Ken Tone

Echo website still says nothing about extended deadline, or is it hidden in some other article? Was OP about paper hard copy? K. PS enjoying the shakespeare quotes. Keep 'em coming (That's not a quote btw!)

I was hoping that someone else would post by now saying they too had heard this, but clearly and it was not that bad. With all due respect to the OP we are all panicking on the basis of something he didn't even hear properly. Might it for example have been along the lines of "pinnacle failed to deliver by the deadline on friday so now have until close of play today", pretty much as solent said at 7.50 this morning? K. ..clutching at straws maybe but .....

They said at 8 o'clock -ish that Pinnacle had until 'close of play' today. Surely nothing would be certain yet? K.

I always thought this was just a language problem with our Dutch friends. Someone obviously said , "As a footballer that Ryan smith has just about enough skill to work in a WC", and Wotte misunderstood. As for "ITKK" Phil .... Lol K. (not Kevin)

Quite. Let's not get carried away. Even once (soon please God) preferred bidders are announced, all can still go tits up before a deal is finalised. K.

With all due repsect to Matt, what does he know about business? He was a talented footballer and obviously has Saints' best interests at heart, but I don't think he's ever shown much business acumen has he? My understanding was that he offered to work with *any* group that was trying to keep the club afloat. I think we may be reading too much into this "MLT-backed" bit. And in any event a backer might have loads of money, without much of it necessarily being free to spend. If he/she has money in property they will have great difficulty converting that property into cash in a short time, and of course may not be prepared to take the loss they'd need to accept to at the moment, selling assets quick and cheap. Even someone I might consider filthy rich by my standards may have to think twice about quickly freeing up £10-12 million at the moment. Not a good time to be borrowing against property is it? K.

But the real question is, is Jack**** the same as Jack*** ? I've never met this bloke Mark Jackson, but he made a pillock of himself both on here a while back and when he 'bought' Bournemouth. If he is just a **** and he has no real money of his own , why would anyone with money now use him as an agent? Either he is not as stupid as he seems to be, or the supposed 'money men' are also time-wasters. Which is it? K.

Don't see that it is a matter of ability. We have to keep remembering that his job is to get the best deal for the creditors, not for the club. If for example he knows there is a consortium with say £12mill available, offering £8 mill, with £4 mill to invest, it is his *job* to try to get more of that £12 mill up front for the creditors... and sod the long term investment. On the other hand if the deal is £8 mill up front for creditors with promises of more later as and when club trades at a profit, in effect a re-scheduling of the mortgage for Aviva, he has to balance jam today against jam tomorrow for the creditors. This sort of deal is complicated. That is why it takes time and why it is not just a matter of bid made, take it or leave it. It is actually --initial bid made then administrator will tweak it with what looks like the most promising one, whilst trying to keep others ticking over in background just in case it all falls apart. If only one bid which then falls apart in negotiation, big problem ...cf Bournemouth K.

Presumably either the council (good, but I'd be surprised they could to be so definite without more public political discussion) or a property chancer (bad) offering to buy stadium and lease to club if any consortium wants to play things that way ...presumably because they are struggling to afford the whole thing. K.

Already at work so didn't hear. But what does £ 8 or 9 mill to buy actually mean? Is it £9 mill to pay off overdraft and buy shares, then take over ongoing mortgage with Aviva? Or £9mill to pay off part of overdraft and mortgage so creditors getr X p in the £, and shareholders get nothing? Big difference. Second version leaves us debt free, with a clean slate. K.

Exactly. We are in administration. It is not a pleasant place to be. How many times does this have to be said? Fry is not working For us. He is not working for the club (or indeed SLH). He is effectively working for the creditors. The feeling of powerlessness is what inevitably comes with administration. We have no say in our destiny. Like I said once before it is like having someone else drive your car, anywhere they want, and with you as a helpless passenger. In fact a helpless passenger with a blindfold on. You can't see where you're going and can only guess from the hints given by noises and movements. I'm delighted it hasn't been much worse (yet!). I feared that he'd be selling off the family silver by now..... lots of players released/paid off/sold for a pittance, the ground sold etc. That he hasn't had to do this yet bodes really well for a proper takeover, and in my view is the best 'rumour' we have. Far more reliable an indication than all the ITKs. Also if Fry wasn't optimistic about getting a plausible buyer we'd be hearing more about plan B, namely getting a financially weak bidder to takeover and run the club with the council buying the ground to lease back. I'm sure we'd hear leaks from the council if that was progressing. So, I am very definitely NITK, but know enough about business practice to remain more optimistic now than I was before we went into admin. K.

Solent report as described here doesn't make sense ( and btw in 7.50 sports report they didn't even mention Saints). To announce preferred bidder within 48 hours would mean that Fry would have to have received some bids by now. The process in a deal this complicated is: receive initial bids, choose one as 'preferred bidder' that seems best but for some detail(s), then work with that bidder to iron out the wrinkles, then arrive at final deal .. you hope! K.

Most of us know you're right, plus there are deliberate wind up merchants as well as the naive 'ITKs', but we're so desperate for news that we con ourselves. Ever had a hangover and sworn "never again"? Yet somehow you aren't yet teetotal? I react to this forum in much the same way. I'm not addicted, honest. I can handle it. I could stop reading the forum if I really wanted to. No, really I could. Just feed me a small snippet of vaguely plausible gossip. That'll be enough ..... ;-) K.

Very encouraging, but 'end of week' isn't today. Cue more 'Friday is the new black' jokes. K.

That WAS me being optimistic!! ;-) K.

I am NITK, but from normal business practice am pretty sure it won't be this definite. By far the most likely next step is an announcment from Fry to the effect that he has received one or more bids, that at least one of them is acceptable (please!) and that he is now working with one group as the preferred bidder to finalise details with the hope of an actual deal very shortly. He *may* indicate who that bidder is, with their agreement. But in any event if I am right there will still be some doubt and the deal could fall through before being finalised. So if there is indeed a press conference this pm, called by Fry, that is probably very good news, but unlikely to be quite the end of it. Still a few slips between cup and lips. K. PS would be delighted to be proved wrong with an actual final and firm deal being announced today!!!

Just as long as we don't have to buy 'the Sun' to check this out! I'm pretty sure the next thing we will hear is that X is the preferred bidder with just a few details still to sort out and that Fry is working to finalise the deal within a very short time. I have no idea who X will be and no idea when the announcement will come, but the signs are ... soon. So we are all doomed to checking this and other sites at ludicrously frequent intervals, and even listening to those patronising idiots on Radio Solent, one of whom can't even pronounce Le Tiss's name correctly. Ah well. Welcome to the world of a sad sad football fan. K.

A the risk of being a pain in the arse repeating myself, the administrator's duty is to do what is best for the creditors. What we want or need is not material. Looking after the interests of the business is only a secondary concern for him. Looking after the interests of the fans is of no official concern to him at all. In administration is not a pleasant place to be. He will only set a deadline if it suits the creditors' interests. If at any stage he thinks there are bids still to come that might be better than what he has, he will wait. However as I said before I am much more optimistic now than I was before we went into admin. I am not ITK, but going just on the public announcements I think things are going a lot better than they might have done. K.

He could set a deadline, but he doesn't have to. It is for him to judge what is best. He has a considerable amount of freedom and discretion, as long as he can justify that he is doing the best he can for the creditors. If the rumours are correct and he knows of 4 -ish interested parties, he will probably wait until all 4 have made clear if and what they will bid, as long as it doesn't drag on too long. It would not be in the best interests of the creditors to lose out on the potentially best bid just because it was not received by an arbitrary deadline K.

No. Just means there is another creditor in the queue. No doubt Aviva and barclays would make sure this new creditor got a fair share what is more. The little guy always gets a fair deal in business ;-) K.

Surely even if one consortium put in a bid today, we'd hear nothing. Fry will not just accept the first bid if he expects more to come. He will want to see all of them, to see which pays the creditors the most. The best we can hope for in the very near future is for Fry to say that one or more of the interested parties have made a bid and he hopes to progress with a preferred bidder to a firm sale over the next x days or weeks. K.

I think your "2" has various sub-headings. I suspect Fry's contingency plans will be about how to keep the club going whilst still looking for a buyer over the summer, eg by selling players and cancelling other players' contracts, sacking backroom staff, selling staplewood, selling St Mary's to the council, etc . There's a lot of options before we get to the blue square nightmare scenario. I remain cautiously optimisitic. I thought he'd be at the contingency plan stage before now. The fact that he hasn't started a fire sale implies he (and more importantly the creditors) think there is a good chance of selling the club as a going concern that will be able to survive well enough in L1 to generate enough income to cover the ongoing debts. K.

Well let's see. If Reading do buy him as they go up and he is playing 2 divisions above us next year, maybe you will reassess your opinion? An awful lot of professional footballers and managers do seem to rate him as a tackler, and especially as a passer etc, judging by comments you read in papers or hear on radio and TV commentaries. And Coppel has shown he can be a shrewd judge of players. K.

Why do posters on here keep slagging Surman off? Does it ever cross your mind that if successive managers here rate him, that if he was picked for England u-21 and that if other clubs' managers and indeed commentators also apparently rate him, that maybe he is actually a good player and it is your judgement that is wrong? It was the same with Oakley... another good player constantly slagged off on here. I for one would be really sorry to see Drew go. He is a good player and a genuine Saints player ..one of the few who isn't just a mercenary. With the right opportunities he will be a premiership player at some stage in his career. K.