Andrew Howard can understand some of the scepticism from Wycombe Wanderers supporters. After all, what would make a Leeds United fan with no links to a club offer to run it for free?

But Wycombe Wanderers’ chairman has vehemently denied he is a ‘puppet’ for former chairman Ivor Beeks, stating he has no interest in buying the Chairboys and has warned the progress being made could be derailed by inaccurate comments by some fans.

Howard stated he isn’t at Adams Park for financial reward. The founder of the High Wycombe-based Beechdean ice cream company was keen to stress he pays for everything he uses at Adams Park.

So why do it? As Howard puts it, he is on a personal crusade to produce a profitable football club and those who work for him say he is someone who loves to invest in people, whether that be at Wanderers, his car racing company or his ice-cream business.

Howard said: “I don’t take a salary, I pay full price for my box, I pay for my sponsorship, I’ve paid for my drinks tonight (at the Wanderers Trust’s AGM), I paid for my Christmas party here [at Adams Park].

“I believe that if you’re going to set an example then you’ve got to set an example from the front. I think that if somebody wants a box and they say ‘how much did you pay for the box?’ then I can say ‘well I pay this much for the box’ so I expect you to pay this much.

“For me there’s probably a bit of a personal crusade because there’s only five football clubs out of 72 that are profitable and I think it would be pretty cool from a business point of view to construct a successful business model. I’m fortunate at the moment to be in a situation where I can put some time in.”

Howard’s involvement with Wanderers came around in peculiar circumstances. He told former chairman Ivor Beeks he would buy a corporate box at Adams Park if his beloved Leeds were ever in the same division as the Chairboys. The call came 20 minutes after Wanderers’ promotion in 2009.

But therein lies the problem for a section of supporters. Howard is at Adams Park because of Beeks; the man who some still hold grudges against due to Steve Hayes’ reign and who is believed to be the co-owner of the club’s training ground.

It has contributed to rumours of a potential takeover involving Howard, Beeks and former vice-chairman Brian Kane. All of the men have denied that is the case and so did the Wanderers Supporters Trust – the overall owners of the club – at last Thursday’s AGM at Adams Park.

Speaking to the Bucks Free Press after the meeting, Howard said: “If I had an agenda, if I genuinely had an agenda with this club, then yes I would say ‘flipping hell it (the fans’ suspicion) is frustrating’. I haven’t got an agenda but at the same time I don’t want the success of the club to be derailed by comments that aren’t relevant.

“Am I a puppet to other people? I don’t think I’ve ever really been a puppet to other people. Do I take it (fan criticism and accusations) personally? No.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been in the public domain so I’ve consciously for 23 years of my life kept my head down.

“You won’t have seen me in the Bucks Free Press, you won’t have seen me anywhere and that’s how I’ve done it. Even now I’ve tried to push the relevant people forward.

“It’s important that (manager) Gareth (Ainsworth) gets the press, the team get the press, it’s important the non-playing people are pushed forward because a chairman has the job of soaking up the crap when it’s needed and putting the direction in when it’s there – but not taking the glory. Do you know what? I’m quite happy with that.”

Vice-president Beeks and Kane do still assist Howard. It is hardly surprising as the chairman recognises he has to learn the football business “very, very fast”.

Howard said: “Ivor is vice-president of the football club, was chairman of the football club, is a member of the FA on various committees, knows more about football than I could ever dream of and is somebody that, for me, has a fantastic knowledge base.

“He put the Desso pitch in [at Adams Park]. What people forget is he signed off the Desso pitch before he actually had the Wasps’ contract, because that’s how committed he was to what was going on. This is a bloke that is Wycombe through and through.

“At the end of the day I can’t do this job without delegating responsibility to different people. I don’t ever think about the pitch, I don’t think about the training ground – I know it’s going to be done. Both of these guys (Beeks and Kane) are involved in the club financially and they have been for a lot longer than I have.”

Howard has said the working capital loans are not a sustainable revenue stream though as the Blues move forward as a supporter-owned football club.

The very term indicates that cash will be needed from those who hold Wycombe dear to their heart if they are to be self sufficient and not have to call upon the wealth of a benefactor.

Howard even suggested there may not have been a Wycombe Wanderers had it not been for the loans from Beeks and Kane.

He said: “I can’t speak for them (Beeks and Kane); all I know is if I hadn’t worked with them over the last six months I don’t think the club would be in this position. Whilst the chairman of the Trust said we’d be ten points down [due to the penalty of administration] I’m not convinced without the money that’s been put in on a loan basis that we’d actually be trading.

“So never mind your minus ten points you might be minus a club. Everybody that I’ve come into contact with at this club has the best interests of the club. It’s the politics around it which is doing the damage.

“Everybody has good, everybody has bad, everybody has a bit of history. All I’m trying to do is put a bit of direction in and harness it. One of those individuals has literally saved us thousands of pounds.

“These guys are loyal. Whether they’ve done right or wrong in the past isn’t for me to judge. All I can say is that they’re doing it right now.”

Howard may not be getting paid a penny by Wycombe but failure to secure their financial future would be costly for him.

The 51-year-old would not disclose exactly how much money he had put into the club but it is “significantly more” than £140,000, which was how much he had paid into theChairboys’ coffers until the this summer, as indicated at the AGM.

He personally invested money in the share scheme in July and is hoping the share scheme due to be launched on March 19 is the answer to the Chairboys’ current financial shortfall.

The club have relied heavily on loans from the likes of Howard, Beeks, Kane and the Supporters Trust and Frank Adams Legacy Limited in the past but it is hoped £2 million can be raised over the next five years through the proposal. The Trust say £300,000 has already been raised.

“I think the share scheme is a great option if it works [but] it has to be done properly,” he said.

“I’ve put money into the share scheme – I put money into the share scheme in July – and I’ve put quite a lot of money in the share scheme because I believe that is the right unconditional way of doing things.

“I’ve got a commitment to the share scheme over five years. The share scheme is the answer. Should it be spent on players? No, it shouldn’t be spent on players, it should be on balance sheets and the balance sheet is working capital.

“We haven’t got an overdraft. If we had the working capital in the club it would give us a chance to deal with things. The club is capable of making money over a period of time.”

He expanded further by saying: “Wycombe Wanderers has debt and at the end of the day a profitable business can pay its debts back – so you need to be making money to pay your debts back. There is a fundamental situation with the club that it needs cash.

“If the share scheme works and money comes in from the share scheme and it’s used properly as working capital, which is how I think it should be used, then people like myself won’t have to do working capital loans.

“But we also have to look at how we’ll repay. If the club are successful in three or four years’ time then it’s not an issue, we’ll earn the money to do that. But, like any business, it’s about whether your cash flow can survive that long, in which case it may need a cash injection.

“So the term ‘sale of the club’ is wrong [when discussing the club’s future]. The term ‘using the asset of the club to make money’ is right.

“Within the public domain whatever I say will be twisted to whatever the other person wants to say back. [But] I don’t want to own Wycombe Wanderers, I don’t want to have a controlling interest over Wycombe Wanderers and I want to be unconditional with the club because that’s the only way it’s going to be successful.”

The £1 shares are being sold for a stake in the Trust, which owns the club and the Frank Adams Legacy Limited that controls the stadium.

Howard said it is the Trust’s decision to decide how to spend the money raised from the share scheme but continually stressed that he hopes it is used as working capital.

“If you win a load of money the financial advisor will say to you spend a little, save a little and work the rest,” Howard added.

Howard’s passion for sport doesn’t just stretch to the football field. He set up the Beechdean AMR racing team in the British GT Championship and personally became the drivers’ champion of the GT3 class in 2013.

Howard has no ambition to own a football club though. He described Wanderers as a special club and hopes the fan-ownership can work.

He said: “The reality is if I owned it you can’t go and ask people to help; how does that work? ‘I’m not helping him, I’m not making money for him for nothing’. If you don’t own it and you can do things unconditionally, [then you can say] if you’re a true fan then trust the people at the top or get rid of them and if you trust them then work with them, be unconditional and support them.”

He continued: “There’s some great ideas coming out but they need to be focussed. I’ve got a really cool marketing team, a really cool catering team, I’ve got a great backroom staff and we offer a great service.

“If we can amplify that locally by using people from both the Trust and the community and they feel that they’re involved in something they own, that’s exciting and they’re doing it for themselves. But you can’t have 57 people trying to run it.”

While the club is still making a loss off the pitch, on it losing is not a word which can be associated with Wycombe too often this season and they are making strides towards securing League One football next season.

Howard says the Blues could hold their own in League 1 with the way the club is run now but is dreaming bigger and believes he already has staff at the club who could make it possible.

He said: “I think we could probably build a side that could last in League One. The problem is you’ve got a coaching staff and some players that are capable of pushing it further.

“I think we’ve got some really cool deals that could make it really quite exciting. Then it will be exciting when suddenly your wage bill is five times [as big]. The reality is players in League Two are not paid the same as players in League One, and trust me they’re not paid the same.”

Promotion up through the Football League does not come cheap. And if Wanderers fans are dreaming that they can become the most successful fan-owned football club in the country in the long-term then Howard has suggested money will need to be found to ensure those ambitions can become reality.

“Every industry has a business model. I know the ice cream industry and the business model well and motorsport I know pretty well. I’m learning football very, very fast and I’m literally spending every minute of the day I can meeting people and seeing people to understand what’s going on.”

A major frustration for Wanderers fans has been a perceived lack of communication from Howard and the Trust about deals. Constant scrutiny and questioning of dealings at boardroom level is to be expected from a club that is owned by its fans, but the Wanderers chairman believes the time has come for supporters to get behind the people in power.

“The business model works,” said Howard. “We look at people like Alfie Mawson and some of the youngsters running around and you’ve got the same type of people off the pitch. You’ve got to entrust them and let them get on to do the job.

“That’s what is exciting, that’s what I love about motor racing, the youth. I had a 16-year-old lass driving our car the other day, she was absolutely stunning, she’s so quick. I’m going to put a local lad (Ross Gunn) in with her this season because he deserves that break. No one else is going to give him that break and that’s the rewarding thing in life.

“Seeing people blossom and just helping them. So rather than just saying how crap they are all the time, help them on the bad bits and push them on the good bits. But you’ve got to do it unconditionally because if you do it on any other condition people think ‘what are you after?’”