New Blues owner Andy Pilley entitled to dream big

The UK businessman has a track record with Fleetwood Town, who've risen to League One level.

THE MASTERPLAN: Andy Pilley says Waterford are 'punching under their weight'.

“We all have a dream, don’t we?” 

Entrepreneur Andy Pilley has acquired Waterford and is asked if European qualification – the only proven method in Ireland of investors gaining returns – is realistic.

“It’s great to have that potential but I don’t want to put out a headline saying we’re going into Europe. One step at a time - which is controlled growth - but it strikes me that anything is possible.” 

There were a couple of daydream believers in Waterford before him who arrived on that wavelength but the difference is Pilley’s record for soaring.

Fleetwood Town’s rise from the depths of the Conference to English League One presents the reason for him not to be underestimated.

Daring to dream has left £21m owing to companies under his control but his success within the energy business elsewhere has afforded him that choice.

The quaint 5,327-capacity Highbury Stadium they’ve constructed and moreso the £8m training ground at Poolfoot Farm, opened by Alex Ferguson in 2014, are the infrastructural legacies of his investment.

“I know anything is possible because of my football journey,” says the 52-year-old.

“All people from outside told me ‘you’ve done well but you’re a small club and won’t go any further’. That just motivated me to go again.

“I’m one of those people that has an obsessive disorder about things that I get into.

“I got that with football. I remember as a kid I used to collect football stickers, and I used to collect Subbuteo figures. That grew on me when I went to football matches as a kid. The buzz of the crowd, the shrill of the whistle, and the smell of the drink. It was quite infectious.

“I ran a Sunday League team for seven or eight years. I was fortunate enough to become successful in business.

“I was invited to come along to Fleetwood, which was a local club, and really in all honesty nothing more than a pub football team.

“It was an amateur team and it’s just something that I love. That was 18 years ago and our first gate was 80 people.

“We won six promotions. It’s not just an injection of money. It’s an infrastructure with a secret of success of everyone pulling in the same direction.

“It’s a huge part of my life, and I couldn’t imagine life without football.

“I see Waterford as a similar project to Fleetwood as I think that it’s punching under its weight right now.

“Waterford is clearly not a small club. Look at the catchment area and population. It can be a club that pulls decent gates in. The organisation, facilities and infrastructure is here and the future is what we make it. It really is.

“I think it needs controlled growth and then the future will be what we’ll make it.” 

Waterford is Pilley's latest component of an expanded portfolio of clubs.

Last year, he took ownership of third division outfits in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, with the word Fleetwood featuring in both of their club names. While not on the same scale, he likens the strategy to the approach to the template adopted by Manchester City’s Arab backers, the City Group.

Asked if he was on the lookout for an Irish addition to the network, Pilley said: “I was very much so. Both of those areas (UAE and Africa) are where there are players that are rough diamonds.

“There are players that perhaps don’t have the facilities or the coaching that they need in order to progress or maximise their potential.

“Of course, with Brexit, it’s very hard to get some of those outstanding players across to the UK. So it was very much so on the to-do list to look for a club somewhere in Europe where you might be able to bring some of the outstanding talent.

“I’m not saying lots, but maybe one or two potential players that we now have the pathway for could find themselves coming over here, excelling and doing really well for Waterford. That’s very much the plan.” 

Grappling with the Brexit effect on recruitment and development is testing UK clubs and the ploy of Pilley indicates he’s very much centred on reality rather than fantasy.