Billericay Town: The Only Way Isn’t Necessarily Essex

On the opening day of the Isthmian League Premier Division season, former Billericay Town manager Craig Edwards returned with his new club, Kingstonian. In the last minute, they scored to win 1-0 at the expensively assembled home side. It was a moment of revenge for Edwards, who had resigned his post months earlier when new owner Glenn Tamplin declared himself joint-manager. Tamplin said Edwards told him to stuff it.

Since that defeat, however, Billericay have found the form expected of a team with a reported weekly wage bill of £25,000. It is just one part of the colossal expenditure Tamplin has brought to the club since his takeover was announced on 16 December 2016, which includes a multi-million pound redevelopment of the New Lodge ground.

Tamplin, who lives in an £18m mansion with a nine-hole golf course, has styled himself as a “steel magnate”, a label repeated in regular appearances in The Sun. His personal net worth has been cited as £45m, “certified by a Chartered Accountant” according to a statement by Dagenham & Redbridge in July 2016. The source of this wealth, however, is difficult to reconcile with his corporate history. A search of Companies House reveals a trail of dissolved companies and liquidations. Tamplin has dismissed this history, noting that both Walt Disney and Barack Obama “liquidated companies”. His explanation for one failure was that quantity surveyors for a prime contractor “ate me for breakfast”.

A History of Failed Bids

Billericay was not Tamplin’s first choice. He had previously looked at Brentwood Town and Bishop’s Stortford before a protracted and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to buy Dagenham & Redbridge. The Daggers board initially recommended his offer of a minimum £1.25m investment over five years for an 80% share. But the deal collapsed in November 2016 after members expressed concerns about his business background. During the bid, an employee from his company AGP Steel emailed club sponsors proclaiming: “We have just purchased” the club. Within weeks of the Dagenham deal falling through, Tamplin had taken control of Billericay.

His first major act was to install himself as manager. After Edwards’ resignation, Tamplin oversaw a dismal run of results before the team recovered to win the Isthmian League Cup final against Tonbridge, 8-3. The summer has been dominated by his behaviour. He announced an investment from “TOWIE star” Mark Wright and hired a troupe of cheerleaders, “The Ricays”, only to sack them after he said he “caught one of the cheerleaders messaging her number to a player”.

His use of social media has been particularly jarring. After Concord Rangers chairman Ant Smith tweeted about winning promotion from the same division on a budget of less than £2,500 a week, Tamplin accused him of being a “hater” and cancelled a pre-season friendly. The club’s official statement cited concerns for the “safety and enjoyment of our travelling fans”. A new fixture against Leyton Orient for the same date was announced that same day.

A Question of Character

Tamplin’s conduct has frequently drawn criticism. He once posted a meme advising “all haters” to contact helplines for addiction, mental health issues, or unemployment. After this caused an outcry, he revealed to The Sun that he himself had once been in a “mental institution for nearly three months after suffering from burnout”. This made his earlier post seem even more distasteful. Later, he responded to a Twitter user’s criticism of murals at the newly developed ground by telling them to choose a “tall building or fast train”. The murals themselves are a spectacle, with one depicting lions in the home dressing room and another on an outside wall showing Tamplin and his wife asleep in bed, with the owner dreaming of “trophys”.

The self-proclaimed devout Christian has invested in providing “street pastors” at home games to help people with faith and depression, yet his online conduct seems to contradict this. He recently left Twitter, promising not to return “until I win the league”, but was back within three days.

Tamplin’s past includes a spell as a youth player at Leyton Orient. He also named one of his sons Tate.

Non-league football has seen ambitious owners come and go, leaving clubs like Canvey Island, Grays Athletic and Hornchurch in perilous positions once the money runs out. Tamplin insists his project is different, and for now the spending continues. Billericay Town have recovered from their opening day loss and look like the team to beat.

The league appears to be theirs to lose. The only way for the rest of football to be rid of him, it seems, is to let a higher division “experience” him.