Frank's cousin

Bit of a drama queen? Well he has only ever 'taken in salary and shares' in that respect no different to Lowe....

NOt quite sure why we think Lowe and wilde resigning now would be some sort of good news... they may have contributed to the mess, or they may not until we see the state of the finances when they inherited to how it is now - and then again somethings such a scontracts cant always be interfered with anyway. You can also bet they are fighting like hell right now to re-finance and get us out of this mess - the club and they themselves have a huge amount riding on this - We need to satrt differentiating the two - the footballing mistakes and the finance, because I susupect that although the footballing mistakes may have compounded teh problem, the financial mess was the priority - its way too simplistic to assume this could all have been avoided had crouch stayed or someone else had been in charge - I doubt that would have been the case, and its pointelss trying to argue this agian...and again.... and again... we should right now be hoping that these guys come up with some cash that helps us til the season end at least, we avoid relegation andthat the extra TV money next season goes some way to alieviating the problem. 'Looking forward; to a club without Lowe, relegated on -10 points and in admin, is naive beyond comprehension.

Looking at the AIM statemnet, what is clear is that we have had our shares suspended tdue to AIM rules on publicatio of half yearly accounts within 3 months not having been done - SLH say they are trying to refinance before publication, but that is why shares have been suspended.... does this inevitably mean administration? Would guess the odds are high, but its not certain - In teh annual audited accounts, it mentioned that if the club struggled to remain a going concern, funding would be saught from with the existing shaeholders - this may mean Lowe, Wilde even Crouch and the shareholders are currently scrabling around for funds, or making alot of phone calls! Whatever, is happening, its sad that there appear to be some fan who think it represents the perfect 'I told you so' schardenfreude moment - but thes etend to be those too blinkered to realise that this has never been about personalities or the mistakes made by individuals, but is about a much bigger picture - the truth is we wont be the only ones...

Good post Weston, and that leads to the question for those advocating the 'speculate to accumulate' (read as ambition by many) approach, was it worth spending that 7.5 mil under GB?

Thats a bit naughty sideburns ;-), because we did not really have the sort of cash necessary to byuy say two 6-10 mil players + their inevitable wage demands ... Sure it would have been the best and logical thing to do, but we could not afford it whilst managing the club within its means - whether you believe it wouuld have been worth the risk, given the potential improved revenues that a top 6 finish may have brought is another matter, and really depends on your own opinion of the risk - and thats not actuially, finally a pro lowe or anti lowe satnce, just a personal opinion.;-)

Thats a very astute comment - the infighting is the biggest problem thats been generated by teh share fragmentation - it inevitably seems to lead to ****ing contests and ego bashing. That does not mean we cant reamin a PLC with a different share make up - the advantage of being a PLC is that the financial controls are stricter and we can have someone skimming off the top...despite some of teh 'lowe's pockets' comments ;-)

Think thats very true and its a constant issue for those like me you have advocated SOME of his ideas because they inevitably ALL get tarnished with the same brush because of the failures and his inability to learn from mistakes.

Excellent post, but I think it will fall on the deaf ears of those who believe any mechanism, that keeps Lowe at the helm, even as a by product, unintentionally, that you advocate means you must be a Lowe luvvie and need to have your genitals placed in front of the ball on the penalty spot whilst awaiting the kick from someone with a Lorimeresque reputation ....;-)

LOL - not sure what happened there, i though teh opriginal went missing in CYber space only to return and double up... ;-)

Fair enough...but with Ken Bate's injecting funds...where is our ken bates....???

With Ken bates injecting cash... fair enough, but where is our Ken Bates??????

Last bit made me laugh... admire teh optimism, and appreciate the frustration, but I remain unconvinced because i cant see anyone out there with the cash to see any change anyway - If there is a knight in shining armour waiting to pick up a dic 1 side for a quid, why not buy it now - its only 3 mil and the impact could just keep us up which is worth an extra 3 mil next season as well. All this 'I wont invest whilst Lowe is at the club; is tyrekicker speek, they dont need to to, they can oust him with share purchse at these prices, only need 20% (less than 1mil) or so to start with anyway + Crouch and his crionies (not my choice - but illsutrating the point) - it just shows to me that all teh mC/CRouch stuff re investors is about as likely as Wilde mag 7....

Dont fret clarky, i am sure they would have had to anonced to the LSE before then if its happening as trading would be suspended, so keep an eye on the LSE news bit under SOO

Contrary to popular belief, I have no problem with the end of Lowe and his cronies, I am just not convinced that administration is a risk worth taking to achieve that aim - If it was guarranteed that after admin Lowe would was gone and what we had in place was better its a no brainer, but its a pretty extreme risk consideringw e could be left with just the memories - and I dont think even Lowe's antics would justify that kind of risk. Right now we might be a badly run club with an unpopular chaairman struggling to avoid relegation, but w eare still a club... administration could well see the end of all of it.

LOL...Coco, you really need to learn to read and comprehend....

Ignore Buttons?...Pah, they're for girls!

Yes ;-) but if we dont go in voluntarily today, I suspect we have been given grace until at least the end of the season, given that if we stay up, the CCC TV revenue will increase by 2 mil next year + we have manty players out of contract thus reducing the overhead - so potentially admin could be avoided. If we go down, I suspect it will depend on how much furtehr costs can be cut to demonstrate we can trade within our turnover - so alto would depend on ST sales and the early season gate - possibly why the club ahve also delayed ST sales opening up, - low take up in April/May might not send the right message to the banks for next year. This is all speculation naturally as without having a real clue on the actual state of the finances and the deals with the existing loan note holders, its impossible to say. The only saving grace that I can see, is that for Aviva, its better we continue to trade and pay back teh laon as agreed, because if sold off, SMS is likely to be worth about 2 mil in these climes , max for the land...

Reluctantly as it effects us, the points penalty IS probably the ebst way of dealing with this - afterall, a club that has over spent on players and wages has given themselves a competitive advantage, or tried to. We spent that 7.5 mill under BUrley to get promoted, when we realy could not afford it, so in that respect we made our own bed and now have to lie in it...

Uhm, would be nice to hav ethat confirmed, but i suggest there are always ways round that.... 'deeds' or 'covenants' can be altered under certain conditions...

The thing that makes me worried most is that administration and possible liquidation is seen by some as a potential saviour! Fair enough, there is a REMOTE possibilty that someone might be waiting to invest and return us to the glory days following admin - but are we really that desperate to get rid of Lowe that we are prepared to risk admin on the HOPE that someone comes in and save us - remember anyone 'wainting' for this is just as likely to be a snivelling business type first and foremost as well - a true fan would come in now and help us if they had the resources, not wait unttil we fail to get us on the cheap. Secondly, there is a real danger that administrators of the PLC would sell off teh constituent parts to maximise the return on assets for creditors - eg sell off St Mary's Stadium Ltd - and a developer might be thinking longterm of the land as its cheap at teh moment, sell off the football club ltd, with its players, but without a stadium... a whole open bag of tricks to maximise creditor value rather than worry about the club in any guise... its these unknowns that scare teh sh!t out of me MORE than worrying who is in teh borad room now and even what division we are in - because we truely do not know what teh consequences of entering admin either voluntariliy or having it enforced on us really are. Some have obviously become blinkered by teh false belief that because w may well be rid of Lowe as a result, we will have a new start - we may have nothing left but memories.

Intelligence? I would suggest unless you are 'gifted' - you sont know this WILL happen. It may not, which was why I asked the question... are you familiar with what adminstration will actually mean for Saints ? I am not talking about point losses, but the real long term consequences - If you were, its teh last thing on earth you would be wishing for irrespective of whether we are relegated or not or who is in the boardroom.... so you are right to questin the intelligence of posters on this site, but I suggest you should start by looking in the mirror!

You are in effect sufggesting that administration now would be in the best interests of the clubs history and protection? Now explain how you worked that out exactly....

Naturally thats if you believe relegation will mean administration...it gets more confusing - sure we will find out today... ;-)

If it makes you feel better, Played on it in 2004 in they football aid match ;-) Rupert Lowe was on hand in the dressing room giving us the team talk... sorry I am mistaken, that was Jimmy Case, which was such a dissapointment

I dont think its just you, but its something that many have said in general about football and in a way it has been kind of inevitable.... this is not just a saints phenomenon either although we are naturally strugggling with it more than most given our predicament. I believe its symptomatic of how over the last 10 years the gaps between the big and medium and small clubs has expanded exponentially meaning even long established clubs with histories of success far better than ours can are only ever chasing 5 at best or worrying about relegation and the huge impact/destructive nature that that can bring. Remove fair competition from sport and make the whole thing so relient on money that most dont have and you erode the dreams that fans have - the dream that your club will one day have a chance to compete at the very top as we did in the early 80s, or Forest did in 78/79 - something never possible again and something taht underpins what and why fans suppoort their local side rather than all rushing in to jump on the lastest bandwagon success, be it ManU, Arsenal, Chelsea or LIverppol. Add to that our quite rapid decent from the prem to the current struggle and its easy to see why many have become completey dissillusioned and disheartened to such a point as to be ambivilant towards our fate - fine we can blames Lowe, Wilde and some Crouch and the other shareholders for all this , but even if we had survived in the prem or been promoted, there might be bigger crowds but the make up of those fans would be different as then its more about the idea of the prem, than the 'old school saints til I die' I seriously question whether football in this country as we know will still be in existence in 20 years time - because the money in the game so heavily skewed towards the top few sides will eventually make 92 professional clubs unsustainable - we will propbably end up with a top division of pro clubs and then semis and amateur clubs... will these still get the support, with the kids wanting that association with the 'best' and success rather than 'local' and 'culture'? I think I sort of remain philosophical about it because I have never associated supporting sainst with any real success - the odd occasion has been teh exception rather than teh rule, and when as a kid in teh mid 70s, I started supporting a mid table 2nd div side, it was precisly because it was local and unique - almost cultish to do so rather than jumping on a particular bandwagon - and I guess I will continue to do so because we seem merely to have returned to our roots!