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What happened to Scunthorpe?

With 18 games left and an eight-point gap to safety above them, having lost their last five matches in League Two, it would be one of the EFL’s best survival tales if Scunthorpe managed it now. That they have only won five of their last 47 league matches says it all — they will need the form of a mid-table team to stand any chance of staying up.

Fans are furious and one man is bearing the brunt of their ire — owner Peter Swann. An estimated 500 fans are boycotting Glanford Park for each home game. Managers have been hired and fired at a rate of knots — 11 in nine years since Swann took over as owner and chairman — while the playing squad has rarely been the same season after season. Local journalists have been banned from the ground and everything points to the club dropping out of the EFL for the first time in their history.

Scunthorpe’s model of finding diamonds in the rough — Hooper was bought from Southend for less than £200,000 before being sold to Celtic two years later in 2010 for more than £2 million — proved successful as they scaled the pyramid with simple aims: “Reach the FA Cup third round and sell a quality player for a good fee every other year to remain sustainable,” according to one former manager.

It was a strategy that kept a club with an average league attendance of around 5,000 during the highs of Championship football in the black, even if reality eventually came knocking with a return to League One and then further relegation to the fourth division in the early 2010s.

Swann has been ambitious in his plans for Scunthorpe. He is not unique among EFL club owners in terms of investing large amounts of his personal wealth in pursuit of success, only to suffer the consequences of the gamble not paying off. Conservative estimates place his investment at £12 million, at least, over the last nine years. There were also grand plans for a new stadium to replace Glanford Park, which has started to look tired in recent years.

Former managers and players have estimated to The Athletic that Scunthorpe are now operating with the smallest budget in the division, thought to be just over seven figures, and another believes that the finances available for player wages would be on par with the lower reaches of the fifth-tier National League.

Swann was candid in a recent radio interview and said that the club would have entered administration had he not taken the EFL loan during the COVID-19 lockdown last year.  The loan means Scunthorpe are still under a monitored transfer agreement limiting their activity in the window until the loan is repaid, which Swann said he could not afford to do at this time.

Swann’s relationship with the supporters has become more difficult over the years, and he has often been outspoken. He appears unafraid to take on fans who are critical of his tenure.

Scunthorpe face a battle like never before to maintain their EFL status and the odds are stacked against them. Selling the club at the moment would be no easy feat with the looming prospect of playing non-League football next season.

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