der Berliner

While we are on that topic, just noted this ... Port Vale hit by winding-up petition Port Vale have been served with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue & Customs over an unpaid tax bill.

You can actually click the link I gave above and see it in full length again.

Dunno who the chap (the Welshman who spoke just ahead of the minister) is who just speaks/spoke, but he talks a lot of sense.

Thomas Docherty ... is on right now, btw.

On a related sitenote, no cut as such ... Alan Kernaghan left Rangers last week to become Brentford's number 2, according to this article.

Of that there is no doubt. Of course, ... a) if we have a 10m gap each season, letting half a dozen players go now ease that dent or loss-making only a little, especially if you take b) in mind that players who might be sold on for hard cash can hardly find a new club (that also suits them) outwith the transfer window. So while there sure is some obligations to be fulfilled, isn't it also possible to have some sort of agreement between the actual creditors and the administrators? As in ... if the former don't want their cash back as pronto as normally might be the case for your average company (for various reasons, unwanted publicity springs to mind), would the latter hasten to any action?

When I have them, I'll will accept them. What you present is your conjecture of some of the data available so far. We will see whether your ideas about his plan are up to scrutiny soon enough, I hope.

AIn't that Gretna's privilege?

I actually assumed that GA was referring to paying people's wages (either in full or somewhat lower) till the end of the season, not any great bill or the like. How much money is stored somewhere is anyone's guess, of course.

Just "stumbled" over this on FF with regard to the Ticketus deal: It was received on Feb 22nd but only now noticed by the FFer ... Also snatched from FF ... A few points to bear in mind:

So Motherwell was in admin for 2 years, Dundee for 7 month, and tiny Clachnacuddin since late October 2009 up to now. We've been in admin for two weeks and King throws more oil into the fire? Of course, what does King want here? Cost cutting? At which expense? The team? What for? Why would a journo ask somesuch? (Aside from it being his job.) Would any redundancies really reduce our current plight significantly? Isn't it the admins' primary job to clear the whole mess, not least with HMRC's various cases, Ticketus, Lloyds, SDM and all? The sooner we find a way out of this, hopefully with someone/-many buying the club the better.

I find it a touch amusing when the sport hacks start poking into business they have next to no clue of. They hardly get it right with their transfer exclusives and background info, but want to tell other folk how to do their jobs. What's the average time you need to get a company (of our stature) out of administration?

And you can watch it live if you want!

Now ... how will I ever be able to get that picture out of my head :sowsuser:

I take the liberty to C&P Bluedell's reply ... (and land myself in deep trouble with him ) ... with regard to Pacific Shelf 595 Ltd. Only scratching on the surface, but one never knows what sort of "illegal" skeleton may lie buried here ...

Sure enough. Obviously, the blame should also lie with Ticketus for not checking the law in place. Whyte et al can always blame not to have known it either ... and Ticketus (if this comes off) may try to sue him.

I was just remembering rbr's post about those businessmen in that pub cracking some champagne bottles on the day we went into administration. If they knew that Whyte had used the Ticketus money to pay the debt and thus possibly conning Ticketus out of 20 to 24.4m, erasing the Lloyds debt without paying anything more than 1 pound for the club ... well well.

Just had a small conversation with Bluedell about these companies that "are Celtic" and methinks if they want to go down this trail, they may find a nasty surprise in their own records.

This would raise the question: was that Whyte's plan in the first place? (Did he just make (24.4m minus 18m for the debt)?) Anyways, you'd hope that this is done quickly.

For our law gurus: If the Ticketus deal is declared "void", yet their money was used to pay off the Lloyds debt, wouldn't we/someone has to pay Ticketus their money back?

Well, whether it is Murray & Co. or someone like Kennedy, someone should step onto the stage and clear this mess. While a plan with a split ownership between money-men and fans is always a good option, if it takes too long to develop, we need someone to step in and "save" the club for now. In years to come, a member-ship / consortium could still take the club from the "saviour" ... they just need to get their heads together over this and have a plan. After all, as good as a membership model is, you need to get people out there and become members to make it work ... and rather soonish. As of Whyte ... I reserve judgement* still. If he says the money "missing" is accounted for, (probably) kept away from HMRC's grasps in one or two of his companies and thus still there somewhere, the administrators will find out and tell us. There is still enough time to whip him through the village if the truth is as dire as many predict/assume. *Why? Because I simply do not believe that he conned SDM (& Co.), Lloyds (& Co.), and Ticketus (& Co.) into this without having any money of his own.

As I said before, a membership scheme with fans investing set sums at the start and then annually would be a great help and if structured correctly, could create some sort of fan involvement within the board. For the latter the members would need a spearhead figure - president-style like in Germany - to which they all would agree, a diehard level-headed Bluenose of some standing even amongst the moneymen. My choice right now would be Walter Smith.

Yes, I know, hence I put him in "...". He was signed as utility defender and performed as left back more often than not. Much like Papac. In the 2008 season he was one of our more consistent (if not world class) performers both on the left and on the right hand side of defence. His problem now might be that he's been out for so long while most people he will play against have half a season under their belts. Thus making him look bad (in not that great a team anyways) is perhaps not that difficult, though I sincerely hope that Kirk surprises us all again.

... well, I hazard a guess that we might miss out on the title this season, so as runner's up (hopefully), we will have to go through a couple of extra-qualifying rounds anyway. Only the season after next is when our previous runs are included methinks. Maybe those who continuously fail to make a mark in Europe have enhanced Scotland's (Is there irony in here? Yes there is!) co-efficient by then.

"No later than 8 weeks", starting from February 14th, in my book means April 11th or the like. If they speed this up, we might still make it. I put no hopes on this, just see what happens and go with my signature. While European football is important, the survival of the club is a priority. And without placing too much on this season's exit, unless someone/somemany with money happens by, the squad will probably much weaker than any we were able to field these last four seasons. Thus, getting past these many qualifications rounds is sure getting no easier.