Exclusive:'Destructive to football' - Gray was disappointed by the stance of other chairmen during his tenure at PNE

Former Preston chairman Bryan Gray foresaw the ‘destructive’ slippery slope which ultimately led to many football clubs suffering huge financial hardship.

​The leading businessman will forever be etched in PNE folklore after spearheading Baxi’s takeover of the club in 1994.

It’s an era in North End’s history which is fondly remembered by supporters as the Bamber Bridge-based firm presided over a period of sustained success.

PNE rose from the bottom tier of English football to within 90 minutes of the Premier League in less than a decade under Baxi’s ownership. And off the pitch, three sides of Deepdale were developed under Gray’s watch – before Baxi relinquished control of the club in 2002.

Underpinning everything Gray did during his time at Deepdale was a devotion to sticking to firm business principles.

It’s something he felt was sadly lacking at other clubs as chairmen put self-interests ahead of the greater good of the sport.

They ‘let things get out of hand’ according to Gray which meant costs began to spiral out of control.

North End themselves suffered financial hardship as they tried to remain competitive in the Championship.

They teetered on the brink of insolvency in 2010 before they were rescued by Trevor Hemmings’ takeover.

“I like to think we applied business principles and were probably one of the early clubs to do that,” said Gray, who was the chief executive of Baxi at the time the company took control of PNE.​

“The football chairmen met a couple of times a year, so we met all the others and there were some big characters – and a lot of people ran the football club as their personal train set.

“Basically, ‘It's mine, so I'll do what I want’ – and that was very destructive to football and not seeing it as a business meant that costs got out of control.

"I was always very committed to running this as a business and making a profit that could be then reinvested, but those days are gone.

“I think that's very disappointing and it's down to the football chairmen. They could’ve stopped that but they let things get out of hand, particularly people who saw this as their hobby and were prepared to put a lot of money in.

"I just always believed from day one here that we had to have a business plan, we had to apply business principles.

“Business is about making good decisions on recruitment and having a good team around you, and I just saw football as being the same principle: good manager, good team, on the pitch or off. If you've got those ingredients right, you'll succeed.”