When will the takeover go through? The Waiting Game...

[Supershrimper]

It seems to me that there is not a collective focus on the problem.

Why has no one got Action Fraud involved in Ron Martin's affairs?

No need for yet another delay

 

[Tinks]

Or this one....

Southend Council leader refuses to quit over 'fears for Blues deal'

Southend’s embattled Tory leader is refusing to quit over fears the deal to secure the future of Southend United is

www.yellowad.co.uk

The second one

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

So, earlier in this whole process there were some posters says 'This has got the be the longest its take to sell a club' and there were others says 'No, there's been plenty that have taken longer'...

My question, is this now the longest its taken to sell a ****ing football club?

 

[uysapie]

Notts were in adminidtration for 534 days, sold 6 days before expulsion deadline.

 

[Jack_23]

Notts were in adminidtration for 534 days, sold 6 days before expulsion deadline.

Challenge accepted

 

[uysapie]

Trust me, you do not want to win! This is why I understand the worry and frustration over the sale of SUFC.

 

[Jack_23]

Did more than you'll ever do fella

Standard Southend fans arguing with eachother. Exactly what the rat wants. When will fans realise we need to all be pulling in the same direction if we want a happy ending to this saga

 

[Smiffy]

Standard Southend fans arguing with eachother. Exactly what the rat wants. When will fans realise we need to all be pulling in the same direction if we want a happy ending to this saga

Divide and conquer. First rule of dictatorship.

 

[M_Simps]

Getting a horrible sense of deja vu reading this thread. How long before we're blaming Stan again?!

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

Another season ****ed down the drain then… if we make it through!

if it's only one season to write off we'll be very lucky

 

[Medway Blue]

I think the figure quoted was £400k

Figure owed to Stewarts is more likely half that. One or two other creditors joined the petition though. I never got confirmation as to who, but I think you could guess one of them. So total petition debt may be closer to £400k.

So just thinking of potential scenarios whereby Ron's murky financial dealings cause the whole plan as it stands to fall apart. Is there any known reason why the consortium, if still interested, couldn't simply buy the football club seperate to any property involved? I'm assuming they could buy it for £1. In other words, leave Ron with his Fossetts land and his Roots Hall to either do his housing deal or let it all rot. In the meantime, the football club does a groundshare deal with someone like Billericay, lets the dust settle, and eventually looks to build a new ground somewhere, stand by stand if neccesary as finances allow. Bit like Wimbledon did (I know they built their's in one go by the way but you get the idea). There has to be a way of seperating the football club from all Ron's property dealings if things can't go ahead as planned surely?

Too expensive, too long. Would leave them financially supporting the club at this level without making much movement towards making it self-sustaining.

What we're seeing at the moment, culminating in Roots Hall being formally sold to COSU/POSU if/when Fossetts planning permission is granted, is the club being separated from Ron's property dealings. It just requires time and patience due to the extent to which he's tangled it all up.

But our fanbase is gutless and spineless, been saying it for years. Unless the trust get involved (which for some reason everyone blindly follows) we'll yet again do nothing. I've already seen on this thread countless posts saying what will protesting achieve. Well it was our protesting that got us into the media that was then seen by Justin. Plus, sitting around doing nothing isn't going to help anyone is it.

I'm sick of us just accepting this ****, no other team would accept as much as we do.

I understand your sentiment. I'd be one of the first people protesting if I thought it would do any good at the moment. There is absolutely a compelling argument that it took our fanbase far too long to come together and to start making our voices heard/Ron Martin's life difficult. No point dwelling on the past though, it is what it is and hopefully lessons have been learned for the future.

I genuinely don't think there is anything to be gained from protesting at this precise time though, apart from perhaps making people feel better. Which is fine. Generally though, there are independent processes happening which have to be allowed to run their course.

FWIW, the story that drew Justin Rees' attention was the one on the BBC Sport website reporting on RM selling SUFC for £1. Nothing to do with the protests as that story would have been on the BBC Sport website regardless of what the supporters were doing. He did find out about the protests pretty quickly afterwards though!

Does anyone know if the Shrimpers Trust have been in contact with the consortium recently.
Surely some sort of update is needed, especially with court coming up very soon.

We're in contact with Justin Rees, the council and Anna Firth. We are considering putting something out, but I'm conscious that we don't know much beyond what was in the Echo story yesterday. Don't want to waste time putting out a nothing statement, so would want to word carefully.

Ron said on BBC Essex he is splitting the costs and if it falls through he owes the consortium half of everything outlaid. Not sure he quantified what happens if the deal were to go through. Probably as he thought that unlikely given his forthcoming antics.

So Ron's also put in 3m since Xmas? Or is most of the 3m the consortium put in paying off HMRC etc. do we believe Ron is paying 50%, has that been verified?

So on that basis he has put in 1.75 mill as well over the last few months, which is bull****, He has not put a penny in, he has said if its goes tits up he will owe half back to them , fat chance they would ever see that. These figures been banded about when we only apparently lose 2mill a year baffle me.

He’s not paying it per say, he hasn’t paid anything in a long time. He is liable for half what they have paid if it doesn’t go through. I didn’t say they were likely to get owt but good luck to them if they have to try.

There is an agreement in place for him to repay half of what the Consortium pay out if the deal falls through. I don't anticipate its a particularly strong agreement, and it's all well and good him trying to make himself look good by referring to it, but at the end of the day he doesn't have the money to honour it at the moment, and I don't know how legally enforceable it is.

He said he was losing £100k a month from memory. So no idea where this £3.5m figure is coming from to be honest. Maybe old debts or they’ve been even more silly, I have no idea.

The £3.5m paid by COSU is "committed spending". So what they've laid out on wages and any bills paid so far, in addition to the debts they've committed to repay once the deal completes.

Ok, so takes me back to original question, why hasn't a business that is hemorrhaging cash not sold season tickets to stop that cash outflow for a month or three?

Could it be that the consortium don't want fans camped outside their doors demanding refunds if we can't start the season? Is it to do with the WUP ( we need to say we have no cash)?

COSU will not sanction the sale of season tickets unless they can ensure that the revenue generated from the sales will be used for the football club. I don't know how much more diplomatically I can word it! I understand Ronald keeps asking when they will go on sale, though. I wonder why?

If the consortium are putting cash into the club they must have control on cash going out? If not they're nuts!

Nope. They won't have control of the club's bank accounts and credit cards until they own it. It's different with wages as they know the amount needed to pay the entirety of the monthly wage bill, so can deposit that money into the club's account on the day of, or the night before, and Tom can then quickly pay it back out again for the payroll run.

And if so, why doesn't Ron put season tickets up for sale?

Because he availed himself of any day-to-day responsibility for running the football club, and people have been able to keep him away.

So if he owes 45mill which is the figure quoted and also had a bonus of 5 mill given to him by Sainsburys when they pulled out where has all the money gone. We hear the club owes him 25 mill, mostly back rent and he stated he has put that back in over his tenour in loans, so where has the other 25 mill gone?

I have said for many years it is the club that funds the rat and not the other was round. He has hocked everything we ever owned to run his life for these past 20 odd years, seemly for millions. You can guarantee a few mill found it's way to Mezcal.

And who in the right mind lends him such amounts with his track record, they want their heads testing.

Ah, the million dollar question!

 

[Shrimper]

H

He said he was losing £100k a month from memory. So no idea where this £3.5m figure is coming from to be honest. Maybe old debts or they’ve been even more silly, I have no idea.

I seem to recall there was over £1m in Old Debts when the winding up order was going on. Then you have to probably add football debts and then player wages

 

[dusterman]

Figure owed to Stewarts is more likely half that. One or two other creditors joined the petition though. I never got confirmation as to who, but I think you could guess one of them. So total petition debt may be closer to £400k.


Too expensive, too long. Would leave them financially supporting the club at this level without making much movement towards making it self-sustaining.

What we're seeing at the moment, culminating in Roots Hall being formally sold to COSU/POSU if/when Fossetts planning permission is granted, is the club being separated from Ron's property dealings. It just requires time and patience due to the extent to which he's tangled it all up.


I understand your sentiment. I'd be one of the first people protesting if I thought it would do any good at the moment. There is absolutely a compelling argument that it took our fanbase far too long to come together and to start making our voices heard/Ron Martin's life difficult. No point dwelling on the past though, it is what it is and hopefully lessons have been learned for the future.

I genuinely don't think there is anything to be gained from protesting at this precise time though, apart from perhaps making people feel better. Which is fine. Generally though, there are independent processes happening which have to be allowed to run their course.

FWIW, the story that drew Justin Rees' attention was the one on the BBC Sport website reporting on RM selling SUFC for £1. Nothing to do with the protests as that story would have been on the BBC Sport website regardless of what the supporters were doing. He did find out about the protests pretty quickly afterwards though!


We're in contact with Justin Rees, the council and Anna Firth. We are considering putting something out, but I'm conscious that we don't know much beyond what was in the Echo story yesterday. Don't want to waste time putting out a nothing statement, so would want to word carefully.








There is an agreement in place for him to repay half of what the Consortium pay out if the deal falls through. I don't anticipate its a particularly strong agreement, and it's all well and good him trying to make himself look good by referring to it, but at the end of the day he doesn't have the money to honour it at the moment, and I don't know how legally enforceable it is.


The £3.5m paid by COSU is "committed spending". So what they've laid out on wages and any bills paid so far, in addition to the debts they've committed to repay once the deal completes.


COSU will not sanction the sale of season tickets unless they can ensure that the revenue generated from the sales will be used for the football club. I don't know how much more diplomatically I can word it! I understand Ronald keeps asking when they will go on sale, though. I wonder why?


Nope. They won't have control of the club's bank accounts and credit cards until they own it. It's different with wages as they know the amount needed to pay the entirety of the monthly wage bill, so can deposit that money into the club's account on the day of, or the night before, and Tom can then quickly pay it back out again for the payroll run.


Because he availed himself of any day-to-day responsibility for running the football club, and people have been able to keep him away.


Ah, the million dollar question!

Thanks James. Appreciate the clarity in the haze. It’s all too much. It means so much to so many. Breaks my heart. Money truly corrupts, but as long as we have good people we will win.

 

[SHRIMPERPETER]

Never

 

[RHB]

Figure owed to Stewarts is more likely half that. One or two other creditors joined the petition though. I never got confirmation as to who, but I think you could guess one of them. So total petition debt may be closer to £400k.


Too expensive, too long. Would leave them financially supporting the club at this level without making much movement towards making it self-sustaining.

What we're seeing at the moment, culminating in Roots Hall being formally sold to COSU/POSU if/when Fossetts planning permission is granted, is the club being separated from Ron's property dealings. It just requires time and patience due to the extent to which he's tangled it all up.


I understand your sentiment. I'd be one of the first people protesting if I thought it would do any good at the moment. There is absolutely a compelling argument that it took our fanbase far too long to come together and to start making our voices heard/Ron Martin's life difficult. No point dwelling on the past though, it is what it is and hopefully lessons have been learned for the future.

I genuinely don't think there is anything to be gained from protesting at this precise time though, apart from perhaps making people feel better. Which is fine. Generally though, there are independent processes happening which have to be allowed to run their course.

FWIW, the story that drew Justin Rees' attention was the one on the BBC Sport website reporting on RM selling SUFC for £1. Nothing to do with the protests as that story would have been on the BBC Sport website regardless of what the supporters were doing. He did find out about the protests pretty quickly afterwards though!


We're in contact with Justin Rees, the council and Anna Firth. We are considering putting something out, but I'm conscious that we don't know much beyond what was in the Echo story yesterday. Don't want to waste time putting out a nothing statement, so would want to word carefully.








There is an agreement in place for him to repay half of what the Consortium pay out if the deal falls through. I don't anticipate its a particularly strong agreement, and it's all well and good him trying to make himself look good by referring to it, but at the end of the day he doesn't have the money to honour it at the moment, and I don't know how legally enforceable it is.


The £3.5m paid by COSU is "committed spending". So what they've laid out on wages and any bills paid so far, in addition to the debts they've committed to repay once the deal completes.


COSU will not sanction the sale of season tickets unless they can ensure that the revenue generated from the sales will be used for the football club. I don't know how much more diplomatically I can word it! I understand Ronald keeps asking when they will go on sale, though. I wonder why?


Nope. They won't have control of the club's bank accounts and credit cards until they own it. It's different with wages as they know the amount needed to pay the entirety of the monthly wage bill, so can deposit that money into the club's account on the day of, or the night before, and Tom can then quickly pay it back out again for the payroll run.


Because he availed himself of any day-to-day responsibility for running the football club, and people have been able to keep him away.


Ah, the million dollar question!

I reckon you've covered just about every concern, confusion and twitch from the last 24 hours James (@Medway Blue) so thank you. Please everyone, if you haven't already, read James's post, it will save you a lot of angst of not knowing where we are at.

 

[Smiffy]

It really says it all when season card sales cannot commence, because there are doubts about where the money would end up. This is what we are all up against. Spot on from COSU though.

 

[Grayson]

But our fanbase is gutless and spineless, been saying it for years. Unless the trust get involved (which for some reason everyone blindly follows) we'll yet again do nothing. I've already seen on this thread countless posts saying what will protesting achieve. Well it was our protesting that got us into the media that was then seen by Justin. Plus, sitting around doing nothing isn't going to help anyone is it.

I'm sick of us just accepting this ****, no other team would accept as much as we do.

More people liked this post than turned up at the last protest. More people demand protests on SZ and Twitter than turned up at the last protest.

If apathy runs through even the people calling for it, what hope have we got?

 

[Holy Joe]

Figure owed to Stewarts is more likely half that. One or two other creditors joined the petition though. I never got confirmation as to who, but I think you could guess one of them. So total petition debt may be closer to £400k.


Too expensive, too long. Would leave them financially supporting the club at this level without making much movement towards making it self-sustaining.

What we're seeing at the moment, culminating in Roots Hall being formally sold to COSU/POSU if/when Fossetts planning permission is granted, is the club being separated from Ron's property dealings. It just requires time and patience due to the extent to which he's tangled it all up.


I understand your sentiment. I'd be one of the first people protesting if I thought it would do any good at the moment. There is absolutely a compelling argument that it took our fanbase far too long to come together and to start making our voices heard/Ron Martin's life difficult. No point dwelling on the past though, it is what it is and hopefully lessons have been learned for the future.

I genuinely don't think there is anything to be gained from protesting at this precise time though, apart from perhaps making people feel better. Which is fine. Generally though, there are independent processes happening which have to be allowed to run their course.

FWIW, the story that drew Justin Rees' attention was the one on the BBC Sport website reporting on RM selling SUFC for £1. Nothing to do with the protests as that story would have been on the BBC Sport website regardless of what the supporters were doing. He did find out about the protests pretty quickly afterwards though!


We're in contact with Justin Rees, the council and Anna Firth. We are considering putting something out, but I'm conscious that we don't know much beyond what was in the Echo story yesterday. Don't want to waste time putting out a nothing statement, so would want to word carefully.








There is an agreement in place for him to repay half of what the Consortium pay out if the deal falls through. I don't anticipate its a particularly strong agreement, and it's all well and good him trying to make himself look good by referring to it, but at the end of the day he doesn't have the money to honour it at the moment, and I don't know how legally enforceable it is.


The £3.5m paid by COSU is "committed spending". So what they've laid out on wages and any bills paid so far, in addition to the debts they've committed to repay once the deal completes.


COSU will not sanction the sale of season tickets unless they can ensure that the revenue generated from the sales will be used for the football club. I don't know how much more diplomatically I can word it! I understand Ronald keeps asking when they will go on sale, though. I wonder why?


Nope. They won't have control of the club's bank accounts and credit cards until they own it. It's different with wages as they know the amount needed to pay the entirety of the monthly wage bill, so can deposit that money into the club's account on the day of, or the night before, and Tom can then quickly pay it back out again for the payroll run.


Because he availed himself of any day-to-day responsibility for running the football club, and people have been able to keep him away.


Ah, the million dollar question!

Thank you - that's cleared up several of my queries

 

[Barling Magna]

As far as I can see the only news here in reality is that DD will now be completed "towards the end of the month" and it will then take a couple of weeks to sign off. The timing has slipped (maybe it was never realistic and people were be told what they wanted to hear?).
Other than this as far as I can see nothing has changed. The new council that is about to be installed seem committed to approving as a matter of urgency. And it remains a delegated decision (also confirmed).

The crucial fact is that it is a delegated decision. Council officers will decide.

With councils going bust across England it will be a bold set of officers prepared to put the city at risk to save a non league football club supported by a small minority of its taxpayers.

At least the officers, who are professionals, should be more aware than the councillors who are essentially volunteers (I know they get a £10k annual allowance but they are still amateurs at heart).

The prize of gaining over a thousand new homes will be attractive to the officers. It all depends on the result of the Those words are banned - that will give them the back up and cover they would be wise to have.

It really is fingers crossed time now chaps.....

 

[Cricko]

Figure owed to Stewarts is more likely half that. One or two other creditors joined the petition though. I never got confirmation as to who, but I think you could guess one of them. So total petition debt may be closer to £400k.


Too expensive, too long. Would leave them financially supporting the club at this level without making much movement towards making it self-sustaining.

What we're seeing at the moment, culminating in Roots Hall being formally sold to COSU/POSU if/when Fossetts planning permission is granted, is the club being separated from Ron's property dealings. It just requires time and patience due to the extent to which he's tangled it all up.


I understand your sentiment. I'd be one of the first people protesting if I thought it would do any good at the moment. There is absolutely a compelling argument that it took our fanbase far too long to come together and to start making our voices heard/Ron Martin's life difficult. No point dwelling on the past though, it is what it is and hopefully lessons have been learned for the future.

I genuinely don't think there is anything to be gained from protesting at this precise time though, apart from perhaps making people feel better. Which is fine. Generally though, there are independent processes happening which have to be allowed to run their course.

FWIW, the story that drew Justin Rees' attention was the one on the BBC Sport website reporting on RM selling SUFC for £1. Nothing to do with the protests as that story would have been on the BBC Sport website regardless of what the supporters were doing. He did find out about the protests pretty quickly afterwards though!


We're in contact with Justin Rees, the council and Anna Firth. We are considering putting something out, but I'm conscious that we don't know much beyond what was in the Echo story yesterday. Don't want to waste time putting out a nothing statement, so would want to word carefully.








There is an agreement in place for him to repay half of what the Consortium pay out if the deal falls through. I don't anticipate its a particularly strong agreement, and it's all well and good him trying to make himself look good by referring to it, but at the end of the day he doesn't have the money to honour it at the moment, and I don't know how legally enforceable it is.


The £3.5m paid by COSU is "committed spending". So what they've laid out on wages and any bills paid so far, in addition to the debts they've committed to repay once the deal completes.


COSU will not sanction the sale of season tickets unless they can ensure that the revenue generated from the sales will be used for the football club. I don't know how much more diplomatically I can word it! I understand Ronald keeps asking when they will go on sale, though. I wonder why?


Nope. They won't have control of the club's bank accounts and credit cards until they own it. It's different with wages as they know the amount needed to pay the entirety of the monthly wage bill, so can deposit that money into the club's account on the day of, or the night before, and Tom can then quickly pay it back out again for the payroll run.


Because he availed himself of any day-to-day responsibility for running the football club, and people have been able to keep him away.


Ah, the million dollar question!

Brilliant stuff James and we will have learned more from your post than any statement from the club would have told us.