• 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.

Smiffy

¡Viva la Aussielución! 🇦🇺 🦘 ⭐️
Staff member
Joined
Oct 27, 2003
Messages
19,907
Location
SS2 Born & Bred 🦐
I feel that I should be letting you have my thoughts and feelings about the season now it is effectively at an end but I promised that I would answer all the questions that are put to me and I am continuing to do so. However I will need to bring this to an end soon as it was only meant to span two or three weeks.

Anyway for now I will try and deal with another six or eight questions:


We have made a large number of loan signings this season. It has been rumoured that the reason for doing this is that the club cannot currently afford to sign players on permanent contracts due to the on-going stadium plans. Please could you clarify this matter?
Joe Fitzgerald

The reason we signed loan players is because we were unable to secure suitable targets. A couple of players we had looked at such as Mulgrew and Zakuani, went to Aberdeen and Peterborough respectively. In short time ran out during the transfer window and that is when we started to look to the loan market. There is no relationship between the stadium funding and the Football Club’s finances and therefore that impacted on these decisions.

However it should not be overlooked that the loan signings we have made have all come from higher divisions. Whilst this policy can be disruptive to the squad’s continuity they often bring a quality to the team that would otherwise not be available. This is simply because these players are unlikely to move to a lower division club when there is an existing contract with a Championship or Premiership club where they feel there may still be an opportunity of them progressing.

With loan signings it is a way of them playing first team football and generally a stop gap for the loaning club but which sometimes converts to a permanent signing once both player and club having got to know each other etc.


Can you confirm how we plan on getting into the Championship at the first available opportunity and once there how we can sustain that position?
Tim Sims

Obviously there are no guarantees in life and less, I suspect, in football. If you subscribe to the view that there is a direct relationship between success in football and financial investment then it probably follows that through the new stadium plans, which will provide more distributable funds for the Club, there are greater prospects in advancing through the League into the Championship.

Secondly once in the Championship and then having the increased benefit of still further funds (television income and larger attendances) this will be self perpetuating and a greater chance of sustaining a position in the higher league – everything else being equal.

Of course, all these issues have to be tempered against the Manager’s player purchase decisions whilst also accounting for unforeseen situations such as injuries which are often sent to frustrate the Manager. Nevertheless if a Club has the wherewithal, which will be derived from our relocation plans, then it is logical that we will be able to lessen the troughs and maintain an upward spiral.


The club reduced matchday ticket prices last season in line with the government announced VAT Cut from 17.5% to 15% and made a big thing about it on the website. This didn’t affect season ticket holders as we had already paid for our tickets, which I think is understandable. However we were told that renewal prices had been frozen at £380 for next season. Am I right in saying £380 this season includes 15% VAT and therefore the club is picking up the difference between the 17.5% of this season and the 15% of next season? In which case the “SEASON TICKETS PRICES FROZEN” statement is factually incorrect and the club have not been up front with supporters. If that is not the case then can Season Ticket Holders expect a refund of the difference (£8.09)?
Steven Hurren

The VAT rate changed in December 2008. HMRC decreed that change as the point of sale as opposed to when the game was played. Season card holders “lost”, when the VAT rate changed in December 2008 £56.59*3/5, which equates to £33.95.

However the Chancellor also stated in December 2008 that the rate would be restored to 17.5%. So those season card holders that renew this coming season and pay the same rate as last year will pay VAT at 15% on the cost of their seat and will not be charged the extra 2.5% when the rate reverts to 17.5% thus gaining £29.74. The net cost to the supporter being £4.21 assuming that both season tickets were purchased before the cut off date for an amount of £380. It should be noted that the total price paid for a season ticket did not change between the two years.


Can you give a breakdown of associated match day costs, possible break even crowd expectations and how these would impact on the club if we were not able to regain a place in the Championship once the new ground is completed?
Trevor Higgs

This question has so many facets that it is impossible for me to answer without sending everyone to sleep. However a lot of the information will be included in the Club’s audited accounts which are available to the public. That said we are never looking at just match day costs, it is the total costs of running the Club which is included within the annual budget.

Within that budget we also have our best expectations of the average league attendance, throughout the year, coupled with estimates of cup runs etc.

Where the greatest variation arises is in players’ salaries and in this respect I have never restricted Steve to, say, 22 players at a top limit for the wage roll. We have always been flexible and that is why we substantially exceeded budgets last year due to relegation out of the Championship and also this year, in an attempt to make the season competitive with a view to getting back into the Championship. Those shortfalls were made up from the parent company.

I can tell you that very few clubs budget to break even but tend to rely on the sale of players or cup runs to balance the books. Running a football club unfortunately is not like other businesses where one might have fixed costs and with the greatest fluctuation on the income front only.

In a football club the football squad cannot be considered, in my view, as fixed costs because there are so many variables which impact on the cost of players and their replacement or necessary additions throughout the entire season.


What is the anticipated level of debt that the club (including the club's directly related companies and any SPVs set up to facilitate the move) will be servicing once the stadium move is complete, net of any proceeds from the development of the Roots Hall site?
Matthew Walker

The important issue here is that it is not intended that the Club has any debt, moreover substantially greater income and capital from the stadium plans to provide the Club with real impetus and with an infrastructure to maintain, as I have said previously, the upward spiral both on the pitch and also off.

In short, Southend United Football Club will not be servicing any debt which reflects the position I have established for the benefit of the football club in recent years whilst at Roots Hall.


Are their plans to extend the contracts of Steve and Paul still further in the near future?
Matt Marsh

Whilst I understand your reasons for asking, it would be inappropriate to discuss the Management’s contracts in open forum without this matter having first being discussed by the Club’s Board and subsequently with the Manager. I am sure you will understand the position.


I am glad that you have secured Rank as a casino on the fossets farm site. Yes I gamble on the odd game of football and the odd horse race. My question is, is it ethical to state that the deal with Rank will fund the youth team accadamy. Why would you want to promote to children that gambling is a good thing?

I apologise if I have mis-understood your reasoning behind the link between a casino and a football acadamy.
Kathleen Tilbrook

The link here is not one of ethics, but moreover commercial. The two elements, the football academy and Rank’s unit, occupy the upper mezzanine level of the retail terrace. Rank produces an income that will accommodate the costs of creating the academy building (that does not produce a commercial income) to meet the construction costs thereof.

There is no need to apologise; I can understand how the link may have been misinterpreted in the Echo article. We would certainly not want to promote gambling as a good thing to children and do not think we have done so, certainly this would never have been intended. The Club’s entire ethos is built on family entertainment together with the very considerable and highly regarded work it carries out in the community and I do not believe the commercial linkage in this instance undermines that position.



Next week, as I say above, I hope to bring the Q&A to an end and at that time I will need to determine whether a weekly blog (remember it was for a trial period) is worth continuing and would appreciate fans’ feedback on that over the next fortnight.

Finally, Saturday against Cheltenham should be a carnival day and I hope that we can finish the season on a high and take the stability we have achieved since January into next season enhanced with a number of planned new signings.

Up the Blues!
 
More **** comes from this man's mouth, than out of an elephants bottom.
 
I feel that I should be letting you have my thoughts and feelings about the season now it is effectively at an end but I promised that I would answer all the questions that are put to me and I am continuing to do so. However I will need to bring this to an end soon as it was only meant to span two or three weeks.

Anyway for now I will try and deal with another six or eight questions:
I emailed a question and it hasn't been answered. Answered 6, basically the minimum.
I think he is a good chairmen and we shouldn't slag him off for this blog, he could have done what every other chairmen does and not told us anything and not be bothered to write a blog to communicate with his fans. Well done Ron. Would you rather he told us bull**** or he ignored us completely, I would say that 99% hasn't been bull**** anyway!
 
More **** comes from this man's mouth, than out of an elephants bottom.

So you'd rather the club to go round doing things and not explain why or even correct rumours that have been curculating the board?
 
So you'd rather the club to go round doing things and not explain why or even correct rumours that have been curculating the board?

I'd prefer the truth be told at all times, and not empty promises made.
 
So explain and point out where the lies are and where he's made empty promises.









Nah, thought not!


Shall we discuss this supposed "War Chest" he was going to give Tilly, or shall we discuss the fuss he made after the echo printed the truth
about the stadium timescale.. it's up to you. I could go on, but i'm watching Hatton build up with crackers and cheese, and itching my knees, but don't argue, please... im off to have a squeeze......
 
Shall we discuss this supposed "War Chest" he was going to give Tilly, or shall we discuss the fuss he made after the echo printed the truth
about the stadium timescale.. it's up to you. I could go on, but i'm watching Hatton build up with crackers and cheese, and itching my knees, but don't argue, please... im off to have a squeeze......

The same "War Chest" that Tilson turned down and I'm not sure what you mean about the "true" stadium timescale but if you want to believe everything you read in the paper then that's your choice .
 
The same "War Chest" that Tilson turned down and I'm not sure what you mean about the "true" stadium timescale but if you want to believe everything you read in the paper then that's your choice .

Sorry but when did he ever turn down the war chest?

The war chest was there for Tilson, as shown by six figure sums being bid on Mike Williamson. Bids where also turned down for Liam Dickinson, Chris Dickson, Matt Ritchie and Bradley Johnson, so the money was being made avaliable at least. I think Dickinson and Dickson where both loan bids, but that still costs us and would have come out of the war chest.
 
Uncle Ron said:
... and take the stability we have achieved since January into next season enhanced with a number of planned new signings.

It's these words which I think will finally confirm where "the faithful" should sit in terms of RM is to be believed and trusted or not.

I, for one, do not want to see another summer of very little movement in the transfer market accompanied with stories on the OS saying "we're waiting back from answers from players/agents/clubs" only to end up with a week or so of panic buys/loans as the end of August approaches...
 
It's these words which I think will finally confirm where "the faithful" should sit in terms of RM is to be believed and trusted or not.

I, for one, do not want to see another summer of very little movement in the transfer market accompanied with stories on the OS saying "we're waiting back from answers from players/agents/clubs" only to end up with a week or so of panic buys/loans as the end of August approaches...

I'm guessing that planned purchases might well refer to loanees who we've convinced to join on permanent deals. Sawyer, Robinson maybe. Dan Harding (is he still an Ipswich player?), Dorien yes please!
 
Dear Ron,

I read with interest your dismissal of the conspiracy theory that we played so many loan players because we could not afford the transfer fees or player wages.

It seems to me that we have a great management team who have got the very best out of of loan players who realistically would rather be elsewhere such as Arsenal, Chelsea or Spurs.

With this in mind it seems a natural step from loaning players who are probably playing against their will to kidnapping players who would definitely be playing against their will.

After training and matches they would be straight in the boot of a car and whisked to a safe house where they could be safely hooded and chained to a radiator or kept in a 'Silence of the Lambs' style pit. After a couple of months exposure to the esprit de corps that characterises a Steve Tilson team the Stockholm syndrome would kick in and they could be let out to Churchills/Bellinis with the rest of the squad (chaperoned of course to ensure they don't launch any escape bids).

The potential savings in wages and transfer fees are huge.

All the best!

Mad Cyril
 
Last edited:
I'm guessing that planned purchases might well refer to loanees who we've convinced to join on permanent deals. Sawyer, Robinson maybe. Dan Harding (is he still an Ipswich player?), Dorien yes please!

Harding is on loan at Reading at the moment, and turned out for them at Norwich in the telivised match on Monday. He looked very comfortable (mind, Norwich were awful) and I wouldn't be suprised if he gets a move to another Championship club, always assuming that Roy Keane isn't interested in keeping him now.
 
blimey, my question about the VAT was sent about 4 weeks ago. I'd forgotten about that! They must be really desperate for questions!!
 
Sorry but when did he ever turn down the war chest?

The war chest was there for Tilson, as shown by six figure sums being bid on Mike Williamson. Bids where also turned down for Liam Dickinson, Chris Dickson, Matt Ritchie and Bradley Johnson, so the money was being made avaliable at least. I think Dickinson and Dickson where both loan bids, but that still costs us and would have come out of the war chest.

I meant at the start of the season, maybe misread something tho.
 
I meant at the start of the season, maybe misread something tho.

Tilson has never turned down any war chest. Just because he didn't spend an awful lot during the summer months doesn't mean he turned it down.
 
It's these words which I think will finally confirm where "the faithful" should sit in terms of RM is to be believed and trusted or not.

I, for one, do not want to see another summer of very little movement in the transfer market accompanied with stories on the OS saying "we're waiting back from answers from players/agents/clubs" only to end up with a week or so of panic buys/loans as the end of August approaches...

RM's full quote on that was:
"I hope that we can finish the season on a high and take the stability we have achieved since January into next season enhanced with a number of planned new signings." (my bold)
I don't read into that any more than the club have identified some potential targets. There is a whole load of factors, many of them outside of the club's control, that could prevent them being converted into actual signings.
Unforunately I can foresee exactly what you fear in terms of lack of transfers until August - would be great to be wrong though.
I also foresee a long summer of doom-mongering regarding next season on the ShrimperZone. There's a few posters who have been relatively quiet recently following our good run of results and this may be the opportunity they've been waiting for...


 
Are their plans to extend the contracts of Steve and Paul still further in the near future?
Matt Marsh

Can't work this bit out. managers/chairmen are constantly in the news stating they hope this person signs, and that person extends their deal, why can't he say it, or at least hint towards the fact he WANTS them to stay?

Plus why will he not comment on this, yet a few weeks ago he was speaking about clarkey?

Does he know something we don't? is Tilly off in the summer?
 
Can't work this bit out. managers/chairmen are constantly in the news stating they hope this person signs, and that person extends their deal, why can't he say it, or at least hint towards the fact he WANTS them to stay?

Plus why will he not comment on this, yet a few weeks ago he was speaking about clarkey?

Does he know something we don't? is Tilly off in the summer?

Fortnight in Tenerife possibly?
 
rm's full quote on that was:
"i hope that we can finish the season on a high and take the stability we have achieved since january into next season enhanced with a number of planned new signings." (my bold)
i don't read into that any more than the club have identified some potential targets. There is a whole load of factors, many of them outside of the club's control, that could prevent them being converted into actual signings.
Unforunately i can foresee exactly what you fear in terms of lack of transfers until august - would be great to be wrong though.
I also foresee a long summer of doom-mongering regarding next season on the shrimperzone. There's a few posters who have been relatively quiet recently following our good run of results and this may be the opportunity they've been waiting for...




you bet it is!
 
Back
Top