Wright steps down as Chairman
By Slevin Morgan
March 24 2010
Steff Wright has confirmed he will resign as Lincoln City Chairman at the end of the season. Almost five years to the day since Rob Bradley resigned, Wright has confirmed that his often controversial stint as Chairman won't be extended beyond this season.
Steff Wright took over from Rob Bradley in 2005 and it didn't take long for controversy to strike as he put Keith Alexander on gardening leave just three hours before an away game at Mansfield. Although Keith returned to work less than a week later, Gary Simpson, Keith Roe and Ray Trew all left Sincil Bank. Keith would also leave at the end of the season.
Wright also caused controversy by offering a 3 year contract to John Schofield as manager, even though the Imps had literally thrown away a seemingly promotion. He repeated the trick by offering a distinctly average Peter Jackson a long term contract when the Imps were nothing more than a midtable team.
However, Wright did was his job as to do and that was to keep the financial interests at the club at heart. People accused him of running the club like a business, however, if he hadn't and run the club in the "spend, spend, spend" attitude that some fans demanded, the Imps could easily have gone the way of teams like Chester City.
Overall Wright will probably go down as a controversial Chairman, but he could have done far, far worse.
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He has tried to create some stability at the club by identfying (in his opinion) the best manager for the job, and backing him with a contract. We have had previous chairmen who were 'hire and fire' merchants.
Steff has also ensured (along with the board of directors) that the club lives within its means.We have had previous chairmen who have handed out big contracts like confetti to mediocre players.
Steff has given his time without charge and taken no expenses. We have had previous chairmen who have taken money out of the club.
You may or may not agree that Steff Wright has been a good chairman, however I dont see where he has been controversial ?
He has stabalised the club, but for me 2 criticisms.
1. Failed to speculate, especially under Schoey when we were nailed on to go up, 'smacks of' "How much did we want to go up, were we ready".
2. Too much secrecy, mistique around transfers, cash, etc, so in all, 'No transparency' from a community club.
Still we dont know whats going to happen next, i hope personally we get someone with a bit of ambition and a clear strategy to push the club forward without putting it at risk. The turn out for the hereford/bolton games shows there is still the support there.