :)

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

The reason Accrington Stanley got in as financial mess, & continue to leap from one mess to another is not down to Eric Whalley. He backed John Coleman with his OWN cash.

Then when we got promoted, crowds went DOWN....

The town & its football fans are to blame by staying away. All the boardroom games are a by product of trying to run a pro football team on a shoestring.

IMHO....

:) We move on....

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

thats excuses, of which there are none at all fer allowing the club to die, which would have happened without Mr Khan, the recession didn't help.it came along at the wrong time stanleywise, We move On.;)

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We shouldn’t be getting in to this really; but had it not been for Eric Whalley, there would have been no Accrington Stanley for Ilyas Khan to save. Eric’s phase has ended, he is part of the Stanley family and heritage. Ilyas is now the future, Ilyas is today; what Eric was yesterday. And we move on. I believe Times are a changing…….

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

The king is dead long live the king! for good or ill

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

eerrmm!
Sorry Coley is king long may he reign!!!

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

For me, the good outweighs the bad - if he hadn't made the good possible over 10 years or so, i.e if we'd still been in the Northern Prem, the last 3 years bad wouldn't have happened.

That said, I'm delighted we've now got the resolution we seem to have got today.

Sayonara Eric - Forza Ilyas !

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Whalley promised the football league....of which he delivered under the stewardship of a very, very talented manager and his assistant. Despite all the turmoil and adversity, tight budgets, losing quality players and having to work damned hard on a shoestring to replace them...Coley and Bell are still surpassing expectations and spurring a good set of players onwards and upwards and still producing the goods / results. More of the same over the next month or so and we could find ourselves in league 1.:D

If Alan Knill and his backroom staff at Bury have cost Scunthorpe the reported £175k in compensation, then what price would we put on Coley & Bell??? Thank God somebody had the wisdom to tie these two down on the long term contracts they've so richly deserved. Time now to tie some of our quality players down on similiarly lengthy contracts.

Whalley didn't do himself many favours by his actions / inactions when the financial brown stuff hit the fan. At last the whole sorry episode now has some closure and hopefully, with Illyas' hard work and backing we can move on to the next level. As he (Illyas) has said, there is still hard work to be done, but with him at the helm, hopefully the bridges that were burned in those dark days can finally start to be rebuilt.:o

Thanks for all you did in the good times you enjoyed Eric.....you've helped deliver a club back from non-league obscurity to the promised land of the Football League.As others have said, without Whalley's efforts and intervention, this debate wouldn't be happening.

Now perhaps with this ownership debacle being sorted, this progress will pour fuel on the fire that currently burns in the form of a damn good football side looking a good bet for the play-offs, or dare we wish for better ???? After all we're only six off the automatics with a game in hand:confused:

High time for the public of Accrington to get to the Crown to support it's flagship. With a captain at the helm it can trust in Mr. Khan. Two prized assets in Coley & Bell, who have steered the good ship Stanley through the troubled waters back to the Football League and continue to steer the club towards more glory and hopefully a fourth promotion.:)

I most certainly believe we as a club are on the verge of another historic chapter of glory!!!:D:D

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Can only echo most sentiments here, Cant thank Eric enough for what he did, But it's a new era now and we move on.

On the note of people staying away, I haven't been since Jase got banned, The farce that was the aftermath of the Newcastle match left a bitter taste in my mouth, and the crap that followed from the club regarding flags etc. didn't go down well either, However perhaps staying away wasn't the best thing for me to do for the club, But I always said that when the club's ownership was sorted once and for all I would return to The Crown, and I will... Now then when's pay-day.... :p

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Good to hear, mate. Hopefully, Tin Monkey, Shurm and many other stayaways including the wider local public who have been put off by the recent shennanigans will be wending their way to the Crown Ground.

We move on! :bigglasse

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Eric has done so much for the club both as Manager and Chairman but I personally feel this all went out the window when he and DO did nothing to save the club from closing after the hard work put in from the Accrington folk and Stanley fans. Until something ever comes out to the reasons why these people were unable to do anything at that time my opinion will always be good riddance.

Perhaps a statue can be erected at least them that still worship him can bow down whilst others can throw things at it :D

Never thought I'd hate a Football Chairman more then Bob Lord after the stories I was told as a kid about how he shafted Stanley in their hour of need.

Anyway onwards and upwards can't make Saturday but I'll be there Tues (+ it's cheaper and I'm skint)

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

In time, I will thank Eric for all the work that he did as chairman. He completely changed the club after taking over from John Alty. But the emotions from the last couple of years are still too raw to praise him at the moment.

So, as Ilyas suggests, let's just concentrate on Saturday and supporting King Coley and the lads, rather than talking about the past.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

all I would be prepared to offer on the subject will be now that he has finally gone the story can only be told by the history books. They will say that during his tenure the ground became a stadium and we rose from the then NPL (or below) to the Football League - becoming a professional side along the way. Just the same as during John Alty's reign we rose from the Cheshire League to the NPL and the pitch became a ground, just the same as during John Prescotts, Jack Hudsons and Bill Parkinsons reign the swamp became a pitch and we rose from obscurity to the Cheshire League. The history books will mention that his demise was a stormy and unlamented affair but most of what could be written will be unproven and only opinion. My opinion doesn't matter anymore so shan't be written.

Goodbye to yesterdays man and hello to todays King.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

damn good summary/view rob, we move on. having slept on this news, am looking even more forward to sats game than i was, a new era, lets make it count.:);)

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Eric Whalley helped deliver a club back from non-league obscurity to the promised land of the Football, because of this man we can shout STANLEY ARE BACK across the terraces. Nuff Said!

End of Chapter.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

You should never look back just say thanks for what has gone before then move onwards and upwards

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

I hope that in (say) fifty years time, when someone is writing the history of t'Stanley, they will have access to the heartfelt words written in the last couple of days.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

Heartfelt thanks to Eric for all the good that you did.

Heartfelt thanks to Ilyas for all the good that he did at the same time - often behind the scenes.

Heartfelt thanks to the people that saved that good - namely Ilyas and Peter and the people of Accrington that cared enough to contribute to its salvation by their efforts including Jase, John Timmins, Rob, and Stephen Lowe.

Re: Thank you eric whalley
 

You hit the nail right on the WM,it can't be easy to run a club with the lowest average attendances in the league.And out of curiosity where did all the fans go after we got promoted,i can remember standing on the clayton end with you Hobby etc getting **** wet through,then low and behold we get promoted and get a roof and most of them stop attending matches.It certainly puzzles me,mind you if we qualify for the play offs and dare i say it reach the play off final at Old Trafford i suspect they will crawl back out of the wood work,and we'll find we magically have thousands more fans than we thought.It's ashame Eric's getting so much flack,yes this protracted wrangling at board level has caused problems,but the fans who are calling Eric now are the same ones who couldn't praise him enough when we got promotion.Lets hope we now go on to greater things,starting with another 3 points today against the cobblers.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):)