Topcat

Davis has failed to captain his defence. Why are they such a shambles at set pieces?

and not in Goal. So will Pardew make it Hammond? He seems the best bet. Wotton has blown his chance.

Unfortunately the mess we are in makes another relegation more likely. That is why I agree that the facts about the "state we are in" needs to be communicated by the Club. Lowe cost us the 10 point deduction this season and his "play cheap youth" policy brought about relegation. Pinnacle then wasted valuable time that should have been spent by the new regime preparing for this season. We therefore have a squad demoralised and short of suitable players. Just staying up in League 1 is the best we can hope for this season. Let us get realistic. Long term our prospects are very good.

Pinnacle seem to have wasted a month that leaves us 1 month further behind in our preparation. The difference between promotion and mid table or mid table and a relegation fight. Pinnacle clearly mislead (duped?) Crouch. Crouch should be given freedom of the city for keeping the club alive and avoiding a bigger points deduction.

Why did Wotte think he deserved the job?

I agree with Legod. Wotte actively participated in Lowe's final last experiment and then was one of the least successful Saints managers ever. It all resulted in administration and relegation. Short of going out of business there was not much worse that could have happened. And he walks away with another year of pay!

In his previous time here there was at least one major marketing mistake by Oldknow that made me doubt his understanding of his profession. That said we have to hope that our new owner employs his shrewd business skills in the operation of the Club.

Well since he lives at home he can afford one.

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=353596&postcount=3577 dubai_phil also asks why Fry structured the selling of the bits in this manner.

CB Fry I never said the Trust + Council was the "dream ticket". You wrote "there were better deals to be done out there, and I think there still is. " After 3 months where are they?

Lowe brought us into administration. Anymore of him would finish us off.

CB Fry, there is no consortium that can fund it all after 3 months at the price Fry etc are asking. By now even The Trust for example might have managed to put together a bid for £2m to buy the Club if that had been an opportunity 3 months ago. As to last resorts, we may even have run out of time to do that if the Club is impaired with 30 point deductions....

"We are taking the Club to the next level" Lowe. Omitted to say that was 2 or 3 levels lower....

In response to CB Fry if the Council owned SMS then the Club would rent it back from them for a set fee per match etc. Thus attendance money would still go to the Club. Not all prospective buyers would want SMS. It will make up most of the value and it is therefore easier to put up £2m to £4m for the club than £12m to £14m for the Club and SMS.

I think they could complete it relatively quickly IF the price was reasonable. £10m is something the Council could relatively easily borrow ahead of the sale of paintings etc. Royston the Deputy Leader was clearly interested in SMS but Fry has p****d him off by keeping the Council out of the loop. Fry seems to have done this becauase he was trying to sell it all as a package.... to those who were only interested in the package. Politically the purchase of SMS would be seen to "save Saints". Labour and the LDs would not attack the Council over making that move. And if the financial side showed a win for tax payers it would attract widespread support from tax payers.

Steve yes it has taken the decision in principle to look into it. What better use to turn £10m of unseen paintings into a local asset that 1) helps Saints and 2) generates a better return than if the money was in the bank?

Why do you say that? I explained above how £10m could easily generate £1m to £1.5m pa in rent.

Buying SMS (not the Club) for £10m would provide the Council with a facility that it can then rent out. 1. To the Club for £1m a year 2. For concerts to bring in about another £0.5m a year (profit). If maintenance on SMS is £0.5m pa then the Council gets £1m a year for its £10m capital outlay. A better return than if the money was on deposit. Where can the Council get £10m from? Answer = sell a few of its paintings that it does not have the room to display.

The Council guy said that they were interested in buying the land (and SMS) but not the Club. For obvious reasons. He went on to say that he had not heard from the Administrator in weeks and all updates came after he contacted the Administrator to ask what was happening. The Administrator does not seem to have offered things in separate parts.

At the start of this "administration" I wrote that selling SMS to the Council would be a win/win deal which they would find appealing and would bring in £10m to pay off part of the debt. Instead it looks like SMS is bundled in with the Club as a package requiring figures in the range of £14m* quoted to buy the package. Selling "Saints the Club" for £2m to £4m would have been an easier deal. Why has Fry gone about it in this time wasting way that weakened the chances of deals and reduced the price he will get at the end of all this? *(That is what I have gleaned on here but can those ITK please point out any mistakes....)

Why did Begbies Traynor think that "Pinnacle" were fit and proper people to consume the past 3 week? If Leon Crouch was the one who paid the exclusivity fee, it raises even more doubts about Begbies Traynor diligence on the "pinnacle" outfit.

I agree that the administrators appear to have done a bad job in vetting the Pinnacle group. As for our own "Swiss Tony", he does seem to be in the same mold as Barry the Briefcase and Marky Jackson. Just a bunch of timewasters that end up damaging the fortunes of football clubs.

This is not the first time administrators have had to handle a football club in this position. These issues of an automatic 10 points, rights of appeal and FL conditions should have been clear many weeks ago and it was the administrators job to sort that out. Pinnacle knew about the 10 point deduction and the fact that there was only a slim hope of overturning it. By delaying any takeover by weeks the Club's preparation for a difficult season is undermined. Each day that goes by the worse it gets. If "Saints" was worth £10m to a buyer 3 weeks ago, today that price will be lower. A lot of business mistakes are being made.

Sadly true. Delaying the formation of the squad before the start of the season was one of Lowe's many failings.

I would like the new owners to get a sponsor and pay the Club the value of that sponsorship, We need every penny and dropping "St Marys" for a bigger payment is sensible. In the past we tried to preserve the name and ended up with less cash. And cash is what we ran out of.