wakey

not sure you'd put five grand down just to have a look ...

Wigan are paying for it. It'll be the best wall ever, really really great.

First thoughts were it's a bit Trump-like. Second thoughts, to be Trump-like it would have to 1. be much shorter and done via tweets 2. Include "everyone knows NB has a drink problem" 3. Call everyone else a liar 4. Claim some or all of what he'd done was the greatest ever. So just a piss poor effort really.

yes. The justification - if that's the right phrase - from some is that he used it (his £525k) to buy Holdsworth's shares. Think the argument being that it's not just a wage / not recurring. Of course, we've no idea if / what else he's taken out until we see another set off accounts. Someone said he's put £2m of his own in, but don't think there's any evidence to support or discredit that. Of course, there's the £5m he borrowed off Ed and loaned to the club. Some debate as to whether it's Ken putting his own money in - technically it's his money once he'd borrowed it. His loan from Eddie apparently secured against his shares, his loan to the club secured with both fixed and floating charges from first glance at the debenture agreement (couldn't be arsed reading all of it). Nutshell appears to be if he doesn't pay ED loan back, he loses his shares but still has secured debt against the club. Obviously there's no cash to pay him back, so he only gets his £5m loan back from liquidating the assets if we're wound up (assuming they realise enough cash to pay ranking preferential creditors first - depends what the stadiums worth I suppose). TIME SAVER - if you can't be arsed reading the above, quick answer 1. yes 2. dunno

ah ...

he doesn't. he's a crook. it'll be a wind up.

What's Michael Knighton up to these days ...

you need another pair of them rose-tinted glasses Sluffy. It is grim - worst thing is none us have a sniff of a solution to this other than some billionaire knight on a white charger riding in. Come to think of it, I've a very vague and mostly meaningless anecdote about the club's finances I might share at some point. A bit out of date now anyway. And pretty dull.

I once did a quick tot up of the most well known generous football 'benefactors' (Jack Walker, Abramovic etc) investment as a percentage of their reported net worth (I'm proper sad me). Can't remember what it was now but it was small - think 5%-10% ish. If we need say £5-£10m per year to keep the lights on, even without investment in transfer fees we'd need someone worth min £250m to keep us going for the next few years. Alternatively we need to stop losing money (more cost cutting) plus have access to a few mill for short-term cashflow.

If it gets really messy, there might be short stroll as well. But it'll be an angry stroll mind.

fcuked if I know. Think somebody mentioned tennis balls ...

But uncle Eddie bailed us out of spiv #1's BM deal. Spiv #2 now has twice the ownership he expected without (yet) paying spiv #1's contribution or his own. most interesting and largely unmentioned bit of the BM saga - Ed loaned the brass to Ken, not the club. Means if / when Ed (now Ed's estate) want repayment, they chase Ken personally not the club. If Eddie was genuinely still bailing us out as some claim, he'd have put it in directly. Probably easier to agree everyone's a wanker then we're all happy.

Not sure it's a contest for which one's the biggest spiv. Effectively Ed's loan now covers Deano's "£5m" since it was used to pay off BM. Not sure we've ever seen Ken's £2.5m, but in any case the initial sum was just to keep us afloat in the relatively short term. If Cardiff hadn't donated £6m to the cause, suspect the meltdown we're seeing now would've come far sooner.

This has been the problem all along. KA was supposed to be Holdsworth's money man (after some other presumably shady type got cold feet).

Ah, for the good old days when we took the piss out of the Venkys

Think that 0-3 Blackpool was Jim McDonagh's debut.

by my reckoning that's 3 of the 77/78 squad gone now. 4 if you count Chris Thompson. Plus the gaffer. Very sad - my childhood heroes.

RIP Probably my first and greatest footballing hero. Always wished I'd been old enough to fully appreciate (always worry childhood memories = I exaggerated how brilliant he was). Very few clips around of him in action for us, but thankfully the few snippets I have seen seem to confirm it. Never seen a winger take the piss like this fella could.

remember him looking class first couple of games then getting crocked. Out long term, then didn't do much when he came back. Then again, it's a long time ago and I've had a drink since then ... so maybe none of the above. And of course, RIP. Only 65 - anyone know how he died?

Chelsea just after Nat died. Team rolled over and - just as bad - we didn't come close to filling the ground. I'd hoped we'd fill it, find an extra seat from somewhere, and forever have our record Reebok attendance as that day.

Everton abandoned game when Reidy got injured, late 1970s. Sure it was boxing day.

I can't count. It's no wins in loads.

They don't really count. No wins in 10 then.

Let's hope the club does. Doubt even he wants to be where he is at the moment, but it's clear for now Ken's the only shit show in town - we have to hope he can scrape through until we find some lunatic to throw brass at us. Don't do twitter, but wouldn't mind seeing examples posted of the stuff Isles has done to wind folk up so much. Apart from being a bit dull and having a head you could peel and chip, I've never seen owt from him I could get vaguely upset about. Oh ... and hello everyone. Been lurking for a while enjoying the banter. Not really sure why a post about a local journo's the first one I bothered posting on, but there you go ... I must be head of his fan club or summat.