Management resign over budget cut

Phil Starbuck
By Matt Lawton
November 17 2004

Leigh RMI's management team of Phil Starbuck and Gary Kelly have both resigned following the news that their transfer budget will be cut to a third of it's previous level.

RMI's management duo have resigned after they were told by the Leigh board of directors that their already miniscule budget, dwarfed by every other Conference club, is to be cut even further to a third of it's previous level, apparently due to the lack of support from the Leigh public for the club that has seen attendances, like the team itself, plummet to the bottom of the Conference table.

Although RMI have hit rock bottom of the Conference table with supporters calling for Starbuck's head after a torrid season, there were signs of improvement in Tuesday night's 5-1 Marsden Trophy victory over Marine after Starbuck's side had also previously reached the First Round of the FA Cup for the first time in three years, providing the cash-strapped club with a £10,000 lifeline.

Such is the cost-cutting of players that Starbuck has had to come out of retirement to take a place on the substitutes bench, and even then with the full quota of five substitutes not even filled on several occasions, such was the limiting of RMI's squad size.

While some may be pleased to see the back of Starbuck, who has hardly set the world alight in his year in charge after inheriting the rubble of the disastrous reign of previous manager Mark Patterson, it may reveal a darker side that some may not have realised concerning the club's finances. The news doesn’t just highlight Leigh’s on-field problems with the side rooted to the foot of non-league’s top flight, but also emphasises the club’s off-the-field cash flow problems that have plagued them almost since day one. Without wanting to be getting in to a possible legal situation, it may seem to some that the RMI board of directors are more concerned with lining their own pockets with the possible sale of Hilton Park by RMI's parent company Grundy Hill Estates, who were originally set up to take care of RMI's best interests but have hardly achieved that goal, of which several directors allegedly hold shares and would be entitled to a small fortune in the event of any profit.

Trouble has never been far away on the horizon, even when RMI were flying high in the late 1990's and early this century, with financial trouble at the forefront of the mind of then-manager Steve Waywell, who despite this moulded a superb team that went from no-hopers in the First Division of the Unibond League to challenging for a coveted place in the Football League, with cup games against the likes of Fulham, Millwall and Hull City to boot. However, as the fortunes of the side declined, and with it the previously growing crowds, the club failed to deal with the financial rot that Waywell had warned of, with Waywell's successor Mark Patterson feeling a large brunt of it, having to release several players to keep the bills being paid, including goalkeeper Stuart Coburn, argubly the finest goalkeeper in non-league football. Starbuck has merely felt the full blow of the shambolic financial management of the club that has only kept going through gate receipts from big cup games and the sale of striker Steve Jones, who has since become an international star for Northern Ireland, to First Division outfit Crewe Alexandra for an initial sum of £130,000.

The future looks grim for Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute Football Club. Embarrassingly and disappointingly grim indeed.