AFTER having his

proposed rescue package rejected by Terras

directors earlier this week,

IAN RIDLEY tells Echo sports editor PAUL BAKER he intends to continue the fight to 'save' his

hometown Football club

THE morning after the night before, when I made what seems to have been the mistake of trying to help save my home-town football club, my phone didn't stop ringing.

Among the first to call were Tony Adams and Steve Claridge.

The gist of their replies to the news that my rescue package had been turned down was along the lines of - though in rather more colourful language - "If they don't want our help, blow them. Let them go under. Walk away."

Maybe they're right.

Soon after, Darren Campbell, the former Weymouth player and Olympic silver medal sprinter, whom I have also been trying to recruit to my cause, called. "No? I don't believe they turned it down," he said. "I'll see if I can get some money together to help you in a month or two. Don't give up."

That was more like it.

After enduring so much negativity and some pretty feeble attempts to discredit me, I needed an injection of enthusiasm. Darren provided it.

And so I fight on. If the fans of Weymouth Football Club and people with the prosperity of the town at heart want me to, that is.

I haven't really let the attempted rubbishing of me by the current board of directors or the sniping from the wilder elements who write on the fans' forum of the club's website get to me.

In my work as a football columnist for The Observer I get plenty of it. And I believe in the free speech fought for by those commemorated at the Cenotaph on the Esplanade.

A couple of things cannot go unchallenged, however. First, I have heard it said that I will kick the supporters' representative off the board. In actual fact, I will have two, so that at least one version of what goes on at meetings of the directors will be accurate, unlike this week.

Second: the current chairmen Terry Bennett describes my consortium as "not to be trusted." Me? I have based a career on journalistic integrity and will stand by my record. Tony Adams, captain of Arsenal and England, who is willing to help, unpaid? Steve Claridge, who played with such heart at the Wessex Stadium and for every club he has been at since and simply wants to help out an old friend?

And Matthew McGowan, the former director the current board so objects to? So untrustworthy is Matthew that he has agreed to step down for election to a new board - but still put in his money - if it will help rescue the deal.

Yes, the money. There has been so much misinformation. Allow me to clear up a few things.

Steve, Matthew and I were each willing to write a cheque for £10,000 in the next fortnight simply to ease the current overdraft of £50,000. This would give us breathing space and capital for a change of manager and a couple of new players who could ensure that we avoid relegation from the Premier Division of the Dr Martens League.

We would then put in at least that again in the summer to kickstart a promotion campaign as the start of a five-year plan to get the club into the Nationwide League. I hoped the

current board would also chip in but that seems to be a stumbling block, with the majority being unable or unwilling to advance more.

These were minimum figures. I personally pledge around £40,000 from the proceeds of a book about the venture my publishers want me to write. I am willing to put in more from another book I am about to embark on, up to an extra £40,000. This is me trying to buy the club on the cheap?

(Incidentally, I do not wish to buy this club nor do I wish to take it over. Nor do my consortium members. It belongs to the community. My money will come in the form of shares, donations and loans. I will be a minority shareholder who expects simply to be part of a harmonious, honest group. Call me nave.)

With Tony Adams on board, there would be firmer interest from the production company who are showing interest in making a documentary about the club with me, and thus a large fee, possibly around £25,000.

I also believe that the new manager I had in mind - who has a proven record at this level on and off the field as a commercial manager - will also generate considerable revenue in his full-time capacity. He might well come for me but not the current regime.

And if the board believe that Steve Claridge will come one day for them anyway: trust me, he will come only if I am chairman. They still want a man they deem "not to be trusted?" Work that one out.

But back to the money issue. Once the snowball starts, I am convinced that other commercial interests, perhaps wanting to be associated with television publicity, will surface. But first we need to show them what we can do.

I gave the board conservative figures, not wishing to promise more than I could deliver. I also didn't want to promise money-spinning sportsmen's dinners, auctions of footballing memorabilia, friendlies with Premiership clubs, though I believe I could. Or even cup runs and TV money.

You want me to be more outrageous? I reckon we could inject £250,000 in two to three years. This is new money and I do not see much else of it about. And that is quite apart from producing a team that more people will pay to watch and more sponsors will want to back.

What's in it for Ridley? He just wants to build up the club and make a pile when the new stadium is built, doesn't he?

I swear on the grave of my mother, who lies in Weymouth Crematorium, that I do not.

Some people throw their money at racehorses. I choose to put mine into my football club. This football club. Along the way I expect fun and a run for my money.

And self-publicity? I have a national newspaper column. I appear on TV without all this.

Another accusation seems to be that I want to de-stabilise or undermine the club. It presently needs no help in doing that. Directors keep resigning, the club has had four managers in a year. And undermining by offering new money and top people?

When - if - the new stadium is built, then will be the time for anyone who has invested to be repaid, if they so wish, including the current board. Personally, I would love to stay as long as the fans want me, for the dream of League football.

But this is not just about money. Football is littered with clubs who have thrown money at a problem and still failed. This is also about bringing in a quality of personnel, of people with class, experience and expertise, so that this town can have a football team to be proud of and appropriate to a population this size.

If we do not, then the new stadium will not solve the problems. The club will have stagnated and be in no position to prosper.

I am willing to compromise with the current board on several issues. But I do insist on becoming chairman to see my vision through. I do not see, I am sorry to say, that the current incumbent has the style or personality to improve matters.

If Mr Bennett has a better vision, however, I will be all for it. If he can bring new people and new money, I will wish him well. But if he succeeds only in getting the £70,000 from the developers as an interim payment on the new ground due in March brought forward to January - and offers in return a place, or places, on the board to those developers - merely to stave off a cash-flow crisis, then I believe the supporters' current cynicism will not be appeased.

I do not doubt that Mr Bennett has worked hard for the club. Sometimes it is about working smart, not hard, though.

And so I issue these challenges to him and Weymouth Football Club:

That they sell me £1,000 worth of shares so that I can call an extraordinary meeting of the shareholders and they can judge for themselves the merits of our respective plans.

That an open meeting of fans and interested parties be called in the town to discuss our respective plans.

I will happily debate the future of the club, give honest answers to the sceptics - whom I genuinely understand, given recent history - with Mr Bennett and anyone else who has the courage to look me in the eye and use their real name rather than those who hide and bellyache on a website. If they have a better, more constructive, plan than mine, I want to support it for the good of team and club.

I will ask Tony Adams to attend too and I will personally pay for the venue.

If at the end of these meetings, the people and supporters do not like what I have to say, do not believe I can deliver, and vote against me, then I will happily walk away knowing in my own heart that I had passionate, honourable intentions. Instead, I will use my money to buy that nice harbourside property in the town rather than simply being able to afford to rent one.

In the meantime, I fight on.

This club is too important not to fight for.