ILKESTON chairman Dave Mantle has revealed he is looking for fresh investment into the Robins to be able to take the club to the next level.
In the three years since Ilkeston formed from the ashes of Ilkeston Town, they have gained promotion to the Evo-Stik NPL Premier and also set up a thriving academy.
All but four of the current squad are academy graduates and the Robins are currently fourth in the league having scored a whopping 19 goals in their first six games.
Mantle, the club’s only director, says he is as committed as ever to the phoenix club but would more than welcome financial support.
“This shouldn’t set alarm bells ringing for supporters because every penny of the debt shown on our accounts is owed to me personally – and I’m comfortable with that,” he said.
“A lot of it stems from one-off costs involved in setting up the new club and taking over the assets of the previous regime, and from things like creating purpose-built classrooms on site for our academy scholars to use.
“We are where I’d hoped we would be in our fourth season and everything is going according to plan. But it has reached the point where we now have to do something positive to pull our income and expenditure more into line.
“I knew what I was letting myself in for and was happy at the outset to cover what it would cost to get us up and running at a reasonable level.
“But it would be very irresponsible to allow any debts to continue building and I won’t let that happen. If needs be we will have to cut our cloth accordingly – but I’d far rather press ahead.”
Mantle says he has already had conversations with people interested in getting involved with the Robins and hopes new blood can be introduced at board level.
“It wouldn’t have been fair to try and enlist new people until we had resolved the legal case involving John Thompson but happily, we are now at a stage where we can move on after reaching an out of court settlement,” he added.
“We have a huge amount of untapped potential, surrounded as we are by the cities of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. Our decision to build from the bottom and base the club on youngsters is proving to be a wise one and with the right sort of investment, I’m convinced we will continue to climb.”
