I'll not return, says Hodgson
19th May 2009
David Hodgson comments on recent speculation to purchase Darlington FC
Former Darlington manager David Hodgson has ruled out any future role at the football club despite having been approached by potential bidders for the crisis-hit Quakers.
And he urged any prospective future owner to take a sensible approach to running a League Two club that has recorded disappointingly low attendances for some time.
Mr Hodgson, who is now director of sport with BHP Law, said he had been asked about the possibility of returning to the club he helped to save both on and off the pitch when it last plunged into administration during the 2003/04 season.
But he stressed that he had no plans to leave BHP Law, one of the North-East’s top legal firms, where he has played a key role in the development of BHP Sport, an in-house sports management and representation division.
Mr Hodgson said: “I have no intention of leaving BHP. I’ve found myself in a fantastic job, working with some great people and I won’t be giving that up.
“The sports division of the company has really taken off and that’s an exciting challenge for me now and in the future.”
He added: “People have come to me and asked if I would come back to be a part of the club in the future. I don’t want to be a part of somebody’s impossible dreams, because everybody has been saying the same thing. They say they’re prepared to spend fortunes and promise that they’ll get the crowds back up again.
“I’ve asked them what they’ll do in six months’ time when the crowds are back to 3,000 or 4,000 – because that is the best Darlington presently can hope for – and they say that won’t happen.
“They say they’ll keep attendances at 7,000 or 8,000 every game, but I’m afraid that won’t be the case.
“If these people want to throw millions of pounds at it, then the club’s going to be right back in the same situation in a few years’ time.
“George Houghton has pumped more money into that club to try and gain success than any chairman in the last 20 years. He has backed his manager all the way with finances and I don’t see how anyone could be critical of that.”
Mr Hodgson, who guided the Quakers to a Wembley play-off final in 2000, said any future owner would do well to follow the example of former chairman Stewart Davies, who took the helm after the club last emerged from administration.
“They really would need to take a leaf out of his book,” he said.
“Stewart Davies gave me a playing budget of £640,000 a year and that was based on a prediction that we would get 2,800 season ticket holders, plus 300 or 400 more through the gates on a match-day.
“That was sensible and that was why the club was run perfectly when he was the chairman there. Somebody with that kind of mentality is needed now.
“Anybody buying the club needs to be straight with the public, explain the bottom line and accept that it will have to survive on crowds of around 3,500.
“These people saying they’ll have 8,000 through the doors had better hope that the team’s winning six-nil in every game and sitting at the top of the league.”
Mr Hodgson joined BHP Sport in 2007. Since then the division has signed up a growing number of professional footballers on representation contracts and has set some of the world’s most promising young footballers off onto professional careers.
Among its clients are 18-year-old defender Dan Gosling, who was placed with Plymouth and made 24 appearances for the club before being signed by top five Premiership side Everton in 2008.
Mr Hodgson was instrumental in Peru international Diego Penny’s move from Coronel Bolognesi to Burnley and the signing of Hugo Colace, the ex-Argentina under-20s captain, by Barnsley, which the club described as one of the most stunning transfer deals in its history.
BHP Sport has also forged links with a number of well know ex-professional cricketers as it seeks to expand into additional sporting arenas.
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