Pat Rayment was never going to leave Spalding United quietly.
Having called time on his hugely successful four-year reign as Tulips chief on November 4, the club’s most successful manager in recent history (P186 W120 L41 F467 A207) has decided to reveal all on his time at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field.
Speaking exclusively to The Spalding Voice, Rayment discusses everything from his disillusion at the lack of support the Tulips have received to the summer takeover that was supposed to change everything.
In his own words, Rayment calls Spalding’s home attendances “sickening” and admits that the club simply aren’t equipped to make any further steps forward as a consequence.
He also talks in detail about the “behind-the-scenes headaches” that ground him down and reveals his belief that the Tulips require significant investment if they want to further climb the non-league ladder.
Rayment insists that his comments are not meant as a slight on anyone at the Sir Halley – as he knows just how much time and effort is being put in by everyone associated with the club.
But he feels that he can’t walk away without telling the full story of his tenure.
He said: “Whatever I say is not intended to be a slur on the people at Spalding United, both present and past. Even if people have done things wrongly or I’ve disagreed with them, I know people put a lot of time, effort and finance into that club.
“But the facts speak for themselves. Over three full seasons, we scored more than 350 goals in all competitions. We also had, for those seasons, the best home record in the league.
“Success is meant to stimulate improvement. Yet, the footfall still doesn’t come through the gate. What did we average, 100-odd? It’s just sickening really.
“Make no mistake, we had sustained success over the last three years. But there has been no spike in attendances. What more did we need to do?
“Also, and I know this, the club is not backed up through that much sponsorship.
“You must seriously ask yourself, where further can the club go in terms of progression? The only way I see it moving forward is if individuals put money in out of their own pockets.
“The infrastructure that is in place can only take them so far. At this moment, I can absolutely not see the club moving any further forward.
“What I will say is this. Over my four years at the club, I’ve put more money and time into the football club than anybody else. I don’t think anybody from Spalding United is going to argue that point.
“I don’t miss the headaches of being involved, what I was dealing with was more than just football.
“I had more issues with the football club on a weekly basis than I did the actual team. I’ll go on record now – there was never a week were it was all plain sailing at the club, there was always something to address.
“Listen, nobody grabbed me by the neck and forced me to do things away from the team.
“I got myself involved in a lot of things, but there were times when other people could have taken the load off my back.
“I singularly negotiated the takeover of the football club in the summer – and to this day I don’t think that, as manager at the time, that was right.
“I did it because I wanted to do it. At the time, it was meant to be the event that opened up a different path for the club to go down.
“You can quote me on this: Certain things that happened then were supposed to trigger other things happening for the club, good things. But, to this day, nothing that was promised has happened.
“I won’t call it broken promises, that’s not right. But there was a myth flying around that, once a certain thing happened, there would be a lot of movement. Well, there hasn’t been any.
“That’s not through any fault of the people currently at the club, as I know how hard they work. But the club hasn’t moved forward in any shape or form this year.
“I’ve absolutely loved my time at Spalding, I wouldn’t swap it. But I tell you what, it’s been a big learning curve. If I knew what I now know, would I have done a u-turn at the very start? Maybe.
“Looking at it now, if I was somebody with a lot of money and wanted to invest in a football club, I’d not want to put it into Spalding United.”
