hutch

Insh'Allah

Down here the answer is usually Antelope

And alternative pre-Ramadan answer to Phil's: 1) Very slim 2) Yes 3) None. At the moment it's clear they are NOT in League 1 next season. Given the detail & thought that went into today's announcement, the FL have a contingency plan, and the alternative ”club24” know who they are. ”and for those watching in black and white, the blue is the one behind the 15 reds”

Probably worth linking to the Skates Demise Thread

Bloody hell Balram. Call yourself a businessman? Yet you've been completely outmanoevered by a bunch of Trustees. First you let them take away your 28 day exclusivity. Then you give Birch approval to accept any "credible" bid that betters yours. And only now you find out that they've lobbied the FL to effectively cancel the security for your debt. If only you'd known that one a couple of days ago. What a shame the land surrounding your only asset is owned by your sworn enemy. If only you could get your hands on that land. Any self-respecting businessman would have had a back-up plan. It's a very cute & well thought-out solution from the FL. A win-win-win situation. The players get reasonably paid from the PP's. Chainrai gets the bulk of his money from development of all of the combined land. And the Trust get to own the new community phoenix club.

He went on a free

You sneaky little devils.

Has he signed yet?

A CD holds, what, 650Mb, and a DVD 4.7Gb? Just get a USB stick, and keep an old machine somewhere with a CD/DVD drive in it, and copy any softare or whatever onto the stick if you need to load it. I was a bit nervous when I got my first laptop without an optical drive 2 years ago, but I've honestly not missed it. The saving in weight and battery life is well worth it, and I carry a full Windows re-install with utilities and drivers around with me on a bootable USB flashdrive just in case.

He's a typical number 10, but he plays on the left and on the right.

Stuttering when loading pages. Can take up to several seconds. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it gets irritating when it happens every time. As Weston says, when "right-clicking" the browser back button, you get this.

I see 2 possibilities, and neither are good news for the phew. It's the timing that is most intriguing. Either the Directors have put Miland into admin to walk away from negative equity in the land as part of an arrangement to facilitate a firesale to a secretive offshore Company based in the BVI while the land is still "encumbered" by having a football pitch in it's midst, or The banks have forced SG's hand now because they believe that PFC are about to be liquidated and the land will have added value, giving them a better chance of covering their debt. There will probably be a fight between BT & Miland's admin over who is entitled to the money, but I don't see that interfering with the sale. BT don't want land they want cash. If Chainrai ends up owning Miland's land, their prospects look bleak. He won't be planning that new stadium development they've all been looking forward to. Will he get his money back?

No need to guess or expect. Most (but not all) of it is in the PL rules. The PP money will be paid whether there is a football club or not. They can't, so in that case the remaining PPs will be paid either to football creditors or to the other PL clubs. That is in the rules. That might be true (but it might not if there is another OldCo/NewCo scam), but even so the football creditors will still exist. The FCR says that football creditors must be paid in full. The PL rules say that the PL can divert payments due, including PPs, to football creditors to go towards complying with the FCR. It doesn't say that the PL will pay football creditors in full if there isn't enough to withold. If the PL witholds all paments due, and pays directly to football creditors, and football creditors are still owed money, the club either has to pay up or lose it's Golden Shares. I pretty much agree, except that Birch only assumes that the PPs go to the club if Chainrai's deal succeeds, but not if they are liquidated. It is correct that they will be witheld. However, I think what Mann said is that the PL rules say, under rule 59, that the PPs won't go to the liquidated club. He doesn't say whether they will go to other PL clubs or football creditors. I have no idea on precedent, but employee wage arrears are included in the definition of football creditors in article C.63.7 of the PL rules. However, there are other definitions in other articles where they are not included. The only uncertainty lies in the definition of "football creditors" in the PL rules if a club is liquidated after relegation from the PL but still due to receive PPs. I haven't been able to find it conclusively, so I think they'll have to make up a new one. The nub of this whole thing is that the PPs are rightly due to the football creditors, principally players, and if the so-called "compromise agreements" on offer were to split the incoming PPs among the players over the next two years, the deals would be done and people would move on. But that's not what Chainrai has offered. His bid is based on him paying the football creditors listed in Birch's CVA document (c.£8.4m) and keeping the rest of the PPs (c.£5.6m) for himself. BC has stated that moving the players on is not his problem, and Birch has to do that without any cost to BC. I admit I'm only guessing here, but I think the "compromise agreements" are basically "we'll let you go on a free if you waive all your future entitlement, and all of your deferred wages since the end of June". Compromise in name only, to give them a sniff of getting the Golden Shares.

Football creditors & the football creditors rule are 2 different things. One thing that is 100% certain is that the PL will pay the parachute payments due to PFC in full, irrespective of whether the club is liquidated or not. The question is to whom? The rules have 3 possibilities - the club, the football creditors or the other PL clubs. Take your pick. Payment of football creditors directly from centrally distributed PL funds is separate from the FCR.

Did you really ask that?

In my own experience of dealing with a few commercial disputes in various high courts, there is a rule which says that a party to a contract cannot benefit from it's own breach of that contract. I know it's not that clear cut, but it's a good place to start if it gets that far. It is of course possible that Kanu has simply deferred his return to training.

I wonder if that chap Appy who's laying down the law is the same one who had this to say about Kanu after their defeat to Forest in the last game of last season:

Same here (13"), but about 2 years ago. No CD/DVD, so light as a feather, and 6hrs+ battery life. Best laptop I've ever had.

Is there any way to get rid of the constant hiccups caused by static.ak.facebook.com/connect. Both http & https. It's bloody irritating. Using IE9 on Win7, and don't want to change browser.

If I compare our squad with United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal etc. I start to feel all ericb. But if I compare us to Stoke, West Brom, Swansea, Norwich, Fulham, Wigan, Reading etc. I feel much better.

We aren't. It's the one area where the 25 man squad rule can be waived in an emergency.

The two keepers they have on trial have both been let go by non-league clubs. Such a shame they can't afford our Tommy.

Whitey's ahead of him in the queue, so he'll have to wait his turn.

That's a huge blow for Birch. Even with his imposed cap of £5k there's no way he can afford that lot this month.

I estimate they have a maximum budget for wages next season of £75k/week (excluding ALL legacy issues). Take out the non-playing staff leaves around £60k/week for a first team squad of 20 and the development squad. That's an average of £2,500/week for the first team squad. Spend wisely guys.