Glenn Tamplin spent around £3miliion of his vast bank balance on trying to transform the fortunes of Billericay Town. Some fans would argue he managed to achieve his goal before he walked in to the sunset having seemingly tired of his involvement with the Vanarama National League South side. Others, on the other hand, would say that the reason that he did walk away was that he hadn’t managed to enjoy the success he thought he would when he started to plough a small segment of his fortune into Ricay.
But Tamplin couldn’t get the bug out of his system in terms of being at the helm of a football club. And he recently bought into Isthmian North division outdoor Romford. And, much like did at Billericay Town, he has splashed the cash on a whole new squad of players. First, of course he cleared out the management structure before assuming control himself. Money talks, after all.
Tamplin has lofty ambitions for his new club and wants them to graduate from the lower echelons of the football pyramid to become a league club. He took to social media platform Twitter to announce that he will
“guarantee to build a community and a sustainable club with a new stadium. it’s about building Romford FC and becoming a league club”.
It would appear to be a tough ask to get promotion this season to begin the journey, as a glance at the league table shows you that Romford are rock-bottom with just eight points from 14 games played — and they obviously have the very real threat of going down a division given that they have won just two games all season.
But with an influx of half-decent players brought in using the undeniable wealth of Tamplin, Romford will be looking to pick up from last week when they picked up a 2-1 win on the road at Felixstowe and Walton United. Tomorrow (Saturday) they are at home to Hullbridge Sports. All eyes are on Romford — can they chalk up another victory and kick-start their rich owner’s dream journey for the London Borough of Havering club.
One fan, who declined to give his name, said these were exciting times for the club but added that he hoped it wouldn’t all end in tears, as it did, some would say, at Ricay, if Tamplin was to tire of the interest and walk away taking the budget with him.
He added:
“It’s obviously nice to help put Romford on the map but because of that went on before there is still that nagging doubt that this may not end up exactly how us fans of the club would like it to. But, that said, we are supporting Glenn and his regime and the boys all the way and we’ll enjoy the ride.”
