Verbal

I can't help thinking that Oldknow was a key link. As a prime mover during the dark days of the executive coup - one of many incidents that drove the club onto the rocks - he'd have known all too well that the club was finally free of the people the execs wanted out all along: the forever-squabbling non-execs. Freed of war and debt, he'd have known better than most that the club was a potential bargain. Genuine question to people like FF, who leaked Oldknow's shenanigans and deep unpopularity at the time: has Oldknow turned a new leaf?

Quite right. It's odd that this fantasy persists. My source is tommac - who finally admitted in a pm that the only contact with the club was from two lawyers from a small part of Allen's empire. And even then, they only made the single vague inquiry after tommac, who'd acted as their flying chauffeur, had spun them a line about how much of a bargain the club was. After the lawyers' approach, ALL of the contact with Southampton was through tommac, who even finagled a 'finder's fee' out of the club, which I believe was a solid five figure sum. Tommac kept the 'PA takeover' alive so long that it became in the end little more than a hoax - as Jim Hone confirmed at the time. ...And minus one on Tony Adams, Mickey Adams or any member of the Adams family for manager!

Okay, just got back this morning from Cape Town, so haven't heard how the Tony Lynam statue is going. Any news?

As Wiseman rather startlingly says, 'We knew he [Richard Fry] was really in charge of the club.' So the man in charge causes the collapse of the club and then joins the company appointed to carry out the highly lucrative process of administration. Presumably Fry will be happy to answer questions about conflict of interest, and about how this isn't in any way dodgy. And Gold Star to Dubai Phil!

And the prize for stating the bleedin' obvious goes to...

I think you'll find that TT's particular brand of optimism could only emanate from the West Coast. You of all people should know that. Talking of which, I'm off now to Cape Town and the internet-free wilds beyond until Friday. If you lot haven't sorted this all out by the time I get back I'll be round all your houses.

With the merest hint of an 'h' after the 'b', mein liebling.

I liked this bit: So, of his original promises to the York City supporters' trust, he acknowledges: "Basically, I was lying to them. There is no way of dressing it up." Just what we need after everything the club has been through. Does SMS have some sort of banner plastered across it reading: 'Buyers wanted. Scam artists, asset strippers, and anyone who answers to the name of "Mitty" only need apply'?

I don't think he is, osm. I was in York the other day and was talking with people there about the awful recent histories of our clubs. They were spitting blood about Batchelor in a way that was really quite familiar...In their view he all but destroyed the York City.

Yorkie's gone very quiet. I bet it's him. And anyway, who the hell else lives in Yorkshire?

Agreed. And good to hear after the serial crowing by ITKs who can't resist letting us know that they've given MLT a personal ear-bashing.

Despair I understand. It's the hope I can't bear.

Why do people persist in calling it a Swiss consortium? It's Austrian. Alpine just has to add a few finishing touches like finding shirt sponsors. Prozac are top of the list but it's a depressed market.

If the Swiss fall as well - and who would bet agaisnt it - our only hope by Friday is a lowball bid from Salz. Any chance you might be right this time Morph?

If the Swiss fall as well - and who would bet agaisnt it - our only hope by Friday is a lowball bid from Salz. Any chance you might be right this time Morph?

I agree. Wotte is clearly having a dig at the gloriously foolish MJ. For someone who looks like they've been whacked in the face once too often by a frying pan, MJ should have known better. I've never been a fan of Wotte, but to my mind he's one of the very few people whose reputation has been enhanced during the ridiculous chirades that have been played out in the last few weeks. (The ever-willing Leon and born optimist MLT being the other two. Leon in particular has clearly kept the club on life-support for at least two months). Isn't it funny how it's the Saints stalwarts who are doing their damndest to save the club while the 'fresh-blood' takeover wheeler-dealers give us all the run around - at apparently no cost to themselves?

I was a supporter of the Pinnacle bid, FWIW. But we seem to have entered this weird Twilight Zone, where we have: one backer or multiple (unnamed) backers; proof of funds or the hope that someone else has the cash; an exclusivity period paid by Pinnacle or by Leon; £500,000 or more (or less); a situation where one mouthy poster appears to have had the legal frighteners put on him...or not, and where another seems to have fallen strangely silent after posting what appears to have been sensitive information. Not that the other two bids fill me with wonder. Both the 'Swiss' and the MJ bids are from equally anonymous financial sources, offering who knows what - but less than Pinnacle. And then there's the Salz cheerleaders suggesting he's playing the wily fox game and waiting for everything to go pear-shaped before picking the club up for 50p. When was as fans are asked to 'get behind' a bid, could someone at least do us the courtesy of telling us the truth?

Looks like TL got you full on the lips there GM. I hope you're very happy together.

Well, perhaps the best way of dealing with it all is to accept, like Alice Through the Looking Glass, that nothing is as it seems. As to who’s who, try shouting ‘John’ in a crowded room and you’ll pick out the spinning heads of the Tweedledee and Tweedledum in this little fantasy, GM and 19C. Mole is Stanley. And TL/MF share top billing at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. And those bits of paper with wings attached fluttering over the whole scene are the lawsuits that will land the minute a deal is done. On the other hand, you may wake up and none of this is true.

I don't get it. Isn't the time for humble pie when the deal is done? Otherwise one is liable to discover egg on one's face rather than pie crumbs. Still, I hope SOMEONE buys the club soonish. And would it really be such a bad idea for the other moneybags behind the rival bids - if there are still two - to say who they are? The secrecy in all this is a bit odd.

I think you missed my point. As for the money (which I didn't comment on), we'll see.

'As far as I am aware' is hardly a ringing endorsement, is it? Precisely translated it means: 'To the limited extent of my knowledge.' I take it to mean that Fry actually had no idea of Fialka's family situation - living at home, Dad a taxi driver, Mum a small shop owner. It seems entirely possible that the 'cursory look' was a little closer to home.

Perhaps Fry can sell enough exclusivity periods to get us through the season.

So Jackson has either lied about approaching Peter Reid or tapped him up. Brilliant! I'm starting to wonder if this club has been relegated to some sort of plot twist in a Samuel Beckett play, because it's becoming increasingly hard to believe that we could have accumulated such a prize collection as LLS, tommac, HMR, (not forgetting Lowe, Askham...etc.), without someone just making up characters so utterly monomaniacal, vain and witless. Waitig for Jacko. Oh god, please no.

Morph, I've always been interested in what you say, but I've noticed a pretty firm trend setting in: you tend to be wrong far more often than you're right. Besides, Salz has an excellent financial pedigree of course - but isn't he a fairly precise definition of a tyre kicker? Someone who wanders round the SFC forecourt saying, in effect, 'I'm just looking - honest. But if you're desperate, I'll take this heap off your hands. Here's 50p.' As I'm sure any car salesman will tell you, anyone who, like Lynam, strolls up and splashes out bundles of cash with no guarantee of an end sale is about as far removed from a tyrekicker as it's possible to imagine. And it's not exactly cricket to compare Lynam with the incomparable MJ, is it? I'm not getting at you (actually I blame trousers) - but shouldn't you try a bit harder to come off a bit less than an unquestioning cheerleader? Salz must have a pretty badly bruised toe after all this time - IF what you say is true for once.