derry

I know how you feel, I hope we don't need them but in the event we have to be able to collect the money and they are the only way.

Janet, Ron has given me your contact details and any help will be gratefully accepted. I will be in direct touch as soon as I see where we are going.

Ron I don't think you have a confliction problem. For one thing you don't divulge confidential information and more importantly what we are doing isn't competing with any bid and unless others see it differently, is purely a fall back position to try and save the club or as others have said to me and I agree, a way of assisting a worthwhile and credible bidder and there is, in the event of a possible shortfall. I would be interested in feedback regarding my last remark because it does move the goalposts somewhat and would need careful thought. I am hopeful that a credible offer that needs no help will be agreed and we can then stand down. I have heard back from Paris Smith and Randall who have put me in touch with someone else who I haven't managed to talk to yet and therefore don't quite know where it will take us.

The reason I favoured Barclays was simple. They would see the money coming into a trust account and realise that there were assets available and imminent and be less likely to pull the plug on the club accounts.

I've been made aware of two substantial bidders of which I hope at least one is acceptable. Independently in todays echo. 19 contacts 2 serious.

The infrastructure and legal framework has to be in place or there is nowhere to collect the money if needed. Leaping in and firing all the publicity up whilst having no infrastructure in place is asking for chaos and the collapse of any momentum, when people ask where and how do I pay the money and have no means to pay cheque/transfer/credit/debit. More importantly who has access and how secure is the account. In any event we need to know whether there are credible and viable bids for the club. The Administrator has agreed to keep me updated.

There is no point in having multiple organisations. There is only one aim, save the club from extinction. To that end all initiatives should be drawn together into one appeal/trust/effort. The way forward is working together or really facing multiple failures. But any initiative has to have a sound basis and be trusted by those who pledge.

The simple fact is that we have better than £1/2m already pledged, Myself, Weston and Duncan Holley are meeting tomorrow, there are already confidential contacts with other interested parties, as long as this doesn't turn into a buggers muddle, it has the approval of the administrator who wants us to continue and provided we don't end up with a load of half baked initiatives, it could back things up in the event of no bid or an underfunded credible bid. Either way I don't want to see the club collapse, and see the ideal solution a credible accepted bid.

To tell the truth , that's how I feel but doing nothing isn't an option I can live with.

The next step has to be going back to the Administrator and arranging to talk to the bank about setting up a trust account which would be inaccessible to individuals until the required sum was reached. At the same time talking to the lawyers and setting up a trust and constitution with temporary trustees pending proper democratic elections.

This is the Mark representing the consortium that I spoke to, but it now looks like an attempt to highjack the site's initiative. I personally explained that a trust was the way to go and no money taken until everything in place legally and protected. In no way would I support an open ended company capitalised by the public but run by an unelected few. For me it's a properly set up trust fund or nothing. I may well walk away from this one now.

Mark, I already have the details of all but the last two and will be contacting those shortly. It was maybe a little naive to post as such on here as some are very sensitive about new posters appearing at times like these. There is a long history about takeovers, timewasters and trojan horses. The simple fact that there are some who don't get on and others who are well respected by the members such as Duncan Holley and Weston Saint, that makes this a partcularly volatile site. It would be best to leave it to those that are at the least accepted, there is no shortcut with the site. I will be in touch as agreed. You are of course fully entitled to do your own thing. I'm not sure that the membership or public would want to buy into financing a consortium that requires others to provide the capital for a limited company. But a trust is a different kettle of fish.

Get permission to do it inside the stadium after 2pm.

The big and significant difference between Southampton FC Ltd and nearly all other clubs is that it is owned by a quoted public company. The league insisted that the public company could not be the football club because of it's requirement to adhere to plc rules. It insisted that the football club had to be entirely separate from the holding company and have a separate board and finances subservient to league rules such as no litigation. They can hardly complain now the that holding company goes into administration but the company subservient to the league is trading and for the moment solvent. At this time I think a lot of the rhetoric is based on the premise ' don't get confused by the facts'. In other words we know it's not the same but if we shout loud enough it might be that way. Not with the Lawyers and Administrators involved it won't. I think the league's lawyers will be combing their rules, if they can't make it stick, they would be stupid to try. Especially as the plc could sue them whilst the club couldn't.

So how much is being pledged?

The league may well wait until they see whether the club is bought and the debts settled.

Thanks Mark, welcome to the site.

I have met up with one of the Save our Saints group and have gone through their proposals, which as they were set up initially to try and oust the recent directors are different to where we are. Having said that after talking it through, we are now coming from the same direction with pretty much the same essential and fundamental principles. I have been invited to meet the group who are in many respects ahead of the game inasmuch that they are ready to contact the media and have already set up contacts with the various media outlets and some high profile figures. What they don't have is the up front commitment we have had already from this thread or the powerful communication tool that this site provides. It makes no sense to work separately, so it makes sense to combine. I know there is at least one other group who are not in contact with the Administrator but have talked to Paris Smith & Randall who as of yet haven't come back to me. What we need to do is coordinate all groups into one. The next thing will be to set up a trust and an accessible subscription account with say Barclays for a number of reasons, that cannot be accessed by anyone until it is used to purchase the club. I have had offers of help from a few people and will pm them asap, Weston Saint is on board and is talking to Duncan Holley. Any preliminary group set up would in my view be on a temporary basis only until a proper board of trustees could be elected. The level of financial support is phenomenal. I hope that all this will prove to be unnecessary and an acceptable offer is made to the administrators from well off people with the club's best interest at heart.

£500 is not the minimum £100 is, but the above pledge guide is just that, When this is properly set up you will get the chance to contribute.

Mark Fry has phoned me and discussed the situation. Whilst there may be interest there is no guarantee of any acceptable bid. For that reason he supports what we are doing and asked that we develop this initiative and I keep in contact as to what is happening from his side of things. As his Administrator responsibilities are to the shareholders he couldn't directly assist so he asked me to talk to Paris Smith and Randall who are prepared to give free assistance in these circumstances. This I did and spoke to one of the partners, not surprisingly they had been contacted by another party with a similar idea. The partner dealing with it wasn't there but will ring me back. In the meantime Mark Fry had given my number to the Save our Saints group who phoned me as they have a similar idea and considerable media contacts. I am going to meet one of them in about half an hour to see what common ground we have. They haven't been in contact with P.S&R so there is at least one more group. It seems to me that we should set up and coordinate the various initiatives into one, as it's no good diluting the appeal with a number of similar appeals. In the end saving the club is the project When I get back I will post again.

You are wrong, I have two season tickets and have been to all the home games. The people who didn't go had that right and if the figures are correct have conclusively proved two things, one that Lowe/Wilde had a disasterously negative effect on the fanbase and that these fans are now supporting the club. What remains to be seen is if the prices return to normal for the last two games whether the support will continue.

There is no excitement here, as the figure needs to be multiplied by 7/8 to even work. Still nice to know you won't help, it'll do your credibility on here the world of good when you next have a go at someone who has at least offered to help.

To be a runner, buy SLH, with the existing debts of approx £6m, service the mortgage or buy SMS at maybe £10m, the figure needed would be between £20 to £35m. That would be required to keep the club working and moving forward.

Between £400k and £500k pledged to date. Unable to be accurate because the top figures were changed to £5000 from £10000 and £10000 plus after a considerable amount had been pledged.

Close to 28.1m. The new director of the football club is Kenneth Toynton, does any body know his background. Only him and Jones on the football club board at the moment.