Echo News A statement from Southend United chairman Ron Martin (26/10/20)

[BriggBlue]

Personally i believe RM will pay off a chunk of the HMRC bill ,we will stay under the embargo until January ,which im afraid to say is okay with me IF THE PLAYERS ARE GETTING PAID. That to me is the most important at present , especially as their is no income from attendance at matches .RM is certainly going to need to juggle what little income if any there is.

This is exactly what I expect will happen, Ron will keep juggling things about and somehow we will limp along until we get a payout from somewhere or the season is stopped for financial reasons.

It does make me wonder just how well other clubs are surviving this period, this historic debt is £500k or so which they won't have to deal with but our wage bill is about £500k a season lower than the limit, there are also likely to be other clubs (like Bolton) who are above the wage cap due to their early spending, surely they can't all be happy to keep going without any more money coming in? I wonder how long it will be before people start asking for their season ticket money back.

 

[Jai]

This is exactly what I expect will happen, Ron will keep juggling things about and somehow we will limp along until we get a payout from somewhere or the season is stopped for financial reasons.

It does make me wonder just how well other clubs are surviving this period, this historic debt is £500k or so which they won't have to deal with but our wage bill is about £500k a season lower than the limit, there are also likely to be other clubs (like Bolton) who are above the wage cap due to their early spending, surely they can't all be happy to keep going without any more money coming in? I wonder how long it will be before people start asking for their season ticket money back.

My great hope is the season is curtailed, preferably sooner rather than later. I don't think I can endure another winter getting battered every week.

 

[jaffa1]

This is exactly what I expect will happen, Ron will keep juggling things about and somehow we will limp along until we get a payout from somewhere or the season is stopped for financial reasons.

It does make me wonder just how well other clubs are surviving this period, this historic debt is £500k or so which they won't have to deal with but our wage bill is about £500k a season lower than the limit, there are also likely to be other clubs (like Bolton) who are above the wage cap due to their early spending, surely they can't all be happy to keep going without any more money coming in? I wonder how long it will be before people start asking for their season ticket money back.

Yep, but surely HMRC can't be seen to be continually letting us off the hook.

 

[BriggBlue]

Yep, but surely HMRC can't be seen to be continually letting us off the hook.

I can see them being happy to continue as long as they are getting some money, don't forget it was them that asked for the adjournment last time.

 

[rhrussell]

My understanding of the statement is, that the holding company has the funds, but considers paying the HMRC bill is paying good money into a bad situation, I wonder what HMRC will make of that ??

 

[londonblue]

Personally i believe RM will pay off a chunk of the HMRC bill ,we will stay under the embargo until January ,which im afraid to say is okay with me IF THE PLAYERS ARE GETTING PAID. That to me is the most important at present , especially as their is no income from attendance at matches .RM is certainly going to need to juggle what little income if any there is.

There's degrees of "OK" though, isn't there? It just shows how far we've sunk and how precarious our situation is that you (or anyone for that matter) would even consider still being under an embargo as acceptable.

For clarity, this isn't a dig at you, it's more an observation on how bad our situation is. Given where we are, and that the alternative is no club at all, then yes, it would be acceptable to still be under an embargo after the hearing if it means we're still in business. That is not truly acceptable, it is acceptable under the circumstances.

 

[stewart]

There's degrees of "OK" though, isn't there? It just shows how far we've sunk and how precarious our situation is that you (or anyone for that matter) would even consider still being under an embargo as acceptable.

For clarity, this isn't a dig at you, it's more an observation on how bad our situation is. Given where we are, and that the alternative is no club at all, then yes, it would be acceptable to still be under an embargo after the hearing if it means we're still in business. That is not truly acceptable, it is acceptable under the circumstances.

I did say it was acceptable to myself as long as the players were being paid,( even if they not earning it performance wise ).