stevegrant

I wouldn't say they underperformed, to be honest - based on last season's "great" () escape and the loss of key players from that season, replaced with players who were deemed not good enough/ready for first-team football at that point, we were always going to be in a relegation battle.

Win v Nottinghamshire on Wednesday and we're guaranteed a quarter-final place. A draw/no result would also be good enough if Leicestershire can do us a favour tomorrow by beating Notts at Grace Road.

They would only dock extra points if we failed to agree a CVA with the creditors - the only reason other clubs have been failing to do so is because of their liabilities to HMRC (or, more precisely, the percentage of their total debt owed to HMRC), who have a policy of rejecting them due to the bizarre and somewhat illogical "footballing creditors" rule the Football League has. The fact that people are talking about a deal worth less than £10m suggests that our creditors are quite willing to negotiate (quite why Barclays pulled the plug in this case is even more strange and suspicious), so a CVA shouldn't be a problem.

For some reason, Ian Branfoot sprang to mind when I read that... FWIW, I'd agree. Very very tentatively.

Wouldn't be so sure - assuming there is likely to be some sort of announcement today, it's not all that surprising that it's been left right to the last possible moment. I just hope that any news is positive...

No, no restriction on that as far as I'm aware.

As I posted on the other thread, at the time of writing no press conference has been arranged.

As yet, no press conference has been arranged. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad anymore...

That was my first impression as well, but it's easy to see why it might cause panic/confusion! I certainly had doubts...

I do agree, but unfortunately bad news is (in general) far more interesting than good news. On this occasion, I wouldn't class an MP acting responsibly as "good" news - it shouldn't even be news, it should be the default behaviour. It would be like writing a news article saying that I went to work today; it's not newsworthy because a) I'm a nobody in the grand scheme of things; and b) it's generally accepted that I go to work most days.

Why? It should be automatically assumed that the people we elect to run the country on our behalf are acting responsibly.

Considering the "effort" put in by some players in the past, that's no real guarantee...

Coppell will retire, I reckon. I know he's always given off a bit of a dour impression, but the last couple of years he's looked particularly cheesed off - almost as if he's lost the appetite for management.

To be fair to Coppell, he's done a fantastic job in the 6 years he's been there. They were an average Championship side at best when he took over, and it comes to something when the Reading fans are still whinging even though this season has been their 6th best in their history. What short memories. Rather ironically, they looked nailed on certainties for automatic promotion along with Wolves until we went to the Madejski and played them off the park - they've not really been the same since.

Does Fratton Park have a "bulldoze" option?

To be fair, his previous business interests haven't exactly been particularly successful. I'm reserving judgment for now.

Rufus Brevett?

DVD update - will be about 2 weeks or so.

Shrewsbury, please. New ground for me and not a pikey-infested hole.

Yeah, I was thinking that - couldn't hear anything that was being shouted from the touchline!

Should point out a few things: 1. Yes, it has MLT's support, but he has stated that anyone who he feels will save the club and give it a decent chance of stabilising things will have his support - as far as I'm aware, he's not held discussions with any of the other interested parties; if he did, he might be inclined to support them instead/as well. 2. It's certainly not a fact that they're not here to rip us off - make no mistake about it, they're interested because they see something in it that will see them at least make their initial investment back. In theory, that would have to involve the club being successful (in relative terms), but that's not stopped various conspiracy theories about previous major shareholders, so I doubt that'll stop now. 3. Yes, it's a fact that they're getting a legal position on the points deduction, but I would expect any interested party to be doing exactly that - for anyone who believes they'll ultimately end up owning SFC, it's in their interests to investigate it. I'm not pouring scorn on this bid/potential bid - far from it - but it's worth taking a step back every now and then to make sure we don't let the heart rule the head too much.

It's in production - not 100% sure how long it'll take, I'll try to find out on Monday.

Talk is cheap - let's see if they get the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is.

Can whoever picked up my shirt from the home dressing room please get in contact? I know it wasn't left in the changing rooms as I was the last person out of there and there wasn't anything left there.