DaintyDave

Grabin's up at Blackpool today already. Oldham were also asking permission to talk to him a while back. KK won't take another job because it will affect his compo claim from Newcastle. If this rumour is even remotely true, which given the "accuracy" of the ITK and rumour crowd is highly unlikely, it would have to have been someone out of work at the time - a. you can't tap up managers and b. no manager in work would run the risk of talking to a "potential" ownership group until they had the deal done. Therefore IF the rumour is remotely true (same caveats) it would be Ince, Boothroyd or similar or, I suppose, Hoddle potentially. However, far more likely is that this is just yet more "my mate knows someone who said" crap

Just to be clear, has anyone actually confirmed we don't have the cash/access to cash to make pay on Thursday? If it is the case that a bidder needs to pay a deposit by then, we absolutely need a cheque to be drawn tomorrow, simple as that. If I was Fry I'd be calling everyone in the world who either can afford us or who has ever shown an interest in buying a club in any sport, anywhere. What about that bloke in South Africa who was interested in Newcastle - Johannes?

Two things to clear up 100%. 1/ Proof of funds just shows the capability to do a deal. i.e. I have x mil tucked away somewhere. Financial guarantees in this instance arise because not all of the money is being paid at once - some are contingency payments - so the buyers have to sort out how that is worded and guarantee that if they have the access to funds now, that beyond that they (the funds) will remain available ongoing. 2/ No-one has seen the player contracts yet. Until someone submits a bid, pays a deposit and signs a contract, all they get are "reps and warranties" - statements from the club and administrator - with some basic docs (financial statements, lists of assets etc). When they get the preferred bidder status, then literally a "clean room" is created where the bidder's team gets to sit in a physical office at the club (plus an online login) and go through all the really confidential stuff. The non-refundable deposit is to secure the stability of the club in the interim, so at this point the bidder is committed to buying the club at a price of X.....if anything "material" changes in diligence from what was represented to them by the club, there will be a price adjustment. Hope that helps

That's OK though, the Echo has a "source" close to the Jackson group and "sources" close to the mystery overseas group. Which means that, as I said yesterday, Jackson and Green and whoever this other mob happen to be are feeding all the news to the Echo. My mate at the Echo told me they get calls from MJ feeding them info which is later denied - the scale of the bid, the fact they have proven funds etc - by Fry. Then again this is the same guy who went on TV to announce he was the owner of Bournemouth and a former Saints employee (which we all know is BS). In short, Pinnacle may have something, but the rest is just a load of self-promotion. As for the "ITK" lot on here, show me one thing that has been accurate (though I suppose you guess enough, you get something right). I never thought the 4pm press conference was serious, because a/ you don't just call a Press Conference on 3 hours notice and b/ why bother, it is not like the media needs to be there to hear who the preferred bidder is. Just the 4pm "not a guess" statement amused me, as so many others have.

Still stand by this? Or should I leave my perch above the gas towers and put the binoculars away?

Echo is being fed all its info on this by Mark Jackson so literally 90% of what you hear is what he states. Hence the details of his 'bid' are known

Problem with that line of reasoning is you have the mega-money at QPR, Majedski + parachute payment at Reading, big money at Ipswich, investors at Derby (plus parachutes) and Coventry, new money coming in to Cardiff, Mandaric at Leicester plus whoever comes down including potentially a well-funded 'Boro all with the same strategy. Only 3 teams a year can get promoted!

Let's take a hypothetical club, AFC DeathEars. AFC DeathEars was up for sale, a middle man appeared claiming connections to such a wealthy individual that, if true, would require no actual diligence doing on them. The administrator said "let me speak to said wealthy individual" and was allowed to talk to one of said wealthy individual's "representatives" who assured everyone that he was in fact working on behalf of said wealthy individual. Based on that, AFC DeathEars was "sold" to the broker and his clients, only for the "wealthy individual" to back out at the 11th hour over technicalities. Said broker then scrambled around trying to find other backers for his grand vision. Fast forward a year later to NorthBaconTown FC and people might wonder whether the same fictitious "wealthy individual" was being used for the same game. Yes, I am a disgruntled Bournemouth fan but not without reason. Sheikh whatever-his-name is has no idea who Mark Jackson is, nor the weird middle man who claims to represent him (or her I think actually) is, it is all a big fairytale. I got to know a couple of the blokes down here at Dean Court who got run over by a big bus of public opinion after the Jackson fiasco here, and they told me stories of frustrating calls where vague promises and allusions to knowing Arab royalty were made, but after it was all done they called the person supposedly backing the whole thing and no-one had a clue who Mark Jackson or Peter something-or-other (the 'representative') were. And now it's happening all over again. I really feel for you all. Dave

Someone explain why these "consortiums" are all using these ropey middle men rather than Deloitte and Touche or Seymour Pierce or NM Rothschilds or any of the other major banks/professional services firms who have specialists set up for these situations. Instead they seem to use these insta-shell companies with brokers with no history in football or major finance.

Having asked around today, this guy was NEVER a scout for Saints or involved in the youth set up in any way. Which begs the question, what the hell was he doing watching young boys playing football on parks in Bournemouth pretending to be a Saints scout.

So someone else on here being used to drop little hints of completely unverifiable nonsense. Got Pinnacle and this Jackson dreamer on the forums using people to stir it all up. Here's hoping there's a 3rd. And I assume the "person mentioned on here a lot" who you are calling is Jackson, since that seems like his MO

No idea what that means. I just thought it was interesting that the Tchenguiz brothers have been rumoured to be interested in us by some ITK crowd on here, and that the same pair of brothers bought a fairly substantial piece of property almost in sight of SMS off someone who was confirmed (by LC I believe) a while back to be interested in us.

I really hope he can bring the freshness back.

Interesting comment about the Iranians and "Rotch Property Group" having bought property on the South Coast......anyone else notice who they bought it off?

Guided Missile's place looks a lot nicer. Posh one

I know this, he is trying to move the Phoenix hockey team to Hamilton, where the Tigercats already play. He lives in Hamilton now though. And MLSE came over last year, looked at Newcastle, Sheff Weds, Derby and others and stated they only wanted a London club. We may be many things.....but.....if they went L1 they would go Charlton, not like money is an issue for them, and more likely they will buy Palace or a Prem side - hear West Ham is for sale on the cheap........

His name is Jim Basillie, founder of RIM (powers your Blackberry). Doubt it. He loves hockey and Southern Ontario. Has done work to get a CFL team there too to his native Hamilton.

So this is exactly what happened at Bournemouth then as far as I can tell from reading their forum. A last minute hitch, followed by a drop out from Jackson's consortium, he then "joins forces" with rival consortium.....now at Bournemouth he then announced himself owner-in-waiting and Chairman and the consortium quickly kicked him out and refuted his claims, but I can see the same things happening here. The big fella's made up consortium (I think they said at Bournemouth his proof of funds was fake and some fairly small cheque actually bounced) can't get a deal done so he acts as some kind of saviour bringing in a new group - who at Bournemouth already existed - and tries to leverage some kind of job for himself. IMHO absolutely disgraceful, putting resources to waste and threatening the future of our club, all to try and get a percentage of the deal or a job going forwards that his talents clearly do not merit. I really think Begbies have a lot to answer for here.

http://www.bournemouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13834&start=101&posts=117 Hence "household name" - he has been a key member of the club for years (we just never knew about it) - scouting KJ, Lallana AND Walcott.

And you can take that to the (photocopier) bank

OK, voice of dissent here, but this Pinnacle lot seem completely shoddy. The three point response sent to the admin sounded like a Marc Jackson infomercial for his backers, the website is a joke and we are back to posting on websites to drum up support using a big name ex-player. I like the first group - quiet, professional, got a bid in without a word to anyone. No ITK about them - all the knowledge they even exist is because others have outed them. All aboard that train I say.

New rule at SMS - we have to stop hiring people whose parents couldn't be bothered to give them names. Just makes it really difficult when it comes to takeovers with there being so many different people working at the club who are unnamed. In future, policy should be to hire people only if they have a distinctive moniker - a simple John or Judy would suffice. Not too much to ask is it?

Also not entirely sure you can just decide once you form your club you want to be in the Premiership.

Ah, the stadium, yes I remember, that certainly saved us from any financial perils. I mean, when we used to be at the Dell we were in admin every year, but since we got our shiny new 32,000-seater stadium, why the money has just flowed in. No need to sell players since we've been at St. Mary's. It's not a goldmine, it's a bottomless pit, so at best we'll get a new owner with dreams of rubbing shoulders with Abramovich and the Yanks, three years in he'll be out a small fortune in cash and will realise there were 25 other dreamers with a more realistic shot at getting to the Prem. At worst, the reality will kick in when they see that as sole owner, it is going to cost at least 300k a month on an ongoing basis to own this thing, and no-one will bid and we'll all be starting FC Southampton in the BSP which personally I would love because I cannot abide the idea of paying money to the likes of BWP et al next season anyway.

Alternative for creditors isn't nothing though, is it, alternative is we sell ground, players, furniture, Jackson's, Staplewood, all that equipment up there, and they get paid out of the proceeds. Also, someone needs to explain the "gold mine" that is Saints to me from a business perspective. We never made a profit (except for selling players) in the Prem with the TV money and gate receipts and sponsorships etc that came with it, so someone explain the "goldmine" that is a club starting at -10 pts in League One (have to be more likely to spent 10/11 in League Two than the Championship) with gates likely to be 10,000 or so at lower ticket prices. Our present manager has zero experience of the league, nor do 90% of the squad, the league will contain at least 3 big name teams so promotion by no means guaranteed.........not trying to say it is not worth something, but where is the goldmine? In the best of times when we were in the Prem the return would not merit the investment........ I guess we are going to get an owner "looking to get in to the Prem in 5 - 7 years" for their return on investment......so line us up alongside the owners of every Championship club plus Leeds, Bradford, and half the rest of League One.