saintbletch

I bloke that I think you're referring to went under the name of Waterloo Saint" or some such and I think he ran the Waterloo Arms in Lyndhurst. Can't remember him mentioning the chemical guy at the time though. I thought it was more to do with Crouch.

Here it is. It was earlier on in this thread. Coincidence or did Saint Jude pull the information from the same source?

Mmm. #18 on here was mentioned on this forum the other day - I will search for a link.

Yep and for the foreseeable future I think I'd like the best managers to start somewhere else. Then they can come and join us. I take your point but I don't think we offer a forgiving environment at the moment for someone to learn their trade.

I truly understand your point and to an extent it is that obvious that it hardly needs stating, but I think we need to get back to some kind of unconditional support for Saints. If we only "sing when we're winning" then we can't guarantee a stable future for the club. For me there are certain principles that need to be put in place to ensure that that fans will support the team through thick and thin because I expect us to have a lot of thin in the coming years.

Can't disagree with much of that. Your 3. nearly made it into my list too as I think that's very important but how far down in the club do you go to ensure a clean slate? All the way to coaching staff? Also how will we get experienced management on the football board without retaining some 'talent'? MLT + Lynam + Who? Or do we hire a bunch of ex-Celtic and Fulham football execs?

I wonder if we can keep this civil and not open old wounds but what 3 pieces of advice would you offer the new board members to help in planning their tenure (assuming all goes well)? For me... 1) Make sure the 'product' is good to watch - it's called the beautiful game for a reason. 2) Always hire experienced coaches and avoid managerial staff turnover if at all possible. 3) Be open and transparent with the fans at all times. oh and 4) Don't invest all of the proceeds of winning the Champions' League in 2014 on a single player.

Yes I can see that and can completely understand that someone might not be ready to go public. But if he has paid the reported figure of £500K for exclusivity he surely has carried out enough diligence already to expects things "to go as planned". And your point presupposes that we won't at some point in time get to "know" who he is/was even if it doesn't go as planned. So those texts, emails and phone calls could still happen. I'm asking myself what are the circumstances under which I wouldn't be proud to be announced as the new owner. I'm asking myself why I would work through a hitherto apparently small time ( and I don't mean that as an insult ) property consultant. The one reason I have to put my faith "blindly" into this is that I feel that I can trust the judgement of MLT. If this person is to be our new owner and their intentions are pure, then again I ask why not go public? (and again for the avoidance of doubt, I am happy that we're apparently given a chance to be in business again, and I'm very grateful. I don't want this to appear too negative. But I'm not able to get 100% behind this project without knowing more about the architect)

What legitimate reason can "he who must not be named" (No, not Lowe our mystery backer) have for wanting to stay anonymous having paid a large chunk of change for exclusivity? It is starting to concern me now. I find myself unable to fully get behind the club until I know who owns us and what their agenda might be. I know that sounds churlish and don't get me wrong, I am very grateful that someone has apparently stomped up the money to save us. I plan to buy another season ticket, etc. but why operate through a property consultant? If you've made the mental leap to buy a football club with all the good and bad that comes with it, then why want to stay hidden?

Did nobody else think it was suspicious that a man renowned for horse breeding has bought a sausage factory? I'll have a 1lb of Shergar and sage please butcher.

Just another summary. Said there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Replayed bits of the Chorley interview. Said that Sky Sports News understands that some of the interest is coming from Switzerland. That was it. Looks like Fry again using the media and our emotions to get the messages he wants out into the public domain. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I guess that is his job.

Nothing of any substance in the interview with Richard Chorley. Thanked Leon for keeping the club afloat with money he'll never get back. Had a go at Lowe for buying the radio station for £1M, selling it for £100K ergo he has no business acumen ergo he was to blame. Nothing mentioned about the identity of the bidders. Nothing mentioned about Swiss interest. Can someone say what was originally said about Swiss interest?

Yes there was BTF. So coupling this speculative thread on Martin St Quinton with my 10 U us links below, and we've as good as found are man.

Good shout. Tom Walkinshaw? TWR his engineering company developed the Anglo-Swedish taxi. He isn't very tall. He is involved in Rugby - Chairman of Gloucester I think. His Arrows F1 grand prix team raced in black and gold (well orange actually and maybe not until he sold them but let's not that stand in the way of a good rumour).

I don't get the gold and black or the taxi references but while we're playing this exciting guessing game I'd go for Frank Maloney. This is great fun!

You are probably right about the potential for development of non-football related business, but I think you're looking too deeply into the long-term development issues. The answer to your questions is that we don't have a Premiership franchise. Why did the Sheikh not buy Pompey before the closed season? He needed to ensure they were a Premiership club. You say we were only one season away from the Premiership but in reality that's a lottery. Look at Sheffield Utd this year. Well managed, well run club, well motivated team failed in the lottery of the play offs. If you're a billionaire Sheikh looking for a Premiership trophy to create a bit of arab-banter amongst your other football-following and club-owning mates, then you buy a current Premiership team IMO. A Premiership "franchise" is the deciding factor.

Martinez being heavily linked with the soon-to-be-vacant Wigan manager's job. Wonder if this might change things.

That's the boy. I think he already owned 30% so looks like he acquired the rest. Also lots of links to Jersey and property here. The Consortium is based in Jersey and many of its members are in property. Wonder if Mr. Wilde knows any of them? Think the factor that made this work for them was Quinn. He brought together the money and having a football man controlling the club certainly helped. That said I'm not sure surviving on the last day of the season having been through the road crash of Roy Keane's managership is a case study in how to do it. But I do take your point that they weren't shy in thrusting the cash at Keane. And I guess that we also don't know that they came out of it with a profit.

5Live said that a US owner is to assume complete control so I assume he had some interest already. Quinn thanked all of his "Irish mates" for helping to get the club where it is now but said that the US investor would help them kick on (paraphrasing). I wonder if the consortium or at least a couple of members might be looking to get back into football? Here are the names of the members...

Drumaville Consortium? Radio 5 just announced that Sunderland FC is changing hands and a US owner is taking control from the Irish based Drumaville Consortium. I wonder if they might be looking for another red and white thing to chuck money at?

I agree it would have a positive impact but I think It would be prudent to make sure he had a good number 2.

I don't doubt the balance and fairness nickh and as a result of that and the infrequent posting, creating a thread like this in the early hours of the morning with a winking smiley struck me as unusual behaviour. Maybe PES is looking to start a rumour. Maybe he has heard a rumour from a source. Or was it that PES was unable to sleep wondering whether Keegan might join his team's local rivals so he logged on here to post at 1:27am.

In the best Trousersesque traditions of seeing a conspiracy where none exists, I did a search of PES' posts and found that "he" was the first poster to supply the name and weight of MLT's new baby daughter. Having previously not posted frequently prior to this or since. I therefore jumped to the conclusion that this KK information has "obviously" been provided to PES from a source very close to the situation. PES - what made you (a Pompey fan) start this thread today?

I'll bite PES. As a non-Saints fan, what made you start a thread on the main board with such a left-field suggestion? Any inside knowledge there?

Not sure about that. As long as the Premiership finances keep piling in each season then I think most teams can placate creditors and survive. However in placating creditors the resultant weakened squad may push them down and it's when they cease to be a Premiership team that the problems will occur.