And so it becomes clear why Ron just hasn't been able to just "Pay the wages"...
Everything here is being done to preserve the value of the club so it is able to be sold. This in my opinion is a good thing. If Ron was going to let it go, there would no point in him putting £2m in a few months back, applying for a 42 day adjournment and now this latest development.
We are going to get out of this bit by bit. The first hurdle - obviously - is to make sure there is a club for someone to buy. That is what is happening here, with the assistance of the Courts, thank goodness.
The next stage is to ensure the ground is ready for August 5th. It may not be, in which case I would imagine the Oldham game will be postponed. But that on it's own isn't disastrous. It's being worked on; another positive.
Next, the players. We have 14 registered and can sign 2 more on non contract terms. I'm not sure how injured Lomas and Mooney are as we are told they both want to go. Maybe there are ongoing talks to move them on, but that will result in incoming transfer fees (which will help) and meaning 4 non contract players can join. This won't change until the embargo is lifted.
So this is where things may start to improve... the club will have some more money coming in as the season starts with gate receipts etc. The bank accounts are currently frozen and being supervised by a Court, so anyone who is worried about putting money into Ron's pocket, you can't as he can't access it. To anyone who hasn't yet bought their season tickets, if you do so now you will be helping the club survive, not lining Ron's pockets.
The terms of sale won't change now (at least not in an upwards direction). If this group of businessmen buy, they already know what those terms are and for all we know may well have already accepted them. It's become clear that there is a lot of stuff that has gone on that we don't know about. Buying a football club takes months, it's not like buying a packet of cornflakes. It is not going to be completed any time soon, but if as fans we want to help - genuinely help - we need to stop focusing on the negative that is Ron Martin and start focusing on the positive that is Southend United. We need to help this sale go through. We need to show this consortium exactly what they are buying because believe me, these guys won't be in it because they are SUFC fans, they will at some point want a return and we need to show them that potential by now turning our attention to the new season. The fans have it in their power to get the club out of the embargo. 1000 season tickets at say an average of £300 equals £300k. Boom. Just like that.
The protests have obviously had an effect and the end for Ron is soon. As he said to a Court, "It is coming to an end." They must have previously been shown evidence of something concrete behind the scenes for these adjournments to be granted.
I think we are at a tipping point. Ron has the message. He clearly doesn't want to cling on but I'm not sure anything we can do will accelerate the sale; we will have to let it play out.
It be be a difficult start to the season for sure but, as long as someone buys, we will be ok. Of course, it may all still go Pete Tong but none of us can affect that. We can't make someone buy, we can only hope. And the sooner we get out of the embargo and get players in, the sooner the rebuild starts to happen. We have all been in awe at the loyalty of the management team, I'm sure.
So let's repay them. Let's show them what the club means to us by getting 100% behind them and the players.
COME ON YOU BLUES!
