eelpie

I'm just wondering if Mr Fry's 'contingency plans' include our pledges.

I guess it's the tragedy of not yet having a buyer (and maybe not going to get one) and struggling to pay the more senior players who we have in the meantime.

Allow ST holders, who are unable to attend re-arranged matches, a rebate.

Well said.

Howard and Dexter have already, directly in matches against us. Phillips and others have indirectly by benefitting our competitors.

But the stadium, catering, and radio station are all inextricably linked to the football operations. That leaves Insurance (and these mysterious 'bits and bobs' which Jonah describes as 'healthcare, property and probably several other dormant companies' -which all sound quite piece-meal - as possibly the only non-football related activities. My point is that Lowe seems to have had no incentive for SLH to develop a serious separate business identity. (Whatever happened to the retirements homes business for example? Was it hived off or did it fail?). All these might well have been detailed in past accounts, but I cannot find them. To me it seems quite clear that Lowe had no incentive to pursue further, serious non-football related businesses within the SLH structure. Why should he, when he was earning a packet paying himself from the football club. Had he done so, his claim that SLH was a separate holding/business might have carried further weight with the FL.

No. I am simply asking why SLH failed to generate a profitable income separate to its football holding.

You haven't explained why SLH failed to operate successful business operations in its own right, separate to running the football club, which is the basis of Lowe's claim that SLH is a separate business.

Done mine. Come on folks!

Apparently, more people go to art galleries nationally than attend football matches nationally a year. Southampton Art Gallery is one of the most successful provincial art galleries in the country.

Smoke, fire? I want to know more.

The definitive reason why no-one wanted to purchase the PLC was because SLH has always been a failed business in it's own right. It had no successful business plan of it's own, apart from leaching monies out of the football club. It existed simply to pay Lowe and all his and subsequent directors' enormous salaries. Plus somehow, goodness knows how, it's share price was ridiculously so over-priced it was not an attractive proposition

????

Who she?

If Lowe had turned SLH into a profitable company as a separate business in it's own right (as he claimed to the FL it was) it could be said that he was earning his wages. But he failed at that. Whatever happened to his retirement homes business that he supposedly owned at the time of the reverse takeover? Did it even exist? Why did SLH not trade profitably outside SFC operations? This was Lowe's cataclysmic failure imo. That company should have been making enough dosh to be able to finance players, for example, like other successful holding companies have done for their clubs. Instead, it sucked money out of the football club to pay Lowe and his cronies monies they did not deserve. There is a need for a searching inquiry into what happened to SLH's business plan imo.

Stern John has returned to Southampton today from his loan spell, according to this mornings Sky Sports News. Great timing!

Another useless signing that we could have done without.

If Lowe came to us as a successful developer of retirement homes, why did he cease following this line of business within the SLH remit? Maybe if he had, SLH would have had more income, and his recent claim that SLH was a business independent of SFC might have carried more weight with the FL

I think you mean FL

Point taken NC. I did actually, by my own reasoning, feel guilty at having using the C word since it could be very hurtful to those who have suffered from the disease. And I remember there has been justifiably sensitive correspondence about this in the past, which I respect.

Not giving Dave Jones the opportunity to reclaim his job here, after his unjust court case, was probably (in hindsight) Lowe's first major error as MD at SLH.

Good call (in theory). Depends how fit he is now.

He is too good to be sacked, and even so would be in demand by a CCC club at least. I wish him well.

Post of the season!

I would never use the term 'cancerous' lightly, but very deferentially and sympathetically to all those who's lives have been tragically affected by the disease. And I unreservedly apologise to anyone offended. However, metaphorically speaking, Lowe's invasion of SFC has proved to be nothing less than malignant, and possibly may yet prove terminal.