SaintDonkey

It is the hideous risk of administration that the administrator is obliged to get the best deal for creditors, not the best for the club. If consortium A is offering 10 million coupled with a promised investment of 250 million pounds to push Saints towards the Champions League, and consortium B are offering 11 million with no plans for the football club, just wanting to turn a profit on selling the land off, the administrator has to sell to consortium B.

If it's Aviva who are holding things up you have a point, but if it's Barclays you don't. 2007 Barclays: Here you go Saints borrow £6 million Saints: Cheers 2008 Barclays: Actually we've stuffed up our business can we have that money back now? Saints: Oh don't really have it lying around at the moment I'll pay you back as quickly as I can... Here's 2 Million... 2009 Barclays: Fed up waiting. 4 million now please. Saints: Umm no, we've given you everything we can. Be patient and we'll get it to you. Barclays: BUT I WANT IT NOW! You're going into administration. Administrator: Well the best price I can get for you is 50p in the pound. Barclays: NO NO NO I WANT IT ALL!!! NOW!!!!! I'm just going to sit here throwing my toys out of the pram until I get it.

It's bizarre though. We were reducing the debt, by all accounts we'd knocked 2 million off the overdraft in one season. If Barclays hadn't forced us into administration there was a real chance that they would eventually have got all their money. So yes it is greedy.

Paul Allen surely

These headlines from the Echo need an ITK ranking. Is the deal really in the balance or is the Echo just doing what we're all doing and reading things into the non-activity? I hope it's the latter. For all we know the only reason it's gone over into this week was that the man who signs the cheques had some business commitment in Russia over the weekend he couldn't get out of. I know I should be preparing for the worst, but kidding myself that it will all be all right in the end is the only thing that allows me to get on with my life rather than just sitting hitting Ctrl F5.

Why do I feel like certain people on here are just lining themselves up to slag off whoever takes us over? If anyone saves us from extinction the deserve our support, but it seems that the usual suspects want to slag them off in advance.

Damn it Phil, you give us a good irreverent post making me think 'right time to stop obsessing and get my arse down the pub' and then you go and give us that!?!?!? YOU'VE DOOMED ME TO STAYING GLUED TO THE COMPUTER UNTIL SOMEONE TELLS ME FRY HAS STOPPED TALKING! Please can someone just tell me they've stopped talking and they'll be no news until Monday. I don't care whether it's true or not, I just want my life back.

It's almost certainly rubbish but just at the moment I'll grasp any glimmer of hope with both hands.

So for the likes of us non ITK. Is this amazing dream takeover superstar worth making a song and dance about? Or is the express purpose of this phantom to whistle in the wind while our beautiful game sees it's final sunset? Are there aspects of this thread worth reading? You cats just chill and tell me on Sunday.

I forgave the Spuds for nicking Glenda and Deano the day they we thrashed them at the Lane and cost Hoddle his job. That was such a great day out it was impossible to hold a grudge after that.

Gutted this isn't happening

I can see us starting the season with crowds of 18-19k, falling away to 13-14k if the first few games don't yield wins. Pretty much like last season, we're a fickle lot and the 'Lowe is gone' effect will be more than countered by the 'the football in League One is ****' effect. Unless we start winning every game (in which case I reckon 21k would be realistic). I hope I'm wrong.

Happy now?

We'll fit right in then

Ah... Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day

I was half expecting to see 'Mike Wilde' at the bottom of the page and it to be a reprint of something he wrote when he came in. Who is Phil Connors?

At least no ITK has said today's the day yet so I can get on with life an not be glued to the web and SSN all day

I've signed plenty in my time and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some state that you are not allowed to even talk about the fact you're in talks, others state you're allowed to say you're in talks but not about the specifics of what you're saying, still others say you're allowed to say anything about what you're saying but nothing about what the other party is saying.

Did the Roy E Disney take over at Derby go ahead or is there still a chance he's sniffing around looking for a club? Disney's certainly a household name...

Fair point. Without knowing the terms of the NDA we have no idea whether anyone is honouring or dishonouring it. But All things considered I still think it looks like a three horse race with only two of the runners declared.

You were quite protective the other day about the bid on the table, but I can't imagine you being protective of a Marc Jackson bid. Now you're implying there is something in the wind which is neither MJ or MLT. So is there a third bid (possibly the first bid that actually went in) which unlike the other bids is actually honouring the NDA? Inquiring minds want to know!!!!!

If it's true that the bids have been rejected because they do not pay enough of the overdraft off to please Barclays this is a very dark day. Barclay's announce £1.37 billion in profits on the same day they kill Southampton FC.. ****ers

The question mark confuses me. Do you mean: "The offers placed apparently don't meet valuation. Maybe they don't pay off the debts?" or "Maybe the offers placed neither meet valuation nor do they pay off the debts?" Is the whole statement a question, or a statement followed by a question? If a statement of fact then it is terrible news. If the whole phrase it is conjecture, well then it's just conjecture and there's still hope.

If we could afford Rasiak and he would stay we should keep him. He may not appear to have a decent work rate, but his strike rate is pretty good. At Watford this season he may not have set the world alight but he's scored 10 goals in 14 starts (plus 11 appearences from the bench). That's a decent strike rate that bares comparason with anyone in the league. Over the course of his career he's scored 0.35 goals a game in the league. Wayne Rooney's managed 0.36 per game, Brett Ormerod just 0.22. (Beattie has managed 0.33)

Eventually there will be a press conference and I will be ready with my Real Player, who cares if the rest of the network is screwed so long as I get my Saints news