• Welcome to the ShrimperZone forums.
    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which only gives you limited access.

    Existing Users:.
    Please log-in using your existing username and password. If you have any problems, please see below.

    New Users:
    Join our free community now and gain access to post topics, communicate privately with other members, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and free. Click here to join.

    Fans from other clubs
    We welcome and appreciate supporters from other clubs who wish to engage in sensible discussion. Please feel free to join as above but understand that this is a moderated site and those who cannot play nicely will be quickly removed.

    Assistance Required
    For help with the registration process or accessing your account, please send a note using the Contact us link in the footer, please include your account name. We can then provide you with a new password and verification to get you on the site.

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

Cant be me. Southend losing doesn't hurt me financially or personally. Nor does it spoil my week, in fact i'm looking forward to non league.....Unlike Ron and many other fans I don't have to attend every game.
Are you really a Colchester supporter plaguing our board and upsetting people?
 
I would have preferred a simple “ I know every supporter is worried about the existence of Southend Utd and what is happening on Wednesday. Well I can tell you we..(insert truth)Are/ are not paying the bill on Wednesday. I said I was being more transparent and I’m a man of my word. UTB! uncle Ron”
 
Reading that statement and knowing how the little worm operates.....i predict by Boxing day we will have 8 points at the most.......forget the joke stadium and welcome non League football!
 
Why does he always get so defensive? How can he even suggest that losing hurts him "possibly more than many fans"? How can he get through that load of waffle without even mentioning Wednesday or the tax bill? Absolutely bizarre.
Funny. I didn’t react to that at all. I find it quite reasonable that the Chairman of the football club would be hurt by a loss more than many fans. All comes down to levels of emotional investment and it’s difficult (for me anyway) to think he’s not pretty bloody emotionally invested. Whether he’s liked or even seen as effective and credible is another matter. But does anyone reasonably and rationally believe he isn’t going through the ringer as much and more than the rest of us?
 
Cant believe rons getting so much stick! Yes we have a poor playing squad and yes results have been terrible but im not quite sure what else ron could do at this present time? We have brought in 6 players which mark molsley picked and so far they havent helped.Also if anyone didnt notice but there is a worldwide pandemic and football clubs especially in league 2 arent making any money due to fans not being allowed at games.Hes trying to pay off the tax bill each month and im sure when he goes to HMRC he will pay some more off.It must be an absolute nightmare trying to run southend united football club right now and i think the guy should be cut some slack.

Also if YOU didn’t notice the tax bill was pre covid! This has nothing to do with the pandemic. He is just now using that along with his usual excuses. High wages, paying off sacking managers and releasing contracts.

I’ll cut the guy some slack when he sticks to what he says. He said when this winding up order came along it was a formality and would be paid. Come payment time a part payment was made. Then after that this would be paid by the parent company before the deadline. Now he comes out with Southend United don’t have the money to pay the debt? Which one is it? Stop speaking in a ****ing cryptic language and stop spinning **** dits and pay the ****ing bill.
 
I think thats a very fair thing to point out South Bank Hank. I guess its his misleading statements and mistruths that rub lots up the wrong way to the point that they get aggrevated by his laid back comments when we are obvioulsy flying very close to the wind!
He is undoubtably personable in his nature, and probably means well, but just hasn't got the professional staff around him to filter or dress up his personal/club press releases. I think he honestly believes everyone loves him but operates in his own little wonderfull world of Del Boy company money juggling.
Hes 'trumpesque' in his bulletins and press realeses. Why say the hard facts and truth when it can be turned into a rescue story or smokescreen to deflect accusations and problems!
Will the court fall for it again!
Will he be wearing his extra special suit on weds with the extra baggy sleeves where all the rabbits are kept?
Will a mystrious new company be opened up just in time with another 200k filtered into it for use on weds?
 
Are you really a Colchester supporter plaguing our board and upsetting people?

No my sister is quite safe thanks....So are the step sisters and brothers for that matter.

My point is some people on long support runs have a personal duty to attend. People like my cousin who until this year hadn't missed a home game since 1979......Luckily for me if i don't like what Ron is up to then I can choose not to go.
 
I think thats a very fair thing to point out South Bank Hank. I guess its his misleading statements and mistruths that rub lots up the wrong way to the point that they get aggrevated by his laid back comments when we are obvioulsy flying very close to the wind!
He is undoubtably personable in his nature, and probably means well, but just hasn't got the professional staff around him to filter or dress up his personal/club press releases. I think he honestly believes everyone loves him but operates in his own little wonderfull world of Del Boy company money juggling.
Hes 'trumpesque' in his bulletins and press realeses. Why say the hard facts and truth when it can be turned into a rescue story or smokescreen to deflect accusations and problems!
Will the court fall for it again!
Will he be wearing his extra special suit on weds with the extra baggy sleeves where all the rabbits are kept?
Will a mystrious new company be opened up just in time with another 200k filtered into it for use on weds?
Not arguing with any of that - just the very specific original point. I do think he means well enough. He just doesn't always do well enough and we're suffering for it right now. The piece I've always wanted him to recognise is that, while he's correct that he did back the judgement of the managers and they recruited badly, it IS HIS responsibility to make sure the right due diligence is done. To say otherwise is an abdication. A good CEO would have ensured there was a process or structure for "digging deeper" into the signings as he put it. There evidently isn't and hasn't been a process and the lack of CEO remains right at the heart of our predicament. I wonder if, doing it all again, that would be a decision he might have changed?
 
Not arguing with any of that - just the very specific original point. I do think he means well enough. He just doesn't always do well enough and we're suffering for it right now. The piece I've always wanted him to recognise is that, while he's correct that he did back the judgement of the managers and they recruited badly, it IS HIS responsibility to make sure the right due diligence is done. To say otherwise is an abdication. A good CEO would have ensured there was a process or structure for "digging deeper" into the signings as he put it. There evidently isn't and hasn't been a process and the lack of CEO remains right at the heart of our predicament. I wonder if, doing it all again, that would be a decision he might have changed?

I suspect Ron also likes a name or too to flatter the ego from "Arry, to Ferdinands, Milligan, Ridgewell, Bond, Kiernan, Kightly, Ranger, and Larrson?
 
Funny. I didn’t react to that at all. I find it quite reasonable that the Chairman of the football club would be hurt by a loss more than many fans. All comes down to levels of emotional investment and it’s difficult (for me anyway) to think he’s not pretty bloody emotionally invested. Whether he’s liked or even seen as effective and credible is another matter. But does anyone reasonably and rationally believe he isn’t going through the ringer as much and more than the rest of us?

The thing that frustrates me about him sometimes, is that I find him quite affable and personable when talking to him in person, only for him to then come across as a bit self-absorbed, arrogant, overly defensive and shirking of responsibility in his statements. Which one is the real him?

I don't doubt for a second that he has become emotionally invested, but I still doubt that it is to the extent that many of us are, so the 'if not more so' addition there did not come across well in my eyes. Emotionally invested or not, he still comes at this from a business perspective and I wouldn't necessarily expect anything different. But that makes it difficult for him to get his head around fans' emotional outbursts.....because he isn't AS emotionally invested as many of us are and not in the same way, so he doesn't fully understand.

It drove me mad one time when I had a discussion with him about some of the club's issues and commented that I was "worried about our future" and he told me "you don't need to worry, it's not your job to worry, that's my job". Again, he can't seem to get his head around the fact that we are worried, because we are heavily emotionally invested and losing this club would be like losing a relative for some of us. Just because you own the club as a business, doesn't mean you're the only person who is entitled to worry about it. This club is not a business to me....it's part of my fabric and it means more to me than Ron Martin could ever really know. Why shouldn't I ****ing worry?
 
I suspect Ron also likes a name or too to flatter the ego from "Arry, to Ferdinands, Milligan, Ridgewell, Bond, Kiernan, Kightly, Ranger, and Larrson?
There can't be any question now that he likes a "name". I guess what I'm trying to do is put over that there's always two sides to the story. Is it all to flatter his ego? Or is it because he also thinks "ooh, that'll be a nice boost for the fans and will get more punters through the door"?

My take based on history is that it's more than a little of both with Ron.
 
I don't doubt for a second that he has become emotionally invested, but I still doubt that it is to the extent that many of us are, so the 'if not more so' addition there did not come across well in my eyes.

Yes, and that is the bit that he should not say - many of us have been supporting our team long before he came along with his stadium dream and he should respect that there are supporters who it matters a lot to.
 
The he cares more bit hacked me off tbh.
Otherwise usual stuff. Im quite alarmed though that hes sort of on record as saying he's unable to pay it. He's never said that before. He normally says nowt leaving us to worry then turns up with a brown envelope of used onesers.

Is he playing the 'you cant close us down because of the covid crisis' game? A dangerous game indeed.....

Hey ho, another loss and another winding up order our lucks got to change soon i hope.
 
Last edited:
Also if YOU didn’t notice the tax bill was pre covid! This has nothing to do with the pandemic. He is just now using that along with his usual excuses. High wages, paying off sacking managers and releasing contracts.

I’ll cut the guy some slack when he sticks to what he says. He said when this winding up order came along it was a formality and would be paid. Come payment time a part payment was made. Then after that this would be paid by the parent company before the deadline. Now he comes out with Southend United don’t have the money to pay the debt? Which one is it? Stop speaking in a ****ing cryptic language and stop spinning **** dits and pay the ****ing bill.

The tax bill was pre-covid. But efforts to restructure the club and pay the outstanding tax bill have been significantly hampered by the intervention of covid in March.
 
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.
 
Back
Top