Transfer Embargo, Winding Up Petition & Staff Salary Issues

[Kat_r]

where do you think the efl youth team money went??

No idea. You?

 

[Shrimper]

We know Ron has not got any money .But the one question i have is .Who the hell put up the cash to sign Lopata if it wasnt Ron .

Part of that might have been from the Dalby money received up-front.

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

To sell, he needs someone who will buy. And the buyer needs to have enough finance to stop these cash flow situations occurring, and also the willingness to keep spending his / her money on the Blues on an ongoing basis. Despite our financial problems being well documented, has one such person emerged in recent years?

Nobody has emerged in recent years to buy my house, either. That's because I haven't put it up for sale. Maybe there are potential buyers out there that would be interested, but i'll never truly know until it's on the market. Surely, the same applies to this ?

 

[Smiffy]

Great article from Chris this.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1591912019036602368

 

[undercovershrimper]

No idea. You?

on a polish centre half ie not where it was meant to go

 

[Evening Echo]

IT is now 33 years since I attended my first ever Southend United match.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[Kat_r]

on a polish centre half ie not where it was meant to go

Interesting. Things are never quite how they seem and never under si mate what people are willing to ignore or endorse if it feeds their ego or agenda

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

on a polish centre half ie not where it was meant to go

No, it did not.

 

[undercovershrimper]

No, it did not.

Pray tell where did the EFL money go then? It's an open secret it's been misappropriated as the youths haven't been paid

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Pray tell where did the EFL money go then? It's an open secret it's been misappropriated as the youths haven't been paid

I don't know where it's gone. Probably into the never ending rob Peter to pay Paul pot. But I do know the Lopata money was a separate thing entirely.

 

[stewart]

What ****er bought Lopata into this discussion ,if you bringing him into it you may as well bring every player we signed into it and upset the whole team. Gosh we have some morons here at times ,As was stated his was a separate thing entirely, My thinking is the money has most likely gone into the development of the new training pitches etc. I just pray every night for a savior to come to our rescue, because losing SUFC will to me be like losing a member of my family ,god willing that will never happen.

 

[bluesfansince1952]

We struggled during the financial crash of 08/09 and unfortunately there's another financial crash on its way. It has to be noted that we've learned nothing about living within our means in the period in between - we were running the 5th highest wage bill in league 1 allegedly, which shows ambition but also financial recklessness.

Ron is now trying to arrange bridging finance in a market where borrowing money costs far more than it did 12 months ago - that's what concerns me. We need to hope he manages this - he's clearly trying to insulate the first team from the financial mess in the hope that results keep coming. But we need to remember he's not failing to pay staff / youth team for a laugh - he's not paying them because he doesn't have the money. Maybe offloading a player in January might help us in the short term if there's anyone who will give us money for one?

I think you are spot on. Right now if you owe a lot of money the future will be very challenging and some will be going to the wall. None of us have any idea how much or how little actual money Ron has but he might have a task ahead of him.

Since taking over the club Ron has clearly been motivated by a wish to develop the Club's assets in a way that delivers him a financial windfall. That is what property developers do, and, while those who love the club might not like it, the time to protest and take action was when he took over and not twenty years later.

Having said (and I now risk being labelled a plant and/or stooge) despite his financial ambitions I do not believe that Ron has ever been indifferent to the fate of the football club. He has done as well as he knows how but along the way lack of money has sometimes left him with few alternatives, most of them bad.

In football no one is guaranteed success, and, even financially stable clubs can endure years of poor results. Colchester seem to pay everyone on time but on the field now look not unlike us in our last two seasons in the Football League.

Apart from very few players and their agents few people become rich from football, or. from 'investing. in it. Even if Ron was put up the club for sale tomorrow debt free and with a three sided stadium I doubt if it would attract much interest. Some clubs will always attract buyers but Southend is not one of them, and, once its assets have been developed it seems unrealistic to me to believe any kind of well heeled 'investor' would be rushing to buy. Unless the next Zuckerburg/Soros/Gates is a Blues supporter we will continue to find life a struggle.

On top of his many failings Ron also seems to be unlucky. He almost got his dream over the line in 2009 but was undone by the GFC. Now it seems that the consequences of post covid, war in Ukraine and uncertainty regarded the reliability and cost of future energy supply have produced a financial climate which make the realisation of his dreams impossible. Four years ago finding a bridging loan or what ever else needs to be in place to pay HMRC would probably have been well within his means and abilities. Now it will be much harder, and, could even be impossible.

Can he do it and secure his great stadium dream? I am not sure he can. If he does it will be some achievement although I suspect that few will give him any credit for it.

 

[Ken47]

where do you think the efl youth team money went??

Ready other answers the EFL money has been spent on the youth academy but it is not sufficient to cover the full costs. We all know that Southend United does not have any spare cash to make up the difference at this time

 

[northlincsshrimper1]

Even if we were to sell any of our players in January, am I right in assuming that any transfer fee would not be paid in full, at the time of any transfer. Therefore while we may receive a portion of the fee up front, it probably would not be enough to pay off a large chunk of tax owed. Is this a correct reasoning?

 

[undercovershrimper]

Even if we were to sell any of our players in January, am I right in assuming that any transfer fee would not be paid in full, at the time of any transfer. Therefore while we may receive a portion of the fee up front, it probably would not be enough to pay off a large chunk of tax owed. Is this a correct reasoning?

You could probably sell then entire 1st team squad and it wouldn't cover the tax bill, if the rumour of £1.4M is correct

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Even if we were to sell any of our players in January, am I right in assuming that any transfer fee would not be paid in full, at the time of any transfer. Therefore while we may receive a portion of the fee up front, it probably would not be enough to pay off a large chunk of tax owed. Is this a correct reasoning?

It would be up to the parties to decide how it would be paid. My understanding is the usual practice would be to spread payment out. To require payment up front would also likely limit the number of clubs who could afford it. However agreeing a transfer fee to be paid over time creates a revenue stream that can be borrowed against.

 

[londonblue]

I think you are spot on. Right now if you owe a lot of money the future will be very challenging and some will be going to the wall. None of us have any idea how much or how little actual money Ron has but he might have a task ahead of him.

Since taking over the club Ron has clearly been motivated by a wish to develop the Club's assets in a way that delivers him a financial windfall. That is what property developers do, and, while those who love the club might not like it, the time to protest and take action was when he took over and not twenty years later.

Having said (and I now risk being labelled a plant and/or stooge) despite his financial ambitions I do not believe that Ron has ever been indifferent to the fate of the football club. He has done as well as he knows how but along the way lack of money has sometimes left him with few alternatives, most of them bad.

In football no one is guaranteed success, and, even financially stable clubs can endure years of poor results. Colchester seem to pay everyone on time but on the field now look not unlike us in our last two seasons in the Football League.

Apart from very few players and their agents few people become rich from football, or. from 'investing. in it. Even if Ron was put up the club for sale tomorrow debt free and with a three sided stadium I doubt if it would attract much interest. Some clubs will always attract buyers but Southend is not one of them, and, once its assets have been developed it seems unrealistic to me to believe any kind of well heeled 'investor' would be rushing to buy. Unless the next Zuckerburg/Soros/Gates is a Blues supporter we will continue to find life a struggle.

On top of his many failings Ron also seems to be unlucky. He almost got his dream over the line in 2009 but was undone by the GFC. Now it seems that the consequences of post covid, war in Ukraine and uncertainty regarded the reliability and cost of future energy supply have produced a financial climate which make the realisation of his dreams impossible. Four years ago finding a bridging loan or what ever else needs to be in place to pay HMRC would probably have been well within his means and abilities. Now it will be much harder, and, could even be impossible.

Can he do it and secure his great stadium dream? I am not sure he can. If he does it will be some achievement although I suspect that few will give him any credit for it.

A lot of what you say is true. I genuinely believe Ron does care about the club, but to me that's not the point because he cares more about realising a return on his investment.

You're also right that he's been scuppered by circumstance, but that isn't really the whole story. Between both economic downturns he had plenty of time to sort this out, but his inability to move things forwards in a timely manner is what has derailed things. For example, he spent so long trying to do a deal with various groups (including those that owned shops around Roots Hall) that things weren't finalised and Sainsbury's ended up pulling out. Their rationale was that they were having a financial crisis of their own, which is true, but had things been moved at more than a snail's pace the stadium and the new Sainsbury's store would have been built before they suffered their crisis. He also managed to alienate the college which meant they sold to someone else, which caused him a headache.

It seems that just about everyone that has dealt with him has said he's impossible to deal with, which is why things take so long. He's far from blameless.

As an aside, my understanding (from what other people have said on here) is that his son has no interest in taking over, and I can't imagine the rest of his family are happy that he's still involved. Let's face it, all he gets is abuse and no thanks (not saying he deserves any, I'm just making the point that this MIGHT be how they see it) so I would imagine they are keen for him to cut ties. He won't do that until the stadium is built, so I suspect that he'll sell up once he's got what he wants.

 

[Smiffy]

A lot of what you say is true. I genuinely believe Ron does care about the club, but to me that's not the point because he cares more about realising a return on his investment.

You're also right that he's been scuppered by circumstance, but that isn't really the whole story. Between both economic downturns he had plenty of time to sort this out, but his inability to move things forwards in a timely manner is what has derailed things. For example, he spent so long trying to do a deal with various groups (including those that owned shops around Roots Hall) that things weren't finalised and Sainsbury's ended up pulling out. Their rationale was that they were having a financial crisis of their own, which is true, but had things been moved at more than a snail's pace the stadium and the new Sainsbury's store would have been built before they suffered their crisis. He also managed to alienate the college which meant they sold to someone else, which caused him a headache.

It seem that just about everyone that has dealt with him has said he's impossible to deal with, which is why things take so long. He's far from blameless.

Bottom line, he hasn't been able to get the finance in place for the last 20 years. You only have to look at the amount of stadium projects that have been completed elsewhere around the country in the same time period to know that the economic downturn/s cannot be solely to blame for this ridiculous and nigh on fatal delay.

The credit score of SUFC and group companies is through the floor.

 

[Shrimper]

Don't know if true or not but heard we owe the coach company £20k. Anyone confirm?

 

[danbowen]

Personally I don’t see why we don’t just get rid of the youth set up. Firstly we don’t have any top players coming through on a regular basis and secondly we don’t get any decent fees for any of these players. Sayers £50k is the last one I can remember and that was him going to a premier league team who pay players more than that per week who don’t even get on their bench. Who was before that and how many have we had in the last 10 years? I would suspect we haven’t made a profit on money pumped in to the youth team from youth team players sold over that same period. Not having to fund the youth team would reduce our overhead costs and make us more sustainable. Personally I feel we need to start looking down this route as a handful of teams seem to now be doing (if I’m correct Brentford are a team that are doing this currently).