Gary Andrews

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece at Soccerlens about John Batchelor’s proposed takeover of Mansfield Town, and his possible changing of the name to Harchester United.

Oh God, was roughly the thought I had when I was researching the piece.

Now the excellent David Conn has picked up on this in the Guardian:

“Batchelor’s business record, available for scrutiny via Companies House, will not reassure any Mansfield fan that he has greatly changed. Of 24 companies of which he has been a director, 14 have been or are about to be struck off the companies register, six have been insolvent, three are still going but he is no longer involved – he says he sold them on successfully – and only one small company in which he is a director is active.

One company Batchelor took over – although he did not become a director; his partner, Cheryl Hopkins, did – was Moornate Chemists in Nelson, near Burnley, a steady, solvent, family business selling cleaning products. Within three months, last July, Moornate was insolvent and in administration, after effectively being merged with another company he took over, Besglos, which was also in administration the following month.

David Brown, Moornate’s former owner, says Batchelor promised to pay him £485,000 for the business, in instalments, and did pay him £70,000 up front. However, he has been left devastated, without the business he built up over 30 years, and still owed £415,000 of the price agreed. Batchelor, however, has said he bought and sold Moornate’s factory, making £75,000 for himself.

“He ruins people’s lives and walks away with money,” Brown says. Several former staff of Besglos, and their families, are still struggling to recover, having moved to work for Batchelor on the promise of handsome salaries, then been left unpaid and lost their jobs.

Brown recalls that in one meeting Batchelor told him: “This is what I do for a living: I fuck companies.”"

This man shouldn’t be in charge of an electric toothbrush, let alone a football club.

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: asset stripping, David Conn, Harchester United, John Batchelor, Mansfield Town, Soccerlens

Mansfield Town thought they probably couldn’t do worse than Keith Haslam. The current chairman owes the club over a million pounds in loans and to say he’s a bit unpopular in Mansfield is like saying the Titanic had a few structural defects.

But now colourful John Batchelor wants to buy the club and rename it Harchester United. For those who’re wondering why Harchester, it was the name of a fictional football team on Sky One’s Dream Team a few years back. Batchelor apparently thinks adopting the name will tap into extra support and possibly untold riches. Riches that will probably head towards Batchelor.

As the Pitch Invasion piece notes:

“Mr. Batchelor has, as they say, form on this kind of behaviour. Of his many ill-fated schemes while helping drive York City into the ground, one included renaming the club York City Soccer Club to attract American interest. Batchelor has confessed to asset-stripping companies, making £120,000 out of York City (having bought it for £1 eighteen months earlier) before its collapse.”

It all sounds like prime material for a reality TV show, so perhaps Harchester is an appropriate name after all.

written by Gary Andrews \\ tags: Harchestr United, John Batchelor, Keith Haslam, Mansfield Town