Boyhood fan Paul Barry creates platform for joined up Cambridge United to reach new highs
“It’s one of those joyous feelings. Some people have the sound of the ice-cream van coming along as a kid, and they always remember a jingle, and Coconuts has that same type of bringing on that happy, happy feeling knowing that you are going to have a nice, long, happy weekend.”
It is often the simplest things in life that bring us the greatest pleasure, and so you could say that is the case for Paul Barry as he describes hearing I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts by the Billy Cotton Band on a Saturday, which means Cambridge United have won at home.
As we talk, he is 5,000 miles away in Seattle, having flown home after celebrating the U’s promotion to League One.
Being based on the west coast of the United States means that those Coconuts moments happen early morning, setting up the weekend ahead. Of course, there can be the reverse reaction, as the absence of Coconuts can mean there has been a mood-altering defeat.
“My staff used to post the results internally to know whether to go to speak to me at my business 20 years ago – they would have said, ‘OK don’t talk to him today’,” says Barry.
“My wife knows by 9am in the morning. She has got the scores pinned on her phone so she knows whether to go out for a walk with the dog or to stay home with her happy husband.”
Barry may be the majority owner of United, but he is a fan first.
It would be easy to drift into questions about funding, investment, future plans and everything ‘structural’ about owning a football club, but sometimes the greatest enjoyment is just talking football.
There has never been any doubting the commitment of Barry to the U’s, but it is as we discuss all-time favourite players, season highs, frustrations, top matches, that the enthusiasm radiates the most.
You could almost say Barry was back as that wide-eyed youngster who used to get the bus from Hauxton with his father to watch the U’s in the Southern League.
“My memorable games started around when we moved into 1970 onwards,” he says.
“Cambridge United has always been at the forefront of my life in so many different ways.”
There was no hesitation, barely a breath passed, when he addressed whether he could imagine that the club would form such a big part of his life all those years ago.
“Yes, because Cambridge United was one of the things that was always very important to me growing up,” says Barry.
“I loved the feeling of being at games, and it becomes just a part of who you are.
“So many people feel the same way, from all walks of life. It’s not socio-economic – it’s not only the working class that feel that way, or the middle class or the upper class or from this background or that background. Football clubs have that effect on a lot of people.”
Without a shadow of a doubt, this is one of the major reasons that Barry is involved with the U’s to the extent that he is. It is not about owning a football club, it is about everything that a club can and does do for people and the city.
Barry takes great pride in the work of the Cambridge United Community Trust, especially how they rose to the challenge of lockdown in March 2020.
“For me, that is one of the reasons to be involved in the football club because you’re not always going to have a season like this,” said Barry.
“To see what we did during the pandemic and the work the trust has done, is doing and will continue to do is a fabulous feeling because football clubs are one of the things today where people from different backgrounds can all get together and support each other as well as the team.
“The work we’ve done on mental health, in the community, for the disadvantaged, the education we do about leading healthy lives – what good stuff that is.
“Then there is a football team to support on a Saturday afternoon – fabulous.
“As I told the wife, I don’t want to do anything else. She knows it by now. She has always known I’ve been obsessed.”
The obsession is not about soaring up the leagues at breakneck speed and a search for instant success, it goes back to building a football club for the community.
It was noticeable in all the interviews after the 3-0 win over Grimsby Town that sealed second place in League Two that everyone wanted to deflect praise to someone else.
It was like a game of ping-pong as no-one seemed to want to take any credit for the achievement, which was a reflection of the humble and modest club.
“It’s that sense of being United in Endeavour,” says Barry.
“I’ve said to people there is no feeling like it, that sense of camaraderie, working for a great, good cause, whether that’s the first-team football part or the community work that we do, or working with a bunch of people that you really like and respect.
“There is no feeling like it, it’s fabulous to be around.”
Making that decision to become the sole owner in 2019 was in many ways born of a necessity to help save the club, after the financial situation had got out of control.
Barry had the largest shareholding in the club, but had stepped down as chairman in 2012.
After the U’s had been promoted back to the Football League, under the stewardship of Richard Money, things had appeared to be heading in a good direction.
“Financially, with the windfall of the Manchester United money I thought everything was in great shape so I was kept informed with I thought some good information but they weren’t what they had appeared to be,” explains Barry.
“It came to a situation where I had to end up putting some money in, then the need to keep the club going got to quite a larger level.
“As an individual I had to say to myself, do I support the club again and put some substantial sums of money in? It was a really tough decision for me to make.
“Previously when putting in and supporting the club it was always done with money which I had earned and paid taxes on. The amounts that were necessary were ones that I couldn’t quite justify to myself.
“I asked my longtime accountant and said ‘if I take control of this football club and it loses money all the time but I’m in control, does it mean that I can treat it as a loss-making business and offset it against my other businesses?’.
“The answer was yes. It allowed to me be able to help the club because the numbers were getting larger in terms of financial losses and I also thought in the best interest of the club that having ultimate decision making in business – with a good bunch of advisors, having a good board – is probably the best model for a football club.”
He proceeded to make an offer to buy out the remaining shareholders to take overall control.
All the top seven shareholders agreed to the offer, to which Barry was grateful for their support in that belief.
But the description of how Barry came to be the majority owner leads to one particularly pertinent question, whether he felt duty bound to help the club?
The answer was simply yes, and it was the memory of a phone call with former chairman, the late Reg Smart, that resonated.
“God bless him, Reg Smart was the first person who brought me on the board,” says Barry.
“The club has had some well-documented troublesome times, and I remember him calling me up from Thailand 12 years ago and we had a colourful conversation.
“And he said never let this club die.
“That was it, it’s the last time I ever heard from Reg but I made him that promise.
“Getting back up in 2014 really felt a big monkey off my back that I had fulfilled my promise that I made to somebody who was no longer around who loved the club as well.”
Barry’s modesty means that trying to assess his own role in their promotion success is difficult – the praise is passed to everyone else.
But it should not be underestimated that the backing and support he gave them in April 2020 laid a platform to allay any fears as the pandemic hit.
His businesses are in the travel industry, which has suffered perhaps more than any other sector during the past year.
“One of the first things I did was I had always been receiving phone calls and emails, as Ian (Mather, United’s chief executive) has, from numerous people who wanted to ‘invest in the football club’,” says Barry.
“I will talk to people because you can learn something or find somebody of interest. I fielded a lot of calls in March of last year.
“There were some people who had somewhat deep pockets but their reasons for wanting to buy in or even takeover the club just were not in any way right for the football club.
“It wasn’t about the community, the city, they were for other business reasons like developing players, selling players or trying to build a new stadium. They all got short shrift.
“I decided then that I would need to generate funds to keep the club going through the pandemic.”
It is this which led to Adam Webb and Mark Green becoming minority owners.
“Adam got a hold of me and we had a few conversations. I tried to put him off to see if he was serious, but he wouldn’t go away,” says Barry.
“I said to him, ‘You know you’re going to lose money every year? Yes. You know if the team wins it wasn’t because of you? Yes. You know when the team loses it’s your fault? Yes. And the fans may not like you that often, and you still want to do this? Yes. And you’re going to have to put money in every year? Yes. OK, you’re worth talking to then’.
“Most people didn’t understand that as a basic premise because they all thought they were going to be the one person in history who was able to somehow make a League Two team successful year after year after year.
“I brought them on board. I sold some of my shares to them, but all of the funds went into the football club – I didn’t take a penny for my shares.
“Having that financial stability sorted out by May or June of last year, allowed the club to make plans for the season. It allowed Mark (Bonner) a budget. It allowed finances that we didn’t have to worry about at all.
“Once you start having financial stability, clarity of thought with people like Ian running the club, Mark (Bonner) as the head coach and all the good people around the club, things start falling into place all around the club. It’s very simple.”
It has led to what Barry describes as a season that was “the greatest one in the sense of achievement” in his involvement with the club.
Watching from afar, he has been delighted by how everyone at the club has come together and the rewards it has reaped – a return to the third tier of the EFL pyramid for the first time in 19 years and a first promotion in the Football League in 22 years.
But that modesty remains.
“It’s nothing to do with me really, it’s to do with all the people at the club,” says Barry.
“From every different level of the club whether it’s the volunteers, of which we have so many fantastic people, to the staff, to the board, to the people running the club, to the football side – they have just worked together and have been emblematic as being United in Endeavour.
“It’s been so good this year that people have been so supportive of each other, of the football club, of the community. That to me is why it’s been a great season.
“It hasn’t just been that Mark (Bonner) has done an unbelievable job getting the first team to fire on all cylinders, it’s just the way the club has come together has been simply terrific to see.”
Barry will just be hoping that there will be as many opportunities to crank up Coconuts in Seattle next season.
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