Capel Saint

Words don't cost money, actions do. Have to agree that although Crouch has in the past dipped into his own pocket, compared to Wilde and Lowe who haven't. All three haven't got the financial clout to actually get the club out of the financial mess it is in and if/when administration happens then the best thing for the club will be to get shot of all three.

So you are happy with current regime who currently has the club second from bottom, virtually in administration and constantly hoping that the current team will magically become better?

Good post, quite agree!

Unfortunately I'm torn between wanting to stay up, just because relegation is never good and the emotion of wanting to go down because then the club would go into admin, get rid of this flippin plc, the current Board of losers and possibly someone can come in who can actually put some money INTO the club.

I believe that the shares become fairly worthless if the plc (the club) goes into administration.

I would assume that 'wanting him more' equates to offering him more money to play for them.

It's rather academic as I'm not a shareholder but yes, if an investor could prove they had funds to invest in the club and were committed to saving the club then yes. As I said, otherwise it may prove that my shares would become worthless anyway if the plc went under.

You're right, they probably wouldn't but it would make the club a more attractive investment if a good percentage of the shares were offered for no money in return. Trouble is, I don;t think an investor will come forward as they want to see if the club goes into administration first in which case they won't have to buy any shares, just show the administrators they can service the debt.

Spot on IMHO. During the last four years the club have constantly wheeled out different players who have said "we can turn it around", " the lads are up for it", "things are getting better". I'm sorry, but it is complete rubbish until I see the team putting a decent run together and only then may I start to think some of the things they say are actually credible.

On top of which, football is still an entertainment business. Generally people will not fork out £24 to see their club lose at home, week in, week out. Football is a results business. It will be interesting to see if the attendance rises for the Notts Forest game as the club are lowering an adult ticket to £15.

It will be interesting to see how many fans turn up for the game against Forest as they have reduced an adult ticket to £15.

I must admit that we are the second club to implode over a fairly short period of time. Leeds are the other example that springs to mind. In both cases it is mis-management at Board level that have largely been responsible for these great clubs to fall and be in the state they are. The difference with Leeds though is that they still manage to get 30,000 fans through the door, even in League 1, whereas with Saints, fans are staying away due to the current Board/seeing frustrating football ie not winning games/current economic climate. The blame should fall on the whole Board and all the various Directors/Chairmen that have come and gone (and back again) over this period. I feel that until this plc is dissolved the club will continue to fall. The plc stifles investment and puts off any serious investor to buy the club as he/she/they would have to spend a ton of cash just to buy the shares to gain control, that is without servicing the exisiting debt. I don't like spouting doom and gloom but I genuinely feel that whilst the club is run by a plc, there will be no upturn unless the shareholders want to sell their shares for a £1. So in answer to your question, it is up to each individual fan whether they walk away or continue to support the Saints through this extremely bad time.

In answer to the original question I would move JP to the coaching staff as I like the way the side are playing attacking football but get in a manager who is more astute tactically and with the knowledge of English players. With that combination I think Saints would become a very good side. Still, with time, JP and the current team may keep improving as the season goes on. Here's hoping!

Alas that is true!

Chelsea also probably saw that Saints are getting a very good reputation nationwide for bringing on young players. Eg Walcott, Bale, Kenwyn Jones etc and therefore preferred for Cork to come here. Also as he is playing regularly Chelsea may be happy for the loan to be extended until the end of the season. (Here's hoping!)

Which is why Walcott chose Saints rather than Chelsea, if my memory serves me correctly. Chelsea wanted him but he knew he would struggle to get into their 1st team so he chose Saints as he knew he would get more 1st team opportunites. If only more gifted youngsters thought like that!

It has always puzzled me that Abramovich has deemed his expenditure on Chelsea as a loan and not just writing it off. I wonder what will happen to Chelsea when he gets bored of Prem football?

Thirdly, a lot of them are loan signings and will be going back to their respective clubs in January/end of the season.

Fair comment. The only thing I would in his defence is that since first assessing the squad, JP has seen his better strikers hived off to other clubs as the Board carry out drastic cost cutting, which has reduced the firepower of the squad significantly

True, but they will if the club can't pay the next tax bill!

The bank probably wouldn't want to as they would lose their money. It is normally the taxman who puts clubs into administration.

If a takeover was genuinely about to happen the club wouldn't been farming out the remainder of our good players to lower the wage bill.

I quite agree. I think he is hoping that suddenly the team will click and we will start winning a load of games. Unfortunately I haven't seen any evidence of that happening!

As has been said before, no investor is going to buy shares in a football club when they will be able to buy the club off the administrators for a lot, lot less, if this season ends in failure with relegation etc.