Guided Missile

"The court decided that it is a breach of European law for clubs to demand a transfer fee in respect of a player at the end of his contract" I was talking about the players that are currently under contract with SFC who, apparently, are not in administration. For them, the administrator can demand a transfer fee...

You obviously have no idea about the contractual and legal status of professional footballers. They are not employees of the club, FFS. That status is reserved for people that clean the toilets and serve food. They are assets that can be sold in a way that is unlike employees and they are not subject to normal employment rules (ie Tax-free benefit games, etc.) All Barclays has to do is insist that the contracts of players of any value are sold, then they get their money. Norwich Union take possession of the stadium and Jacksons Farm and develop, break up or operate them. End of story...

Norwich Union could simply take possession of the Stadium and with Southampton City Council's cooperation, run it as a community stadium which may well bring in income from non-football events at a level that would provide a better return than writing off £10M in asset value. If I was them, I would have a forceful meeting with the council and demand permission for 10 or more concerts per year together with assorted events in between. As my thread suggested, the Top Rank Suite made more money than Southampton Speedway ever did....

What has to be remembered is that any offer for the club that is short of what is owed to the creditors will require them (ie Barclays, Norwich Union and HMRC) agreeing to accept less, because if the offer is less than the break up value of the club, then these guys will have no, and I mean, no hesitation in forcing Fry into simply liquidating the assets. This leads me on to the possibility that selling the players to the vultures and St. Mary's to Southampton City Council, may be the contingency plan that Fry is faced with. IMHO an offer that takes the p!$$ may be worse than no offer at all and push us into the unthinkable. Southampton Speedway all over again. Top Dogs one season and Top Rank the next...

Look, there's no need to get so upset. It wasn't me that banned you from that PS3 forum. If you're looking for a new forum to groom 12 year olds, this one probably isn't your best choice. Believe me, I've met some of the posters and they're f***ing ugly...

Thanks...

IMHO, the only way Pinnacle Asset Management, are in any way involved in the purchase of SFC, is because they may know someone with a f*** sight more assets than they have, and have a Director who is an MLT groupie. They are, again, IMHO, more like Barry Beardall, but with as much money in their briefcases, as film in the Farmer's camera... ...and the clue? "Last Accounts Made Up To: 30/06/2008 (TOTAL EXEMPTION SMALL)" This means their asset value is less than £2.8M and their turnover is less than £5.6M. In other words, they know a former Saints player and a bank manager and hope to get a cut...

I'm not really interested in your experience as either an auditor, or a Pompey fan. What I am really interested in, is how you got banned from this PS3 forum. Were you caught cheating at Halo? :smt018

He normally posts on a Pompey website, with gems like this: Don't you love getting a lesson in the economics of football, from a Skate?

I will never buy a Yorkie and drink (Special Offer at £1.50) in St. Marys again, if that saggy faced, Coc kney Judas returns to the club. He has demonstrated, since leaving our club, just how unsuited he is to manage a football club and what a bad choice he was, when Lowe appointed him. He helped Lowe relegate us and is forever tainted by his links to the Skates and I would like to demonstrate my credentials as a diehard Saints fan, by this selfless and noble gesture. Who's with me?

As far as I am concerned, his complete mismanagement of the club's finance's when, due to our relegation, a steady hand on the tiller was required, means that, if he returns, I will be making the noble gesture of never buying a chicken and mushroom pie at St. Mary's again. The thought of supporting that four-eyed, tax-dodging scouser will make it impossible to stomache. Who's with me?

The fans "confronted" the Burnley fans in the same way they had been doing all game and vice versa. It happens at every match at every ground. All I saw was the mood turn slightly ugly when the Pompey fans were spotted and much uglier when the smoke bomb was thrown from the Burnley crowd. The posters that said we threw it first were mistaken, from what I saw. I saw it being lit, FFS...

The suprise was that the police came mob handed, with dogs at the ready and asps drawn. I presume they knew we were going to lose and thus be relegated... My opinion is that nothing has changed since Hillsborough, apart from the terracing. The majority of football fans are treated like animals due to the rare occurence of misdemeanours by a minority. Yet, both Heysel and Hillsborough were failures by the police in the way they chose to control the crowds. If any young children had fallen over on the pitch on Saturday, they could have been trampled in the brief panic that accompanied the charge by the dog handlers and the police would have blamed the Saints fans for any injuries...

I have to get this off my chest, particularly due to all the cr@ p that's been posted about the pitch invasion. After the bitterly disappointing play-off defeat at Derby, their fans invaded the pitch and ran towards our our end, celebrating. As they approached, to a man, the Saints fans started applauding them and their team. In response to this, they shouted abuse and goaded us, preventing the Saints team from running over to us, to thank us for the support. The police tactics this day, was to face the Saints fans with batons drawn to prevent the minority in the stadium from Southampton, from running on the pitch and potentially sorting these chavs out. Saturday, despite a smoke bomb being thrown at us from the Burnley end, the police were facing us, with dogs and batons drawn. I'm puzzled and would appreciate why this happened from someone who witnessed both events and has a clue ....

Jamie Redknapp...

Having £200M gives you the ability to tell Barclays to f*** off...

Some may say that it would be a good thing for the consortia to merge so that a better deal can be struck. I think this would take us back to the internecine war that ruined the club over the last 5 years. We need a financially strong owner who will call the shots, but I have a feeling it may be back to a "group of local businessmen" with more egos than pound notes. God help us, if this happens...

Just in case we get carried away on a tide of over-optimism, regarding a potentially rich new owner, enabling us to be the Barry Big Bo££ox in League One, the Sunday Times has an interesting list of football club owners in the Rich List 2009. As far as League One is concerned, Simon Keswick who owns Cheltenham Town is worth £870M, Sir Martyn Arbib and Andrew Black of Swindon Town are worth over £500M between them and Robbie Cowling of Colchester United is worth £105M. If we are able to get back in the Championship, I can't see us ever matching the financial muscle of QPR. Between them Lakshmi Mittal, Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore could buy out Abramovich (worth a measly £7 billion), very nearly twice over. If any owner has to ask how much it will cost to buy Saints, he can't afford to play the game....and it also put into perspective our small fish, big pond, previous owners.

The guy in the glasses, next to the Indian guy looks to me like Nick Vaughan of Paris, Smith and Randall. He is a senior partner in their property department and a great guy who I've known for years. I assume he's dealing with the sale/purchase of the St. Mary's and it is to be purchased with Indian money??

I have a feeling that the mood changed very quickly when it was discovered that a Pompey fan, complete with shirt was seen in amongst the Burnley fans. Was there just one, or did a number get tickets to gloat? I saw a guy in a Pompey top get slung out and there was a lot of anger from the Itchen section nearest the away fans, particularly as "Play up Pompey" was sung. Was this the reason for the minor and I mean, minor, crowd trouble...?

Actually, no, they can't decide who owns us. They have no control over the shareholding of a club, only who is a Director of a football club. They can bar people from being club directors if they have recent convictions for relevant criminal offences including fraud and dishonesty, have been banned for misconduct from any other sports, or are undischarged bankrupts. Quite reasonable, IMO and makes them far from the c**ts you make them out to be.

Sorry if the post came over like that, Barry, but it p!$$e$ me off when the fans are asked to dig deep for a pointless cause, in the middle of a recession. The people that were asked to donate, last time, were the one's who had already bought a ticket for the game, inside the stadium. The fans that should donate, if anyone, were the ones that weren't there...

It works like this. Any money that any deluded fans donate to the club from now, will diminish the loss that the club makes between due diligence and any deal for the club closing. This means that the potential buyer will pay more for the club than if the money had not been donated and thus more money will be available to pay the creditors. More money recovered will probably mean more money for the administrators, but definitely more money for Barclays... Still, get the buckets out, lads, I'm sure you'll feel great donating to the bank that pulled the plug...

Two minor points, if I may... I don't consider accounting or law to be "industries" and I think that philosophy is why our economy, is in the state it is and to a greater degree, why Saints are in the position they are. The sooner people realise that both "professions" are seen for what they are, ie non-productive and overpaid occupations, that drain the life out of many businesses that would be better served, spending the money on succeeding in their corporate mission, the better. I don't consider I have a wealth of knowledge in the insolvency "arena". I was a major shareholder in a company that went into administration and watched, as any the surplus cash was drained out into PWC's account. I am also watching as Begbie Traynor do the same to SLH.

I get touchy when our club is close to going out of existence, TBH. Getting back to the points you and "Rational Rich" made together, it now transpires that not only were you wrong about the strength of the club's case against the 10 point deduction, which I said was inevitable, but today's Echo is reporting that the only reason the club is going to appeal the deduction is that it will give any new owner the option of proceeding with it. I don't expect you to admit I was right about the points deduction and the fact that the Administrator was never going fund a legal action, nor does that fact concern me. I'm still laughing about your suggestion that Barclays may fund it...