Ken Tone

"As soon as I get a phone call telling me that the issues have been resolved I'll sign" And if you don't Tony, then what? Because the FL is not going to back down. And if another consortium offers at least what you did and pays up for this month's wages to gain exclusivity, you're out anyway. Stop ****ing around . Either pay up or shut up. You won't beat the League. They hold all the aces, especially given the timescale. Your lawyers may well be telling you that you have a good legal case. The league's lawyers will be telling them the same. That's what lawyers do. It's how they earn their money. The best you can hope for legally is suing the FL or the administrator for your lost deposit if the deal falls through, claiming they were to blame by changing the contract details during exclusivity. K.

Has anyine else noticed how it is "I" now, not we any more? Surely the person who will make the final decision over when/if to sign is the money man, not Mr Lynam? If I were spending £15 mill or so, I'd like to make the final decison myself. Most worryingly, this statement implies that he wil never sign. What is in front of him will never be right morally and legally, since he thinks that would mean the right to appeal ,and the FL will not allow that right. Am getting seriously worried now. This statement is NOT reassuring. K.

Been driving me nuts too. The media, Lynam ,most posters on here, all keep getting it wrong. But more seriously why in god's name didn't the prats on Solent ask him when he now expected to complete? Given the FL's stance, either pinnnacle back out which he says they won't or they can complete pretty much immediately. So when ? K.

The one I can read doesn't say the meeting is over. Just say pinnacle are confident they can complete following meeting. Not the same thing as saying it is over. In fact I have seen nowhere any indication of the precise time of the meeting. I found the timing of Tony Lynam's post on here very puzzling ...before during or after FL meeting and decision? I note he is saying "I" now, not "we" , with no reference to the financial backer's view, which I also found puzzling. And has he been in touch with Leeds? They had exactly the same "no appeal" experience ...and lost. K.

But this is exactly the Leeds situation. They signed the no appeal note, then started legal proceedings against the FL saying they'd only signed under duress. The FL backed down enough to allow the appeal ...which they then rejected! All the history shows that a single club never wins against the League. The reality is that, quite apart from that tory plonker Mawhinney, all the other clubs have a vested interest in us starting with the deduction. Any appeal to a panel of other club chairmen will fail, regardless of the legal niceties. Football clubs are like piranhas or a pack of wolves in a feeding frenzy; if one is injured the others turn on it and tear it apart. K.

What I can't get my head around is that Pinnacle supposedly were surprised by a late issue with the FL. Surely they know what happened to Leeds? They were effectively forced to sign a no appeal clause, then took it to court saying 'we only sgned this under duress' ,so the League 'backed down' and allowed an appeal, to them, which they then turned down ..surprise, surprise ..points deduction stood. The media reports imply that we are simply having the same experience as Leeds. Why is this a shock? Why is this a last minute hitch? K.

Maybe if we asked the FL for a licence instead of a license we might do better?! ;-) Really appreciate Lynam taking the time to post, seriously. Btw yesterday's Times had a few 'facts' about the deal I hadn't heard before. The say Pinnacle's deal was less than the rivals offers for initial payments, but has (greater) additional payments built in if/when we get promoted. They also listed Curbishley, Shearer and Keegan as the managers' shortlist -- no mention of Dowie, and with Keegan the cheapest. K.

Why does he need to grant any exension? All that has happened today in terms of admnistration is that the 21 day exclusivity period that Pinnacle 'bought' with their non-returnable deposit has expired. That doesn't mean that Pinnacle cannot now go on and complete. It just means they no longer have any greater rights than any other bidder ..and I suspect that the agreed price is no longer fixed. If they sign on the dotted lne on mo,nday Fry will happily let them complete the deal. If there is any chance they won't he needs to start re-considering other bidders asap. It is not in *our* interests for him to extend the exclusivity. K.

Surely the FL don't give a damn about us appealling to them. They will just reject the appeal. What they'll be trying to get us to commit to is not to take the case to law, ie not to sue them for loss of income etc because they should not have deducted the points. K.

Surely the 21 day exclusivity is just a deal between Fry and Pinnacle. If/when it runs out all it means is he can accept offers from other interested parties, not that Pinnacle can't go ahead. Their deposit bought them these 21 days as preferred bidders on a fixed price ... nothing more or less If Pinnacle end up standing by Fry's door on Monday with £15 million in used fivers in a suitcase, he will not turn them away just because they missed today's deadline. K.

Ince simply isn't very intelligent is the point, and is also full of himself. His success at MK Dons and Macclesfield was largely down to his very experienced assistant, Ray Matthias, IMO. Dowie may be as ugly as sin, but he does have a brain. K.

hear hear K.

Seems a pretty good summary to me. Expect to see this re-hashed in tomorrow's Echo! K.

Stop sitting on the fence. Why not say what you really feel? ;-)

Lol I hear that actually the real new manager will be announced just a bit too early after great excitement and be a big let down on the night -- but then that happens to every club sometimes I'm told ;-) K.

Not quite what I heard. More like "the way is open for Surman to play in the premiership after Sheff united drop out leaving wolves able to buy him". Presumably there is still no one at Saints able to agree a price for him, or indeed to reject an offer. Interesting that a premiership club wants and rates Drew, in contrast to the slagging off he gets from some on here. Obviously experienced professional premiership managers are far less able to assess a player than certain Saints fans! ;-) If he does go it will be a shame. A local lad, and a fan, and with real talent IMO. Good luck to him. K.

Even so, the early heady days of waving tenners at the chelsea fans and claiming that QPR were now the richest club in the world must seem a little bittersweet now ! I've heard that QPR's fans' sites are running sweepstakes on how long Magilton will last. What is it -- 7 managers in 18 months? Not exactly 'long run' planning is it? Can't say I envy you much at the moment, but then who knows what our new owner will be like? At least you know who yours are! K.

What 'lower than expected deposit'? Where has the figure been released? In any event, my personal view is I'd rather no one from the past few years were there, but at least Crouch seemed to be making his mistakes from the best of motives. So if the new owner wants to give him a place on the board, so be it, but please just don't let him make any major decisions! K.

Can still remember the pain of the BBC removing us from the premiership table/page. That happened well into the summer, so I suspect that it does indeed happen when the fixtures are announced. Happy days. K.

Presumably he specialises in knitwear? K.

I must be missing something here. Is the paper version of the Echo saying different to the internet one? The version I'm looking at says Dyer deal gone through because agreed before exclusivity period, all others put on hold. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/4414561.Dyer_deal_goes_through/ K.

Well I don't know Strode-Gibbons and thus can't comment about him, but by the same token you ought to be more circumspect in your assumptions about people on this forum; they vary widely in experience, knowledge etc, and some are certainly used to dealing with the media. One of the fascinating yet infuriating things about the forum is that you never know when you start reading a thread whether it is being led by a berk or someone with brains, or inside info (not often!), or relevant experience, or an ego that needs re-inflating, or an internet troll, or ... Since you are shown as only joining in April you either are jumping to premature conclusions ---- or maybe you are a longer term user, who has signed up with a new user name because of too much 'history' with your old one? K.

However it is hard to interpret the last few days as anything other than: Pinnacle and Fry agreed a provisional deal (so price as such not a big issue -- they had pretty much agreed that), then Pinnacle did not come up with what they'd promised. Obvious interpretaion ... Pinnacle do not have the money they claimed or that their consortioum leaders thought they had. If they are still trying to progress the deal, that is better news than that it would be if they'd just gone away hanging their heads in shame. However it does imply that they are spending most of that overtime frantically trying to raise the required cash rather than doing anything else. Doesn't fit with the £700million rumour very well, and doesn't bode well for future investment if they do take over. (Though obviously we'd all rather they take over skint than no one take over at all.) K.

Quite. I thought it might get better after we went into administration, but there are about 10-12 regular posters on here who seem to be interested in nothing except arguing about who was to blame when. Lowe v Wilde v Crouch v Askham v .... What bloody difference does it make? All I care about is whether I will have a club to support next year. Please will the serial arguers keep off threads that start with something approaching news and stick to threads with titles such as "Lowe is crap. Oh no he isn't. Oh yes he is ..."? Then maybe the rest of us won't have to read pages of their vitriolic irrelevances in our futile attempt to find out something that actually matters. K.