If I recall correctly Clive, Thompson never shied away from a fight, he had a big boardroom disagreement with Tony Hale the then Chairman and won that decisively to become Chairman.
I was present at the Gala baths in West Bromwich the evening of a Extra Ordinary AGM, when the choice was put to the shareholders, he, Thompson was very popular with the majority of larger and smaller shareholders and it was a no contest in the end.
It does make you wonder though. We will never know and it is what it is unfortunately,
The 1990's AGMs in West Bromwich were always entertaining, very lively and got quite heated at times and I have to say were very enjoyable in a strange kind of way.
Recall in the late 1990's, buying the Evening Mail on the way home from work and it seemed almost every evening the Sports headline was about the latest crisis from the Albion Boardroom and used to joke with the newspaper seller about what, in his use of phrase, "the crazy sods" had done next.
Also had to smile at one AGM at a time of constant changes in the Boardroom when one Director at the time (who was only there a matter of months) came out with the usual Corporate talk of the future being positive (blah blah blah) at a time when we were struggling at the foot of the Championship and the club was going through its latest period of turmoil, and a shareholder next to me standing up with the Yearly Accounts Report (confirming dire financial figures) in his hand and asking "where in here does it say the futures good" which raised a few laughs in the audience and uncomfortable shifting in their seats of the Board members present (and a wry smile from Brian Little who also attended that meeting as Team Manager).
For all the downsides (and there were a lot!) I do kind of look back at those times through admittedly Rose Tinted Glasses as a time when many club owners were both local and accessable and for all their faults, were for the most part in attendance and did have a handle on what the club meant to the supporters and the community.
Speculation of takeovers inevitably have elements of uncertainty, and as we are all painfully aware from so many examples, can go horribly wrong, but I think we all feel that the present club hierarchy feel distant and remote in virtually every respect.
It's the feeling of detachment, admittedly enhanced by the fact that none of us have been able to attend any matches for months, and the impression that this is unlikely to ever change, that makes me hope that somehow our Owner will find a buyer prepared to strike a deal.
How that would eventually pan out is anyone's guess but I think the vast majority would acknowledge that a parting of the ways is needed.
