Just where is our club going?

[redrobo]

No CEO....No Academy Director....No First Team Coach.....No interested owner.....

Just where is our club going.....

With the ownership issue still not resolved and very little if any comment from the Boardroom (although in fairness that could be as a result of the current owner putting a stop to any comments from the Boardroom) I'm beginning to have serious concerns for the survival of our club that I've supported through the bad times as well as the good for over 67 years but I can't recall a time when the outlook looks so bleak both on the field and off the field (for this I blame the current owner).

Until the ownership problem is resolved then I can't see any progression which is worrying.

Whoever takes over must be prepared to invest in the club in all areas but will that happen or will the current owner continue to run the club down as it appears to be doing so in my opinion.

Worrying times ahead without doubt....

[Billy bodger]

I have alluded to the fact that considering JW is a businessman, (debatable), why is he letting the club drift? We drifted out of the League one, proper funding has drifted down the pan, the numbers of people running of the club has drifted and that burden is being picked up by others, (thank goodness). The brining in of young talent has not drifted it stoped!!

If this continues and his intransigence in the way he treats our Club and not willing to sell as of yet, means he must be losing money and if DA cannot work his magic, (plenty of time, don’t worry), and the unthinkable happens who will pay any type of proper money for the club? (Not what he wants anyway!!).

I think he wouldn’t give a flying, you know what, if it all went pear shaped.

[Wild Bill]

No doubt we are between a rock and a hard place. We can only get behind the team and Hope there's fight in the squad

[KenH]

If this continues and his intransigence in the way he treats our Club and not willing to sell as of yet, means he must be losing money and if DA cannot work his magic, (plenty of time, don’t worry), and the unthinkable happens who will pay any type of proper money for the club? (Not what he wants anyway!!).

I think it's now a case of desperation. There's so much debt (loans etc) that he needs a "dodgy" high offer to get anything out for himself, so it's a risk he's willing to take to hold off for a high offer. If the lower offer(s) from known alternatives don't cover all his debts, then he's no worse off just letting to club go under.

[P/T Indie]

I agree he's trying to get through sarbjots high offer while trying to pay out as little as possible in the short-term.

If we went under maybe he could claim bankruptcy and get all his debts from Worcester wiped out.

[BerlinWaller]

As long as the club is repaying the high interest loans to Whittingham and he can the pay mortgage he has taken out, he won't be in a rush to go anywhere unless he gets a silly offer. It is money for nothing for him, he is using our club to print money. I think that we should start looking at a Blackpool Not A Penny More protest to try and cut the head off the snake.

[BerlinWaller]

I agree he's trying to get through sarbjots high offer while trying to pay out as little as possible in the short-term.

If we went under maybe he could claim bankruptcy and get all his debts from Worcester wiped out.

I think that he has spun a big enough web to avoid any sort of personal damage from these businesess

[redrobo]

As long as the club is repaying the high interest loans to Whittingham and he can the pay mortgage he has taken out, he won't be in a rush to go anywhere unless he gets a silly offer. It is money for nothing for him, he is using our club to print money. I think that we should start looking at a Blackpool Not A Penny More protest to try and cut the head off the snake.

Exactly what I've been saying for many months.

He is winning every which way.....but it's our club that is suffering through his continued lack of investment that results in DA having to bring players in who in the main no other club would touch and it's results and dire performances that suffer.

I seriously doubt that any submission to the EFL has been made .....but prove me wrong Jason if you can.....

However whatever happens to the ownership and wherever our club end up my loyalty and continued support is guaranteed even if it's back to the lower reaches of non league.

[Keith]

As long as the club is repaying the high interest loans to Whittingham and he can the pay mortgage he has taken out, he won't be in a rush to go anywhere unless he gets a silly offer. It is money for nothing for him, he is using our club to print money.

But do we know that to be the case? I thought we were debt free? And, any new loans would have to be approved by the Board of Directors, so they [presumably] wouldn't take on any loans that weren't at the market rates? Would any loans from Whittingham or his businesses show up on publicly available accounts?

I think that we should start looking at a Blackpool Not A Penny More protest to try and cut the head off the snake.

The problem there is, we'd be reducing the cash-flow for the club. The BoD have said Whittingham can't take any money out of the club, so not buying a pie or going for a pint in JB's is just hurting us?

I'd love us to be able to do *something*, I'm just not sure what we can do without harming ourselves?

[black morse]

As long as the club is repaying the high interest loans to Whittingham and he can the pay mortgage he has taken out, he won't be in a rush to go anywhere unless he gets a silly offer. It is money for nothing for him, he is using our club to print money. I think that we should start looking at a Blackpool Not A Penny More protest to try and cut the head off the snake.

We already have the Trust set up. Surely they can find out if a proposed new owner has indeed lodged the necessary papers with the EFL. If they have then all we can do is await the outcome. If they haven't then we need to take further steps but it should be done through The Trust.

[black morse]

Talking about The trust, has anyone received and write up of the AGM which was held a week ago?

[BerlinWaller]

As long as the club is repaying the high interest loans to Whittingham and he can the pay mortgage he has taken out, he won't be in a rush to go anywhere unless he gets a silly offer. It is money for nothing for him, he is using our club to print money.

But do we know that to be the case? I thought we were debt free? And, any new loans would have to be approved by the Board of Directors, so they [presumably] wouldn't take on any loans that weren't at the market rates? Would any loans from Whittingham or his businesses show up on publicly available accounts?

I think that we should start looking at a Blackpool Not A Penny More protest to try and cut the head off the snake.

The problem there is, we'd be reducing the cash-flow for the club. The BoD have said Whittingham can't take any money out of the club, so not buying a pie or going for a pint in JB's is just hurting us?

I'd love us to be able to do *something*, I'm just not sure what we can do without harming ourselves?

Yes, it is the case. Just look through the accounts and it has been mentioned many times. Jason funds the club via loans. It is there in black and white on CH. How do you think he funds the club? He borrows, then lends it us at a higher rate than he borrowed it and puts the ground that he doesn't own up as security.

If the club can't pay off the loans owed to Jason then in turn he can't pay off the Mortgage taken out to fund the loan. It breaks the never ending chain that allows Whittingham to fleece the club.

[black morse]

Meanwhile the clock is ticking. 2 weeks till the transfer deadline.

[BerlinWaller]

Meanwhile the clock is ticking. 2 weeks till the transfer deadline.

I don't think we will be paying many transfer fees and Free Agents can be signed after the deadline.

[black morse]

Meanwhile the clock is ticking. 2 weeks till the transfer deadline.

I don't think we will be paying many transfer fees and Free Agents can be signed after the deadline.

I was thinking more in the area of loan players wage costs.

[Billy bodger]

As long as the club is repaying the high interest loans to Whittingham and he can the pay mortgage he has taken out, he won't be in a rush to go anywhere unless he gets a silly offer. It is money for nothing for him, he is using our club to print money.

But do we know that to be the case? I thought we were debt free? And, any new loans would have to be approved by the Board of Directors, so they [presumably] wouldn't take on any loans that weren't at the market rates? Would any loans from Whittingham or his businesses show up on publicly available accounts?

I think that we should start looking at a Blackpool Not A Penny More protest to try and cut the head off the snake.

The problem there is, we'd be reducing the cash-flow for the club. The BoD have said Whittingham can't take any money out of the club, so not buying a pie or going for a pint in JB's is just hurting us?

I'd love us to be able to do *something*, I'm just not sure what we can do without harming ourselves?

Yes, it is the case. Just look through the accounts and it has been mentioned many times. Jason funds the club via loans. It is there in black and white on CH. How do you think he funds the club? He borrows, then lends it us at a higher rate than he borrowed it and puts the ground that he doesn't own up as security.

If the club can't pay off the loans owed to Jason then in turn he can't pay off the Mortgage taken out to fund the loan. It breaks the never ending chain that allows Whittingham to fleece the club.

It has been said what JW does regarding money and Morecambe FC is why he still owns the Club, not a bad income and let someone else run the Club day by day.

Seeing the budget for players is smaller this year he has either not been allowed to borrow the same amount again or he has borrowed else where and they lent him less?

It is a very interesting hypothesis you put forward to deal with JW but where, my friend, does that leave the Club?

[vvm]

I always thought we got loans in fairly cheap, think I remember it being reported we only paid £250 a week for Adam Phillips from Burnley. I'd be very surprised if we ever covered the full wages, especially for those we've loaned from higher up the pyramid.

Maybe we're waiting until the transfer window nearly closes and we get some in for next to nothing as the parent clubs might prefer they get the game time at the expense of not having the wages covered?

[marky No.1]

"Just where is our club going?"

Round and round in ever decreasing circles

[BerlinWaller]

Whittingham claimed in his TS interview that the BoD's got last season projections wrong and he had to source other income to bridge the gap. Probably why he has reduced the budget this season

[KenH]

I thought we were debt free?

No, the directors said we were "debt free" 2/3 years ago at a particular moment in time after we'd been promoted, had covid grants, TV monies from FA cup runs, and sold a player. The monies received were used to pay off all the loans. The publicly available accounts for that year showed a healthy profit from those "one off" exceptional income streams. It didn't last long!

The year later, we were back to making huge losses and borrowing money again. Again, as per publicly available accounts.

We're basically back to where we were before promotion, in fact probably worse off due to the losses being even higher due to the higher costs we took on after promotion. It'll be next Spring before we see the accounts for the last season (23/24) which I suspect will show something like a million pound loss, which will have been financed by loans!

[BerlinWaller]

The NAPM protest would put pressure on Whittingham as he won't be able rinse the club and pay the debts that he has. If he isn't getting his easy money, would he hang around or will he be more open to selling it?

If he defaults on his borrowings, the club would probably be put in to administration. That is something nobody wants but it would bring his gravy train to a halt. We need rid of Whittingham.

[Billy bodger]

The Not A Penny More Protest at Blackpool saw many, many fans not renew their season tickets for Blackpool while the Oyston family still had control of the Club. I remember seeing pictures of a near empty stadium.

The problem at Morecambe is that season ticket sales have kept amazingly high (near the last 2 seasons levels). They don’t sell match day programs anymore. So it’s only not buying drinks or food inside the ground that this year Morecambe fans can do.

Now next season!!!

If the sale of the Club and all the speculation that a bid is being scrutinised by the EFL, is nothing but another one of JW’s ‘Pie in the sky’ statements, we may end up with him as owner at the end of this season.

So the question is, would a N.A.P.M. protest get rid of him?

[Phoenix Shrimp 2017]

On the field I would suggest we are in a mini league fighting relegation. It's a very small mini league and it's going to take all Derek Adams experience to keep us up. With the current off the field shenanigans anything above the bottom two would represent a massive achievement. Just my opinion but I am a realist!

Off the field we can only remain patient and hope the situation resolves itself sooner rather than later. In my opinion things such as 'Not a Penny More' protests can only damage the club further and would be an insult to our directors who are doing their level best for the club. We are all frustrated but on the plus side we do have some excellent directors and a more than capable manager.

As fans I hope we do our level best to remain positive and don't start slagging the players off during or after the games. If we're going to stop in the EFL they need every bit of help we can muster!

[Wild Bill]

I think a boycott would be the nuclear option and only worth considering if we are dead and buried in L2 and still in limbo with the sale. Right now, we have our league status to fight tooth and nail for, starting with today.

[Billy bodger]

Just starting my pre match preparations, having my dinner. Then I will pick up my mates and get to the Mazuma and support the team.

Home form will be crucial and the home support, by us the fans, can be that deference.

Please don’t get on their backs, loss of confidence by the players can destroy teams.