Jim Parker: Where would football club be if Osborne had not intervened?

I suspected it wouldn't be long before the comments started to roll in. A few days ago I spent some time with Torquay United owner Clarke Osborne in the Ten Restaurant at Plainmoor. We decided to trail the exclusive interview before actually publishing it online and in the paper. I was encouraged to grill and 'clinically dissect' the 'villain' (definitely not my words) that is Clarke Osborne.
I hope and I am sure Osborne was still in one piece after our lengthy conversation, the first time in a long time that he has decided to talk about the club and where it is at the moment.
Surprise, surprise, he turned out to be a very nice bloke! I expected some pushback when I tried to delve a little into Osborne's personal and private life, but he was just an ordinary family man, married and with two grown-up children. He even admitted to being a bit of a 'petrol head'. What made him different was his attention to detail and sticking to a couple of principles which had stood him in good stead for what has been a hugely successful life in business - working hard, retaining your enthusiasm and thinking young, to name a few.
The 71-year-old Bristolian steers clear of how much his business empire is worth but I assume he is a millionaire several times over. That brings me to the crux of the matter - what the devil is he doing saving a football club just days from the brink of administrative oblivion and subsequently spending £6m in the past six years to keep it afloat with the only reward being an increasing amount of personal abuse from some fans?
The ulterior motive is the same as when he took over - to see Torquay United in the Football League in a new stadium and with a new Youth Academy.
He still has the drive and enthusiasm to achieve that and put the club at the heart of the community as an integral part of the Torbay Story to sell and promote the Bay as that place to be and that place to invest in.
He likes the people in the club and is quick to back CEO George Edwards and manager Gary Johnson. Both have come in for lots and lots of grief in recent weeks as the team has struggled on the pitch.
Osborne accepts and respects the supporters have a right to express their opinion. They pay to watch the team and expect results.
He doesn't accept it when it becomes personal.
One Facebook post after the latest match at Dartford at the weekend likened manager Johnson to a character in Harry Potter with corresponding pictures. The post read: “Get too near and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked from within you. It will feed on you long enough to leave you soulless and evil. You’ll will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life, and you will just be an empty shell that lost its soul. One is GJ, one is dementor from Harry Potter."
Totally over the top and needless!
I understand Osborne and the club hierarchy and the Torquay United Supporters Trust are meeting. It is needed to bring matters to a head and get everything out into the open.
I hope that is what I did with my grilling and dissecting of Clarke Osborne. One thing I didn't ask was what would have happened - or will happen - to the club without him and his money?
Not exactly a million dollar question any way - I fear there wouldn't be one....