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Supporters' trusts are often seen as the way out when clubs have run into financial difficulty. The club can be taken back into the control of the community rather than being operated for the benefit of business investors. However, a football club has to be run on business lines if it is to survive and succeed. Banks have had their fingers badly burnt by football clubs and will often only consider lending money if they have personal guarantees from directors. Rushden and Diamonds former trust director Peter Ralton reflects ruefully on his experiences in the Non-League Paper. Rapacious agents asking for relocation fees or trying to get big wages for useless players were one problem. But the fans were the biggest problem: 'They still looked on it as a "them and us" scenario. There was a strong element of "here's a new bunch of turkeys to shoot at" even though we were their own elected "turkeys". We were there to represent them but they still felt they had the right to have a pop just because we wore the badge of director. Because the fans own the club, they feel they have the right to know every detail of everything that goes on' which often isn't practical or lawful. Still, the Trust did manage to keep the club going and bridge the gap between the ownership of benefactor Max Griggs and Keith Cousins.
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