Thetownend.com

We are Swindon and we have survived again...

I suggest that Harry Houdini would be proud to have survived that bullet.

Black must have big balls or too much dosh to lose.

Still think Wray and Fitton will be there somewhere.

100 bucks with Betfair anyone....soapy tit wank

 :)   

We're not in the all clear yet..

No..................................please say we are.

 ::)

We've see deals seemingly go much further than this, then fail (BEST). Did they ever exchange contracts, not sure.

We don't know whether even if it goes through how much resource they have.

It could all be good, but its too early to say 'done deal/safe'.

This is more like it....the FL obviously are rightly concerned about what is happening at the club. We need to be vigilant.

Could have sold to cowboys, what then?

Admin and ruin -we would be DOOMED I say, DOOMED!

I will celebrate when it's all gone through and we have those three players join us next week.

No, no. Cautiously optimistic is the name of the game. We need more details and see how it pans out.

Given that contracts have now been exchanged, I am a little curious as to why the new owners are still insisting on anonymity.  Why the secrecy?  This McCrory/McCoy chap spells his name differently depending on which day of the week it is - and it's pretty clear, I think, that even he's just a front man.  Who are the others?

To be fair to the Football League, unless this consortium has been much more transparent with the FL than it has been with everyone else, I don't really blame them at all for not sanctioning the three loan moves.  Time to put some cards on the table.

I'd tend to agree although in fairness it may just be a case of not quite having all their ducks in a row rather than a desire to hide anything/anyone. We haven't heard anything from any of them yet and the whole sense of the past few days is that they've been a little caught out all round. Hopefully when it all calms down over the next day or so they can hold a press conference, introduce themselves and explain their plans and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

I just have a problem trusting anyone called Jed.

It's nothing personal against Jed McCrory, I would feel the same if the consortium was being headed up by Jed Pitman, Jedward or....Jed....Junior....Shabadu....The Third.....

This sums up my thoughts at the moment.

Hardly been a textbook takeover or end to the transfer window, but this has largely been due to this hyper compressed timescale enforced on proceedings.

We can panic/rejoice accordingly when more details and identities are inevitably forthcoming.

Its the deafening silence that bothers me.

Even the promise of a press conference , at some time next week would help a little.

Just to save everyone from wearing away their worry beads, conflagrating their keyboard or resorting to voodoo, this is what has happened: The Football League will not sanction transfers until they have approved the takeover. This is perfectly reasonable, and we'd be demanding it of any other club. It's no-one's fault but our own that everything got compressed into 48 hours, and if the new board get approval, then we'll move on with our squad more or less intact, plus two or three emergency signings. And if the new consortium doesn't get approved, we're in the poo. Either way, we should know within a week. Can we move on from demonising the FL on this occasion?

I would agree with all of that however......

That they allowed Portsmouth to sign players means they (the FL) should be demonised to the max.

Well if anone wants to pop along to Banbury Utd tonight, Jedward will be there to meet the fans - Banbury fans that is - I imagine he would talk to Town fans as well though. Maybe Sam Morshead or Chris Wise will go along.

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/banburyunitedfootballclub/news/supporters-meeting-in-clubhous-847101.html

Didn't Black and Arbib want anonymity when their consortium took over? with just Fitton being the front man to start with? it was only after a lot of questioning that they finally came and and said who they were.

I see no problem it will come out soon enough.

I was going to go to that along to that with my mate who is a Banbury fan, but circumstances now dictate otherwise. Perhaps The duke will go

A mute double glazing salesman is a first - I've already taken an instant dislike to Jed Clampett.

Sooner he fucks off the better!!

Except that there's been no change to Pompey's ownership in the last 48 hours, and they were allowed to sign players on short-term deals right throughout this season. Not comparable.

Who owns Portsmouth then?

Currently the administrators I believe. Why?

Completely agree.

if contracts have been exchanged and it is a matter of sanctioning from the FL, why the lack of communication?

I personally feel the new owners will, in the main, reveal themselves as soon as the League agree to them being our new owners and not before, so their identity is not revealed too hastily and unnecessarily.

I've been thinking exactly the same since his name emerged.  Wasn't helped any by the picture they showed of him on the news!

You'll be fine once the other members of the consortium are revealed - Bobby Darryl, John Boy, Cletus and Bubba

Looks a right fucking mess to me and surviving sums it up. Flogged our best player for a pittance  and can't bring anyone in. Stitched up royally by the current owner who has shown they don't really give a shit about stfc. They're all in it to try to gain and all leave us up shit street when its clear there's no money to be made here. Cunts the lot of em

Steady.  He's rumoured to be writing off debt of more than £10 million.  Not black & white.  I don't like the way the exit is being handled, but the debt write off is a big plus that AB deserves a lot of thanks for.

Quite Ardiles.  Regardless of the fashion of the exit, the club has been left in the best position it has been in since the early 90's.

But if he's basically given the club to a bunch of clueless fuckwits because he couldn't get shut of us quick enough (which I'm not saying he has, it's a hypothetical), they can undo all that in a matter of months. Which is what I was talking about last night - seems a shame after doing so much good work to apparently have been so careless about protecting it. Fact is, we won't know where all this leaves us, and so won't really be able to make any judgement on Black or the new owners for several months yet. We won't even get early signs till September of how it's really going

Would he have any chance of getting anywhere near that amount back if he wanted to?
Looks like a cut my losses,sell up asap on Blacks part to me.

Which means they have no owner. Yet they are still allowed to sign players albeit on short term contracts. Pretty comparable i'd say. In actual fact we have an owner, just no-one knows who it is.

I know you quite like having these arguments to show you're right but you're not. When a company passes into administration, the administrators take over its daily running and are considered its interim owners. The FL has sanctioned them to make transfers on behalf of Portsmouth, no doubt on the basis of having to prove the available funds to finance them, and they will do the same for STFC if we satisfy them. Can we just shut up about Portsmouth now?

Strange for Pompey to be allowed to sign players yet be in Admin, and us not, even though contracts exchanged with new owners (who presume will be named to football league-so they should know who they are?)

They have not been passed by the FL's directors test as yet and I expect with the takeover going through so close to the window the FL have not got round to investigating and looking at their new business plan and what funds the club will have and who is involved.

This should only take a few days.

Pompey is different they are in admistration and being run by the administrator, they are allowed to have a minimum squad of players but have to show how they can afford them hence not being allowed to sign any players for longer than 1 month.

Reading's took 6 weeks to get approval, Leeds a few weeks once submitted, but these were foreign investors so I imagine more documentation was required and perused.

Which is maybe why we didn't go down the route with the supposed interested foreign investors and went with Jed and his merry bunch?

Nah Black had some windows needed doing.

Black is a fucking legend in my book.

Ahhhh. You'll be right then no doubt. I wasn't aware i was having an argument. I'm just peeved that a club in far worse situation than us are allowed to sign players and we're not.



Yes very true. "Considered" being the right word. They're accountants not actual owners though. So had we gone into admin we would have been able to sign players?


Yes i know the Football league have sanctioned them, that's kind of my point. I'm sorry but i don't agree that the system is fair in this case.

I don't remember Reading not being able to sign anyone in the interim or was that when the window was shut?

[Sonic][Witty "Yeah, whatever" gif]
[/Witty "Yeah, whatever" gif] [/Sonic]

You win i can't compete with that sort of reasoning. Not comparable.

So the administrators are the owners of Portsmouth?

That Andronikou is dodgier than I thought.

[url width=500 height=240]http://i.imgur.com/OCiB1.gif[/url]

Well said, we should all remember where the club was headed in 2007 before Black et al stumped up a large amount of cash to settle the debts. We could easily have gone the same way as Luton, or even Chester.

It should also be pointed out that the other investors stopped funding the club some time ago, Black was the last one still prepared to put cash in it would seem.

Cheque's in the post.  ;)

Indeed...Black and co leave us in a better place than what they found us, which is now a blessing and problem for the new owners whoever they may be.

When the last lot took over from the previous shower, it was with a massive sigh of relief, so when things like Sturrock upping and going, the fans were understanding. The new bunch have an opportunity to build on what's in place, but will get shit if it goes rapidly pear shaped, can't see there being much of a honeymoon period.

Honeymoon - well someone is getting fucked

And I think I know who it is

Genuine question.....

Are your serious or just on the wind-up?

Just my personal feeling really.

Something just doesn't seem to add up to me. Cant say what or why

Just a feeling

I suspect you're not alone in this...

Don't think anyone ever again will invest 10 mill and then write it off, so we better get this right.

Well why don't you have a go?

I will not be taking anything for granted until its signed and done. Even then I won't decide if the takeover is a good thing until they prove it is. Fresh faces, proven commitment, direction and maybe finally some upgrading of the county ground will suffice