dubai_phil

Is it party political broadcast time again? Out of interest, who voted for Leon as spokesperson? Why was he swanning it running the Directors Box like he ran the club again? The more he keeps popping up, the more this all starts to smell a funny colour? One out all out - he is as much to blame as everyone else as HE did not kill Lowe off when he first came onto the scene We want a NEW BROOM - LEON go away and take all the hangers on with you

I think as someone else posted the key issue for the FL will be whether we are seeking to gain a competitive advantage over our rivals by renaging on our debts Couple of things then may help - the structure, the fact that this was not a voluntary admin but by Barclays, the possibility to claim some reason for the delay of a few days past the deduction deadline. But I would expect ther could also be a wait and see element. So that if somebody is trying to do the "did this on purpose to buy us for a quid and not put any money in" trick they may leave themselves room to manouvere versus a professional keep most of it together bid... In other words. I think we'll be stuffed both this and next season and like others I worry we can get a squad to actually stay up, it could be more than 10 next season

Think history shows that if we had stuck with anybody EXCEPT JP we'd have been in a much better position on and off the pitch. Too much inexperience.. It can be argued that Lowe may have handled the finances better than anyone else, (not withstanding the divided fan base) but what has killed us was his stupid decision to have not only inexperienced PLAYERS but also an INEXPERIENCED manager. And even IF people want to keep banging the "he was all we could afford" drum, there were many EXPERIENCED people out there who could have come in and worked for similar salaries to JP. Just they were never even considered, and many of them TRIED to apply

:D:D:D He still owes me a bl**dy drink - he PROMISED!

Here thankyou. Now let's see, there are 1.8 million people in Dubai. Should be easy to track down his mate & get the details then from that info Oh and in case anyone hasn't noticed, Duabi Inc went bust about 5 weeks ago and got bailed out by Abu Dhabi who are now pulling the strings quietly and allegedly and who already have their own train set

Source? You met him then? hmmm - UP in making a bid shocker Personally, I would think that if many previous Football Admins are any guideline, Mr Fry will turn out to be the most pleasant and professional of all the people involved in picking over the bones of the extinct dinaosaur that was SFC

Nick & others - just never make the mistake that NP left the club. He was MADE to be left, in exactly the same way that JP was made to be resigned unexpectedly. In fact JP's resignation was so unexecpected even he didn't see it coming until after it had been done allegedly of course....

Wilde & Lowe had clearly been preparing for the "re-takeover" for some time before their "announcement of EGM" in when was it April? of last year. I am certain that the preparation included how to structure the footballing side of the club, as although Lowe is an innovation freak, he does appear to have a side of him that is at least organised. As we clearly know from posts on here, Lowe had meetings with the Dutch group, so even without any "ITKness" it is pretty clear that he would have had "his people" ready to go at least in outline when he and Wilde started plotting the coup. IF FOR EXAMPLE he was ready to announce an EGM in FEBRUARY of last year, that was right at the start of NP's tenure, at the time that MOST on here and even MLT was questioning the wisdom of such a "left field appointment" He then came to power in MAY, by which time NP had proven his worth. Unfortunately, the "Baldrickian cunning plan" included the Dutchies and had been worked on for at least 4 months and probably longer One thing we know about Lowe is that no matter what evidence is put in front of him, it is pretty clear he never changes his mind. So, when he met with NP, the dice was already cast. The money side of things was the "convenient smokescreen". Lowe faced a proven upcoming manager with his grand plan that had been months in the making. Pearson never stood a chance probably even IF he had taken a 50k a year salary

Excellent, glad you're with the programme, you saw one as well. Let's do lunch sometime - how's you're diary look for say - a Friday? :smt083

Right Oi! As the official keeper of the Friday is actually Sunday keys I want to point out a few critical points. 1) Too late I already won the "takeovers were announced on Friday" Competition. I fully understand that today being Sunday, some felt that they could claim the Friday is Sunday prize 2) 5 days The next step appears to be at least 5 days from the previous step. Anyone who knows somebody who has a friend who is an accountant or a lawyer will fully comprehend that you can only reply to a question 5 days after it has been asked, allowing you to (allegedly) pretend to be working hard on the matter for those 5 days so as to justify the invoice for service that you will issue. As a result, the earliest announcement of a firm selection to move to an official takeover thread will of course be 5 days from Friday which was actually the old Friday not the new Friday Sunday. That will mean that the new Friday will of course now be Wednesday 3) Overtime It appears to have been approved because the work in hand is urgent, critical and highly public, and required somebody to be paid to go and watch a Football Match. As a result there may have been a need to work over a weekend. The decision now is whether the weekend counts as time and a half or in fact double time. If it is Double time then that will impact the 5 days minimum process, meaning that Wednesday could now become Monday which will of course hereafter be known as Friday in the annals of SFC history. More confusing will be the time and a half issue, in which case Friday could be Tuesday or Wednesday 4) Foreign Bids of course, if for example we have received a bid from Australia, then they are 8 hours ahead of us, so in fact with double time, the Monday Friday could Morph into a Sunday. Of course, if Tim has pulled his contact list together then the bid could come in from the West Coast of America, in which case, being around 8 hours behind UK, with time and a half, Friday could easily become Thursday HTH

OK here was the deal BA 40,000 airmiles and 200 quid taxes from Dubai to LHR in cattle class - 10 quid taxi here and 16 ish quid on express to Paddington also not quite got enough so would have to buy about 2,000 miles Virgin - not enough airmiles Emirates 50,000 airmiles ditto on costs Etihad 40,000 airmiles and 150 quid taxes. Mercedes limo from home to Abu Dhabi Airport, Bloody Mary in the lounge for breakfast and Champers all the way. followed by Mercedes limo anywhere I want in central London (what a joke as it's the same airmiles at the back of the bus!) After all - SMS is a once in a lifetime moment - gotta be done Reckon I save money that way as well - gotta be done! :smt017 I can then review my tactics with the ever present and attentive air crew up the front instead of the grumpy overworked staff at the back may even have time to work on the football tish boom Now, what happened to the 50 quid a room promo at the Grand Harbour... Now all I need is a mate who runs a limo service in Southampton...

Well someone once said that I fell over on the pitch with less grace than Cantona fell into the crowd. Sorry my take The Echo said only 2 serious bids. I don't think that is correct. In situations like this you will have people close to the club in some way, people who know people who are talked into it and then you will have people looking at asset stripping. It is the same at every admin/auction etc Believe me, with the debts gone, there are a lot of assets in this club of ours. Now I like all the fans want to see somebody come in with feeling for the club, feeling for our history, wisdom and a vision and plan to rebuild us and get us back to the PL no matter how long it takes. I PREFER that to NOT include Crouch who for one reason ONLY screwed up when he did not finish Lowe off and left the door open. But what I DO worry about is that gentle leaks and ideas of money are good but SPECIFIC indications of matters ongoing in the due process are dangerous - firstly because NDA's have to be signed and secondly because I do NOT want the club bought for a pound for somebody who's ONLY value add is to strip us of Staplewood, The Stadium, any saleable players and Jacksons Farm. That is a RISK, not a certainty, but care needs to be taken. Not ONE takeover leaked on here happened. Could it have been co-incidence? Or did it give time (as the conspiracists believe) for Lowe to find ways to block them. We DON'T know We need to know there is some hope but until the deal is done do we need to know who is talking to the bank on what date at what time? no good can come from it Oh and even the good guys may have played dirty somewhere along the line - don't feed ANY ammunition to the old PLC - IN CASE IMHO and all that

Just paid this evening. Mate had promised to send my 50 quid and forgot, then a "PL quality superstar" signed up for one of the home team 45 min slots and said - Dad - can you pay as part of my Birthday Present... So anyway a 45 min slot and mine sorted, hurry up and confirm we are still go as I am ccoming back on airmiles and (bless them) Etihad just launched a book economy fly business class promotion on airmiles for exactly the dates I want to come back so the quicker I can book the flight the more chance I have of sipping Dom Perignan all the way back! And all for FREE! Whoopee Oh = no pressure son, just need to lose 30 kilos and cut out the 50 fags a day and you'll be fine on the night :-) I jest that was his line to me ok! Oh and PL was Guinness version when he played mini-rugby 10 years ago but hey he suffered yesterday so he earnt his spot!

This would be the people that allegedly could be said to have colluded with the bank to foreclose and have a pound to buy the club? That would be a good start in the moral high stakes. Hope diaries and minutes have been shredded and certainly weren't kept on the internet for when the angry brigade's media friends really get going on the investigative work. Hell hath no fury like an arrogant egotist scorned Take care with the snippets Morph, too many sharks in the sea these days to go paddling around with an open wound IMHO

Don't think she has enough mate to beat off the competition We all see it's likely Leon's pulling the strings and he's worth.....

Golden Post Respect

Any professional businessman will not be influenced by a crowd of 28,000. They will have noticed that we have a hard core of 15,000. They will THEN be fully aware that to get above that level the PRODUCT on offer - ie Entertainment Value &/or results will have an impact upon the FINAL attendance level. I swear that if we get another idiot in at the top of this club who cannot understand that basic fact we may as well not bother worrying about whether the administrator gets a pound for the club or not. Football in general has taken advantage of the tribal nature of us "loyal suckers" many stages too far in the past years, culminating in the rubbish that Lowe's revolting (oops revolutionary) management team put out on the SMS pitch this season.

I'm sure there is a story in there that can all be told one day about who said what at which meeting to whom and for why..... But that depends on who gets the keys to the train sets and reads any memos that weren't shredded. Whatever happens, don't worry too much about the Lowe PR. I'm sure the winners will have their pounds of flesh when the other side of the story can be told.

From what I have heard, Crouch & Richards donated a sum of cash to assist the club in running... (besides making the appeal) This may well have helped the Administrators in the short term, in so far that LC is "seen to be" a man of his word, has stood up and been counted and could be seen as a trusted advisor. Fair play to him in many ways, we needed help. But at the same time, hardly any admin period of late has appeared to go "cleanly" and I am concerned that the boardroom yesterday seemed to have many of the old hangers on in it. Wonder who invited Askham in there but forgot to get the Corbetts' a ticket? Fair play if this is all an LC & Salz tactic to buy SFC Ltd for a pound and rent everything - that would be great news for many fans, but somehow somewhere people could also be picking up the stadium, Jacksons farm and Staplewood for a pound, and as none of the bidders are likely to have the 50 mil or so we'd need to push on into the realms of stability in the PL and we gave away the long term family silver, will it really be in OUR long term interests? Being born an optimistic sceptic the next few days could be interesting but I really hope we don't get another "now you see it now you don't magic trick" that LC pulled before when he "forgot" to get rid of Rupert

I trust you backed up your assumption by putting a tenner on the race getting effed up by the rain.... Damned innernet - something kept blocking Justin tv, only coverage we get on telly is 100 quid a month on satellite and in Arabic ho hum

To be fair Morgan returned from International Duty with flu. If you then look at the bench, you wonder why if he wasn't fit enough to start he was selected. It was clear in the first half things were wrong, but all he had for midfiled was Smith (or BWP) I expect that meant he couldn't expect MS to last even 45 minutes from HT... Back to selection & set-up again

In a string of unfortunate circumstances, Lowe's departing photocall co-incided with an unexplained shortage of KY Jel in Southampton, moments after being trapped in an elevator with around 20 members of The Saints Web. Sources state that at least Lowe has departed understanding what the average Saints fan has felt like these past 5 years. Meanwhile, Police are investigating the mysterious disappearance of a painting from the Boardroom at St Mary's stadium

Obvious Logical Morally correct Unfortunately in administration none of those issues are key in being successful. What is key is speed, knowing how to twist regulations, negotiating skills, relationships and finally of course money. Thick skinned egotistical aggressive Corporate Alpha Male types will succeed over the good guys every time. (they will also fail) But that is NOT a requirement that the Administrator needs to look at - they only look at 1) being shown to be following due legal process 2) getting their fees paid and for them to be as profitable as possible and 3) getting creditor value. My point being the "The King is Dead Long Live the King" doesn't always work out how the subjects would like it to. (As we have seen before) Never underestimate any idiot with an ego

Think technically you should say "for the cost of a second hand Mondeo Rupert DROVE the business into Administration". I'm pretty sure from all the rumours I have heard that it was Barclays Bank that PUT the business into Administration. And how they can say they support and sponsor football and then do something like THAT seems to hold the potential to be as big a PR gaffe and RBS pensions. But it may also explain why, if we were screwed over 6k, we needed to do some tin rattling yesterday

After a game like yesterday's one woulld expect the DoF or even Chairman to "ask the manager into his office" for a "chat" So I assume Dave Jones is going to be asking Wotte the Eff he thinks he is doing later on today, or maybe that master tactician Mark Fry can have a go at him... great...