Flown From The Nest homepage

Flown From The Nest

Dedicated to every Norwich City Player since 1980

Latest News and Rumours



Clubs menu

Player records
Statistical records

Features subsection
Search this site
Email the webmaster

Lee Power

Lee Power
Norwich Career: 1986-1994 (39 appearances, 10 goals)
Current Club: Swindon (Chairman) / Waterford United (Ireland) (Owner)
Date of Birth: 30/06/1972
Nationality: Irish

Biography

Lee Power showed much promise as a youngster, playing in Kit Carson's PGL England side that toured England. Team-mates included Robert Ullathorne and Jason Minett He joined Norwich as an associate schoolboy in November 1986 signing as a professional on 1st July 1990. His potential was so great that he had made his first team debut against Aston Villa in April 1990 whilst still a trainee. Lee was the youngest Canary to score twice in a First Division match when he scored a brace against QPR in October 1990. He gained international recognition with the Republic of Ireland Under 21 side gaining a record number of U21 caps.

Unfortunately his career started to go downhill and he made only 39 appearances for the Norwich first team, ten as substitute. His goal tally was 10. There are many possible reasons for this decline in form. It could be the media attention that he could not handle, being labelled as the Norfolk Gazza. It could be that he burnt himself out making such a rapid rise from youth team football. Another possibility is that he lacked the talent and/or mental strength to establish himself in the first team ahead of Chris Sutton, Mark Robins, Efan Ekoku, Robert Fleck etc.

Loan spells followed his request for a transfer. He returned to his native London to play for Charlton (December 1992, 5 games), to Sunderland (August 1993, 3 games) and to Portsmouth (October 1993, 2 games). He left Carrow Road on a £200,000 transfer to Bradford City in March 1994 but his debut goal was not the start of a new beginning. A virus threatened his career. He later joined Peterborough United for £80,000 but moved to Scotland with Dundee during the 1996/97 season. He obviously made an impact as Hibernians paid £200,000 for him and Chris Tosh to join the Easter Road outfit. Lee's spell with Hibernians has come to an end mere weeks after former teammate Bryan Gunn made the move to Easter Road. Hibs manager Alex McLeish was revamping the struggling Scottish Premier side and Power had no place in McLeish's future. Granted a free transfer on March 12th, Lee joined former Canary Louie Donowa at Ayr although the Official Hibs Website reported that Swiss side Lugano were interested.

In July 1998, Lee played for Carlisle as a triallist in a prestige friendly against Glasgow Rangers. However he instead opted to join former Norwich and Peterborough teammate Jon Sheffield at Third Division Plymouth following trials against Birmingham and Sunderland. Supposedly Millwall made a late bid but Lee had already committed himself to time in Devon. In December 1998, Lee joined fellow Third Division side Halifax on loan and made his debut as substitute on 12th December 1998 in their 1-0 defeat at Scarborough. He signed a permanent contract with the Shaymen in January 1999.

On 6th November 1999, the Pink Un reported that Lee had joined Dr Martens Southern League leaders Boston United for a massive (in non-league terms) fee of £25,000. Lee has also set himself up as a player's agent and represented Ian Moore in his transfer talks with Norwich before opting to join Burnley. Although Lee took on some coaching duties whilst with Boston, he departed the Pilgrims in January 2001

Power then formed Cre8, which is now established as the largest Sports Publisher in the UK.

In May 2003, Lee resurfaced as part of a consortium to take control of Luton Town. Lee would be Vice Chairman alongside Roger Terrell, once Chair of Peterborough. However their move to take over the running of the club generated controversy and adverse reaction from Luton fans especially as manager Joe Kinnear was sacked. Therefore Terrell and Power decided not to take uo these positions at Kenilworth Road.

In January 2005, the Cambridge News linked Lee with a role at Cambridge United saying that it believed the club has spoken to Power about becoming a director, due to his knowledge of football affairs, when the new board is assembled at United's annual general meeting on January 30. He could be handed the role of looking after United's transfer activities, held by outgoing chairman Roger Hunt who will quit the board at the AGM, as he has previous experience as an agent. However this seemed to fall by the wayside. United Finance Director Nick Pomery said it was unlikely former Republic of Ireland under-21 international Power would be part of the make up of the new board. Pomery said: "He wanted a very specific role at the club and it's quite tricky in that situation trying to make it fit. It's nothing against him as an individual, it's just a matter of making all the pieces fit in the jigsaw"

In August 2006, Cambridge's boardroom was restructured and Power was appointed as the club's new chairman.Power's aim is to take the club forward off the pitch, whilst also working closely with Rob Newman and Tony Spearing on football matters. This didn't last long. A poor start to the 2006/7 season saw them at the bottom of the Conference following a defeat at Exeter on 1st September 2006, Newman and Spearing were sacked with Power temporarily taking over team selection.

Lee resigned as Cambridge's chairman in late January 2008 citing personal differences with fellow board members as the chief reason

Lee joined Rushden & Diamonds' board of directors in April 2008. Diamonds chairman Keith Cousins said: "I am thrilled that Lee has decided to join us here at Nene Park - especially considering he had a number of other offers from various football clubs including those in The Football League. Lee brings with him a vast amount of knowledge in this industry from which myself and the board will be able to draw."

Power is also a successful racehorse owner

In April 2013, Power joined the board at Swindon Town becoming a part-owner of the club. Swindon were taken over in February by a consortium led by Jed McCrory - a friend of Power. On 29th November 2013, Swindon announced that Power had taken control of ownership of the club. A statement regarding the ownership of change has been released on the club’s official website with Power thought to be taking 60 per cent of the shareholding in the club to gain control at the County Ground.

The statement read: “Swindon Town Football Club are pleased to announced that the Football League have formally sanctioned the change of ownership of STFC to Swinton Reds 20 owned by director of football, Mr Lee Power. The change of ownership signals no fundamental changes in the club but has been executed post the completion of the audit in line with the intent of the consortium led by Mr Jed McCrory who acquired STFC. Since the takeover, Mr Power has injected £1.2m to release the embargo enforced by the Football League at the time of takeover. Since then, a further £1m to date has been injected and to ensure the financial ongoing probity of the club, Mr Power has furnished the Football League with further proof of funds to underwrite the future liquidity of the club.”

Power appointed his friend and former Norwich teammate Tim Sherwood to the Director of Football position at Swindon in November 2016. The same month saw him purchase Irish football side Waterford United. who were the 2016 Irish champtions and are competitng in the Europa League

Swindon were relegated into League Two on 22nd April 2017 following a 2-1 home defeat to Scunthorpe that left them in 22nd place

On 9th June 2020, clubs in Leagues One and Two voted to end the season due to the Coronavirus pandemic and calculate final placings based on points per game. This meant that Swindon were named League Two champions

Unfortunately Swindon were relegated back to League Two on 24th April 2021.


Official Norwich City website

All statistics on this site are accurate as of end of 2011/12 season
This page on Flown From The Nest was last updated on and is © Steve Whitlam 1997-2013.
This information may only be reproduced if acknowledgement is given to this website and a link provided