What WE can do for OUR club - GET INVOLVED NOW!!

[ibwiajwa]

When I see all the sense and constructive action that has been put on this thread it makes me wonder even more why RM didn't level with us earlier to give us a chance to mobilise in time. I'm proud of the experience and common sense that we have among our ranks and feel that this has been overlooked and underestimated.

 

[Lord Football]

Been here before back in the United for Southend days.....

If you are going to reinvent the wheel, make sure it isn't square, so some things NOT to do.

If you are going to protest, keep it legal. Don't give the club's spin doctors any excuse to divide the fans. If we are going to be successful, we must be united.

Keep anything that gets into the press positive. Whilst Ron Martin may not be on our Xmas Card list this years, don't get personal about issues.

Do not boycott the club, right now, they need us as much as we need them. Doesn't matter how bad it gets, turn up to matches, pay your £20 and get behind the team.

Get off the team's back. We are facing playing youth team players when our assets are sold off, they are going to make mistakes, we are likely to lose games, we must be the constant.

Get behind any fundraising you can. If anyone wants anyone to shake a bucket on Friday night - or any other match day - drop me a PM.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

When I see all the sense and constructive action that has been put on this thread it makes me wonder even more why RM didn't level with us earlier to give us a chance to mobilise in time. I'm proud of the experience and common sense that we have among our ranks and feel that this has been overlooked and underestimated.

I can offer two reasons

1) Ron is/was confident in his ability to pay the bill for himself
2) Ron doesn't want to risk smashing his golden egg by having to potentially share all the future profits available with us rifraf

You decide which is more plausible ...

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Not sure things were this bleak back then Kez ??

 

[OldBlueLady]

Been here before back in the United for Southend days.....

If you are going to reinvent the wheel, make sure it isn't square, so some things NOT to do.

If you are going to protest, keep it legal. Don't give the club's spin doctors any excuse to divide the fans. If we are going to be successful, we must be united.

Keep anything that gets into the press positive. Whilst Ron Martin may not be on our Xmas Card list this years, don't get personal about issues.

Do not boycott the club, right now, they need us as much as we need them. Doesn't matter how bad it gets, turn up to matches, pay your £20 and get behind the team.

Get off the team's back. We are facing playing youth team players when our assets are sold off, they are going to make mistakes, we are likely to lose games, we must be the constant.

Get behind any fundraising you can. If anyone wants anyone to shake a bucket on Friday night - or any other match day - drop me a PM.

Cheers Kerry, makes a lot of sense and kind of what we were doing anyway. No matter what people think, I firmly believe we've been a victim of circumstances so therefore apportioning blame is going to achieve precisely nada.

The Roots Hall Roar needs to be heard loud and proud on Friday and we have to be behind EVERY player - so to those moany old blokes in West Bloke T, be prepared for me to give you some very stern words if you can't (in the words of Hils!) "zip it"! Positivity as we've never heard it before, and watch the players respond.

 

[Shrimper]

I think i'll have a word when i go back to school. Will see if i can get the school to raise some funds through charity or some other means.

 

[Irish_Shrimper]

While it's fantastic to see everyone coming out attempting to bring fundraising ideas to the table, surely it is too late. As someone has already touched upon, if uncle Ron had levelled with us sooner, we would have a more realistic pop at getting the cash together.

 

[McNasty]

While it's fantastic to see everyone coming out attempting to bring fundraising ideas to the table, surely it is too late. As someone has already touched upon, if uncle Ron had levelled with us sooner, we would have a more realistic pop at getting the cash together.

Perhaps he genuinely thought he could raise the cash.

 

[Beefy]

Perhaps he still does. It's HMRC who have called for Administration rather than the Club and that's the move that has prompted him to bring this into the public. I think we'd have had a good stab at raising a significant chunk of this given six weeks and a lot of hard work but I'm guessing that the fact that we weren't given that chance must mean something.

 

[devonexile]

I accidently neg-repped this post. Sorry! Can a couple of people rep it properly to make up for it, please?

Unfortunately using tax money to tide us over cash-wise isn't "incomprehensible". It's common practise for football clubs which is why HMRC have been coming down so much harder on clubs nowadays and is what caused the Leeds United issue the other year. Clubs have been able to use that tax money as working capital, go into Administration and then force the tax man to take 10p in the pound whilst honouring football debts to players and other clubs. It's what the ten point penalty was brought in to stop and when that didn't work it's why HMRC started opposing CVAs hence the larger penalties that the likes of Leeds and Bournemouth have endured in recent years.

Sorry, but I don’t agree with you Beefy. Understandable perhaps if it manages cash flow over a short period with cast iron guarantees of cash in to replenish your juggling act, but incomprehensible, given that payment was to be entirely dependant on a planning process fraught with potential delays and outside the clubs control.

The fact that several clubs have gone down the same route and ended up on their ar$e simply makes it more inexcusable. Bad business practice is bad business practice no matter who tries it. Frankly, it may have been better to have defaulted on player salaries, taken a PFA loan to maintain salary payments over say a 4 month period, shouldered the transfer embargo that would have gone with it, paid a substantial chunk of the outstanding monies due to the Revenue and then settled everybody off with the money from Sainsbury’s when and if it appeared. If the Sainsbury’s deal fell through or the planning application went pear shaped then oh dear never mind, better to be in hock to the PFA than HMRC.

Or alternatively, don’t spend £1.9 million on a planning enquiry together with an estimated £2 million or more on architects charges and legal fees in order to acquire a stadium which you won’t own, on which you will pay shed loads of rent and which will benefit, in large part, only the parent company that owns you and for which you will receive nebulous and unspecified “new income streams.”

But hey ho I’m not a top business man like RM so what do I know. Actually, as I said in my previous post, without the meltdown in the financial markets RM would probably have pulled this off and the club may well have benefited from increased attendances and the ability to host football at Championship level, something not financially possible with the present capacity and other limitations at Roots Hall.

Still we are where we are, and depending how this plays out over the next few weeks and months, the Shrimpers Trust may hold the answer to the club’s long term security.

 

[devonexile]

Originally Posted by Lord Football
Been here before back in the United for Southend days.....

If you are going to reinvent the wheel, make sure it isn't square, so some things NOT to do.

If you are going to protest, keep it legal. Don't give the club's spin doctors any excuse to divide the fans. If we are going to be successful, we must be united.

Keep anything that gets into the press positive. Whilst Ron Martin may not be on our Xmas Card list this years, don't get personal about issues.

Do not boycott the club, right now, they need us as much as we need them. Doesn't matter how bad it gets, turn up to matches, pay your £20 and get behind the team.

Get off the team's back. We are facing playing youth team players when our assets are sold off, they are going to make mistakes, we are likely to lose games, we must be the constant.

Get behind any fundraising you can. If anyone wants anyone to shake a bucket on Friday night - or any other match day - drop me a PM.

Cheers Kerry, makes a lot of sense and kind of what we were doing anyway. No matter what people think, I firmly believe we've been a victim of circumstances so therefore apportioning blame is going to achieve precisely nada.

The Roots Hall Roar needs to be heard loud and proud on Friday and we have to be behind EVERY player - so to those moany old blokes in West Bloke T, be prepared for me to give you some very stern words if you can't (in the words of Hils!) "zip it"! Positivity as we've never heard it before, and watch the players respond.

.

I agree 100% with you both. Protests are an absolute waste of time and energy. Turn up in numbers on Friday and get behind the team. There is certainly no point in witholding £20's for attendance money nor any other cash that would normally have gone to the club. And for crying out loud don't take it out on the team, they must already be on the floor as it is.

Be careful with the buckets though. Hold back the money for the Trust, it maybe needed for the future and if it isn't and Ron pulls the club back from the brink then there is a ready made donation that can be made from monies collected

 

[Smiffy]

Originally Posted by Lord Football
Been here before back in the United for Southend days.....

If you are going to reinvent the wheel, make sure it isn't square, so some things NOT to do.

If you are going to protest, keep it legal. Don't give the club's spin doctors any excuse to divide the fans. If we are going to be successful, we must be united.

Keep anything that gets into the press positive. Whilst Ron Martin may not be on our Xmas Card list this years, don't get personal about issues.

Do not boycott the club, right now, they need us as much as we need them. Doesn't matter how bad it gets, turn up to matches, pay your £20 and get behind the team.

Get off the team's back. We are facing playing youth team players when our assets are sold off, they are going to make mistakes, we are likely to lose games, we must be the constant.

Get behind any fundraising you can. If anyone wants anyone to shake a bucket on Friday night - or any other match day - drop me a PM.

.

I agree 100% with you both. Protests are an absolute waste of time and energy. Turn up in numbers on Friday and get behind the team. There is certainly no point in witholding £20's for attendance money nor any other cash that would normally have gone to the club. And for crying out loud don't take it out on the team, they must already be on the floor as it is.

Be careful with the buckets though. Hold back the money for the Trust, it maybe needed for the future and if it isn't and Ron pulls the club back from the brink then there is a ready made donation that can be made from monies collected

This man know's.

Top advice.

 

[Beefy]

Sorry, but I don’t agree with you Beefy. Understandable perhaps if it manages cash flow over a short period with cast iron guarantees of cash in to replenish your juggling act, but incomprehensible, given that payment was to be entirely dependant on a planning process fraught with potential delays and outside the clubs control.

The fact that several clubs have gone down the same route and ended up on their ar$e simply makes it more inexcusable. Bad business practice is bad business practice no matter who tries it. Frankly, it may have been better to have defaulted on player salaries, taken a PFA loan to maintain salary payments over say a 4 month period, shouldered the transfer embargo that would have gone with it, paid a substantial chunk of the outstanding monies due to the Revenue and then settled everybody off with the money from Sainsbury’s when and if it appeared. If the Sainsbury’s deal fell through or the planning application went pear shaped then oh dear never mind, better to be in hock to the PFA than HMRC.

Or alternatively, don’t spend £1.9 million on a planning enquiry together with an estimated £2 million or more on architects charges and legal fees in order to acquire a stadium which you won’t own, on which you will pay shed loads of rent and which will benefit, in large part, only the parent company that owns you and for which you will receive nebulous and unspecified “new income streams.”

But hey ho I’m not a top business man like RM so what do I know. Actually, as I said in my previous post, without the meltdown in the financial markets RM would probably have pulled this off and the club may well have benefited from increased attendances and the ability to host football at Championship level, something not financially possible with the present capacity and other limitations at Roots Hall.

Still we are where we are, and depending how this plays out over the next few weeks and months, the Shrimpers Trust may hold the answer to the club’s long term security.

I don't agree with it, I'm just saying that it happens a hell of a lot. In fact I remember feeling cheated when we got relegated from the Championship when so many Clubs (Coventry, Southampton & Ipswich off the top of my head) it would later transpire were on their knees financially and were paying players and buying players with their tax money. Now it seems we've done the same thing.

It's football, sadly...

 

[united we stand]

Yep, well said Smiffy. More info to follow in the next 24 hours I have no doubt at all. Also, I'll add in another one, bombard whoever has the rights for the FA Cup for our game v Gillingham to be televised.

If its the BBC then email the executive producer for match of the day- Phil Bigwood - he has been a Southend Supporter for 30 plus years

 

[canveyshrimper]

Not sure things were this bleak back then Kez ??

I think it may have been worse Lee, we had those paragons of virtue Robert Maxwell & Ken Bates bailed us out after the depredations of Anton Johnson. Although in those days clubs didn't lose points for going into administration, the club I believe were days if not hours away from folding.

 

[Tin Bath]

Anyone involved in local radio, can we get them to broadcast appeals for fans to tuen on Friday especially, Southend FM, Essex FM and Breeze?

 

[SUFCFANS]

I think it would be a great idea to appeal for as many people as possible to buy a ticket for Friday night - if nothing else it will show potential buyers/investors what great support and potential we really do have (in the right hands!) - A sell out would be great - and would make headlines!

 

[Boreham Shrimper]

I think it would be a great idea to appeal for as many people as possible to buy a ticket for Friday night - if nothing else it will show potential buyers/investors what great support and potential we really do have (in the right hands!) - A sell out would be great - and would make headlines!

I'm going to buy a ticket even though I can't make it on Friday. I still want there to be a club for me to support when I get back from France and will do everything I can to make sure that is the case!

 

[SUFCFANS]

If everyone can bring a mate we'd sell out no probs!! We need to be UNITED!!!

 

[Reg Martin]

5. Promote the Trust donation page everywhere. Via e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, Blog sites, forums, Text, Carrier pigeon, message in a bottle whatever!

Discuss.....

Do the Trust have a fund we can donate to? Couldn't see anything specific on their site. Would be handy to have a link pasted on here prominently.