WORCESTER Warriors’ co-owners revealed they expressed their interest in purchasing the Gallagher Premiership club prior to taking over Morecambe.

Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham jointly run Warriors and the League Two outfit with the same goal of making the two clubs sustainable.

SEE BOTTOM OF STORY TO FIND OUT DUO'S BACKGROUNDS

The businessmen completed a takeover of Morecambe in May last year after paying off their debts.

They were then appointed onto Warriors’ board in October before being confirmed as co-owners when Jed McCrory departed in June.

However, speaking in front of more than 300 fans at a welcome evening at Sixways, Goldring, 35, recalled how he and Whittingham came to buy Warriors.

“We were trying to sort out the mess (at Morecambe) when Warriors was offered to us,” Goldring said.

“Everyone thinks that we owned Morecambe for a while, that we are football guys and then bought into a rugby club. We are not.

“We are businessmen who were offered Morecambe first. But we confirmed we wanted to buy Warriors before we even bought Morecambe.

“It wasn’t like we were football guys coming into it whereas perhaps Jed was as he has a long history in football.

“Me and Jason don’t have that history. Our history is in law, finance and commercial and as businessmen.”

READ MORE: WARRIORS OWNERS DETAIL THREE-YEAR PLAN TO BREAK EVEN

Whittingham, 48, said Morecambe were in a “financial mess” when they first got involved in October 2017 but now expected the club to “break even”.

“The plan was to buy it and from a business point of view turn it around because only three clubs in League Two break even and Morecambe was losing half a million a year,” Whittingham said.

“Part of the way through that (process) the lawyer that was acting for us was also acting for someone who was trying to buy this club.

“He said you guys have done a good job at Morecambe so have a look at Worcester Warriors?

“This was how we ended up being here.

“We came in and said we think we can actually do the same trick that we are doing at Morecambe which is to make it sustainable. That was the whole point.

“It was never about making fortunes out of the football club, it was about making the club sustainable so it is there in 50 years’ time.

“Morecambe is probably going to break even now and will be one of four clubs. We did that in 18 months.

“We were introduced to the Warriors deal and we saw parallel opportunities.

“We came into Warriors which was in September 28, 2018, and the rest is history.”

WHO ARE WARRIORS’ OWNERS?

COLIN GOLDRING

“I am from Surrey originally and grew up on the Isle of Wight as my family moved down there.

“I moved up to London about the age of 19 and did my law degree in Hertfordshire at 21.

“I had quite a fun, diverse career in law that I would say was successful and I did well for my age.

“I was the youngest at my firm at the time.

“I have always been someone that would try to break the mould and push myself.

“I started off in litigation law and moved on to doing supercar contracts and working in Monaco and Switzerland.

“It sounds more glamorous than it was as I was away from my wife and I wanted to be back home.

“That’s where I met Jason and we struck a chord very quickly.

“We complemented each other well and get on very well.

“When we decided to get into business together, we actually had no idea what businesses we would go into.

“Now we have got several so it was a match made in heaven!

“I played rugby right through school and absolutely loved it. I played union at school and then league up north.”

JASON WHITTINGHAM. 

“I grew up in a small village near Wolverhampton.

“As a child I was an Aston Villa supporter, my uncle was a Wolves supporter and my friends were West Brom fans.

“I went to the University of Manchester, studied business, maths and physics. I then went to London in 1996 and got into a retail career.

“I worked in a head office doing corporate retail, mainly working with the planning of clothing ranges and accessories.

“Then after the retail crash in 2008 I was made redundant, became a consultant and ended up getting a job for the UK’s largest pawnbroker which is where I met Peter Kelly (Warriors’ operations director).

“I was there for three years then moved over to Greece to set up a pawnbroking business which became the largest in Greece.

“I came back to the UK, started my own high-end lending business which was based in Mayfair and that was the business that brought Colin and I together.”