dubai_phil

If he decided to do it himself of course, but if it was a fan driven "crusade" then I would think not. Somebody needs to do another Facebook Group

One of the "major" issues to be sorted out during "the Due Dilligence phase" will be the contract for the "Pouring Rights". This horrible phrase popped up once before on a booze thread. I think it still has some time to run, so HOPEFULLY it will be one of those pieces of paper that can be "torn up" in the new operation and the new guys actually CAN do something about the beer. But don't get your hopes up!

Sounds like something to put to Tony Lynam when he does his Q&A session then

Assuming all goes well in the next few days and our new regime come marching in, I believe that with Rudi's departure and the pending return of Le God, we should retire the No 7 Shirt from the football playing squad. With MLT helping to pull it all together and being a part of the club again, it would not seem right that the shirt is worn on the pitch. In addition to being a mark of respect, it would be a commercial money-spinner as well, as the fans could then buy Le Tissier 7 shirts to show their support for the club and the legend

Lol Well at least that has proved one thing beyond ALL doubt.... The Echo DO get their stories from here!

Good to hear you're still around! Eric & I did the CL final down at Players Lounge. First game we've seen together this season that didn't have a goal inside a minute:-) Keep in touch, you know where to find us!

Totally fair analysis. FULLY understand the concern about "TRUST" with the image of MJ and I agree with you wholeheartedly regarding why there would be the fears for the post takeover structure. What I did try and point out though was that this was being done a little differently to that calamitous debacle down the road and that making a judgement would be better served when everything was announced. I never asked for any support, I simply tried to post points about process and try and carefully explain what may be going on. With that point in mind, the fact MJ was leaked to the Echo caused some of the very valid concerns, but again, as nobody actually knew OR could they know who actually was behind the bid, or who was talked to during the process. Was there any REAL likelihood of it truly being MLT v Jacko? - no of course not because that was never the point, and let's be honest no way I would have worked with them if it HAD been the case. MLT was extremely careful in what he said in his Echo interview. The point is I was happy as a fan first and a businessman second that there were people in the backers who knew what THEY were doing, and most importantly had the funds and would know what to do when the club moved out of admin. The "fan" element helped to ensure that the planning reflected the heritage and history of the club as well as a clean break and a fresh start. The fundamental issue from Stuart & myself was that we had, by chance and a set of unusual circumstances the means to try and stand up and do something to save the club. We took that and tried VERY hard to keep it extremely quiet. Just one person spotting MJ on SMS on the day of the forum match caused the problem. There was a highly professional and well renowned support staff involved from major PROFESSIONAL City based firms who all gave their time on a voluntary basis. They would not have come forward to support a cartoon character, they came forward to help because they could see there was some sense in what was being done. I keep coming back to previous points, WISE people were involved in this, people who listen, watch, analyse and learn and of course talk to other people and ask questions. Did everything go according to plan? Hell no Did everyone do what they said they would do at the right times? Hell no But then I would be willing to bet that Tony & MLT had the same issues. Like I keep saying, thank God somebody else managed to get past the finishing line, because it scared the cr*p out of us when it seemed we were the only ones left in the game as we went into Black Thursday As for the thoughts, well they will have to stay locked away, but if we ever have a Forum re-match, I am sure there will be tales to be told. Would the fans have been united? All I could say is that issue was given as much thought as the business planning side. The whole set up was not perfect, but it had to be brought together in about 3 days once it became clear that the club was moving into administration. Considering that in the years up to then not one single sensible bid was made for the club, at least we tried and God bless our cartoon character, he kept getting back up into the fight after being knocked down more often that poor old Wily Coyote. We move on. Enough said, I want to start moaning about our choice of Right Midfield and Front Line for next season

On a related topic, it would be very nice to see the return of some of our more sadly missed and respected posters of old. Now that the battle is over and we have a new future, it would be great to see the likes of Roman or whatsitRed with his academy updates, and even, after his previous postings on plastic saints about our predicament and work on SaintsAid to see SaintLee come back. But the Scooby's, tommacs and the like can stay where they are thanks very much and a few who popped up on here during admin with axes to grind can go off with them

Spot on. Obviously you'll never make an SCC councillor:-) Now think it through again..... You worked it out, The only things missing were a club with a chance to get back into the PL very quickly and the fact that we hit the worst recession in decades at just about the same time Which is extremely annoying, but it's OK nobody thought things through or read stuff that well in the last few months

Yawn - all the old stereo-types about Arab businessmen trotted out again... In order to make a sale in this market you drop the "ROI" or "USP" buzz words and look for a bigger picture. The bigger picture with Saints pre-property bubble would have been an integrated near-on billion dollar project to re-develop the Waterfront Area around the club. Somebody elsewhere referred to "The Sydney of the North". This place has been obsessed with property development and speculation, it is all NEW to them, as it only started being possible in the last 5-7 years, and the locals have attacked it with gusto. Dubai now feels the impact of that and, to all intents and purposes is in negative equity. Abu Dhabi having always been more conservative is not, their fundamentals are still sound. What you can be sure of is that Al Fahim is not buying the Skates to try and be another Man City. His "mates" wouldn't stand for that anyway. What he will be looking for is to leverage the "Brand" and the fact he has the club to drive through some major redevelopment, the stadium will be a centrepiece and the political tool he needs to get the planning permissions for a mega-project that will take 5 or 6 years to come to fruition, but where he can buy the land at rock-bottom prices These guys are serious businessmen and they think big. They also make sure that they drive EVERY cost down through the floor, and have a total lack of real understanding of "Customer Service" or "loyalty" That doesn't mean they will not run the club properly, but he will have it as a stepping stone on his roadmap to becoming a global zillionaire Trust me, if he thought he could make more money by moving the club to Hamble or Thorney Island and redevelop the entire area into a new town with 80,000 new housing units, it would happen.

I was thinking more of seeing the difference between say Fish Mills & a certain international at left back! But yes long gone....

Like I pointed out many times..... Everyone keeps going back to it being an MJ consortium and forgetting the other name. Still, now it's all over I'm sure MJ'll be on Telly and the rest explaining why he planned to shut the Northam so he could build the petting zoo there and how we would have been playing like Arsenal in L1 so that it keeps everyone happy! Oh and for anyone who is lucky enough to play golf or bump into MLT in Sainsbury's ask him off the record how easy it was for him and Tony and how highly he regards some of the people that sat across the table during their negotiations... I'd guess he won't say a word, but he may roll his eyebrows Sometimes, a Poodle isn't very good as an Attack Dog, you find you need a Rottweiler on a leash

Actually financially it must take 20 days. Structurally of course it will take longer. The new guys will have to start with a sound structure. No more 8 grand a week for people that can't be bothered

Anyone the new management team want to bring in, end of. No doubt MLT has already been on the phone to KK, AS, WGS, Hiddink et al who currently aren't in full time employment to work as kitman, physio etc (sorry Woggy) BUT, being serious for our long term future then Georges Prost first and then Terry Cooper second, would IMHO be a damned wise investment. Let's face it without Cooper, our scouting network found us...... Pulis, Gasmi, Molyneaux etc etc etc Then being fatuous, season tickets should be SOLD to all the old hangers an and ex main shareholders and they should be seated in the Northam, and of course it should be Lowe, Crouch and Wilde alongside each other

Just a minor point about the "Debt Free" comments on here. The new club will "technically" have debt - namely one owner will invest money in return for shares in the company. Before some go off on the "a football club is a charity" type angles, the new owner will expect a return on that investment, and the new management team will expect to receive an income in return for their work in rebuilding the club. One day the owner may wish to sell his shares, possibly (and hopefully) when we are back in the Premier League to some incredibly wealthy benefactor that allows us to get into the CL. The point being that in the past there have been too many complaints and comments about what Lowe and others took out, of dividends paid and the rest. The new team will have to take many hard decisions and some fans will not like that and there will always be an undercurrent questioning why xyz earns an 80k+ a year salary in the management team, as much as they will question whether ab or c player is worth their 2k a week. Tony and his team have 3 weeks to examine the up to date finances of the club and it's contractual obligations. That then needs to be entered into their initial outline business plans. I am sure they will find all those plans are viable. They must find a way to REVERSE the trend of the past 3 years that have seen this club LOSE around 15million pounds in order to ensure firstly our survival and then our progress. Just cast a thought back to the horrors of last season and the pain when the previous management tried to cut costs. Do we WANT to carry on as before and waste the investors money? Or do we expect them to carry out radical surgery, stabilise the club and then build sensibly and slowly for the future? They have a hell of a job on their hands, they have stood up and the investor has taken on a hell of a risk. For that they will be rewarded with salaries, with dividends and hopefully profits for additional investment. That money will come from us fans and now we can give it with a happier heart. Finally, it is possible that the secured creditors will have accepted a specific cash figure, but at the same time it is quite possible that they may have insisted on what is termend "deferrals" so that by helping to save the club NOW, they would also receive a reward later when the club is more able to pay something to reward their help now. So as I have said, it is fantastic that the new team are here, that firstly we have a club to support and moan about next season. But, at the end of the day, the next 20 days is actually INCREDIBLY short as they have to sort out the mess and decide what shape the new business will be in from the day they take full control and start building. Carrying out open heart surgery to save a life is not done in 5 minutes in a car park with a Swiss Army Knife. It will take time, and it seems we now have a team of motivated and highly skilled surgeons to carry out the operation

Good idea, and I'll do it. But in amongst the support messages, just remember how many on here and elsewhere insisted they would not give money when we did need it because it would go to "pay the overpaid players".... We got out of jail, thanks to Tony & his guys, but not getting the legends match up and running and not attending SaintsAid nearly caused us to crash and burn and also incurred a grim 24 hours for the non footballing employees of the club. The future is now so much brighter and lo and behold, we seem to have a new "owner" who finds it is important to talk with us. This gets better and better!

The Saint and Saints TV were a very valid idea AT THE TIME. It was all about the huge wealth that the first internet "boom" was going to make, and about making sure that you got a piece of that pie. So many ideas and so little reality. the structure and nature of the whole "Saints TV" package now belongs to that era of the dinosaurs as well. It was useful, but equally it was stale and it simply became a millstone financially. The "New Internet" world of twits and faces and you-tubes evolves quickly, it needs some fresh thinking and it can be done. I joked about the get a mate to put his radio next to his PC and listen through Skype, but the fact is that there are good brains out there in webland who could find ways to COMMUNICATE. The old regime never communicated, they lectured. Those days and that thinking needs to go

The loss of Radio Hampshire is a blow to us expats (ie anyone about 30 miles or more from Southampton) Listening to the commentary is an important part of belonging. One more problem for the new owners to address, Lowe tried to make money from us (badly again) by making us pay to listen, will the new guys now allow us to listen free of charge via the OS? Will they understand that the commentary is actually an important marketing tool not a money making tool? What about territorial rights for Solent? Concerned for the employees but also about how we keep in touch

Stanley. This is your opinion. A different opinion could also be that his involvement and negotiations with Fry caused a change in Fry's mindset and allowed a different structure of a deal to emerge than the one Fry first believed that he could achieve which could have equally saved the new buyers money The point is that the work was done under NDA, so your opinion is valid but you are wrong to attack others for holding a different opinion. There is ONE simple fact. Pinnacle appeared to make a bid. Something then happened internally within that group. It took them time to apparently regroup, nobody knows what Fry would have done if NOBODY had been talking to him in that time. Holding an opinion is valid and fair, accept that others will hold different ones to you. With NDA's around no other facts are likely to emerge, so you will never be proved right or wrong and it is pointless to try and argue the case one way or another

I heard we turned it down on the grounds the Malaysians would only pay us an appearance fee of 12mil and so we are off to China to play Barcelona, Santos and the Chinese National Team. We then fly back via LA where we of course have a friendly against Beckham's LA Galaxy. I may have misheard due to a crackly line and it could of course be Branksome Chine down the road for some beach training and matches against Bashley, Salisbury and the all conquering TSW Home team

19, I did mention previously that I stayed for a weekend in UK with family friends. One of them knows Fry very well and pointed out a few issues that may have caused us problems. Everything I saw from the distance in the couple of weeks since I returned tallied with that input. So yes, from a "looking in" perspective you are right to ping me on that, but having been told what to expect, no that one wasn't emotion None of the ex shareholders would have been anywhere near the group "led" by SG & MJ. Morph mentioned Leon was involved with Salz. As for Pinnacle, I'm sure they will keep their own counsel until the time is right, but if I was to guess I think they are all finally gone

Anyone wants to come here they are welcome even without the Highland Park! I have the daughter and her boyfriend coming this week. He's a spud fan but one of those unsung heroes. But don't worry. Emirates flies to oop north, I'll bring the golf clubs!

lol No, now his team's work really starts Do their plans match the realities in the up to date finances? What is their break even point for ST sales? This deal is exclusive, they paid the 500k and made it non refundable. That makes the deadly serious, however they could (unlikley) find some nasties, where losing 500k is not as bad as losing "millions" They could still have need of the skills and strengths of the man who brought them "ALL" together I doubt it, but he shouldn't relax his guard

I'd like to see EITHER a wise old canny full back with James in midfield OR a canny wise old midfielder ahead of him. Sort of an L1 version of Bridgey & CMFG

And so he should. He'll have no idea who I am unless he delves back into the Echo "letter" that was posted the day before JP was "resigned", but please, as I will never have the chance take his hand and say, well done, do it on my behalf but also tell him don't let your guard down, his troubles won't end with this announcement today, they are only just starting!