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I think it pretty certain that the Supporters Trust will have made the views of supporters very clear to Makwana. But let's get real here. If Gardiner stays, there will still be a significant fanbase. It is a small minority of fans who are currently boycotting games and withholding money. Attendances this season are clearly down a fair bit and some of that will be due to fans boycotting, but some will also be down to a drop off of enthusiasm following relegation. The reality is that most fans who want Gardiner gone will still come and support the team. It is of course true, that as long as Gardiner is in post, the club is losing out on a not insignificant sum of money, Makwana has said then when the deal is finalised, he wants to sit down and talk to everyone at the club and look into the whites of their eyes as part of an audit. If he is being thorough, that will include the Board of the Supporters Trust and perhaps reaching out to former staff and local business. If he does that, he will realise (if he doesn't already) that Gardiner is almost universally disliked and distrusted, and has alienated a huge number of people in the wider club community. He will also hear of numerous examples of bad decision making and poor treatment of people. He will learn that whatever positive attributes Gardiner may have do not compensate for the negatives. There is huge potential for development of the club within its staff, fanbase, local businesses and the wider community. That potential will not be realised if the club is fronted by a CEO who nobody trusts or wants to engage with. Gardiner is a millstone round the neck of the club. Makwana needs to realise that the club will not prosper whilst Gardiner remains at the club

Go on folks, do it, the weekly humiliation of abject failure is very humbling and good for the soul

Have just discovered that Seventy7 tried to buy Southend United in late 2022. The deal was fronted by a guy who seems to be a local-lad-made-good, Carl Reader, but money would have come, via Seventy7, from a Monaco-based pension fund. Reader admitted that the investors were interested in the land, the property, and the development potential, and not in the football club. The fans asked the same sort of questions that we have been asking. The deal fell through in early 2023 - it seems that the chairman Ron Martin simply refused to consider it or even talk to Reader & co. If you are interested, there are a couple of discussion on a Southend fan forum - look for responses from the front man "Carl Reader" or "Carl": https://www.shrimperzone.com/forums/threads/carl-reader-seventy7-ventures-want-to-acquire-the-club.111822/ https://www.shrimperzone.com/forums/threads/q-a-with-carl-reader.111823/ Martin finally closed the sale of the club last month - NOT to Seventy7 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cedxldzgyw7o

A balanced and fair viewpoint DD from a footballing perspective. If I thought Katwana’s interest was solely in the interests of the club I might be tempted to align / agree with you. But let’s also be realistic here and accept Kahwana is here to line his pockets and the club is third or forth in line behind getting rich on the back of whatever asset or people can facilitate that aim. He admits never even knew ICT existed until one of his fellow money mates pushed it under his nose. Keeping or dumping SG will be calculated on the ability of him being able to help Kahwana achieve this. Bear in mind SG has a watertight contract and will not depart until he gets what he thinks he can get. You will get platitudes and nice words by the bucketload, but what the fans think will hardly register with Kahwana imho.

Time for the ST to male it crystal clear to the new 'owner' that Gardiner remaining = no fanbase.

If he can’t see already what’s not working, what’s gone wrong and why, then he’s in the wrong ball game!

I think that your scenarios 1 and 3 are what is happening now. With 2 happening a short while down the line, with the excuse being that they have now calculated how much it will take to clear the club's debts, re-establish it as a football force, and - their main aim - redevelop the stadium and surrounding land. At which point the club will go into administration, then liquidation, leaving its assets, such as they are, in the hands of the Jersey investors Factortech. Who can then say to the Council: "Nice bit of land. Shame about the derelict stadium. Like us to sort it out for you?".

If put to it, the constant limelight is starting to make me rethink. The sums that CB has put forward for a majority share, (assuming these can't be circumvented), are obviously insurmountable for a company that's never handled more than several thousand quid. Then, it would be very odd for an offshore financier backer to consider funnelling a large chunk of their clients' money through such an unstable company. Let's say there was some reason to do that, they'd surely be keen to avoid this high exposure, high PR, high promise media extravaganza, and want to work a tad more quietly and discreetly. Added to that, there's surely easier ways to get a RoI on £5m (to buy a majority share - if correctly estimated) for their clients than sinking an established football club, dismantling a stadium, trying to convert CGF land -requiring HC buy-in and Sheriff Court permissions - and which 7 months ago just opened a Waste Transfer Station next door. So, I'm wondering if there's now more clarity between the info in that 'cry for help' from ICT in early June and the reality hurdles from the due diligence on the ground (pre-conditions set by S7V/backer) If so, this could be a cul-de-sac that only prolonged the inevitable. Which individuals benefit most from a prolonged, drawn out takeover, as opposed to immediate administration?