Ken Tone

Lol I hear that actually the real new manager will be announced just a bit too early after great excitement and be a big let down on the night -- but then that happens to every club sometimes I'm told ;-) K.

Not quite what I heard. More like "the way is open for Surman to play in the premiership after Sheff united drop out leaving wolves able to buy him". Presumably there is still no one at Saints able to agree a price for him, or indeed to reject an offer. Interesting that a premiership club wants and rates Drew, in contrast to the slagging off he gets from some on here. Obviously experienced professional premiership managers are far less able to assess a player than certain Saints fans! ;-) If he does go it will be a shame. A local lad, and a fan, and with real talent IMO. Good luck to him. K.

Even so, the early heady days of waving tenners at the chelsea fans and claiming that QPR were now the richest club in the world must seem a little bittersweet now ! I've heard that QPR's fans' sites are running sweepstakes on how long Magilton will last. What is it -- 7 managers in 18 months? Not exactly 'long run' planning is it? Can't say I envy you much at the moment, but then who knows what our new owner will be like? At least you know who yours are! K.

What 'lower than expected deposit'? Where has the figure been released? In any event, my personal view is I'd rather no one from the past few years were there, but at least Crouch seemed to be making his mistakes from the best of motives. So if the new owner wants to give him a place on the board, so be it, but please just don't let him make any major decisions! K.

Can still remember the pain of the BBC removing us from the premiership table/page. That happened well into the summer, so I suspect that it does indeed happen when the fixtures are announced. Happy days. K.

Presumably he specialises in knitwear? K.

I must be missing something here. Is the paper version of the Echo saying different to the internet one? The version I'm looking at says Dyer deal gone through because agreed before exclusivity period, all others put on hold. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/4414561.Dyer_deal_goes_through/ K.

Well I don't know Strode-Gibbons and thus can't comment about him, but by the same token you ought to be more circumspect in your assumptions about people on this forum; they vary widely in experience, knowledge etc, and some are certainly used to dealing with the media. One of the fascinating yet infuriating things about the forum is that you never know when you start reading a thread whether it is being led by a berk or someone with brains, or inside info (not often!), or relevant experience, or an ego that needs re-inflating, or an internet troll, or ... Since you are shown as only joining in April you either are jumping to premature conclusions ---- or maybe you are a longer term user, who has signed up with a new user name because of too much 'history' with your old one? K.

However it is hard to interpret the last few days as anything other than: Pinnacle and Fry agreed a provisional deal (so price as such not a big issue -- they had pretty much agreed that), then Pinnacle did not come up with what they'd promised. Obvious interpretaion ... Pinnacle do not have the money they claimed or that their consortioum leaders thought they had. If they are still trying to progress the deal, that is better news than that it would be if they'd just gone away hanging their heads in shame. However it does imply that they are spending most of that overtime frantically trying to raise the required cash rather than doing anything else. Doesn't fit with the £700million rumour very well, and doesn't bode well for future investment if they do take over. (Though obviously we'd all rather they take over skint than no one take over at all.) K.

Quite. I thought it might get better after we went into administration, but there are about 10-12 regular posters on here who seem to be interested in nothing except arguing about who was to blame when. Lowe v Wilde v Crouch v Askham v .... What bloody difference does it make? All I care about is whether I will have a club to support next year. Please will the serial arguers keep off threads that start with something approaching news and stick to threads with titles such as "Lowe is crap. Oh no he isn't. Oh yes he is ..."? Then maybe the rest of us won't have to read pages of their vitriolic irrelevances in our futile attempt to find out something that actually matters. K.

Echo website still says nothing about extended deadline, or is it hidden in some other article? Was OP about paper hard copy? K. PS enjoying the shakespeare quotes. Keep 'em coming (That's not a quote btw!)

I was hoping that someone else would post by now saying they too had heard this, but clearly and it was not that bad. With all due respect to the OP we are all panicking on the basis of something he didn't even hear properly. Might it for example have been along the lines of "pinnacle failed to deliver by the deadline on friday so now have until close of play today", pretty much as solent said at 7.50 this morning? K. ..clutching at straws maybe but .....

They said at 8 o'clock -ish that Pinnacle had until 'close of play' today. Surely nothing would be certain yet? K.

I always thought this was just a language problem with our Dutch friends. Someone obviously said , "As a footballer that Ryan smith has just about enough skill to work in a WC", and Wotte misunderstood. As for "ITKK" Phil .... Lol K. (not Kevin)

Quite. Let's not get carried away. Even once (soon please God) preferred bidders are announced, all can still go tits up before a deal is finalised. K.

With all due repsect to Matt, what does he know about business? He was a talented footballer and obviously has Saints' best interests at heart, but I don't think he's ever shown much business acumen has he? My understanding was that he offered to work with *any* group that was trying to keep the club afloat. I think we may be reading too much into this "MLT-backed" bit. And in any event a backer might have loads of money, without much of it necessarily being free to spend. If he/she has money in property they will have great difficulty converting that property into cash in a short time, and of course may not be prepared to take the loss they'd need to accept to at the moment, selling assets quick and cheap. Even someone I might consider filthy rich by my standards may have to think twice about quickly freeing up £10-12 million at the moment. Not a good time to be borrowing against property is it? K.

But the real question is, is Jack**** the same as Jack*** ? I've never met this bloke Mark Jackson, but he made a pillock of himself both on here a while back and when he 'bought' Bournemouth. If he is just a **** and he has no real money of his own , why would anyone with money now use him as an agent? Either he is not as stupid as he seems to be, or the supposed 'money men' are also time-wasters. Which is it? K.

Don't see that it is a matter of ability. We have to keep remembering that his job is to get the best deal for the creditors, not for the club. If for example he knows there is a consortium with say £12mill available, offering £8 mill, with £4 mill to invest, it is his *job* to try to get more of that £12 mill up front for the creditors... and sod the long term investment. On the other hand if the deal is £8 mill up front for creditors with promises of more later as and when club trades at a profit, in effect a re-scheduling of the mortgage for Aviva, he has to balance jam today against jam tomorrow for the creditors. This sort of deal is complicated. That is why it takes time and why it is not just a matter of bid made, take it or leave it. It is actually --initial bid made then administrator will tweak it with what looks like the most promising one, whilst trying to keep others ticking over in background just in case it all falls apart. If only one bid which then falls apart in negotiation, big problem ...cf Bournemouth K.

Presumably either the council (good, but I'd be surprised they could to be so definite without more public political discussion) or a property chancer (bad) offering to buy stadium and lease to club if any consortium wants to play things that way ...presumably because they are struggling to afford the whole thing. K.

Already at work so didn't hear. But what does £ 8 or 9 mill to buy actually mean? Is it £9 mill to pay off overdraft and buy shares, then take over ongoing mortgage with Aviva? Or £9mill to pay off part of overdraft and mortgage so creditors getr X p in the £, and shareholders get nothing? Big difference. Second version leaves us debt free, with a clean slate. K.

Exactly. We are in administration. It is not a pleasant place to be. How many times does this have to be said? Fry is not working For us. He is not working for the club (or indeed SLH). He is effectively working for the creditors. The feeling of powerlessness is what inevitably comes with administration. We have no say in our destiny. Like I said once before it is like having someone else drive your car, anywhere they want, and with you as a helpless passenger. In fact a helpless passenger with a blindfold on. You can't see where you're going and can only guess from the hints given by noises and movements. I'm delighted it hasn't been much worse (yet!). I feared that he'd be selling off the family silver by now..... lots of players released/paid off/sold for a pittance, the ground sold etc. That he hasn't had to do this yet bodes really well for a proper takeover, and in my view is the best 'rumour' we have. Far more reliable an indication than all the ITKs. Also if Fry wasn't optimistic about getting a plausible buyer we'd be hearing more about plan B, namely getting a financially weak bidder to takeover and run the club with the council buying the ground to lease back. I'm sure we'd hear leaks from the council if that was progressing. So, I am very definitely NITK, but know enough about business practice to remain more optimistic now than I was before we went into admin. K.

Solent report as described here doesn't make sense ( and btw in 7.50 sports report they didn't even mention Saints). To announce preferred bidder within 48 hours would mean that Fry would have to have received some bids by now. The process in a deal this complicated is: receive initial bids, choose one as 'preferred bidder' that seems best but for some detail(s), then work with that bidder to iron out the wrinkles, then arrive at final deal .. you hope! K.

Most of us know you're right, plus there are deliberate wind up merchants as well as the naive 'ITKs', but we're so desperate for news that we con ourselves. Ever had a hangover and sworn "never again"? Yet somehow you aren't yet teetotal? I react to this forum in much the same way. I'm not addicted, honest. I can handle it. I could stop reading the forum if I really wanted to. No, really I could. Just feed me a small snippet of vaguely plausible gossip. That'll be enough ..... ;-) K.