SaintJackoInHurworth

Shocking thing is that having been the highest placed team in the south a few years ago, we will start next season as one of the lowest placed league teams in the south (assuming we are still in the league of course!) Ranked ahead of us (and ignoring the clubs in London or further north than London) will be: P*mpey, Reading, Bristol City, Plymouth, Bristol Rovers, Swindon, Brighton, Yeovil, Exeter, Wycombe and now also Gillingham. (nb based on league position at the end of this season and our starting position for next season, plus I include Swindon and Wycombe on the basis that while they are further north than central London, there are parts of London that are further north than them!)

I was wondering that too... what DID happen to SaintDavid? And there were some others too weren't there? Rhonda or something one of them was called if I remember correctly! Anyone know what happened to the other jokers? Are they involved with the MJ bid? Are they the owners of Pinnacle?(!) Are they members of this forum, but with different identities? As to what I think of MJ, while I have concerns like everyone, we are currently beggars and, like they say, beggars can't be choosers! In the first instance I care only that our club is saved. Beyond that, of course I want to see Fry doing a deal that is going to result in the possibility of us quickly starting along the long road of rebuilding the club - rebuilding us into a club that can begin to move upwards towards the Championship and then hopefully on to the Prem.

I can't believe there are so many people on here who would dump our manager so quickly... it rather reminds me of someone else who had that attitude... now what was his name again? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Oh yes, now I remember... wasn't it something like Rhubarb Lowe or something like that?!! Oh.. and one other thing about this: if we get rid of Wotte, it will also effectively mean getting rid of Hockaday and Svensson as well since any new manager is likley to want to bring in his own backroom staff. How do people feel about THAT??

If we could sell him for a milion quid we should definitely accept the offer. (Don't tell Forest, but if we could sell him for a tenth of that or perhaps even less I think we should accept!!!) I'm 'sure' we will find someone of similar quality somewhere. (er... no, much better I hope!)

OK... you claim to be vaguely ITK as does Saint77, so let me put to you my hypothesis for what is going on... The Pinnacle bid failed because they could not match the guarantees required (possibly a lack of funds). Consequently, Fry has introduced the bidders to each other to go away and see if between them they can come up with a combined bid, based largely on the same model as the Pinnacle bid. As a result of Leon Crouch's support for the wages of the club, there is now a bit more time, so in order to allow time for the various parties to meet and redraw ther plans or else find extra finance, a bid is expected in a few weeks time. Is that a possible/likely scenario?

Surprised no-one has taken up the challenge with that one. Perhaps I can oblige with a prayer for our club to get the 'ball' rolling...(!) Dear Lord, I lift up to you our once proud football club. Lord we bear the name 'Saints' - a description of those that follow you, and so Lord we seek your blessing in place of despair and disgrace. Lord, may this club which stared out as a church project to witness to your name, once more bear witness to your mercy and grace. So Lord, specifically we pray that a good buyer for the club and stadium will be found quickly - someone who will take the club forward and restore its fortunes and with it the fortunes of the City of Southampton. Lord, we ask this in your name, AMEN! No... Smithfield are not lawyers, they are specialist financial consultants. Their specialisms include mergers and takeovers, including football club takeovers and mergers. They were involved in the takeover of Man Utd and are involved in seeking buyers for Arsenal. Why they are involved with Saints I do not know - maybe Fry has brought them in. But with that background in this sort of thing I would guess their involvement is good news! Here's my sources: http://www.burson-marsteller.com/Newsroom/Lists/PressReleases/DispForm.aspx?ID=705&nodename=Press%20Releases%20Archive&subtitle=Burson-Marsteller%20and%20Smithfield%20Enter%20Strategic%20Partnership%20Agreement - it says somewhere in that one about their previous involvement with the takeover of Man Utd. http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/673167/Smithfield-swallows-Gresham-PR/ - That one says about their involvement with Arsenal

I live just a couple of miles from the Darlington Arena. The Darlington situation is a bit different than Saints, though it has some resonance. Hopefully they too will find a buyer. Basically, a few years ago the club was bought by George Reynolds and he managed to gain planning permission to build a large Premiership/Championship quality stadium on the edge of the town. However, a fraud investigation revealed that the money used to build the ground and develop the club had been gained illegally, so the stadium and the club's assets were seized and eventually came to be owned by George Houghton, while Reynolds was thrown into prison. Since then Houghton has invested heavily in the club to keep it going, but with tiny crowds it cannot cover its costs and so he has finally decided he cannot continue to fund the cost of running the club (though quite why he decided to do that when they were on the brink of at least a play-off place with the potential of larger crowds in league 1, I do not know!) Anyway, that resulted in the club going into administration, but the ground is a seperate entity and remains his property. One likely/possible outcome is that if/when the club is liquidated he will opt to have the ground demolished and housing or offices built on the land in its place. I just hope that Saints don't end up getting to this stage too. It would be awful if both Saints and Darlo go out of business.

LOL - why does that STILL cause me to explode into spontaneous laughter?! Thanks for posting that - something has got to cheer us all up!!

The potential overseas bidders... they don't include Paul Allen do they?!! If not(!!), I wonder has anyone speculatively sent him an e-mail to point out that Saints are in administration in case he wants to renew his alleged former interest? Actually, who else could we send such an e-mail to? Bill Gates Michael Jackson The owners of Barcelona CF ???

Less than an hour of today to go... ...is the Pinnacle bid dead if it isn't sorted by midnight?

ok - I keep refreshing this forum, I keep refreshing the OS and I keep refreshing Saints news on the Echo's website... ...any other sites that I should have up to catch the earliest possible news??!!

Is there any possibility that the delay is because the different parties that are wanting to make bids are now actually talking to each other to create a bigger consortium with better backing, etc.?

Some good points made here guys. Before reading them I had just been on the Football Focus website posting some commenst in the hope that the issue might be raised on their programme. Here is what I wrote: "As a Saints fan, I am shocked by the ridiculous decision reached this week by the Football League investigation into Southampton Football Club. Whatever the links may be between the club and the PLC, that is not the issue and Lord Mawhinney's attempts to suggest it is are laughable. Like it or not, the rules clearly state that any FOOTBALL CLUB going into administration should be deducted 10 points. No mention is made of these 10 points applying if a holding company goes into administration as is the case here. While the rules may have been intended to penalise cases like this, the fact is that the wording of the Football League's own rules does not support this decision. I would venture to suggest that they are on perilous legal ground. It looks like this is going to be yet another example of footballing authorities living in ivory towers out of touch with the real world. I envisage that once again we will see an appeal against a footballing authority decision which will ultimately result in the football club in question receiving substantial compensation, further undermining the game of football. I call upon Lord Mawhinney and co. to reverse this decision forthwith or to resign before facing the inevitable humiliation that will result from a legal appeal. Furthermore, I call upon the Football League to sit down around the table and re-evaluate what is anyway a ridiculous ruling. To penalise football clubs that are in serious financial difficulties in a way that will further jeopardise these clubs cannot be a logical thing to do. A more sensible ruling would see football clubs penalised for clearly cheating the system - i.e. NOT for going into administration, but rather for using administration as a means to make unfair footballing advantage. Such an accusation cannot be levied at Darlington, Rotherham, Bournemouth, and Southampton - to name but a few clubs affected by this ridiculous rule. Why should the cheating of a few clubs be used to affect the financial livelihoods of clubs with genuine financial problems? I hope that you will be able to highlight this issue in your programme." Perhaps Chapel End Charlie's ideas should also be posted to the BBC/Sky/Talksport, etc. as Gingeletiss has suggested.

Let's hope so - we don't want Rupert screwing things up any further thank you very much!!!

This has probably been asked and answered elsewheer so apoogies if it has but... ...will any potential buyers be buying the PLC or the club? I assume the club. And if they are just buying the club, does this also include purchasing the stadium? Cheers

I still hope that we can beat Burnley and still be in with a shout by other results going our way. I then hope that we can go on to beat Forest... ...But if I'm honest I don't think it's gonna happen. I just hope that there's a big crowd there on Saturday and that we will actually be able to limp on to the end of the season... and then, most importantly, that a buyer will come in and save the club. I think it would be great too if we could have a decent following at Forest even if we do get relegated before then. I would love to be there myself, though, sadly I don't think it will be possible.

I don't get all the arguents on here scouring over past disagreements, but let's just leave that now can we?!!! The fact is our club is at risk, but there is still hope. So let's hold on to that hope and do all we can to fan the flames of interest from those can make a genuine difference. Let's get behind all the different campaigns to save our club as best as we can, whether that be buying merchandise from the club shop, giving to support the daily cash flow of the club, becoming part fo a supporters group lobbying to raise financial support, joining a group like the 'Save our Saints' group on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=67729837464), voting in the poll to pledge financial support, suggesting ideas on this or other forums...etc. Together, maybe, just maybe... we can see our club rescued and able to fight another day!!! COYR!!

I'm not good at knowing celebrities, but maybe it is worth keeping an eye out for the names of any celebrities joining the 'Save Our Saints' Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=67729837464). It may be that a celebrity or two will be lurking among the (over 7000) fans who have signed up to declare their support on there!

How would this be done? Is someone going to set up a cooperative/trust to gather together supporters and sell shares in the cooperative, with a promise of returning the investment if unsuccesful?

Whatever the rules were actually meant to legislate for doesn't matter - what matters is what the rules actually SAY and how they have been previously applkied (e.g at Derby). Therefore, following the Sheff Utd/West Ham/Carlos Tevez debacle I would think the FA would be reticent to be too quick to punish Saints, unless it is very clear that the rules have been broken.

yeah - but maybe with hindsight it would have been better to have got a slightly higher fee with a sell-on fee and then bought a younger player elsewhere instead of Le Saux?

eh? scrawny, ugly and stupid? nah... that could never describe anyone other than Leeds or Barnsley fans... ....and that's just their women!!!!

PANTS!!! What a disaster by Lowe there! To think a 10% sell-on fee would have netted up to £1.2m based on transfer fee of up to £12 quoted on BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/7807951.stm

Do they have the same rule for the ladies football team?

A manager who can take a team from League 1 and get them up to the Premiership in three seasons is not bad in my opinion. His sacking could well be bad news for Watford in the long run. Whether it is good news for us is a different question.. what if Charlton sack Pardew and appoint Boothroyd in his place - in that case it could be bad news for us indeed!