Breaking News Union paying players wages!!!

[Yorkshire Blue]

which would be a plausible explanation except for one thing: not many other clubs are there?

Has anyone got a linguistic degree and can translate into English please?

For me, it's not the fact we have borrowed money from the PFU that worries me so much, it's why?

Yes, we are in times of global economic meltdown, but in truth, that has yet to affect out club. Gates are not down by much from last season, and the only reason they were is due to our poor league form, not the fact people are skint - I think that's proven by the fact our last 3 homes gates have been 7,000+ since our uptunr in form suggested we could extend our season.

Sponsorship deals are already in place, and the executive boxes are sold out each game I believe.

The club is now already recieving money for season tickets for next season, meaning we have a laump sum of cash that is guaranteed.

We have spent barely anything on transfer fees this season, and I struggle to understand how or why our wage bill can be so large when we have a relatively young side who cannot be on substantial money, the likes of Barrett, Clarke and Freedman aside.

Finally, we have received so much money from transfers and gate receptis in the last 12 months, how can we not be flush?

I'm not suggesting we can compete with the likes of Leicester and Leeds, but I see no reason why we should not be comfortable right now, and from a laymens point of view, and possible a naive one, we ought not to be suffering any financial difficulties right now/

1. We aren't borrowing money to pay the players' wages/bonuses this month. The clubs this applies to are explicitly mentioned. We borrowed this money some time in the last 12 months.
2. We may have substantial sponsorships in place, executive boxes sold, transfer fees coming in etc but have they paid on time? The chances are, we were late because one of our creditors was late. That is how small businesses operate.

 

[Napster]

Has anyone got a linguistic degree and can translate into English please?

Ho ho ho.

ps it's linguistics

pps what I meant was there's not too many other clubs in the same position...

 

[Napster]

boxes sold, transfer fees coming in etc but have they paid on time? The chances are, we were late because one of our creditors was late. That is how small businesses operate.

Which is fair enough. But I struggle to see how a club like Southend is a "small business". My Dad's scrap yard is a small business. SUFC employs more people than the company I work for, yet we're hardly a small business.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Ho ho ho.

ps it's linguistics

pps what I meant was there's not too many other clubs in the same position...

You've got more than one?;)

It's about a dozen clubs isn't it? That's one in six in the FL.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Which is fair enough. But I struggle to see how a club like Southend is a "small business". My Dad's scrap yard is a small business. SUFC employs more people than the company I work for, yet we're hardly a small business.

Well it isn't big business. We'll call it small or medium sized business if you prefer, but the principle is the same. There are even some big companies who have similar cash-flow issues. I'd suggest Southend were more prone to this because your Dad's crap yard should have a fairly steady income stream, whilst the club will basically get their cash in big lumps (season ticket, FL TV Money, Sponsorship, Transfer Fees). If one of those is late it has a bigger impact than someone with a more steady flow.

 

[philtalkin]

Has anyone got a linguistic degree and can translate into English please?



1. We aren't borrowing money to pay the players' wages/bonuses this month. The clubs this applies to are explicitly mentioned. We borrowed this money some time in the last 12 months.
2. We may have substantial sponsorships in place, executive boxes sold, transfer fees coming in etc but have they paid on time? The chances are, we were late because one of our creditors was late. That is how small businesses operate.

Which goes back to something I mentioned earlier.

If point 2 is true, then the club probably had the chance to cover the wages via their overdraft facility. However they chose to take some interest free money from the PFA. Presumable Ron didn't think for one minute it would come to light! Very embarrasing!

If however they were unable to increase their overdraft facility then that is very worrying!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Which goes back to something I mentioned earlier.

If point 2 is true, then the club probably had the chance to cover the wages via their overdraft facility. However they chose to take some interest free money from the PFA. Presumable Ron didn't think for one minute it would come to light! Very embarrasing!

If however they were unable to increase their overdraft facility then that is very worrying!

In the current economic climate I'm not sure how much we could read into a bank's unwillingness to extend an overdraft.

 

[Reg Martin]

Whilst this is not good news, its very hard to tell whether its something we should really be worrying about without knowing more details.

Interesting that Gillingham are calling for relegation for clubs going into administration when they are one of clubs named as being helped out by PFA. They're either stupid or it means being helped out by PFA is no indication of club about to go into adminsitration.

Feel sorry for Bournemouth if they're about to go into administration again, another points deduction would relegate them

 

[fbm]

Well, I hope that anyone who has serious concerns about the clubs financial future is taking positive action. What needs to happen is that all potential new ownership avenues need to be explored; this includes approaching any known rich individuals to see if they can buy out the current owners, or maybe getting a consortium together to do the same.

They should carry out their own due diligence on the stadium project and get as complete a picture as possible about the club finances so that budgets and business plans can be produced.


If none of this is currently being undertaken, then anyone who is worried for the future of the club and who is on here moaning about it I would think should feel just as culpable as the club owners should the worst happen. I mean, the doom-mongers will have been proved right. How would they feel, having had the incredible foresight to predict disaster, yet actually not taken any positive action to try and prevent it?

 

[philtalkin]

In the current economic climate I'm not sure how much we could read into a bank's unwillingness to extend an overdraft.

If they cannot persuade the bank to extend their overdraft (especially to cover the 2nd most important payments behind HMRC) then how can they expect anybody to invest in a new stadium?

 

[WolfieSUFC]

Come on Mr Martin and Southend Utd FC, tell us the truths, if the rumours is not true, then they should sue the papers for spreading unfounded rumours about our club who got money problems like AFC Bournemouth.

 

[Reg Martin]

speculation on southend 6-0-6 includes:

a) its out-of-date info (we can rule this out as mail on sunday never gets anything wrong)

b) pfa helped out ricketts following his departure from southend - though that would be outside 12 months timeframe

another possibility I've wondered about is whether pfa was involved financially in the richie foran departure

 

[Lester Bangs]

They should carry out their own due diligence on the stadium project and get as complete a picture as possible about the club finances so that budgets and business plans can be produced.

I think this is an excellent idea.

I'd certainly like to see an independent supporters group looking at whats going on. Obviously there will be problems with the flow of information as I can't imagine the club would be too keen on people rummaging through the clubs financial documents but where there's a will etc.

We've had enough financial turmoil at this club and any expansion has to be within the constraints of the club. I'm not saying that the new stadium isn't, however, I am getting increasingly concerned with what I read about CCJ's, wages etc etc.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

For Gawd's sake let's find out what the club have to say about this before we all go rushing for the lifeboats.

There are any number of explanations as to why we might (or might not; don't forget its only newspaper talk so far) have sought some financial assistance from the PFA.

Talk of buying/selling the club, CCJs, administration, giving up on the new stadium etc. are just madness in my opinion.

Let's just settle down and wait to see if we can find out what the facts are.

 

[Lester Bangs]

For Gawd's sake let's find out what the club have to say about this before we all go rushing for the lifeboats.

There are any number of explanations as to why we might (or might not; don't forget its only newspaper talk so far) have sought some financial assistance from the PFA.

Talk of buying/selling the club, CCJs, administration, giving up on the new stadium etc. are just madness in my opinion.

Let's just settle down and wait to see if we can find out what the facts are.

In my opinion and I don't mean to be personal but this is a rather 'head in sand' approach. Standing back and waiting for the club to explain this is all a bit too passive for my liking. You said it yourself, CCJ's and financial assisstance form the PFA, surely alarm bells must be ringing?

I think we should be looking at more of a proactive and not reactionary approach. Working along side the club to ensure the financial safety of the club.

I don't know how exactly to go about this but maybe the trust have some experience of this sort of thing.

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

In my opinion and I don't mean to be personal but this is a rather 'head in sand' approach. Standing back and waiting for the club to explain this is all a bit too passive for my liking.

I think we should be looking at more of a proactive and not reactionary approach. Working along side the club to ensure the financial safety of the club.

We've established that we're not currently receiving assistance, so I doubt that if we give the club a week or so to clarify matters we're likely to be receiving a winding up order in the meantime. The club have clarified the CCJ situation, so if there's nothing to hide I don't see why they'd hesitate to clarify this one. With things going so well at the moment I would have said that it would be far more harmful to create distractions by developing snippets of info into unfounded disaster scenarios.

 

[Rob1920]

For me, it's not the fact we have borrowed money from the PFU that worries me so much, it's why?

Yes, we are in times of global economic meltdown, but in truth, that has yet to affect out club. Gates are not down by much from last season, and the only reason they were is due to our poor league form, not the fact people are skint - I think that's proven by the fact our last 3 homes gates have been 7,000+ since our uptunr in form suggested we could extend our season.

Sponsorship deals are already in place, and the executive boxes are sold out each game I believe.

The club is now already recieving money for season tickets for next season, meaning we have a laump sum of cash that is guaranteed.

We have spent barely anything on transfer fees this season, and I struggle to understand how or why our wage bill can be so large when we have a relatively young side who cannot be on substantial money, the likes of Barrett, Clarke and Freedman aside.

Finally, we have received so much money from transfers and gate receptis in the last 12 months, how can we not be flush?

I'm not suggesting we can compete with the likes of Leicester and Leeds, but I see no reason why we should not be comfortable right now, and from a laymens point of view, and possible a naive one, we ought not to be suffering any financial difficulties right now/

I think this is a fair assesment. We're not flush with cash as some think we should be, but we shouldn't be skint, particularly as according to Ron we're not having to service any of the debt to his company which he has written off.

Can't help thinking this could have related to the time Ron was arrested due to alledged dodgy business dealings. I'm no expert but as Ron's company is closely linked to the club & probably pay some bills or maybe wages directly (or indirectly) is it not possible Ron's company's assets were temporarily frozen for a week or so at that time, which could easily have caused all sorts of cash flow problems?

Either way I think there has to be an explanation for this other than us simply being skint.

 

[Lester Bangs]

Ok I was reluctant to post this but isn't this a case of bigger picture time? The CCJ and PFA assistance appears to be linked to a cashflow problem. I am making assumptions here but I don't believe that these two issues are not directly linked and it doesnt take a finance genius to realise the severity of this.

Not being able to satisfy creditors as and when they fall due is the main reason companies fail. There's a lot of rumour and speculation about bonuses not being paid and whilst I appreciate that managing the finances of a lower league football club is an extremely difficult job we must all be aware of how easy it is for a club to fall into the chasm of administration.

I apologise if the post is a bit melodromatic, however, as I've said before I am extremely concerned about the financial security of the club.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

Ok I was reluctant to post this but isn't this a case of bigger picture time? The CCJ and PFA assistance appears to be linked to a cashflow problem. I am making assumptions here but I don't believe that these two issues are not directly linked and it doesnt take a finance genius to realise the severity of this.

Not being able to satisfy creditors as and when they fall due is the main reason companies fail. There's a lot of rumour and speculation about bonuses not being paid and whilst I appreciate that managing the finances of a lower league football club is an extremely difficult job we must all be aware of how easy it is for a club to fall into the chasm of administration.

I apologise if the post is a bit melodromatic, however, as I've said before I am extremely concerned about the financial security of the club.

But you're making an awful lot of assumptions on the basis of not a lot of real information. I don't have my head in the sand, and I am aware that there might be problems; but transformation of speculation and rumour into assumed facts is another reason companies fail as creditors lose faith in their customers and push for payment of debts more urgently and forcibly than they would otherwise do.

All I am saying is that all of this discussion seems to have been sparked by an, as yet, unexplained reference to our club in a Sunday paper article about something that is claimed to have occured in the past, and some unsubstantiated rumour about players' bonuses not being paid some while ago.

 

[Smiley]

We'll be fine... We'll win the playoffs and make loaaadsamoneeeeey.

Right, guys? :P