Gorgiesaint

The one thing that I don't get about the whole PA issue: If he was interested in buying a football club, then why has he never shown up on the radar for any of the 20, 30, 40 or so clubs that would welcome him with open arms? He certainly hasn't gone out and bought someone else. So if it was SFC he was specifically interested in then why? and if he wanted us that much then why drift away so quickly? The only answer I can come up with is that he wasn't interested in the first place, he may have checked out some options as other US businessmen were investing, Glaziers, Hicks, Gillett & the guy at Aston Villa just to what the returns might be, but IMO it couldn't have gone any further than that.

Hmm, you have to wonder. The rumour prior to Christmas was that the 6 mth statement was going to show an improvment, since then the income will have been boosted by 26k at the Forest game & a sell out to ManU. With regards to your summation on who the messages are for: 1) the fans - possible but who would be that shocked/surprised if Surman and/or Lallana left - maybe to deflect the impact of Kelvin going? 2) the tyre-kickers - don't see what has changed with them, they'll still be kicking tyres - if they had the money & the desire, they would have bid by now 3) the bank - would suspect this is the main reason, Barclays will have been working for us to reduce the o/d, the lack of sales & Saga coming back won't help our position 4) the (ex)managers/players - don't think it would take that much to pay off JP & his crew, and the players coming in must have pretty low expectations. For me its 3, with maybe a bit of 1.

Don't worry, Lowe would have found the money for that!! Still we might not have signed some of the fantastic talent that we've signed like Gasmi, Pulis, Pekhart.....

A valid point Corsacar Saint. One possible way round this - if Beatlesaint was to agree as it's his letter - if we all copy it & send it to the Echo. They may find it harder to ignore. Beatlesaint - if you are in agreement, would you mind posting the email address to send it to.

We trained him well!! Actually means he'll fit straight back into the side without any problems - apart from Kelvin wondering why he's been exposed again

Not entirely true, according to this article on the BBC site a couple of days ago... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/brechin_city/7828495.stm although doesn't answer the question why Brechin need a UEFA licenced pitch??!!

Shouldn't we have voted on the A team left striker before considering the B team, or has it just been accepted that its going to be Big Ron?

He's hardly likely to turn up at Watford and say 'I'd really prefer to be at Southampton' is he? He'd already stated that he was happy here so I wouldn't read too much into his comments given that he now has a chance to play his football closer to home & work with a manager who he has worked with previously.

As stated by someone else, HMRC is the main worry for administration. Don't know if this has been mentioned elsewhere but I caught the tail end of a discussion piece on 5live last night with John Madjeski (sp) and Keith Harris of Seymour Pierce. Both were of the opinion that any UK high street bank would be pretty unlikely to push a club to administration as the adverse reaction would not be healthy for the rest of the business. Imagine, if Barclays lost all of their customers in Southampton!! Slightly different if you financing is from an overseas bank.

Would agree except that Molyneux will play LB & Skacel will be dropped completely - a) for his media comments during the week & b) so we don't pay his appearance money!

Hmm... IMO there are two possible sources for this leak. Firstly, if its come from the Lowe camp, the benefits to him have already been discussed in depth. The downside, which is what puts a question mark over it for me, is why criticise Wilde. Lowe is dependant on Wilde's support to maintain his position as PLC chairman. Without it, Lowe would be back out on his ear. If Wilde's support is irrelevant because the club is going into administration - who is going to put in there? The rumours were that there the 6 month figures due in June were going to show a huge improvement engineered by Lowe, and admin would need NU or HMRC to put us there. No one has yet hinted that we are behind in our payments to either. The other option is that the leak has come from the other side of the fence, either from Crouch, the execs or someone around them at the time. They would have known all of these figures but the question is what would they gain? The execs are now out of the equation as they appear to have just taken the money and run, leaving Crouch & poss Lawrie Mac (was he close enough to the Wilde/Crouch administration to know this info?). Whoever it is, has weakened Lowe's position significantly and left David Jones position untenable IMO. The other point is, given how we treat our playing staff at the moment & manage to get their wages printed in the paper, how are we going to be viewed when trying to bring in loan players or signings? If we do manage to continue playing, we must now be regarded very poorly amongst the players, and this may impact our ability to make future signings.

Weston, you've hit the nail on the head. I was also prepared to support JP - but has become obvious that there has been no improvement in the team for a couple of months, and yesterdays lack of fight was the final straw for me. I know JP hasn't been helped by losing Cork & Pearce (the mis-management around allowing Cork's loan to expire without any visible attempt to extend it has been terrible, but not JP's fault) but there has been no consistancy in his team selection other than KD & DMG. So for most clubs it would be time for a change but, of course, Lowe is unlikely to make the change as it would be admitting a mistake. Given this, I really fear that after these next 3 games we will be bottom of the table and out of the transfer window with no opportunity to do anything about it. L1 beckons....

Perhaps we have to wait for Friday.....

Motson & Holloway can't believe it on 5 live Holloway says Riley should've taken the penalty himself!!!

Ian Holloway on 5 live - "Its like being in Rome, they're baying for blood, probably the referee's" no probably Lowe's....

Hadn't realised that had now happened BTF, I checked the OS this morning and couldn't see the audited accounts. Where are they showing as I would be interested in any comments that they make?

Coming on now, although how likely are we to need him in the FA cup?? He is behind Carew, Agbonlahor & Defaunso (sp) in the pecking order with Villa linked with Crouch, Heskey, Owen, etc in January window.

Makes you realise how lucky we have been as Saints supporters watching some real quality over the years. Moran was a great finisher, Boyer certainly bagged plenty (could he get a spot as chief grass inspecter as I remember him falling over in the box quite a lot!!) Davies was before my time so it has to be Channon for me. Honourable mentions for Pahars & Rod Wallace as well - but please don't let Beattie get anywhere near these teams.

You're right - a police enquiry would not look into mis-management that was just inept - they are only interested in those who broke the law. However if a takeover happened then this would give the incoming party a chance to inspect the books properly - this potentially would give expose where the 'missing' funds have gone. It would also give a chance to verify that David Jones has acted in accordance with his position as Finance Director. Of course, you get the feeling that any sale from Lowe would require a confidentiality clause signed before the deal gets done.

As I mentioned on another thread earlier in the week.. Duffy - Pompey Available on a free apparantly - youngish right back (23) who not been able to break through past Glen Johnson & Lauren

So then Sundance, what would constitute a suitable offer?

Well there's no point in playing our first team, lets just put out the worst 11 that we've got & wait for Man U to get bored at 4-0 up after 10 mins and have a training session for the remaining 80 mins. FFS its the FA cup - who thought Barnsley would beat Livepool & Chelsea last year, Hartlepool would beat Stoke - I know its a long shot but thats why we support Saints rather than being a plastic glory-hunting Man U fan!!

Agreed - Skacel is far better employed further forward (or somewhere else depending on your view ) I see Richard Duffy is being released by Pompey & is available on a free. CHDAJFU ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/7807161.stm Youngish right back (23) who was highly rated but not been able to break through at Pompey - available on a free

In answer to the original question, you have to look at who would be in a position to put a business into administration ie its creditors. Football is a very different business to retail, I believe that the majority of football clubs that have gone into administration have been forced in by the inland revenue, although they do badly in the resulting payout. In our case, as I understand, we appear to be up to date with our payments to the inland revenue. Other creditors such as the loan note holder who are secured on the stadium, would have priority but we appear at the moment to be up to date with our stadium payments. The bank is an unsecured creditor so would have little direct effect - however if they were to withdraw the overdraft, this would have serious consequences regarding our ability to support payments to the revenue & the loan note holder, which could indirectly lead to administration (although it may take some months). As long as the overdraft is being controlled (ie not increasing) then Barclays are probably quite happy to allow us to keep going as that provides their best chance of payback. Retailers, by the nature of their business, have a much greater reliance on the bank as a source of funds (if they've no money to buy stock then your business can't trade) so our more susceptable to the bank. The comments made in the notes to the accounts suggest that whilst attempts are being made to re-negotiate the payments to the loan note holder, this will ease the pressure at the bank. One interesting question that should have been asked at the AGM, if all involved had not started acting like children in a playground, is where those negotiations are at, what benefits this will provide & what is the impact if negotiations fail? (I know that probably 3 questions!!) Given what happened, we'll now have to wait for tha half yearly statement to come out in June/July time.

What a wasted opportunity... a chance for a realistic discussion about the direction and future of our football club and it turns into this. Lowe shows his arrogance and why everyone dislikes him so much. Crouch demonstrates why he is not the right man to run the club by missing the opportunity to ask Lowe the right questions and instead trys to score cheap points and Wilde couldn't even be bothered to turn up!!! I hope all three spend their Christmas's reflecting on their actions (but I'm not holding my breath) My only hope is that Lowe will resign once the club is in a financially stable position given his statement at the AGM: "I’m not going until I finish the job I came back to do – to try and restore Southampton to financial health."