Guided Missile

Away from the overreaction to our inevitable demotion to League One, with all it's attendant hysterical wailing and pointless blame laying, I thought it may help to start a thread, in which calmness reigns and only positive thoughts are present. The only rules on this thread are, (if we can manage it): Politeness and sympathy for your fellow poster/fan No blaming anyone for the past Only positive posts about the present and future of the club Humour and support from/for all Call it a therapy thread, if you like. Therapy for the only assets that the administrator can't sell, yet are the club's greatest treasure, the fanbase. I would like to start by hoping that from this day on, the fans can continue to show the rest of the country how we respond to adversity. I am sure that when we stand inside our magnificant stadium, in the warm Spring Southampton sunshine, at the end of the next game, knowing that we are down, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" will echo round the ground and we will know that starting next season, we can only expect better things. So, my first positive thought is how much of a cult team we will become, stripped of our Championship arrogance and money. A sort of hard southern enclave of the underdog, swaying the neutral and earning respect. Working class, now Lowe has gone and southern to the core, now Wilde has gone.

It may also be worth reading the Swindon Town Press Release about these timewasters from Best Holdings: "On the 14th August 2007 a contract was signed with Best Holdings enabling them to acquire a controlling interest in the Club. This contract was due for completion by 31st August 2007 and provided for the CVA payment and the Club's outstanding PAYE liabilities to be settled in full. Contrary to the front page article in The Swindon Advertiser dated Tuesday 9th October, there was no provision in the contract of August 14th to make a payment of £8m directly to the Wills Family. An amount of £3m was ascribed to the shareholders; this was allocated for the repayment of monies owed to Shaw Park Developments, arising from the rescue of the club six years ago, and to cover litigation and legal costs. The Club is willing to make available for scrutiny, by the media, the August 14th contract with Best Holdings which was signed by Jim Little, Jorge Rubenstein and James Wills. It has been well documented that dialogue continued between the Club's shareholders, Best Holdings, and their respective legal representatives in an attempt to finalise the agreement. Throughout August and early September the three main representatives of Best Holdings; Jorge Rubenstein, Rufus Brevett, and Jim Little, regularly attended meetings at the Club to discuss strategy and budgets for the 2007/2008 season. As recommended by Best Holdings the Club proceeded to sign three foreign players the cost of whom Best Holdings in good faith agreed to underwrite. During September 2007 the Shareholders and the Club's CVA Supervisor Andrew Andronikou of Hacker Young began expressing concerns at the time being taken to conclude the deal with Best Holdings. In view of these concerns exploratory talks were initiated with another interested party. The Club has now been able to grant this alternative investment group a short period of exclusivity to negotiate the purchase of the Club. In exchange for these rights, the potential suitors have made a substantial "lock-out" payment which Andrew Andronikou has used to reduce the Club's Inland Revenue liability and stay the possibility of any legal proceedings. Over the last two months, whilst the Best Holdings talks continued the Wills Family supported the Club as they have done so for many years. However they accept that it is now time to pass on the responsibilities for so doing to new investors. Every effort is being made to achieve this aim. However, the negative media coverage and the type of protests held at the ground on Tuesday 9th October are not helpful to this process." In the words of that great song, "I Predict a Riot"....

It may be worth popping out and buying a copy of today's (Saturday's) Echo. It's only fair that the posters on this site read what their journos have reported today, re this company, seeing as they obviously read this thread yesterday... Talk about cut and paste...

Can I just add my sincere congratulations to your many achievements, John. It is rare to read a post of such depth of feeling and may I say, humility. I think the overwhelming impression I get from your inspiring story is that without the return of Lowe, you would not have had the time nor motivation, to achieve your goals. I hope you can find some way to express your gratitude to our former Chairman, perhaps in the form of a card or maybe a bowl of fruit...

The nightmare begins if these guys are within a million miles of St. Marys. They will make Rupert Lowe look like Mother Theresa. I particularly like this translation from a Portuguese website: "The British company, Southern Cross, no longer exists and its director, Bruce Anderson and his associate, Jorge Rubenstein, are being investigated by the Fraud Department of the New Scotland Yard. Southern Cross was responsible for numerous frauds in the UK and to get funds for committing these frauds, Bruce Anderson and Jorge Rubenstein fabricated documents with false information and even when questioned in British courts, Bruce Anderson vowed them to be true under oath, which constitutes a very serious crime, but both Bruce Anderson and Jorge Rubenstein, are free and clear from punishment. In fact, Jorge Rubenstein is at this moment engaged in transactions of Portuguese players to the UK." Let's hope Southampton Football Company Limited is not a front to buy our club.

Where's Wally? Open this and then study the photo below

Portuguese group linked to Tranmere Rovers takeover Apr 29 2008 Prenton Park TRANMERE Rovers could become the latest English club to fall into the hands of foreign businessmen. The Daily Post understands a Portuguese investment company has had talks with the club and is working on plans to take a financial stake, or even control, at Prenton Park. The group behind the move is believed to be responsible for the aborted takeover attempt at another League One club, Swindon Town, last year. Operating under the name of Best Holdings SGPS, the Portuguese investment company announced they were taking control of financially troubled Swindon in July, 2007 – then pulled out in October. Tranmere may look like a more stable target for the group than Swindon, who subsequently reached agreement with a locally-based consortium headed by businessman Andrew Fitton. Best Holdings allowed little information about the company’s background to reach the public domain during the brief flirtation with Swindon. However, the Daily Post understands the man behind the Swindon takeover, Portuguese businessman George Rubenstein, was present at Prenton Park for a reserve team game last month. Best Holdings appointed American Jim Little as chairman designate when they moved in at the County Ground at the start of the current season. Rufus Brevett, the former Queens Park Rangers, Fulham, Plymouth and Oxford defender was co-opted to the board as an adviser. Little, a former vice-chairman of Irish club Cork City and the managing director of a real estate advisory company, was reported to be behind Swindon’s recruitment of a number of continental and South American players. By the time Best Holdings pulled out of the County Ground in October, manager Paul Sturrock was forced to trim his squad to meet budget demands and many of the foreign recruits departed. None made a first- team appearance. Little and Brevett also left the club.

They bought out Swindon according to this.

It's exactly Southampton Football Company Limited....

I still say that Madonna would have paid at least a million...

We could have got rid of the plc without going into administration. Stanley, we have had our disagreements in the past, but I think we finally agree with each other that plc's are outmoded, when it comes to football clubs. See this post. Bottom line, with the proper leadership within the club, it didn't have to come to this...

Lloyds Bank would be delighted to offer a commercial mortgage to a qualified applicant at 6% fixed. Put that together with a discount on the outstanding stadium loan with Norwich Union, who would take £15M in a heartbeat and you very quickly go from £2M interest payments per year, to £900K per year. Who the f*** would take on this pile of sh !t (SLH) as a going concern, when they could buy the football club for, let's say, £5-£10M, renegotiate the stadium loan and save over million a year in interest payments to compensate for the reduced crowds...

Better than getting better gates, avoiding administration and staying up?

As a person who has had first hand experience of administration and the way administrators think, I can assure you I am not naive. The only reason that the administrator would sell the club as a going concern, would be if he could raise more money, than selling the assets of SLH separately. Take it from me, there is NO way Southampton Leisure Holdings plc is, or will be sold as, a going concern. 8.5% interest on the Stadium loan, vs a 0.5% base rate is the biggest reason, for a start. The second reason is that our team is second from the bottom in the Championship and likely to get relegated to a place where 14,000 average crowds are a rarity. Liquidation occurs far later in the procedure and as Clapham Saint may tell you, when every asset of value has already been sold. No, this is an SLH asset sale, where the buyer avoids any contingent liabilities SLH may have, together with the ability to renegotiate the terms of the loans together with any other contracts SLH may have entered into...

The reason I may be confused, concerning the player registrations and where the corresponding intangible asset figure resides, is that I haven't assumed that they are within the legal entity, SFCL. You may be right, from an accounting standpoint, but I don't think that matters. The reason you are forced to assume who holds the player registrations is because the Group has not shown the individual P&L and Balance Sheets, nor the related inter-company transactions. The reason they haven't done this is because, from the 2008 Annual Report: "The Group has one main business segment, that of professional football operations. As a result, no additional business segment information is required to be provided." This is what will trigger the 10 point deduction, IMO...

Says who?? I would be amazed...

Who cares? They're only run by "Southamptoners", anyway... ************irony alert***********

Frank' date=' just tell Alpine he had you at boring, idiotic moronic f***witted sod and bat your eyelashes. He's bound to get a hard on...

It's on the books at a value of £1.1M.

The plc's 2008 consolidated accounts are here. They include the value of the players registrations as intangible assets, so any argument that the plc is a separate entity not entirely associated with football and associated football debts won't wash, IMO. 10 points deducted or my d! cks a bloater...

A quick glance at the Balance Sheet from last year may give a clue. The plc had net assets of £2,296K as of last year. The majority of our assets, outside the value of the stadium are in the form of intangible assets (players to you and me) valued at £6,376K. Two interesting facts will not escape the forensic accountants and the administrators from this. The first is that the plc consists mainly of assets that are related to football, ie the Stadium and the players registrations. So, that's a 10 point deduction, as far as I can see. The second is that to have any hope of paying back Barclays, the adminstrator needs to raise well over £6M from Southampton Football Club Ltd and collect as much of the Trade Debtors and Cash Equivalents as they can. The trouble is, I can't see anyone paying anywhere near £23M for St. Mary's, so any shortfall from this will come straight out of what Barclays can get their hands on. So, for the Administrator to get his Brucie bonus, he will want £15M for Southampton Football Club Ltd., £15M for the Stadium and Jackson's Farm and £750K for himself. Frankly, I reckon 50p in the pound (£4.5M for the club, £10M for the stadium and farm and £500K for the Administrator after the 10 point deduction) will be a real achievement...

I know, Alpine, you must be ashamed. Pity you were never able to find a Southampton girl to marry, although I can understand the attraction of an Austrian bride. As they say in Austria: "Women are like good wine, best left to mature in a cellar."

Alpine, you obviously have trouble making friends and this must have led to your unhappy attempt at making a life in Southampton with your Austrian bride. The fact that you are forced to live in the land of Hitler and looted Jewish gold is hardly my fault, nor, indeed any of the other inhabitants of this beautiful City, which happened to build the plane that helped defeat your adopted countryman. Please don't take it out on me. My wife is American, has lived here happily for 25 years and takes people as she finds them. If you did, maybe you wouldn't be so bitter with the sad life you lead, so clearly reflected in your posts...

Priceless! Dalek, I assume by your name, you are a Doctor Who fan. Your Hoddle obsession also suggests that you have the use of all your limbs. It also suggest that, you're over the age of 40, you still live with your mother and at some point when she was pregant with you she was frightened by a large co ckerel. Give it a rest, mate. There's a thin line between being charmingly eccentric and scarily mental...

The £5,614.54 raised should just about cover Mark Fry's awayday to Wolves....