Ken Tone

That's the money that is earmarked for Gaydamak isn't it? As someone else has said, you have to feel for genuine fans who are trying to save their club, but to be honest if this is the best hope that Birch has of finding a buyer, then they have no hope. They really are doomed.

I dont think even they can expect to have it both ways. Either they liquidate and contracts become void, but they lose league place --- or they keep league place but have to honour players contracts.

I suspect their plan will be more to pay something like £2.5 million to buy the club, with the rest going towards their ongoing losses. They will not try to buy out Chainrai, but will have to service the interest on his £17 m loan, pay the later stages of a new CVA, and still pay inflated wages for those players whose contracts continue. So I reckon, if they get a new CVA, they'll be fine , and indeed will have maybe as long as .. ermmm ...until October, before they go bust again!

You could even say he was becoming quite ugly inside.

I remember when you could feed a family of 4 for a whole week on a Mars bar. I genuinely can remember when eating a whole Mars bar was a major feat requiring signficant stamina. Now they're less filling or rich than a 1960's Milky Way was.

As said land registry is only the definitve list of recent actual sale rpices . However there are severial indices used or price changes. Eg See http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/ . If you search on that long enough you'll find a regional index for different types of house. This is usually accepted as a reliable measure of how prices have changed. So if that shows less than 3.7% , then you can argue that either the new valtuation is wrong -- or the original one was!

I have never noticed ignorance stopping you from posting, Turkish And interpreting accounts is something that many posters do know something about. This is very good news all round IMO. The debts being converted to equity is fantastic news. Add to this the Saints finance guy saying that £1.4 million of the wages last year were one-off payments, to Pardew etc, so that the underlying wages were more like 80% of turnover (still very high) and that turnover this season is already 70% up on last, and I am a very reassured Saints fan.

I love the way this works with or without the apostrophe!

That is very likely. The deal for Varney (?) with Forest apparently fell down because Forest weren't prepared to commit to buy at the end of the season. I suppose here is a very faint hope that a player might agree to a mutual cancellation of contract if he thinks he will be able to sign for another club on a free. But the big earners won't do that because no other club will pay them as much, so if anyone is prepared to go now it will be a relatively cheap wage earner who is relatively good... who they won't want to lose anyway.

see pedg's excellent updates ,ie The Theoretical Promotion/Champions Thread Something like the 'mind the gap' thread. Aim is to update it after every relevant match. Current Saints points: 78 Current possible maximum for West Ham: 69 + 3 * 8 = 93 Current possible maximum for Reading: 73 + 3 * 7 = 94 Points needed to guarantee winning Championship: 17 (1 + 94 - 78 ) If West Ham beat Reading maximum points will be WH: 93, R: 91 If West Ham and Reading draw max points will be: WH: 91, R: 92 If West Ham lose to Reading max points will be: WH 90, R: 94 Thus beating 91 points will guarantee promotion. Points needed to guarantee promotion: 14 (1 + 91 - 78 ) (in reality our goal difference is probably worth another point but theoretically it is not relevant) Last edited by pedg; 24-03-2012 at 05:01 PM. Reason: updated

Why would saints do this? The current seats are perfectly serviceable, so apart from changing any for a new sponsor, what a waste of money. I mean for that sort of cash you could probably pay Tal Haim's wages for a week!

I'd been going to reply that I knew nothing but was prepared to tell -- but then I read the rest of this thread and realised that many people have in effect beaten me to it.

No idea where to buy roind here , but have turfed a lawn or two in my various homes. As someone else has said, the more preparation you can do the better ...and that is where you will score over a professional, who will not care so much about the long term effect as the immediate satisfied customer one, whereas you presumably will care about how good it will look in a year or two's time. Get the surface soil as flat and fine, and as free of stones, as you can bring yourself to do. My 2 top tips then: 1. Use an old bread knife or similar to trim turfs to size /shape. 2. Use a plank, old floor board or similar, to walk on the bits you've just laid as you work. This will stop you leaving huge footprint holes and also help bed the turfs in evenly. (I'm assuming you don't have a large but relatively light roller)

Bumping this. Ought to be a sticky

Sorry. Don't want to sound like an ITK wannabe, but I don't think I can say any more without putting someone in an awkward position.

Spoke to someone today who met with Birch yesterday. No hint of anything moving on the buyer front.

Exactly. PFC say you can borrow Varney, but insist it is with a pre-arranged deal to buy at the end of the season. They have to do so this because if all their loan players return to the wage bill in the summer they'll be right back where they started, only worse, with no gate receipts coming in. Meanwhile Blackpool say, hang on, why should we commit ourselves to that? There's a sporting chance that all your players will be free agents if you go bust in the summer, so why on earth shoud we promise you a fee now?

It's probably Kanu. They won't have seen him training for quite a while!

You really do know him!!!!

The £20 million loss estimate was net, after taking into account the parachute payments. They are spending way above their means.

A genuine LOL coffee over keyboard moment. thanks

In the spirit of post 1, I'd just like to remind everyone of the really funny thing I said to my mate at the game last week. You all know him. Ask him if you didn't hear.

May seem weird at first that doncaster may outsell Portsmouth, but I think a lot of take it or leave it' fans don't want to know about the Portsmouth game. The confrontational atmosphere that some find really exciting, others find just plain unpleasant. I'll be there, as a season ticket holder, but if I were more of a casual fan faced with all the barriers to buying a ticket, and remebering all that damn silly fence-rattling last time .....

For me it's because financially they are this year's Portsmouth. They're spending far money they do not have. I read somewhere they're looking at a £20 million loss this year alone, and they were thought to be already skint when they were relegated last year. If they aren't promoted, I predict administration and more poor innocent bystanders left with a bad debt.

I doubt the gentleman's agreement personally, but I can see Adkins not playing Sharp nonetheless. I disagree with a later poster - Sharp will not want to score against his old club. All the emotions around his baby, and the support he received from Donny fans and staff at that time etc, will make him very reluctant to be the person who helps relegates them.