THE MATCH

SUNDAY 11TH AUGUST KO 4:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



So a new season is upon us after DR performed a minor miracle in keeping us in the Championship last season. After the shambles of the last post season, we weren't sure if the lunatic would have another meltdown and get rid of him, but thankfully DR has agreed to stay and we look forward to the new season with a bit of optimism. Half a dozen players left in the summer but we have bought a number of players in and hopefully a few more before the season begins and fingers crossed will push us up the table as the season progresses. I would take a mid table finish as we speak, but if the new signings shine maybe an unlikely playoff spot is a possibility

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



We begin the campaign at home as new Plymouth manager Rooney brings his troops north. Plymouth like us avoided the drop on the last day of the season but had struggled towards the end of the season. Rooney was appointed on the 25th May and given a three year contract. Rooney struggled with his previous job at Birmingham, taking the from in the playoffs when he arrived and was dismissed with them barely above the relegation zone, he may have been a good player but has struggled as a manager with a 26% win rate. A risky appointment by Plymouth.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 17
PLYM 17
DRAWS 13

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                              

PLYM -                                         

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  



THE TEAM

Could be anything, particularly midfield and attack

Beadle
Valery Bernard Ihiekwe Lowe
Chalobah Bannan Ingelsson
Musaba Cads Kobacki

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Musaba

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Maddix 6
Wereham 6
Imre 4
Washington 2
SCO 2

BMPL

Southey 6
Owlkev 4
Stateside 0
Pei 0

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Man Utd v Man City
Oxford v Norwich
Wrexham V Wigan
MK Dons v Bradford
Yeovil v Hartlepool

AAHHH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Only seen the headline,

Leicester coach Craig Shakespeare has died aged 60.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Can vaguely remember him at Albion, can’t remember if he was good or average. Still very sad and very young.

Matt Phillips may be off to Oxford, hope it goes through and good luck to him, he has been great at the Albion, not quite a legend but certainly high up there.

August is here. The season is nearly upon us.

It seems to me that we are too small to continue on here. Matt is young and must have a life to live. Salts went on holiday, hope he is okay. Dancing is in Spain if not imprisoned in a caravan in Leek, and me I'm old and unable to get myself together to leave Devon ..........

I'll keep accessing Huddersfield's pages taking part in Snoots competitions, but that is it. It has been great.

Wow!

I live too far away but have dreamt often of retirement and having a season ticket to watch matches in the future. But you are better off having an away season ticket than a home one!

What do you guys with a season ticket think of this latest situation.

The Blue stripes replacing Navy seems less of an issue.

Starts on Friday. But the football is underway and we've had the first riot already

Morocco beat Argentina 2-1 in a game that lasted four hours

https://www.wba.co.uk/news/we-are-albion...d-sale-now

Thoughts? I'm actually coming around to it but it's a bit Watford?

A consortium led by Australian businessman Justin Rees has finally completed a takeover of Southend United.

Contracts between the group and former owner Ron Martin were exchanged in December, nine months after he put the National League club up for sale.

The sale had been drawn out over months because of issues surrounding housing development plans relating to Fossetts Farm, a site where Martin had previously hoped to relocate the Shrimpers.

The consortium, COSU (Custodians of Southend United), had previously confirmed the club will remain at Roots Hall, their home since 1955.

"The consortium is delighted to announce that the purchase of Southend United Football Club has been successfully completed," said a statement, external.

"The process, which began in July 2023, was complex and as a result has taken longer than any of us anticipated.

"Completing a complicated deal such as this requires hard work and compromise on all sides.

"With that in mind, we would like to extend our thanks to Ron and Jack Martin, who have acted with integrity and professionalism throughout our dealings, aiming to find solutions as quickly as possible to the many complex and challenging changes that arose along the way."

The statement added: "We now turn our attention to the start of the new season and hope that the Southend community will unite behind Kevin Maher and the Blues squad.

"There remains much work to be done but with the support of the city, we are confident of a bright future for the Shrimpers."

Consortium includes lifelong fans
Southend United consortium
IMAGE SOURCE,SOUTHEND UNITED FC
Image caption,
The consortium led by Justin Rees (second from right) have bought Southend from former owner Ron Martin

Rees is expected to be the new chairman, though much of the day-to-day running of the club will continue to be done by chief executive Tom Lawrence.

He has been in post since May 2021 and said at the start of the 2023 that financial problems had left the club with an annual funding gap of about £2m.

The other consortium members are John Watson, Gary Lockett, Tom Arnold, David Kreyling, Paul Redbourn, Ian Redbourn, George Taylor - the son of former Southend East MP Sir Teddy Taylor - Jason Brown and Lawrence.

"The news we’ve all been waiting for. Proud to have played a small part in this," Southend-On-Sea Council leader Daniel Cowan said on X,, external formerly Twitter.

The takeover was also welcomed by the Shrimpers Trust supporters' group, who posted: "Enjoy your first stress free night in many, many years, Shrimpers."

Southend were formed in May 1906 and in their 118-year history have been as high as the second tier of English football in the 1990s and again in 2006-07, a season which also saw them reach the League Cup quarter-finals.

They missed out on a play-off place last season because of a 10-point penalty imposed by the National League because of their financial issues.

COSU have effectively running the club since the contracts were exchanged and Rees told BBC Essex in May that they had already spent £3.5m.

The following month, however, they were ordered to provide a £1m bond by the league who were concerned about Southend's "ability to fulfil its financial obligations" for the coming season.

But the latest in a series of winding-up petitions the club has faced was dismissed on 26 June leading to the lifting of a second transfer embargo, external imposed in May, just five months after the previous one ended, having been in place for over a year.

The Fossetts Farm development is now subject to a second due diligence exercise by Southend-On-Sea Council.

Interesting, easy to read article here:

https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2...d.html?m=1

Woking's owner has said the National League club will go into administration if a buyer cannot be found in the next few weeks - and he is willing to sell for £1.

A £600,000 loan from owner Drew Volpe's parents has given the Cards a lifeline to begin the new season next month.

Speaking to BBC Radio Surrey, Volpe revealed he had invested "over £3.425m" in the club since taking over in 2021.

When asked if the club would now be in administration without the loan from his parents, Volpe said: "Yep, 100%".

"The bottom line is I'm not made of money, so I couldn't keep on doing this for a fourth year straight," he added.

"Between tax stuff, insurance, some other liabilities, the numbers add up real fast – to a scary, scary degree.

"Once it's in your veins it's hard to stop, you want to keep chasing that promotion - but I realise now I can't keep doing it. I don't want to be eating out of a dumpster outside of my apartment."


The Cards are due to begin the new season away at Altrincham on Saturday, 10 August.

Volpe said the loan from his parents would ensure the team could start the league season, when money would begin coming in from gate sales on matchdays.

But Volpe said he was now more confident a deal could be reached for new owners to rescue the club after making "great progress" with takeover talks.

"Obviously we're still bringing on new investment, which should be happening in the next couple of weeks, but at this moment we are fine," he added.

"It's absolutely been sleepless nights, a lot of worry, but for now we're safe.

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't dire straits until [we got] the money into the account.

"The reality of it, is that the club's going to be sold for probably £1 - based on the liabilities that we have, the money I sent over will be able to pay off almost all of that and then we'll have games and money will be coming in."

'A systematic failure from all angles'
Volpe and his business partner John Katz took over the club in 2021.

A 15th-place finish in the National League in 2021-22 was followed by a promotion push that ended in fourth place behind Wrexham, Notts County and Chesterfield in 2022-23, with Woking beaten by Bromley in the play-off eliminator.

He conceded that it had "probably not" been wise to spend "a lot" to compete with the likes of former National League sides Notts County and Wrexham, who had much higher budgets.

Last season, the team regressed to end the campaign 17th.

Woking announced in June that Katz had stepped down from his role as chief executive officer but would remain on the board of directors.

They said Katz, who previously managed the club's women's team, would also continue in his position as football secretary., external

Volpe says it is a "systematic failure from all angles" that has led to the club's perilous financial position and that entering administration would represent a "catastrophic failure" to himself and Katz.

"I think we had higher expectations than we should have had in terms of commercial revenue and also in terms of making a run in the FA Cup or FA Trophy - those are very important to covering your projective losses," he said.

"And we didn't have that this past year, we had basically nothing.

"It's hard to say we're not guilty of that [overspending] given where we are."

BBC Radio Surrey approached Katz but he did not wish to comment.