Vic Jobson

[Mick]

Actually, yes.

I used to live over the road from Vic and I have nothing but contempt for him. I say I used to live over the road, but that was before he left his wife and family to shack up with one of the Roots Hall bar staff.

He wasted millions on inwinnable court cases.
He alientated fans.
He alientated Southend Council to the point where the Tories went against all Tory principles to build Garons Park instead of allowing a private company (i.e. SUFC) build it.
He found any reason under the sun not to pay local tradesmen the full value of the work they undertook.
He managed to lose SUFC (not himself) millions when the flats were built on the old South Bank. (That was partly down to a recession, but what wasn't was the court case when he refused to pay the builder on the basis that we made a loss...or something like that.)

He paid himself 60k a year as chairman (Don't forget this was the nineties. That was a huge amount then.)
He paid himself 50k a year as a consultant (Don't forget this was the nineties. That was a huge amount then.)
He re-designed the club badge and retained the copyright so that he earnt royalties every time something with a badge was sold.
The day before he handed over control to RM he bought himself a new Jaguar, and his son (the waster rather than the clever one) a new BMW (I think it was), and put the finance through SUFC so RM had to pay it.

And that doesn't even cover what he did to me personally which I have mentioned on numerous occasions previously.

Ah .... this sounds more like the Vic Jobson I remember !!!!

 

[onceknownasrab]

I spoke with Vic many times. Those days I sat in the directors box and had dealings with the club. Yes I was ripped off mercilessly. Yes every time I spoke with Vic I counted how many hands I had left afterwards and yes, in my opinion, the club was in far worse stewardship then. But, as I recall, I was dropping Vic off in the car at Warrior square and he said to me 'people know I am a developer but expect me to be a supporter. I am a developer, I am a supporter....a football supporter...just not a Southend United supporter.' His brand of tough along with John Adams and his brand of unsubtle makes me very glad that we have RM.

 

[Jam_Man]

I spoke with Vic many times. Those days I sat in the directors box and had dealings with the club. Yes I was ripped off mercilessly. Yes every time I spoke with Vic I counted how many hands I had left afterwards and yes, in my opinion, the club was in far worse stewardship then. But, as I recall, I was dropping Vic off in the car at Warrior square and he said to me 'people know I am a developer but expect me to be a supporter. I am a developer, I am a supporter....a football supporter...just not a Southend United supporter.' His brand of tough along with John Adams and his brand of unsubtle makes me very glad that we have RM.

Instead of Vic surely, and not just glad we have RM ?!?!

 

[onceknownasrab]

Instead of Vic surely, and not just glad we have RM ?!?!

No, I said what I meant. Too many supporters fail to recognise the problems of running a lg 2 club. If the owners had so much money there was never a problem they would be unlikely to buy a lg2 club in the first place. Perhaps soon the fans will start to see the continuity. Whatever the chairman/owner at Southend United the fans say exactly the same things. The club has to dance dodgy sometimes in order to survive and before people say 'if the owners cant afford the club they should let someone who can have it' the fans should remember that we have been a club for over a hundred years and not one oligarch has come sniffing

 

[Jam_Man]

No, I said what I meant. Too many supporters fail to recognise the problems of running a lg 2 club. If the owners had so much money there was never a problem they would be unlikely to buy a lg2 club in the first place. Perhaps soon the fans will start to see the continuity. Whatever the chairman/owner at Southend United the fans say exactly the same things. The club has to dance dodgy sometimes in order to survive and before people say 'if the owners cant afford the club they should let someone who can have it' the fans should remember that we have been a club for over a hundred years and not one oligarch has come sniffing

I cant afford to run football club, so I dont.

Id be interested in your opinion how you think the club will improve with Ron Martin in charge ?

He didnt have the money to run the club 2 years ago and Sainsburys loan saved us, he doesnt have the money to run the club now and we dont have any more money from Sainsburys that Im aware of.

Do you think thats an owner we should be glad to have ?

We are never going to be wealthy, but when you get to a situation when you cant afford to pay your staff, your manager and day to day runnings then somethings wrong...

 

[McNasty]

I cant afford to run football club, so I dont.

Id be interested in your opinion how you think the club will improve with Ron Martin in charge ?

He didnt have the money to run the club 2 years ago and Sainsburys loan saved us, he doesnt have the money to run the club now and we dont have any more money from Sainsburys that Im aware of.

Do you think thats an owner we should be glad to have ?

We are never going to be wealthy, but when you get to a situation when you cant afford to pay your staff, your manager and day to day runnings then somethings wrong...

That will explain why our beloved Chairman hasn't been abroad on holiday for a long time. Unless anyone knows differently.

 

[onceknownasrab]

I cant afford to run football club, so I dont.

Id be interested in your opinion how you think the club will improve with Ron Martin in charge ?

He didnt have the money to run the club 2 years ago and Sainsburys loan saved us, he doesnt have the money to run the club now and we dont have any more money from Sainsburys that Im aware of.

Do you think thats an owner we should be glad to have ?

We are never going to be wealthy, but when you get to a situation when you cant afford to pay your staff, your manager and day to day runnings then somethings wrong...

Its the long game that matters. What RM is trying to persevere with is ultimately rewarding to him but the move is paramount to us. A lot of things will suffer in the short term, just in any business and many people's household budgets, but if there is light at the end of the tunnel then so be it. Instead of asking questions you should restrict it to one question, who else is going to make it better?

 

[ThundersleyShrimper]

Jobson was a complete b@st@rd! Believe me from someone within the club at the time! He makes Ron Martin look like the perfect child! Please please please do not fall into the trap of feeling all nostalgic for that awful time that Jobson was at the helm...BTW he didnt save the club...he raped it and that is why we are where we are now......

1. The Southend United Supporters Club disbanded!
2. The deed of trust upon which the ground was handed to the club by the fans ignored and ripped up!
3. The South Bank developed for Jobsons own personal profit
4. The constant non payment of local craftsmen who had helped to transform RH - followed by the unprecedented amount of winding up petitions against the club
5. Changing the clubs badge!
6. Changing the clubs nickname!
7. He was origianlly appointed by Anton Johnson - Nuff said!
8. Statements like "there are 91 other clubs that you can support if you dont like it!"

There are many many more!

I would point out that point 2 is not correct, the old Supporters Club handed over their one third share of the trust and with it control of Roots Hall in the late 1960's when Bill Rubin bailed out the club!

Do remember we had quite a ride under Vic, I never thought I would see us promoted to the second tier of English football but that day at Bury did happen! I know we ended up where we started from but it was fun, he gave us Big Fat Barry, Stan, Mad Murphy, Dick Bate............

I first met Vic on a Sunday morning in February 1985 when we (+ Trevor Brooking & Graham Roberts) played a friendly against Austria Vienna, there was a tannoy request for me to go to the club office where I was asked to sell programmes around pitch as no sellers had turned up. As I went to pick up a pile off the floor Vic's first words to me were "you can't take those I have not counted them yet!

 

[Benfleet A1]

He turned me into a newt :unsure:


























































I got better :sad:

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

I got better

That, young man, is still out for discussion :smile:

 

[Mick]

It should be remembered that it was Vic who first turned Southend into a family club ....................


........ he employed all of his family there, some on very generous terms and conditions.

 

[fbm]

Lots of stuff on here about a dead man who can't defend himself now, plus some of it is totally inaccurate... and without him we wouldn't exist anyway.

 

[A Century United]

Lots of stuff on here about a dead man who can't defend himself now, plus some of it is totally inaccurate... and without him we wouldn't exist anyway.

Hmmm... Not sure I buy that, fbm. When he took over we still had ownership of our own ground, and a massive South Bank. When he left we didn't....

 

[fbm]

Hmmm... Not sure I buy that, fbm. When he took over we still had ownership of our own ground, and a massive South Bank. When he left we didn't....

We were about an hour from extinction when he headed the consortium to save the club. I think it's widely accepted by those involved at the time that had it not been for Vic then Southend United would have gone into liquidation. OK, we may have launched a new club and worked our way back through the football pyramid like Aldershot or AFC Wimbledon. But then again we may have ended up like many other teams that have gone bust and reformed, Newport, Bradford PA, Chester or Halifax, and stayed in the non league wilderness.

 

[McNasty]

We were about an hour from extinction when he headed the consortium to save the club. I think it's widely accepted by those involved at the time that had it not been for Vic then Southend United would have gone into liquidation. OK, we may have launched a new club and worked our way back through the football pyramid like Aldershot or AFC Wimbledon. But then again we may have ended up like many other teams that have gone bust and reformed, Newport, Bradford PA, Chester or Halifax, and stayed in the non league wilderness.

Let's all hope that situation never re-occurs.