How long will it be until investment is made?

[Hammo]

Looking at Clarkey's words about the ambition that Huddersfield show and their ability to offer a 3 year contract I wondered how long it would be, if ever, foreign investment will be made into the leagues outside the premiership in England.

Obviously QPR have had some of the wealthiest individuals come into their club and they are in a prime location for these 'joy riders' in West London.

But, with our move to Fossetts and with us still in League 1 it just begs the question can you see the possibility of investment in 'smaller' clubs such as Southend in the coming years?

There have been a lot of changes in football in recent years with ownership and positions with in clubs. The money in the top leagues is seemingly spiralling out of control. No one can justify £500k a week for a player.

Would you support big money investment in lower league football possibly bringing in more big names with less passion, more foreign players, or would you prefer to keep it as we are with trophies and league position meaning a lot to clubs meaning extra income that is so valuable to some clubs with more and more moving into administration in the last few years.

Thoughts?

 

[GNH]

Only a matter of time before this starts to happen really, i know that Notts County are in talks with people with plenty cash to splash about the possibility of them being bought and i'm sure it will gather momentum from there. IMO it will be a bad move for football as a whole as the gap between leagues will rapidly increase into nothing more than rich and poor leagues rather than promotions dependant on other factors such as the Tilly & Brush phenomenon

 

[fredheim_holm]

Never hopefully.

 

[WickfordShrimper]

With our move to Fossetts with all the add ons there will be more appetite for our club from outside investors, we are in a good catchment area in the South East and have massive potential in growth BUT the next two years we must stay in Div one at least

Its hold onto your tin hats time regrettably …. New ground or bust time

Our future is very much in Ron Martins hands so we need to rally round and support our club 300 %

 

[GodblessArthurRowley]

Not interested in Russian Billionaires or Arabs with Trillions or dodgy Asian politicians,Americans,or anybody else that will ruin the very nature of our club. So its Ron for me I'm afraid, might not be everybodys cup of tea, but I dont think hes done a bad job so far.

 

[TTS]

But the question is, what type of investment are you talking about ?? Chelsea type investment or something else. Because you could argue that Ron has invested a sh*tload of cash into us. Getting our debts down , keeping us in business and writing of debts that we (ie Southend United) incurred to play at Roots Hall.

Local investment is good, ie local boy done well type thing, but someone climbing on us as a 'toy' I really cant see happening regardless of where or indeed what our ground is.

Large investors are still gonna be looking at Clubs with 'history' and these include clubs such as Charlton, Leeds, Southampton , Norwich etc. I must be honest , I dont think our club would ever come under the radar of a serious Billionare investor (and in todays economy it seems that even a billion is no longer enough - a sad state of affairs).

Hopefully we can move into Fossetts Farm and operate within our financial boundaries, but it does not help when you get hundreds of people asking (nay begging) the Club and Ron to spend money we do not have. Facts must be faced, we are small club, with a small budget, the sooner people realise this the better. Its not good for Southend to lose players like Clarke for free, but these are the facts these days. Clarke all in all over the 3 years probably cost Southend around £650,000 and we lose him for nothing, people must realise that to Southend that is a lot of money.

So I suppose my question again is, are we after a billionaire investor to take us to the top, or do we continue to support Ron (out current 'investor') on the road to FF and hope the Club can operate accordingly.

 

[bertiebigbanana]

But the question is, what type of investment are you talking about ?? Chelsea type investment or something else. Because you could argue that Ron has invested a sh*tload of cash into us. Getting our debts down , keeping us in business and writing of debts that we (ie Southend United) incurred to play at Roots Hall.

Local investment is good, ie local boy done well type thing, but someone climbing on us as a 'toy' I really cant see happening regardless of where or indeed what our ground is.

Large investors are still gonna be looking at Clubs with 'history' and these include clubs such as Charlton, Leeds, Southampton , Norwich etc. I must be honest , I dont think our club would ever come under the radar of a serious Billionare investor (and in todays economy it seems that even a billion is no longer enough - a sad state of affairs).

Hopefully we can move into Fossetts Farm and operate within our financial boundaries, but it does not help when you get hundreds of people asking (nay begging) the Club and Ron to spend money we do not have. Facts must be faced, we are small club, with a small budget, the sooner people realise this the better. Its not good for Southend to lose players like Clarke for free, but these are the facts these days. Clarke all in all over the 3 years probably cost Southend around £650,000 and we lose him for nothing, people must realise that to Southend that is a lot of money.

So I suppose my question again is, are we after a billionaire investor to take us to the top, or do we continue to support Ron (out current 'investor') on the road to FF and hope the Club can operate accordingly.

reasonable post but
1 people would have realised our budgetery constraints if told of them in the first place.
2 Whilst i hope that RM's commitment is deeper than his wallet appears to be at the moment the 'glass half empty' side of me fears that once this major stepping stone to his uber development plans has done it's job it will be of little significance to him.

 

[manor15]

One of my favourite things about watching League 1 and 2 football is that it isn't the best football but they all go out there get stuck in and play proper football. The more money there is, the more foreigner players clubs can afford to buy and in a non racist way, a lot of foreign players are divers whereas there are fewer English divers. The Premier League has been ruined to a certain extent by the likes of Ronaldo diving and rolling around every time anyone goes near him and I want to see some proper football where they just get up again and start playing again, like we have in this league now.

 

[Reg Martin]

I have mixed feelings about the amount of cash sloshing around in football at the moment.
I think its undeniable that the resulting influx of foreign players has raised the standard of play at the very top of the game and arguably even lower down the leagues - is it my memory playing tricks or was much of english league football unwatchably tedious in the the 1980s?
However, I also have the feeling that its all going to end in a very painful crash sooner or later when the money dries up.
I can't see any foreign billionaires investing money in Southend and while I'm not sure I would complain if they did, it's no guarantee of success even in the short term and in the long run most clubs settle back to a level determined by their fanbase - Blackburn being the most obvious example.
I don't know how deep Ron Martin's pockets are, I suspect 'not very' compared to chairman of many other clubs. The idea that he is making money out of Southend is laughable and as none of his fiercest critics on here have been able to suggest a single alternative to him, I think we have little option but to continue on the path we are on. Southend do have the potential fanbase/catchment population to be a Championship club even with London on the doorstep, but its going to be a long haul I think.

 

[silentshrimper]

I'm happy with how it is, a well run club which does things properly and isn't stupid with their money.
It will happen, there is a lot of big clubs in the championship and even leagues 1 and 2 which could look tempting for a cheap buy out for a rich Russian etc.

Quite happy with how Ron operates!

 

[BoyWonder2]

One of my favourite things about watching League 1 and 2 football is that it isn't the best football but they all go out there get stuck in and play proper football. The more money there is, the more foreigner players clubs can afford to buy and in a non racist way, a lot of foreign players are divers whereas there are fewer English divers. The Premier League has been ruined to a certain extent by the likes of Ronaldo diving and rolling around every time anyone goes near him and I want to see some proper football where they just get up again and start playing again, like we have in this league now.

Sorry but that is ridiculous. There are plenty of "divers" who are English in the Premiership. Steven Gerrard is one who often goes down easily. Don't think diving is a "Forgein" thing because its not, and that comment really winds me up to be honest.

Also, diving spreads right throughout the Football League, as well as the Premiership. Just look at Granty rolling around on the floor, or Macca's over reaction to Michael Ricketts at home this season. Also, you could go back to Nicky N going down easily in the play-offs against Northampton to win us a penalty. Also, Laurent has gone down easily a few times this season.

Its not just a forgein thing, and its not just in the Premiership.

 

[BrettieAngell]

Sorry but that is ridiculous. There are plenty of "divers" who are English in the Premiership. Steven Gerrard is one who often goes down easily. Don't think diving is a "Forgein" thing because its not, and that comment really winds me up to be honest.

Also, diving spreads right throughout the Football League, as well as the Premiership. Just look at Granty rolling around on the floor, or Macca's over reaction to Michael Ricketts at home this season. Also, you could go back to Nicky N going down easily in the play-offs against Northampton to win us a penalty. Also, Laurent has gone down easily a few times this season.

Its not just a forgein thing, and its not just in the Premiership.

Bas Savage.....

 

[canveyshrimper]

Sorry but that is ridiculous. There are plenty of "divers" who are English in the Premiership. Steven Gerrard is one who often goes down easily. Don't think diving is a "Forgein" thing because its not, and that comment really winds me up to be honest.

Also, diving spreads right throughout the Football League, as well as the Premiership. Just look at Granty rolling around on the floor, or Macca's over reaction to Michael Ricketts at home this season. Also, you could go back to Nicky N going down easily in the play-offs against Northampton to win us a penalty. Also, Laurent has gone down easily a few times this season.

Its not just a forgein thing, and its not just in the Premiership.

One of the best ever exponents was Francis Lee, he would get so many penalties the press thought he was Chinese. The scorer for Man City would invariably read Lee Pen.

 

[BoyWonder2]

Another example was Andy Johnson for Crystal Palace in the Premiership. How many penalties did he win that season?

 

[canveyshrimper]

Loads and Palace were relegated IIRC.

 

[BalmainShrimper]

Without doubt the cash piled into the Premiership in the last decade has improved the product, made it more marketable and turned it into a global brand. However how much of that investment is actually sustainable? Liverpool and Man Utd are leveraged with huge debt, and now it's nation states effectively buying clubs (ie Abu Dhabi etc).

There's the odd billionaire (Abramovich) out there, but not so many as before.

If you have got unlimited wealth and were looking for a club then I doubt Southend would be high on the list. As for a "trickle-down" effect, you're then talking about multi-millionaires who are probably too cautious at the moment to invest into the black hole which is lower division football.

My view is that there'll be further polarisation between the Premier League and the rest of the League, as that's where the money will go.