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Are we close to the edge once more?

Are we close to the edge?


  • Total voters
    247
After a couple of weeks of intense speculation and rumour, this might be a good time to actually confront the facts.
As I understand the only 'outs' as it stands at the moment are Cox, Hopper and the two loanees, which hardly constitutes a firesale. There has been no official word on Kiernan, despite all the rumours, nor on Ridgewell so they remain under contract at the present time. In the case of Humphrys again it all looks entirely speculative.
No incomings and even the rumour mill seems to have gone quiet on that front so it's all been rather uneventful so far.
 
Personally I think we’ll be ok as long as RM doesn’t get fed up & walk away. Whatever people think of the man he keeps us afloat & all the clubs debts are to him. If he walked away I could see a Bury situation because who on earth would come in and clear the debts (around £17m from memory owed to Ron’s companies?) when there’s not even any positive news about planning permission for the stadium on the horizon. Like it or not we need Ron at least until FF is up and running, and IMO anyone who wishes he’d just go should be careful what they’re wishing for.

You do understand that Ron has created a large percentage of the debt and sold all Southend Uniteds assets right? He is killing the club. The longer we stick with him the more chance of no recovery. Change is need as it has been for over a decade now!

Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
 
Einstein also developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). This changed the people of the worlds way of life, it also ended a lot of them too . :(

I'm not saying TefRon is Einstein but he's got the hair?

Back to thread, the rumour mills and speculation are at full speed, I just wished the club updates and information (facts)!) were released a bit more often, the silence is deafening and is disenfranchising many, many that for whatever happens just say, That's it, I'm done, they'll be gone forever.

I think we should change our logo to

Hope for the best
Expect the worst
and take what comes.

Just a thought.
 
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Just watched the Shrewsbury comeback against Liverpool yoofs!
It really hammers home what a horrendously run club we are and how this is quite possibly the worst I’ve ever known in 40 years of supporting the blues.

Shrewsbury have a new stadium have virtually turned their finances around. Have several decent cup runs in recent times and their fans have another great night to remember and a game at Anfield to look forward to. Nice earner for them, and they will push on.

And we have absolutely NOTHiNG to cheer about for so long and nowt to look forward to.

I should be happy for the Salop fans, but in truth I’m envious and fed up ! ?

Thanks to Ron and his barmy appointment of Kevin Bond and his hopeless signings we are in serious trouble. Why could everyone see Bond was going to be a total liability except our chairman?!

We haven’t even hit the bottom yet...
 
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It all started in 1999/2000,when Ron first came to the club.The ground was quickly ushered into Martin Dawn/South Eastern Leisure.The club then had minimal assets, and the "Property Developer"ushered the club into vast deficit.The story is known from thereon.
 
I have been following Southend since the early 1950s and i cannot for the life of me remember us having such an horrendous season,Truthfully i put it down to to awful signings firstly to SCP but largely to the signing of that spammer Bond. Whether we will fullly recover from it i dont know,but believe its not going to be too soon.To do it the club must now firstly get its finances in order and hopefully that mystical new stadium under way,until then i think we will be reliant on some of our youths with a mixture of non league talent.
 
It all started in 1999/2000,when Ron first came to the club.The ground was quickly ushered into Martin Dawn/South Eastern Leisure.The club then had minimal assets, and the "Property Developer"ushered the club into vast deficit.The story is known from thereon.

posted in a previous thread


the last accounts Vic signed were to 31/7/97 (he resigned 19/5/98)



The club lost 559kthat year (down from 1.05M the previous year)

Share holders funds were 2.9M , which included over valued assets of at least 2.6M (see 1999)

Vic had steadily increased the asset values over the previous years accounts in order to reduce the book debt and make the club a more attractive proposition, by July 97 the assets were booked at 8M , with debts of 3.4M all due within 12 months , it was these debts which were dragging us down

in September 97 Vic mortgaged the Ground for 1.3M and sold Fixtures and fittings for 800K (and leased them back) - increasing the debt to 4.7M

2th May 98 the Training ground was sold by VJ to MD for 525K

On 26/1/99 RH was valued at 4M by and independent valuers , 2.6M lower Js book value

By the July 98 accts ( submitted late , 25/10/99) , the Creditors had not fully been cleared , leaving 3.2 M but the total assets had been reduced to 4.8M

The Ground was then sold for 4M in March 99

losses of 1.3M in 1998 , a further 2.3M in 1999 and 1.8M in 2000 meant that by the time the 2000 accounts were in (again late 7/11/01) we were already running a deficit 3.2M

We were losing money hand over fist in Vics final years , and borrowing from external sources , with a finite repayment plan, secured against over inflated assets meant that we were going nowhere fast .

Given that the spiralling footballing costs continued , to the extent that the main backers , Delancey opted out a few years later, it looks like we have done well to keep going for this long.......
 
You do understand that Ron has created a large percentage of the debt and sold all Southend Uniteds assets right? He is killing the club. The longer we stick with him the more chance of no recovery. Change is need as it has been for over a decade now!

Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

I don’t think the issue is getting Ron out.

It’s getting a buyer in.

I think Ron would be quite keen on selling up right now. Although what Ron values the club at, could be somewhat different from what potential buyers do.

He may well have to write off some more of that debt - as he did a few months ago
 
You do understand that Ron has created a large percentage of the debt and sold all Southend Uniteds assets right? He is killing the club. The longer we stick with him the more chance of no recovery. Change is need as it has been for over a decade now!

Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

My understanding was that we had no assets when Ron took over. The Stadium and training ground were already re-mortgaged up to the eyeballs, payments were behind and we were sinking fast. He took on the debt (obviously seeing the long term benefit in it for himself, the man's not a saint) and to be fair, has pumped enough money in (which of course now makes up the debt to him) over the years to give us some good times. Obviously there have also been bad-times, like now. I'm not saying he's been good or bad as an owner / chairman, probably a bit of both. But I just can't see who in their right mind would take it on if he walked away right now? I appreciate for some people, anything is better than Ron, even if it means going bust & starting a pheonix club, ground-sharing with Great Wakering. Fair enough, but that is not something to be done lightly. Personally I think we're better off with him than without him at the moment, unless someone with a spare £100m comes along to pay him off, have the funds to build the stadium, and pump in enough money to get us to the Championship (and stay there). Unfortunately rich fools don't grow on trees.
 
I have been following Southend since the early 1950s and i cannot for the life of me remember us having such an horrendous season,Truthfully i put it down to to awful signings firstly to SCP but largely to the signing of that spammer Bond. Whether we will fullly recover from it i dont know,but believe its not going to be too soon.To do it the club must now firstly get its finances in order and hopefully that mystical new stadium under way,until then i think we will be reliant on some of our youths with a mixture of non league talent.

Which Bond was that?
 
"someone with a spare £100m comes along to pay him off"

this should be easy to find.

If you look at clubs who were at the same level as SUFC who have progressive owners ...
say Reading, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton a 100 m (ok then 25m) investment is realistic..

We are in the wealthy South East, have the population density, and a real possibility to expand via FF ..

Maybe RM has a dream of it being all his and and won't give it up or share or perhaps has never looked but I would have thought a bit of small change for a sheik or a big yank sports company could get Southend amongst the big boys.

I know this is bad news for the "always been a 4th division club" moaners but I reckon the scandinavians were close last year ... and sooner or later it will be an attractive proposition fpr someone.

I do the Euromillions so it could even be me ..
 
Lower league football clubs are becoming less and less attractive to potential buyers as the years pass. The Premier League is asset stripping the lower leagues at pace, effectively pulling up the ladder. Disparity of wealth between the divisions, parachute payments, EPPP, the scrapping of cup replays, it's all to ensure that the top level remains a closed shop. A few years ago a buyer might have held dreams of taking a community club up the leagues. Now, it's just pouring money into a black hole.

People always assume a wealthy buyer is waiting in the wings. That is less and less likely to be the case with every year that passes.
 
Lower league football clubs are becoming less and less attractive to potential buyers as the years pass. The Premier League is asset stripping the lower leagues at pace, effectively pulling up the ladder. Disparity of wealth between the divisions, parachute payments, EPPP, the scrapping of cup replays, it's all to ensure that the top level remains a closed shop. A few years ago a buyer might have held dreams of taking a community club up the leagues. Now, it's just pouring money into a black hole.

People always assume a wealthy buyer is waiting in the wings. That is less and less likely to be the case with every year that passes.

Yes spot on Jai. We have made peoples shortlists before, including the Bournemouth owners but the the London PL fans are seen as a negative rather than potential.
 
"someone with a spare £100m comes along to pay him off"

this should be easy to find.

If you look at clubs who were at the same level as SUFC who have progressive owners ...
say Reading, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton a 100 m (ok then 25m) investment is realistic..

We are in the wealthy South East, have the population density, and a real possibility to expand via FF ..

Maybe RM has a dream of it being all his and and won't give it up or share or perhaps has never looked but I would have thought a bit of small change for a sheik or a big yank sports company could get Southend amongst the big boys.

I know this is bad news for the "always been a 4th division club" moaners but I reckon the scandinavians were close last year ... and sooner or later it will be an attractive proposition fpr someone.

I do the Euromillions so it could even be me ..

I remember Watford being one of our main rivals when I first started watching Southend in the 1976/7 season. Like us the Hornets had spent their entire history in the lower divisions (albeit for 1 or 2 in the old div.2) and were attracting similar gates as us. IIRC we were both in Div 4 in 76/77 and we were both promoted in 77/78, from that point we moved in different directions. 5 years later they'd just finished runners up to Liverpool in Division 1, whilst we were battling against relegation in Div.3.

Big difference was the investment from a certain millionaire by the name of Elton John and an up and coming manager called Graham Taylor.

We missed the boat really, as for a club like ours to have ever stood a chance of making it into the top division we needed huge investment in the late 70's / early 80's. This could have influenced the next generation of potential Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs or Spammers to have come and supported their local and successful team.

40 years of no investment, and mediocre football and the rise of access to all hours PL and other top flight football means we will never be able to complete with likes of Watford, let alone bigger clubs who's local kids now wear the colours of a multitude of out of town teams. (Bet there are more kids with Real or Barca shirts in their wardrobe in an SS postcode than Southend shirts...

I will support Southend no matter what, but the next generation are questionable.

Sadly too little too late for us.
 
I remember Watford being one of our main rivals when I first started watching Southend in the 1976/7 season. Like us the Hornets had spent their entire history in the lower divisions (albeit for 1 or 2 in the old div.2) and were attracting similar gates as us. IIRC we were both in Div 4 in 76/77 and we were both promoted in 77/78, from that point we moved in different directions. 5 years later they'd just finished runners up to Liverpool in Division 1, whilst we were battling against relegation in Div.3.

Big difference was the investment from a certain millionaire by the name of Elton John and an up and coming manager called Graham Taylor.

We missed the boat really, as for a club like ours to have ever stood a chance of making it into the top division we needed huge investment in the late 70's / early 80's. This could have influenced the next generation of potential Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs or Spammers to have come and supported their local and successful team.

40 years of no investment, and mediocre football and the rise of access to all hours PL and other top flight football means we will never be able to complete with likes of Watford, let alone bigger clubs who's local kids now wear the colours of a multitude of out of town teams. (Bet there are more kids with Real or Barca shirts in their wardrobe in an SS postcode than Southend shirts...

I will support Southend no matter what, but the next generation are questionable.

Sadly too little too late for us.

Agree with much of your post and remember those Watford games as life changing for a lad of 13/14.... Just for some balance, when Ron took over the 98/99 season we were in debt and in the 4th tier

In the PL were Coventry and Wimbledon

In 2nd tier were Bury, Stockport, Port Vale, Crew, Grimsby, Tranmere, Bradford, Swindon

In 3rd tier, Notts County, York, Chesterfield, Wrexham, Macclesfield, Walsall, Oldham, Col U, Northampton.

Teams that finished above us that season (18th 4th tier) Halifax, Darlington, Chester, Barnet, Mansfield, Orient, Cambridge.

Worth remembering when we look at envy at the likes of Brighton, Bournemouth or Watford.
 
Yes, a look at the teams now in the National League table (and below) puts a bit of reality on the situation.
 
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All this talk of £100M is nonsense. Looks like Newcastle are going for £340M and some people think we are worth roughly a third of what they are valued at ? LOL
 
All this talk of £100M is nonsense. Looks like Newcastle are going for £340M and some people think we are worth roughly a third of what they are valued at ? LOL

You say that but did Newcastle make it to consecutive LDV vans finals in the 2000s? No they didn't. Have Newcastle ever been managed by World Cup winner Bobby Moore? No, the best they can muster is 4th place manager Bobby Robson. Appearances can be deceiving.
 
All this talk of £100M is nonsense. Looks like Newcastle are going for £340M and some people think we are worth roughly a third of what they are valued at ? LOL

No one is saying we're worth £100m, right now we're worth around minus £20m! But thats the sort of money someone would have to come in with to turn us in to something that could potentially return that person a profit over say 10 years. They'd have to pay off Ron (estimates around £17m to £20m), they'd have to build a new stadium because Roots Hall is not an option (anywhere from £20m for a Col U budget job up to say £50/£60m or more, for something fit for the Championship), plus the money required to build a team capable of staying at Championship level or challenging for the Prem. The only reason anyone would buy us (unless they're a very romantic, very rich & very mad fan) would be to ultimately make money out of it. You only do that by getting to the Prem, and that takes huge investment. Ask Bournmouth. Newcastle on the other hand are already in the Prem, with a very nice stadium. Your £340m would be buying you the finished article aside from maybe some additional investment in the team. You can't compare the two.

Hence the unliklihood anyone is going to come along and give Ron what he'd want to get out.
 
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