Parkin: Why I wanted United THE chief executive of Clipper Group, the Armytage Road-based logistics company, Steve Parkin, has confirmed he tried to buy Leeds United. Echo Sport revealed in May, 2004 that the then Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie had been seen at the group's HQ after presumable meeting with Parkin. Parkin, 45, has also revealed he is now a director and major investor at Uni-Bond Premier League club Guiseley, a very far cry from being involved with a Championship side. However, the multi-millionaire who is a close confident of Keith Hanvey, the former Huddersfield Town, Manchester City and Rochdale full-back who is now in sports eventing and management from his Huddersfield office, has failed to reveal he was also in talks just over a year ago with League One Doncaster Rovers about joining their board. Parkin visited the site of their new £33 million stadium, due to open on New Year's Day with the visit of Huddersfield Town, in August 2005, watched a home game the same afternoon and later entertained chairman John Ryan at his offices in Brighouse for further talks. The south Yorkshire club have since brought on board four directors to inject the capital they were looking for to assist Ryan while Parkin has made his first move in trying to launch Guiseley up the football pyramid. He has appointed in the past two weeks Terry Dolan, the former Bradford City player and later manager at Hull City and York City, as manager, who of late has been working as a representative for the Professional Managers Association and also as a referees' assessor in the Premiership. Hanvey renewed his friendship off the field with Dolan when he also brought former York City chairman and motor racing driver and sponsor John Bachelor to the Doncaster table. Dolan has for a number of years also worked as a personal assistant for Bachelor, a family member of the giant food company. Parkin, a lifelong Leeds United fan and occasional sponsor who possesses his own company aircraft and personal pilot to get him around to his various UK depots, plus being a major racehorse owner and home owner in Spain, has revealed in the Yorkshire Evening Post that he did have the financial clout with the consortium he pulled together to invest in United, currently languishing one place above Southend United at the foot of the Coca Cola Championship but after a due diligence of the club's books he did not like what he saw and was advised to walk away. Parkin says he won't rule out getting involved with United at some stage in the future. He said:" I would love to be able one day to put something into Leeds United, whether that's to own it or be a director or just a beneficiary. You can never say never. "I would like to think I could put something in to enable it to thrive again." He was before walking away prepared to personally invest one million pounds as were the other four members of the consortia but he goes on to say realistically with what was tied up in the club £50m would have been nearer the mark rather than £5m. He is critical of the pricing structure for watching Leeds, saying the fans, are virtually paying the same as for watching Manchester United. In talks with Doncaster Rovers it became clear he was getting towards being very comfortable with his company structure, having just brought in a hand picked top executive to run the ship for him, and building top quality staff to manage what is mainly a thriving bonded warehouse logistics company. It could now herald Parkin, never one to shirk long hours and hard work as he took his first major steps into the transport business by working for BHS supremo, Sir Philip Green, and they remain firm friends today, looking to step aside a little and devote more time to his two major sporting interests, football and horse racing, plus his family. There is also talk in the business world that the Clipper Group could become a public listing on the Stock Exchange. 09 November 2006
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