trousers

Here's a ridiculous theory.... Barclays now have 'Middle-Eastern' investors pulling their financial strings...what if, said investors (or associates of theirs) wanted to buy an English football club at a knock down price and wanted to rid said club of certain historical obstacles in the boardroom in the cleanest/swiftest way possible....what better way than to move goalposts and pull rugs from under people's feet?

MLT, your club needs you

The demise began when......British banks loaned vast sums of money they didn't have to the American sub-prime market. HTH

I feel a (legal) protest coming on in Southampton City center on Saturday before the game...?

Maybe £4.14m is some sort of 'solvency' threshold that our share priced dragged us under thus triggering the events of the last few days?

Would need to be announced to LSE before press conference

I read that barclays had reduced our overdraft limit so we went from being 'just under' to 'just over'. October 08 if memory serves me correctly. I think it's sometimes called "moving the goalposts".

Anyone know why has the 'market cap' figure on the LSE website gone back up to £4.14m (it went down to under £3m when the share price dipped to 9p before being suspended)

Good 'Evans?

Banks are good at shooting themselves in the foot though. They can hardly claim the moral high ground on money management matters these days. If only Barclays had gone the same way as Northern Rock, RBS and Lloyds-HBOS we'd have a say in how they were run....in theory...

"The Daily Echo understands that Saints had breached the overdraft limit agreed with Barclays of £4m – but by not much more than £110,000. " I posted yesterday that this seems down to Barclays playing hardball over relatively minor discretion on the overdraft side of things. People posted time and time again on here that no way would Barclays bring us down because they wouldn't want the bad publicity. Hey ho.

**** Announcement **** THE WORLD WILL END IN MAY 2009 I will be proven right. Watch this space....from the safety of your loft if I were you.

Somewhat ironic that the financial director is the one that sticks around? Still, I guess Gordon Brown has set a precedence in that department

cheers Duncan

'Someone' selling a large wodge of WH Ireland shares....? http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/pricesnews/prices/system/detailedprices.htm?sym=GB0009241885GBGBXAIMI0924188WHI Altogether now..."hmmmm"

Duncan - have highlighted the bit that caught my eye in your last post....who, in your opinion, would be doing the "allowing"? Are you saying that certain incumbants in the boardroom are STILL making it it difficult for others to come in and takeover the running of the club (be it with investment in tow or otherwise....) ??? cheers

Would the same logic hold true if Lowe had stepped down on 'day 1' of the stay-away 'protests' rather than stand his ground for 6+ months?

Your typical conspiracy theorist would probably hypothesize whether there was any behind the scenes coordination of these two announcements in order to bury the SLH news. Well, if it works for 'new' Labour.....

It wouldn't surprise me if we go out and win the remaining 7 games now.....typical Saints....

Perhaps the Club were already in preliminary discussion with the Administrators (etc) and as such weren't 'allowed' to sell off assets cheaply and the only offers they got were below this threshold?

And the chairman of the Saints Trust, Nick Illingsworth, told BBC Radio Solent: "I think everyone will be shocked. People I speak to just don't believe a club the size of Southampton would do this. "Attendances have dropped below the 15,000 mark at one stage and many supporters have said 'I'm not putting my money into Rupert Lowe etc' on the basis that they don't realise how desperate this is. "Now we know how desperate it is. No Saints supporter can turn round and say 'I didn't realise the club was in trouble'." Is it me or does that read that Nick Illingsworth is blaming the 'stay away' fans for this turn of events?

"Last October, SLH's bank Barclays significantly reduced the company's overdraft facility." So, despite people saying that Barclays wouldn't pull the rug for fear of bad publicity....that's exactly what they've done effectively, isn't it...?

Southampton FC is priority - Lowe Southampton plc chairman Rupert Lowe has said the holding company's priority is to keep the football club alive. The club face the prospect of going into administration and being docked points after trading in shares in their parent company was suspended. Lowe told BBC Radio Solent: "It's now about keeping Southampton Football Club alive. This is the only way it could have been done." Southampton Leisure Holdings plc says it needs extra money to have a future. While talks with a number of parties are ongoing, the company said it was required to suspend its shares because the uncertainty had prevented it from posting half-year results before Tuesday's three-month deadline. Last October, SLH's bank Barclays significantly reduced the company's overdraft facility. And it means the Saints are now threatened by liquidation and could drop out of the Football League, if SLH fails to attract new investment by the end of the summer. Southampton's financial plight is largely the consequence of the club's decision to build a new 30,000-seat stadium, St Mary's, eight years ago. Lowe resigned as the club's chairman in February 2006 before returning to St Mary's just over a year ago in a takeover with majority shareholder Michael Wilde, who is the current chairman of the football club. And he knows the objective for the football club is clear if the parent company enters administration. "If we can stay in the Championship this club has a good chance of finding new investment. We have young players who are committed and will flourish in the future," he said. Saints have seven matches left to avoid relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time in nearly half a century. Southampton fans have reacted angrily to the latest setback. And the chairman of the Saints Trust, Nick Illingsworth, told BBC Radio Solent: "I think everyone will be shocked. People I speak to just don't believe a club the size of Southampton would do this. "Attendances have dropped below the 15,000 mark at one stage and many supporters have said 'I'm not putting my money into Rupert Lowe etc' on the basis that they don't realise how desperate this is. "Now we know how desperate it is. No Saints supporter can turn round and say 'I didn't realise the club was in trouble'." Former Southampton manager Dave Merrington, who steered Saints to Premier League survival 14 years ago, said his biggest concern was for the fans. The BBC Radio Solent summariser said: "There's been falling out and name blaming right across the board. They've had different boards in and they've finished up blaming each other, which is tragic for the fans. "It's the fans that I really feel sorry for. Not only that we're coming up to a big, big game, a home game on Saturday and you just don't know what effect this is going to have on the players." The SLH board will hold emergency talks at St Mary's on Wednesday afternoon.