Question The how are you feeling thread?

[fbm]

I'm been pretty down about it for some time... as I have said before, I am a Southend fan more than a football fan. I love the game but hate the way the sport is run. It's corrupt from top to bottom, right from the FIFA World Cup antics all the way to the U-7's, when birth certificates of the children have to be shown before a game to stop managers playing "ringers".

And I think therein lies the problem; football is a grubby game and will attract the worst types. I heard on the news last night that the rules at PL level state that no club should lose more than £30m for more than 2 years running (or something like that). Jesus, with the money in the game how on earth should any PL club lose anything?

It's purely because of the wages. FFP is a joke and whilst I'm not suggesting that PL clubs should bail out the lower levels, I do think there's enough money in the game for everyone connected with it to do very well rather than some earning as much as a small country whilst the lower levels feed on scraps and rely on benevolent owners who have very deep pockets and who don't want the money back.

I think many fans have totally unrealistic expectations and as I have said on other threads, in our situation it is not as simple as "Ron pay the money". We are a club and the club has to pay the money. Not Ron. He would have to put the money into the club (which he hasn't got and is struggling to raise).

So people have called in the past for Ron to bring in outside investment... which when it is now suggested is not acceptable.

People have called for him to sell, so he is... "Anyone but Ron" is the cry... except that it can't be anyone he knows, PG Site Services, or someone without millions to spend, so it's not really anyone but Ron at all, is it?

And there is a sizeable percentage who would rather us have been shut down last week to teach Ron a lesson, which is an attitude I just can't fathom at all. It's something when the hatred of one individual trumps the survival of the thing that is apparently closest to the heart.

I want the club to survive; I don't want us to go under, I also don't want us in National South but if that's where we have to be to survive then I'll take that over extinction. I genuinely don't understand people who think otherwise.

The club needs money. A football club has various sources of income and at our level, ticket sales are probably the biggest followed by TV money, prize money, sponsorship deals and the merchandise, matchday sales, etc.

In the close season, the club gets no money, but expenses need to be paid. So rather than protest outside Ron's house - which I totally understand if you feel as though you have to do something - I would rather get behind a movement to raise supporter money to give to the club - not Ron, the club - to pay the debts to keep us alive. Buy season tickets, do anything, we actually have the power to get us out of this hole quicker than Ron can in my opinion.

If I could pay a sum of money today to guarantee survival for the club, how much would that be, as a one-off? Not sure... £500? £1000? Probably and maybe a bit more even. I know it's different, but how much do people pay to the vet for something to keep their beloved pets alive? My dog, who we sadly lost a few weeks back, ate a rich chocolate brownie a few months ago. He was on his last legs anyway but the vet bill was over a grand. I paid it because I loved my dog and I wasn't ready to let him go. I'd have paid it if it had been two grand.

And here is something that I love and which is the longest relationship of my life (54 years) on life support but which hopefully can continue in some form for my kids and grandkids to follow.

Yet all the energy I can see from like minded supporters like me is focused on pure hatred towards the **** of an owner we have, who, if we aren't careful, we will back into a corner so much so that he will just let it go, move out of the area and sell both RH and FF to big developers, leaving us with no club.

If I'm honest I think it's this aspect of it that upsets me the most. The basic lack of comprehension for many that the club is a different legal entity to Ron is absolutely infuriating and whilst there is obviously a strong link, we seem to now be doing our level best not to save the club but to get rid of Ron as quickly as possible at all costs and the two don't necessary go together. This is not a new concept for me, and I have always held this view; years ago I was invited to a meeting to discuss the Blue Knights potential bid and I was against it then as the motive appeared to be not to necessarily save the club, but to get Ron out so they could have what he had. I just wanted Ron to get everything built, sell up and sail off into the sunset.

Everyone has to do what they have to do and whilst I don't agree with the protests, I absolutely won't be criticising anyone for doing so. If it works for you and helps your mental health then fair play to you and if the club survives as a result, then you will have my thanks.

So I won't be protesting, but if anyone genuinely wants to start trying to raise a lot of money to give - not lend - to the club asap then I'll be happy to see if I can assist in that area. I'm not talking about the HMRC or petition debt because that's almost irrelevant if the NL throw us out of the league. I'm talking about an amount to keep us going long enough for the sale to go through (no idea how that much is).

Southend means as much to me as my pet did - more, probably - and I'm not rich enough to own it unless I win the Euromillions. But sadly I think I'm in a very small minority that feels like that and looking at the absolute torrent of abuse Clairvoyant got for suggesting buying season tickets and getting behind the team at this point, I'm not hopeful.

That's how I'm feeling today. As I say, I realise I'm probably in a minority and I'm therefore sorry if it has upset anyone.

 

[Stubb]

Last night I went to watch a pre season friendly near where I now live.....Gosport Borough v Pompey....over 2000 in attendance. Predictably Pompey won 3-1. All through the evening I was thinking that this could have been Billericy v Southend with all the fans eagerly looking forward to the coming season in their respective leagues. But my overriding emotion was of sadness....sadness for me, a Southend supporter since 1958 and sadness for all the other supporters both current and to come who might not go through the full range of emotions that come from following their local football club.
To all Southend supporters both near and far to the club I say keep the faith.

 

[Shrimpet steve]

Fantastic! Its only football! Its not life or death! Its obvious we will be taken over.

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

It's certainly affected my mood this week. Like everyone I just want a conclusion to it. A small part of me even thought it would've been better for us to be wound up on Wednesday than an adjournment, also from a justice point of view.

It's weird, we're either on the brink of an exciting new era or the brink of extinction, and sadly the latter has become increasingly more likely than the former in the last couple of weeks. The worst thing is that it's so needless, and could have easily been resolved by now. And it's all because of one man.

I'm also an exile, I go to a couple of matches a season these days, so do feel a bit cut off from it. In a way that makes it harder as the people around me don't care or even know about the situation, and I can't go to the protest today for example. Aside from my parents, Southend United's the only real connection I have left to the area and it would be extremely sad to lose that. I'm kind of resigned to the fact that my two sons probably won't support the club, but the thought of not even being able to take them to a game saddens me. They are 3 and 9 months, if the club goes out of business soon they'll have no memory of it.

I will still maintain a keen interest in football - I have to for my job, for a start - but it wouldn't be the same without having a team. I don't think I could support anyone else in the same way.

I can't think of any other club's fans who've been through what we have in the last few years. Having said that, plenty of other clubs have/have had similar issues and it again raises questions about how football is governed.

 

[NZamba Legend]

Trying to be pragmatic rather than emotional but actually that’s also a pretty gloomy outlook. If we do end up playing the coming season - and that’s the best case scenario obviously- it is going to be absolutely horrific, very painful indeed. Embargo, non contract players, kids. Worse than Molesley’s season. Fans will inevitably turn on Kev. Young inexperienced players will be vilified. Are we ready for that? It will be ****ing horrible. We will be absolute certs to go down. I guess you could embrace it in a masochistic, self destructive way if you were so inclined.

If by some miracle we get bought in the next week or so and debts are cleared and embargo lifted, our aim would only be survival. It would be a dire season ahead but I could just about see us staying up after a terrible start due to the lack of a pre season. But it would be very difficult. And that is the very best we can hope for.

None of these scenarios however are as likely as us not being allowed to compete at all. Let’s not ignore the evidence, we can’t even put out a team for a friendly. No one is gonna buy what Ron is prepared to sell. What happens after that, who knows? We are wound up and a phoenix club starts up I would imagine. Would be a relief of sorts I guess? I feel like I’ve accepted this outcome as inevitable. Maybe exciting even. But the sense of loss, even as we start again, and even if, after all, it is ‘only about football’ (which it obviously isn’t) will be huge.

The immediate future is bleak. But you already know that.

 

[dusterman]

Fantastic! Its only football! Its not life or death! Its obvious we will be taken over.

**** off and ferment in your own bile.

 

[Tinks]

I feel absolutely empty inside and cannot believe one person can cause so much anguish to so many.

 

[Uncle_Rons_Teapot]

Numb

That is all

 

[Shrimp and two veg]

How do i feel? Frustrated that i'm on a family holiday and not with the protesters. Elated that we are protesting in numbers and my newsfeed is full of various football facebook pages showing Southend's plight and fan's frustration.
I so want new owners to come in and take this football club with a chance to increase it's ability to realise profits and make us sustainable.
I feel immensely frustrated that Maher, Currie, Benno, SVC and Still have not been let loose to showcase their abilities, hampered by this transfer embargo which just goes on forever. I really HATE the fact that we've currently got the best setup since Tilly and Brush and we cannot FLY.

I also hate being non league, i hate Martin's attitude, can't stand being forced to sit on the fence and i also HATE wrestling my emotions of imagining a life without SUFC and all those memories of my late dad and i enjoying half time pies and disecting the 1st half performance, much the same as my boy and i do these days.
I'm the most positive person, yet i have all this frustration that SUFC cannot move forward.
Best you sell up ya ****house this week, cos it'll be me outside your gates next week, and i am not happy one bit.

 

[Leeboy]

Fantastic! Its only football! Its not life or death! Its obvious we will be taken over.

proof? No didn’t think so. Please stop and think of others before posting

 

[MisterStubbs]

Like @BoyWonder2 I don’t have any family ties to Southend other than a great uncle who played for the club in the 50s. Other than that I was born in to a Man Utd supporting family and as such I had to beg my old man to take me to a Southend game in my youth. Alas, my first game was in 2002 against the old Wimbledon in the league cup with my elder step sister.. a game in which we got battered (4-1 I think it was) but I just knew from the first time I walked up the steps in the East Stand and saw the pitch under floodlights, I fell in love instantly.

During my late teens and early twenties I went to pretty much every home game and as many away games as I could but in recent years due to work/family commitments I haven’t been to nearly as many games as I’d like. I have also stayed away last season in self protest as to what’s going on with staff payments, embargo’s etc but looking back, that’s a decision that now I somewhat regret what with the very real possibility that we won’t have a club to go and watch this coming season.

As I’m sure the rest of you all are, this whole situation has left me dejected, frustrated, heartbroken and whatever other descriptive words you want to use.

Two and a bit years ago I became a father for the first time and as such one of the things I was most looking forward to was being able to take him one day to Roots Hall to see us play and hopefully persuade him that a lifetime of supporting Southend United, going to games around the country is better than watching a team from afar on the telly but sadly I don’t see that being a possibility now because I just don’t see how this all gets resolved in the next month and a bit.

One things for sure though, should the club go under I can honestly say I’ve met and made some wonderful friends and have had the pleasure chatting and debating with you all on here these last couple of decades (Jesus, that makes me feel old!).

 

[blakey]

For me, someone who suffers with depression periodically.
I find this week has dragged me down to a point that I cant even face going to work or even having the energy to talk to people.

The closest I felt to this was losing a close relative who passed of a terminal illness a few years back.

Now don't get me wrong I know its not a matter of life and death, but for someone like me, who comes from a family of 3 generations following our club its heart renching.

We are currently watching the death of our beloved club.

It feels like we are slowly losing a huge part of our lives and very little we can do about it.

I just wanted to start this thread for anyone feeling low or needing to talk.

UTB's for as long as we still can.

Have to say I feel very similar.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

I'm been pretty down about it for some time... as I have said before, I am a Southend fan more than a football fan. I love the game but hate the way the sport is run. It's corrupt from top to bottom, right from the FIFA World Cup antics all the way to the U-7's, when birth certificates of the children have to be shown before a game to stop managers playing "ringers".

And I think therein lies the problem; football is a grubby game and will attract the worst types. I heard on the news last night that the rules at PL level state that no club should lose more than £30m for more than 2 years running (or something like that). Jesus, with the money in the game how on earth should any PL club lose anything?

It's purely because of the wages. FFP is a joke and whilst I'm not suggesting that PL clubs should bail out the lower levels, I do think there's enough money in the game for everyone connected with it to do very well rather than some earning as much as a small country whilst the lower levels feed on scraps and rely on benevolent owners who have very deep pockets and who don't want the money back.

I think many fans have totally unrealistic expectations and as I have said on other threads, in our situation it is not as simple as "Ron pay the money". We are a club and the club has to pay the money. Not Ron. He would have to put the money into the club (which he hasn't got and is struggling to raise).

So people have called in the past for Ron to bring in outside investment... which when it is now suggested is not acceptable.

People have called for him to sell, so he is... "Anyone but Ron" is the cry... except that it can't be anyone he knows, PG Site Services, or someone without millions to spend, so it's not really anyone but Ron at all, is it?

And there is a sizeable percentage who would rather us have been shut down last week to teach Ron a lesson, which is an attitude I just can't fathom at all. It's something when the hatred of one individual trumps the survival of the thing that is apparently closest to the heart.

I want the club to survive; I don't want us to go under, I also don't want us in National South but if that's where we have to be to survive then I'll take that over extinction. I genuinely don't understand people who think otherwise.

The club needs money. A football club has various sources of income and at our level, ticket sales are probably the biggest followed by TV money, prize money, sponsorship deals and the merchandise, matchday sales, etc.

In the close season, the club gets no money, but expenses need to be paid. So rather than protest outside Ron's house - which I totally understand if you feel as though you have to do something - I would rather get behind a movement to raise supporter money to give to the club - not Ron, the club - to pay the debts to keep us alive. Buy season tickets, do anything, we actually have the power to get us out of this hole quicker than Ron can in my opinion.

If I could pay a sum of money today to guarantee survival for the club, how much would that be, as a one-off? Not sure... £500? £1000? Probably and maybe a bit more even. I know it's different, but how much do people pay to the vet for something to keep their beloved pets alive? My dog, who we sadly lost a few weeks back, ate a rich chocolate brownie a few months ago. He was on his last legs anyway but the vet bill was over a grand. I paid it because I loved my dog and I wasn't ready to let him go. I'd have paid it if it had been two grand.

And here is something that I love and which is the longest relationship of my life (54 years) on life support but which hopefully can continue in some form for my kids and grandkids to follow.

Yet all the energy I can see from like minded supporters like me is focused on pure hatred towards the **** of an owner we have, who, if we aren't careful, we will back into a corner so much so that he will just let it go, move out of the area and sell both RH and FF to big developers, leaving us with no club.

If I'm honest I think it's this aspect of it that upsets me the most. The basic lack of comprehension for many that the club is a different legal entity to Ron is absolutely infuriating and whilst there is obviously a strong link, we seem to now be doing our level best not to save the club but to get rid of Ron as quickly as possible at all costs and the two don't necessary go together. This is not a new concept for me, and I have always held this view; years ago I was invited to a meeting to discuss the Blue Knights potential bid and I was against it then as the motive appeared to be not to necessarily save the club, but to get Ron out so they could have what he had. I just wanted Ron to get everything built, sell up and sail off into the sunset.

Everyone has to do what they have to do and whilst I don't agree with the protests, I absolutely won't be criticising anyone for doing so. If it works for you and helps your mental health then fair play to you and if the club survives as a result, then you will have my thanks.

So I won't be protesting, but if anyone genuinely wants to start trying to raise a lot of money to give - not lend - to the club asap then I'll be happy to see if I can assist in that area. I'm not talking about the HMRC or petition debt because that's almost irrelevant if the NL throw us out of the league. I'm talking about an amount to keep us going long enough for the sale to go through (no idea how that much is).

Southend means as much to me as my pet did - more, probably - and I'm not rich enough to own it unless I win the Euromillions. But sadly I think I'm in a very small minority that feels like that and looking at the absolute torrent of abuse Clairvoyant got for suggesting buying season tickets and getting behind the team at this point, I'm not hopeful.

That's how I'm feeling today. As I say, I realise I'm probably in a minority and I'm therefore sorry if it has upset anyone.

I do get what you are saying and I want to see us continuing. I don't think that I would live long enough to see us coming back as a phoenix club. You put forward reasonable sounding propositions however I see three major problems with them. Firstly you seem to suggest that Martin is a reasonable man to deal with, evidence seems to prove the contrary. I think he sees 'reasonableness' as a sign of weakness. Secondly, those people who haven't invested in season tickets fear either there won't be anything to watch or that their money will disappear into a black hole. I want us to continue but not as we have been for the past years, facing embargoes and court appearances. Thirdly, Clairvoyant doesn't offer anything to suggest that the club will be put on a sustainable basis, just an offer that we struggle on in a silmilar fashion with some 'pie in the sky' idea that it will be sold on in the future. NO ONE is going to buy now, or in the future a debt ridden club (unless you consider administration) with few (and getting fewer by the day) assetts and with no ground owned.

 

[Stubb]

Like @BoyWonder2 I don’t have any family ties to Southend other than a great uncle who played for the club in the 50s. Other than that I was born in to a Man Utd supporting family and as such I had to beg my old man to take me to a Southend game in my youth. Alas, my first game was in 2002 against the old Wimbledon in the league cup with my elder step sister.. a game in which we got battered (4-1 I think it was) but I just knew from the first time I walked up the steps in the East Stand and saw the pitch under floodlights, I fell in love instantly.

During my late teens and early twenties I went to pretty much every home game and as many away games as I could but in recent years due to work/family commitments I haven’t been to nearly as many games as I’d like. I have also stayed away last season in self protest as to what’s going on with staff payments, embargo’s etc but looking back, that’s a decision that now I somewhat regret what with the very real possibility that we won’t have a club to go and watch this coming season.

As I’m sure the rest of you all are, this whole situation has left me dejected, frustrated, heartbroken and whatever other descriptive words you want to use.

Two and a bit years ago I became a father for the first time and as such one of the things I was most looking forward to was being able to take him one day to Roots Hall to see us play and hopefully persuade him that a lifetime of supporting Southend United, going to games around the country is better than watching a team from afar on the telly but sadly I don’t see that being a possibility now because I just don’t see how this all gets resolved in the next month and a bit.

One things for sure though, should the club go under I can honestly say I’ve met and made some wonderful friends and have had the pleasure chatting and debating with you all on here these last couple of decades (Jesus, that makes me feel old!).

Was your great uncle Les Stubbs?

 

[MisterStubbs]

Was your great uncle Les Stubbs?

Yes mate.

 

[Stubb]

Wonderful player!

 

[Medway Blue]

How am I feeling? Hmmmm.

I've been trying to do little bits and bobs along with the Trust and others to help. That's not a "well done me", but it has distracted/focused my mind somewhat and perhaps helped me to keep hold of a bit of posivity, although no little anger still.

This weekend is perhaps the first time I've stopped to reflect, and the first time I've felt emotional and helpless about it all. That hasn't been helped by the additional layer of guilt eating away at me for not being able to get to the protest today.

In short, I'm not feeling good!

 

[davewebbsbrain]

proof? No didn’t think so. Please stop and think of others before posting

Everyone just needs to stick him on ignore like I do. Nobody responds, he doesn't get a reaction, he goes away. Job done

 

[hlane17]

Determined to make sure this rat never sees any benefit from his vile behaviour.

 

[Angell Delight]

Fantastic! Its only football! Its not life or death! Its obvious we will be taken over.

Little tip Steve - maybe THINK before posting your drivel. We're now in a very similar situation to Bury. To Macclesfield. To the likes of Aldershot, Scarborough, Darlington and others I could mention all those years ago. You're so deluded it's a joke. The club is on the brink. We'll be VERY lucky if we still have one to support come the end of the month....