Breaking News When will the takeover go through? Council / Citizen Housing agree new Heads of Terms 26 June

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If COSU stick, and once they reneged on their deadline of last Friday it was pretty obvious they will, they’ll now most probably tap the fans for season tickets in order to pay the WUP. They’ll likely put some Dan Cowan-esque spin on it to be able to claim “what not me sir?” to get out of jail, but ultimately it will be expecting fans to bail Ronnie out this time because they don’t have the security they wanted.

I hope I’m wrong, but at this stage it seems inevitable and as many have said, any paying of the WUP at this point is nothing more than prolonging the pain and strengthening Rat co’s hand.

That's a ridiculously ungrateful statement... they've spent £3.5m so far without "tapping the fans" for anything.

This is about keeping our club alive. If they launch the season tickets it will be not just so they can pay off the WUP because they didn't get the security; they would have been relying on that money for other purposes, i.e. stadium development, new players, etc.

You say you hope you're wrong but to be honest it doesn't sound very much like it.

 

[tommy tucker]

ARE THE COUNCIL GOING TO ASK the rat man to sign the aggrement they talked aboout late last night or are they going to let the rat family to keep hood winking them .

 

[Paulie Walnuts]

ARE THE COUNCIL GOING TO ASK the rat man to sign the aggrement they talked aboout late last night or are they going to let the rat family to keep hood winking them .

I don't think there is a "deal, until both the external auditors agree and the DD is completed so unfortunately we are relying on the rats word....

 

[Tinks]

Absolute RUBBISH.
Daniel Cowan was one of the councillor’s in my ward. I can say he was one of the hardest working, genuine and honest councillors I have ever had in over 40 years living in Southend. He did so much around Prittlewell it was amazing to see. The last thing he is in my honest opinion is phoney.

I have to agree with you there.
He is currently my local councillor and has been for a while now and I have never had any issues when speaking to him or messaging him.
As I said previously, I have always found him to be reactive and attentive when asked questions and personally I think he is a nice honest guy who is seriously trying to right by us and with the residents of Southend.

 

[Westcliff DGS]

I have to agree with you there.
He is currently my local councillor and has been for a while now and I have never had any issues when speaking to him or messaging him.
As I said previously, I have always found him to be reactive and attentive when asked questions and personally I think he is a nice honest guy who is seriously trying to right by us and with the residents of Southend.

He isnt my councillor but I have emailed him three times regarding this and has always replied and been courteous. More than I can say for his colleagues that are my councillors who have not yet replied.

Thanks for the efforts Cllr Cowan

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

Problem is, however nice or professional he is, he can't solely agree a planning application of this magnitude. This could still take months / years, and without it, there's no £20m from Ron to satisfy COSU's demands.

 

[Medway Blue]

I think sometimes we take our eyes of the ball don’t we. Whether SCC get 80%, 100% or 50% of what they wanted is not really the point. What we need is a deal and it appears that is there. The only point of concern would be if 80% rather than100% made it a little less likely it passes DD.

And one that gets through DD, audit and planning. People can say what they want about who has moved the most, and who it benefits the most, but ultimately whatever the council officers put together in the end, has to have a decent chance of being viable enough to male it through those above stages.

What surprises me most is that some people seemed to think the council was immovable. Negotiations are about getting over the line (or not).

I would humbly suggest that the council has played an absolute blinder for the last few weeks. As usual that Rat was fairly immovable but until the gun pointed at his head was loaded he held at least a couple of the aces.

Whether that’s good enough for COSU remains to be seen but we are in a much better spot than we were before I went to sleep in your afternoon.

Finally, somebody gets it!

Setting aside you whataboutery for the moment…

What would you consider unbearable for the family if one or neither approach thus far has or could be unbearable?

Are you seriously suggesting the Trust would be capable of inflicting whatever it is you suggest?

Doesn't matter. Ron doesn't care if it's unbearable to his family and even if he does, he will not react in a way which is normal or predictable to anyone. It won't force him to do what is right, or what we want him to do, but it will cause him to throw a wobbly, use the protests as an excuse to no-show a meeting because he "fears for his safety", and renege on agreements out of spite towards the people that he feels caused the protest (COSU and SCC).

Would be a different matter if there was any evidence that protests had the desired effect and forced him into doing the right thing, but so far the evidence I have is that they near enough do the opposite at this point in time.

No. I'm saying neither approach will make the slightest difference to a narcissist. We've all seen the rat try to talk down a crowd. He's done it at away matches, he's done it outside his house. He's actually arrogant enough to think he can talk everyone round, which is quite easy to do when you tell a pack of lies.

IMO the best thing to do is ignore him, and work behind the scenes on a number of fronts, which, it seems to me, is what the Trust are doing. I'm not a member, but that's the impression I get.

Now let me ask you a similar question. Are you seriously suggesting that a gathering outside the rat's house is capable of inflicting anything on a narcissist that relishes the confrontation?

I'd go a step further than narcissist. I think he's actually borderline sociopathic. Completely volatile and unpredictable, and will definitely not respond to pressure in the way that a normal person would.

 

[tommy tucker]

OK so the council are going to do more D D on this new deal .We all know how long the last one took .The club and the concortium cant aford to wait more months of this to drag out . O nly for them to find more problem on a deal the brokered with the rat family .

 

[kentblues]

OK so the council are going to do more D D on this new deal .We all know how long the last one took .The club and the concortium cant aford to wait more months of this to drag out . O nly for them to find more problem on a deal the brokered with the rat family .

Which brings us to COSU demand 2. A timeline for DD to complete. I don’t believe SCC will have gone through all this to achieve 1 and not meet 2 which is relatively straight forward to meet. So we will have a timeline I am sure.

 

[Leeboy]

@CllrDanielCowan thanks for your clarity in your posts, it definitely has set (some) minds at rest.

Just one question from me - on the Live Twitter Feed last week you were asked about the Martins credibility & reputation as businessmen and you obviously declined to comment.

After yesterday has your opinion changed?

I think you know where the fans stand on this

UTB

 

[E for B and Billy Best]

Now we know why RM insisted on prospective buyers signing NDA's. He can't hide behind an NDA with the Council and lo and behold his greed and duplicitous behaviour is there for us all to see.

 

[Dave Smiths Love Child]

Which brings us to COSU demand 2. A timeline for DD to complete. I don’t believe SCC will have gone through all this to achieve 1 and not meet 2 which is relatively straight forward to meet. So we will have a timeline I am sure.

I like your posts KB, but how many timelines do you keep giving.
COSU came in with a plan with object to make money, no one buys a club for fun.
£ 3.5 million to us is immense to a businessman it’s small change
RM lied , lied, lied and I suspect is very comfortable with money as I would imagine his assets are given to family to safeguard if it all goes titsup
Clever man, others pay your bills whilst you dig your way out
Personal would love to see COSU call his bluff and say enough is enough and walk , but too much invested and RM has upper hand in a weird way

 

[Floval Flyer]

So which is it, neck or balls?

Both, cos he’s a dick head!

 

[WickfordShrimper]

So my reading is this

I assume we are all praying COSU accept that there was some progress made from last nights meeting ( Ok all not their boxes ticked ) and will hopefully pay any winding up order to save the our club next week.

So the Club can compete next season as a Football Club , we need to survive folks, the Squad is good the Management team is good. lets hope COSU stick with us.

COSU have already invested £3.5 Million and knew its was not going to be a straight forward buy out, I really hope they can see the Town and Council, Southend United Supporters are behind them big time to get this done and dusted .

Lets be honest anyone in the know, getting housing approval even for an extension on your house can take ages .

Fingers crossed COSU will stick with us :-)

Patience is a virtue guys and dolls

 

[Westcliff DGS]

As long as COSU are ok with the DD timeline, I am for my own peace of mind assuming that will take 3-4 weeks any sooner would be a bonus.

 

[Tommy2holes]

The one thing Cosu have as an advantage is the tremendous support the club has.

If they market and issue a rally call to supporters, it's possible we could shift 5k-6k season cards.

That will help the immediate cash flow although will be in the Ron handbook of get rich quick

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

Evening all, it’s been a hell of a day so I’ll make this one post but I am totally wiped so I can’t respond to all comments.

To start: our ultimatum last week was for a response that satisfied us to continue negotiations. That was always clear in the letter. Long story short, we got what we needed.

Today: I’ve re-written my statement 5 times as the ground kept shifting. At 3.30pm I told Ron that for all intents and purposes, we were out. They hadn’t met our points and we were effectively out of time. A flurry of calls over the next hour saw them move toward our position but not far enough. We started the day 100 miles apart and we’d seen them move 50ft in our direction.

By 4.45pm I had a decision to make. Walk away knowing that was it for the club, or try one final time. At 4.50pm I had written a statement saying we gave our terms, they weren’t met, and we were walking away.

At 5pm, I heard that 50ft had become 10 miles. Still not good enough but a big jump. I sanctioned a final offer, take it or leave it, on our position. It required us moving 20 miles to them but them coming the rest of the way to us.

At 5.37pm I got the call that they had agreed.

Yes, we needed to compromise a bit but nowhere near the original deal that failed DD.

It’s not perfect and we still don’t know what will happen with COSU but I wanted to be able to look myself in the eye and say I did everything I could.

We held strong to our position, not immovable but firm.

Now it is out of our hands.

I know many of you will be disappointed that I compromised a little and many of you will be glad that I did. Ultimately I don’t think anyone is happy which is the art of compromise, right?

Anyway, the next stage is to complete Heads of Terms and then progress to DD.

I hope we’re in a position to do that (subject to other issues).

We’ve done all we can and I’ve tried to be as open and transparent with you all as possible.

It may not be enough but I’m confident I’ve done my best.

When you're dealing with vermin your bound to get a little bit of **** on your hands. At least you left negotiations with your integrity intact. Less can be said about Ron.

 

[northbankblue]

If we go out of business due to this unbearable situation that Martin and his family have used the club that was built by the fans for the fans that he has wrangled away for his own personal benefit
Then I urge all fans to take action in anyway possible to never get his buildings built tear them down brick by brick and make his life hell like he has each and everyone of ours over many many years!

 

[Colblue]

As long as COSU are ok with the DD timeline, I am for my own peace of mind assuming that will take 3-4 weeks any sooner would be a bonus.

You’re also assuming Ron will keep to his word, unlike the hundreds of times before when he hasn’t

 

[Boreham Blue]

I’m assuming that as we know Ron has moved all his assets away from himself so that if he goes under the family will keep everything I assume that COSU will try and tie any legal agreement to Citizen Housing rather than the club?