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Kev BBC Essex interview - Did we realise it was this bad?

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Yes, we thought it had gone and we went to the "final" match. We received money from York City's chairman and fans, from Wrexham fans, from fans throughout the football family, a loan from the Shrimpers Trust, from Tom Lawrence....then from COSU before they owned the club. We somehow staggered on and the Three Amigos and the players hung on. A High Court Judge said any normal business would have been wound up. We still lose £2 million a year.

Yes, we realised it was this bad. We thought it had gone. Incredible nights like last night were a thing of the past.

We thought it had gone.
 
Yep, at the time some on here were calling for COSU to do this and do that, and I was saying you don't know what a sorry state SUFC were in, just be glad for now that this football club is still alive. There were things popping up all over the place, even after the DD, that COSU had to dig into their pockets, again and again, to sort out. I'm so pleased for every one of the consortium for last night. There were times this season when they must of asked if they'd wasted their money, and was all the agro, hassle and time spent worth it. But last night would have shown them, it was all worth it, and this club was well worth saving.
 
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Jacob Sladder said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Southend United boss Kevin Maher on Essex club's tough few years

In an emotional interview with the BBC, Kevin Maher describes how close Blues came to collapsing.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
Click to expand...
I don't think some have grasped just how bad it was, no. Either at the time, or in hindsight.

Many don't know just how brilliant Maher was. He wasn't the only one who was brilliant, but being manager of the first team, the football club's core reason for being, put him in a frontline position.

Some of the stuff he had to deal with was nuts. Insane. This interview shows the toll that it took in his personal and family life, which is another thing that people don't consider.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, could have blamed him for walking. But his loyalty and his leadership literally held the club together. Without it, it would have been National League South at best.

This is why I get so defensive of him sometimes. Don't get me wrong, he has his flaws as a manager. What manager doesn't outside of the elite?

But he has earned way more loyalty than a minority of our supporters seem to want to give, and some of the things that get said on here about him by some of that minority are a joke.
 
OldBlueLady said:
And this is exactly why I won't hear criticism of any of that group of players who played for us, often unpaid under the radar for several months. Heroes the lot of them led by an absolute legend.
Click to expand...
Collin Ndeng-Ndi

Gus Scott-Morriss

Nathan Ralph

Ollie Kensdale

Ollie Coker

Jack Bridge

Noor Husin

Harry Taylor

Wesley Fonguck

Henry Sandat

Brooklyn Kabongolo

Callum Powell

James Morton

Jack Wood

Cavanagh Miley

Mauro Vilhete

Jason Demetriou
 
Medway Blue said:
I don't think some have grasped just how bad it was, no. Either at the time, or in hindsight.

Many don't know just how brilliant Maher was. He wasn't the only one who was brilliant, but being manager of the first team, the football club's core reason for being, put him in a frontline position.

Some of the stuff he had to deal with was nuts. Insane. This interview shows the toll that it took in his personal and family life, which is another thing that people don't consider.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, could have blamed him for walking. But his loyalty and his leadership literally held the club together. Without it, it would have been National League South at best.

This is why I get so defensive of him sometimes. Don't get me wrong, he has his flaws as a manager. What manager doesn't outside of the elite?

But he has earned way more loyalty than a minority of our supporters seem to want to give, and some of the things that get said on here about him by some of that minority are a joke.
Click to expand...
Brilliant post.
Articulate and fair.
I think most 'sane' supporters can understand what the Manager has done for our club and the huge sacrifices he and others have done.
Totally above and beyond what anyone should have to do.
The biggest issue for me ( and I consider myself as fair and level headed ) is how do I judge all of those positives , which will always be part of our history and our darkest times , against judging this person as an astute and tactically aware football Manager.
Like I say , the positives will always be there for me , and probably everyone - the way he has carried himself as a person is amazing ( Sturrock Plus ) , but going forward I still want to see the club I support progress and grow on the pitch.
I hope with every fibre we can do that with our Management team , but we all know , including Kev , that football is a results game and should next season not seem like a progression, given our first 'clean start' , I'm not sure the gains he has in the bank will be enough.
At some point we need to separate what he has done for our club with how we progress.
I am pro Maher , but only to a point.
I hope my post comes over as intended.
 
Anyone with understanding of business and finance at a strategic level will probably have guessed the severity of the issues, and just how close it was. The club was right to keep this somewhat under wraps so as to not induce panic, as there were obviously significant efforts (as alluded by people who really know what was happening) to ensure that we stayed alive. Where the protests were raising the awareness, panicking would have helped no one - and could have actually brought the inevitable to bear regardless of efforts.

That is why for me, this season was actually a bonus / reset, because the on the field hero's from last season (who OBL has so eloquently referred to), as well as Kev and team. the Trust, Tom Lawrence, the Council, Anna Firth, some of the club's other directors and finally COSU who all worked tirelessly and with ridiculous time pressure and restrictions to rescue us from what was almost certainly oblivion.

I was convinced that a "good" season this year would be a top half finish, maybe 12th or so. Bonus for top half, and I thought the plays offs were a pipe dream. I so love that I have been proved wrong!!
 
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Brings a tear to my eye for sure. I've made so many friends this season, more so than any of my 50yrs following the club, the situation being whispered about behind the terraces made me shudder. Mr Maher should rightly be applauded tonight, the total dignity he held in the position of manager, kept us from being basket case to respectful. Every interview he has ever given, and by christ i have no idea how he held himself together at times.
Everyone that rallied around are heroes to a man and woman.

You can see what it means now to the city of Southend and all it's far flung support, days like last night are for them. For me, the day we had up at Rochdale for the 0-1 win are just as important, the rebuild of this club. And i was just as buzzing on the 5hr drive home then, as my boy was last night on the minibus.
Thankyou Justin and those that agreed to join him as COSU.
 
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