Mansfield Town owners John and Carolyn Radford speak on buying the club for £1, taking them to the next level and their big ambitions.
The Stags are flying high at the top of the League Two table, with 73 points from 39 games, two clear of second place stockport who have a game in hand, three clear of 3rd place Wrexham who have played the same amount at Mansfield, and six points ahead of 4th place MK Dons, who sit in the playoffs and played a game more.
Mansfield have spent the last 11 seasons in the fourth tier, winning promotion from the National league in 2013, and last played in League One over 20 years ago in 2003.
Local businessman John Radford bought the club in September 2010, and at the time were playing non league football when they had a crowd of 2,312 for the win over Eastbourne Borough. But over the years, they’ve come a long way from that.
14 years later, they have put serious investment into the club, with Nigel Clough looking to be the man who guided them to that long awaited promotion to League One, with 7,517 fans in the stadium for their most recent game, a draw with Colchester.
“My dream is to reach the Championship and Carolyn’s is to be in the Premier League. It wasn’t so long ago we were playing Luton Town. In football you have to have dreams.”
– @mansfieldtownfc owner John Radford in @MailSport as the #Stags chase promotion
https://t.co/0k4yLfKcqE pic.twitter.com/5KqduvMPuG— Ross Heppenstall (@rosshmediaman) March 25, 2024
Mansfield Town owners Carolyn and John Radford speak before their clash with Colchester United 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/LXnXPGEWyF
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) March 23, 2024
‘Of course we’d love to be in League One,’ John, 58, tells Mail Sport. ‘We’ve got a good manager in Nigel, a good team and there’s a real sense of community behind the club.
‘When we took over, we had no training facilities but we’ve now got a category three training ground, which will hopefully become category two.
‘I feel that, if we got promoted, we could compete in League One. Don’t you, darling?’
Carolyn, the Mansfield chief executive, agreed: ‘I don’t think we’ll have to tweak the team too much if we go up.
‘Yes, we live in Portugal but you don’t need to tell Nigel how to do his job and we’ve got really strong people in key positions here. We’ve been motivating people from a distance for quite a long time now.’
But while they’re looking to finally get into the third tier, they aren’t getting ahead of themselves with the club in for quite the battle as the season comes to a close.
Radford, also owner of One Call Insurance, says his club are worth around £10-20million.
Carolyn, 41, goes on to say: ‘We’ve purchased the stadium and training ground. Sometimes when owners are disconnected from their football club, people don’t know whether they care or not. We absolutely care.’
Supporters also gave their thoughts. Christopher Bartlett said: ‘A lot of younger fans are coming to games now. Many families around here were miners and that’s gone, but seeing the football club thriving again makes people happy.
‘There are people who sit in front of me who have been going for over half a century.
‘It’s taken three years, but we’ve now got one of the best squads in League Two.’
Brendan Whitehead, 16, said: ‘The Radfords have done a lot for Mansfield.
‘I’m just about old enough to remember us getting promoted back into the Football League in 2013.
‘We had a fans forum last week with Nigel Clough and he was honest with us. We trust him.’
Alan Rudkin, 76, said: ‘Two years ago, Nigel got us to the League Two play-off final at Wembley and we bottled it really, losing 3-0 to Port Vale. Last year we missed out on the play-offs by one goal, but I think this could be our time.’
John Radford added: ‘My dream is to reach the Championship and Carolyn’s is to be in the Premier League.
‘It wasn’t so long ago we were playing Luton Town in this division and look at them now. In football you have to have dreams.’
In an interview with Sky Sports, Carolyn was asked how big a love affair is this club for her and John?
She said: “It really is. It means everything to us and we’re really close. And hopefully this season we. You manage to get promotion over the line for everyone here in Mansfield.”
John was asked how the nerves were holding up this time around having come close recent seasons?
He replied: “I’m nervous before every game. It’s tough opposition today, so Colchester, they’re playing for survival. Were trying to hold top of the league and when you’re at top of the league, they’re to be shot down. So nervous. As nervous as can be.”
Carolyn said: “Every single game. I’m shaking now. Not just because it’s cold, but it is. Every single game feels nice. ”
John: “Get it across the line this season and know where we are. So, I mean, for the last four seasons, it’s been down to the last game, or certainly last season it was down to the last goal. We were one goal short of getting into the playoffs last season.”
Carolyn: “We’ve got an amazing squad, an amazing manager, the whole of Mansfield. The place is behind the football club and we really, really want to do it this season.”
John: “It’s nice to have the stadium full every week. The stadium is full of here every week. When we took it over, we were down to 1,500/2,000 fans. But now they’re filling the stadium up every week. So for the last three or four years, its been fantastic. The environment, ten out of ten.”
They were told that they were very successful business people, so used to making decisions, controlling things. Then asked how is it sitting up here, not being able to control things on the pitch?
Carolyn: “I know. Well, that’s the only thing it should be nice that you can kind of just relax and you’re done and it’s over to the players and everything. But it still doesn’t work like that, does it? I get superstitious, actually.”
John: “Trying to get rid of superstition out our lives.”
Carolyn on her superstitions: “It’s where I’m sat, usually, or whereabouts. If we score a goal or something and I’m not wearing the right shoe or all sorts of things. I really blame myself if something goes wrong.”
REMAINING MANSFIELD GAMES FOR 23/24
Fri 29 Mar (A) Wrexham – League Two – 3pm
Mon 1 Apr (H) Accrington Stanley – League Two – 3pm
Sat 6 Apr (H) Crawley Town – League Two – 3pm
Tue 9 Apr (H) Forest Green Rovers – League Two – 7.45pm
Sat 13 Apr (A) Milton Keynes Dons – League Two – 3pm
Sat 20 Apr (H) Gillingham – League Two – 3pm
Sat 27 Apr (A) Barrow – League Two – 3pm
MANSFIELD LIST OF SEASONS (SINCE 2000)
SEASON LEAGUE P W D L F A P POS
2000-01 FL-3 46 15 13 18 64 72 58 13/24 2001-02 FL-3 46 24 7 15 72 60 79 3/24 2002-03 FL-2 46 12 8 26 66 97 44 23/24 2003-04 FL-3 46 22 9 15 76 62 75 5/24 2004-05 FL-2 46 15 15 16 56 56 60 13/24 2005-06 FL-2 46 13 15 18 59 66 54 16/24 2006-07 FL-2 46 14 12 20 58 63 54 17/24 2007-08 FL-2 46 11 9 26 48 68 42 23/24 2008-09 CONF-Nat 46 19 9 18 57 55 62 * 12/24 2009-10 CONF-Nat 44 17 11 16 69 60 62 9/23 2010-11 CONF-Nat 46 17 10 19 73 75 61 12/24 2011-12 CONF-Nat 46 25 14 7 87 48 89 3/24 2012-13 CONF-P 46 30 5 11 92 52 95 1/24 2013-14 FL-2 46 15 15 16 49 58 60 11/24 2014-15 FL-2 46 13 9 24 38 62 48 21/24 2015-16 FL-2 46 17 13 16 61 53 64 12/24 2016-17 EFL-2 46 17 15 14 54 50 66 12/24 2017-18 EFL-2 46 18 18 10 67 52 72 8/24 2018-19 EFL-2 46 20 16 10 69 41 76 4/24 2019-20 EFL-2 36 9 11 16 48 55 38 21/24 2020-21 EFL-2 46 13 19 14 57 55 58 16/24 2021-22 EFL-2 46 22 11 13 67 52 77 7/24 2022-23 EFL-2 46 21 12 13 72 55 75 8/24
Credit – FCHD
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