snorbens_caleyman

Now done. Let's see how long it lasts...

Fron the edit history, the change was made on 26th July by a user called "Coatbridge Chancellor", who spends much of their day updating Scottish football entries. They describe themselves thus: "My main interests on Wikipedia are Rangers and Association football, particularly Scottish football." So now we know what Scot Gardiner does all day I've never edited a Wikipedia page before, but I might just do this, to see what happens. Would we agree that the current owners are "private shareholders"? BTW, there's a LinkedIn post from 10 months ago, in which Makwana appears to pass himself off as the owner of Hayes and Yeading - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ketanmakwana_hyufc-football-sportsmanagement-activity-7116705287759093760-fD8a

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC149117/filing-history?page=2 On 03 August 2017, at an EGM, am ordinary resolution was passed which "...generally and unconditionally .. [authorises the Directors] .. to allot shares in the Company or grant rights to subscribe for or to convert any security into shares in the Company ("Rights") up to an aggregate nominal amount of £5,000,000 (including the issued share capital of of the Company as at the date of this resolution) ...". This was immediately followed by a special resolution which empowers the Directors to allot equity securities in accordance with the other resolution. Both resolutions say that these powers shall expire five years after the passing of them, unless renewed, varied or revoked by the Company, save that the Company may, before expiry, make an offer or agreement which would reqiure shares/rights/equity securities to be granted - presumably after the expiry date. Or - and this is the bit that intrigues me - "the Directors may allot shares or grant Rights / allot equity securities in pursuance of any such offer or agreement notwithstanding that the power conferred by this resolution has expired.". Almost identical resolutions were passed at an AGM on 18 December 2017, save that the amount is £6M, not £5M, and also a reference to a "grant of Rights in the period of 35 days prior to" the 03 August resolution is removed. Does that last bit in italics mean that the Directors can do this whenever they want? Assuming that these resolutions have not actually been revoked, even though they may have expired. (Though I realise that they may have been renewed at subsequent AGMs.) Am I right in thinking that, with about £5M already in the accounts as "called up share capital", this would allow them to issue only £1M worth of new shares? I can't see minutes of the AGMs, so I don't know if this has come up with since 2017.

28 June 2008. One of my wife's few relatives was getting married, near Falkirk. The wedding was in mid afternoon. The female side of the family were all getting their hair done that morning. Just about the only male relatives were the bride's father and brother, and they weren't allowed out! So what's a man to do? Zoom round to Myreton, of course! (I've also been to East Fortune, but can't seem to find any photographs. I well remember the big Vulcan sitting outside.)

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

Which is surely the biggest, reddest flag of them all.

Looks great. They even have a Jensen 541 for IBM!

Everyone apart from the well-heeled was repairing cars back then! My father was a Vauxhall man, from old Veloxes, through Victors, up to a Cavalier. (He did make a detour to a Hillman Minx once. And also to a Morris Marina - the least said about that, the better!). So I can remember him repairing rust holes with fibre glass and chicken mesh. He always had the lubrication chart for the current car on the wall of the garage, and periodically disappeared underneath with his grease gun. Points were always in need of adjustment, and the carburettor was always in need of a clean-out. One of his friends was a mechanic at Highland Omnibuses, and he was a great bloke to know for diagnosing problems and helping you fix them. And on more than one occasion we made out-of-hours visits to the bus garage on the Carse, to make use of the inspection pit. And nowadays you don't even get a spare tyre! Or a jack - as I discovered last year when one of our (heavy) fence panels became displaced and we needed to lift it up and back into position. Neither my car nor my wife's has one - both have run-flats. But a £20 jack from Halfords did the job.

I always liked these Vauxhalls. As for the Riley..... gather round, kids, and Gramps will tell you of the old days when BMC was into badge-engineering, putting out essentially the same car under up to five different marques - Austin, Morris, Riley, Wolsley and Vanden-Plas. And guess what, kids - they were all rubbish!

Last one for now - a classic 2CV. Complete with a model of itself, and the Michelin man. Note that the first bloke on the right at the back has taken advantage of its legendary removable seats!

Courier headline: "Ketan Makwana says no changes at the top at Inverness Caley Thistle until he knows ‘what’s working, what’s not working’".

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?".

So even if he can't say how much money he will be investing, or where it's coming from - which doesn't instil confidence - surely he can tell us about the other phenomenal developments which (he says) he has been involved in? From the viewpoint of the ordinary fan, I'd say that he has done nothing right either. And that's basically what the Companies House records for all his companies suggest. Nothing really wrong, but nothing right either. An enigma.

I chanced across something today that he wrote about a Yeading and Hayes match. It was "we" this and "we" that, written as though he was the owner. And we all know how that turned out.

Presumably that includes the CEO, and the manager?

Only if he was looking for another job!

Some well looked after old cars there. Looks as though they use the entire length of Church Street? Here are couple of sporty models with about 50 years between them. I'm sure you'll recognise the first one, but I've left the giveaways there anyway. I did once have a look at an S2000. But I realised that my golf clubs wouldn't go in the boot, so that was the end of that!

I have been wondering if our young team can last the full 90 minutes. Was going to say that it doesn't bode well for when the pitches become heavier during the winter. But then I remembered that 8 out of the 10 are artificial. So maybe it'll be another season when our away results are better than our home results...

And so we're top of the league 69% possession according to the BBC stats. How much of a crowd is there? (inside and outside the ground)

Makwana has two main things that he can do to allay concerns: 1) Publicly state some idea of how much money there is to invest in the club, and where it's coming from. He must have a business plan, so he must know. Yes I know that there are NDAs and confidential loans, but he surely must have given the Board some idea? A ballpark figure with assurance that it is rooted in reality would be helpful. 2) Publicly provide some examples of other successful developments that he has fronted. Not "been involved in", not "did some consultancy on", but "fronted" - where he has been the main man in making things happen. Until he does both of these, we are entitled to treat him, and the Board, with nothing but sceptism. And that's putting it politely!

See also "Mustang" !

And this is one that you'd never guess - unless you had built one yourself!

"That will be “not just for the people of Inverness to enjoy but also for people who come and visit and give people a reason to come and visit Inverness” so as to “bring people into the environment and let people fall in love with football”. Well you won't get them to fall in love with it if they are playing to Ferguson's tactics “The other side is our background is in entertainment, leisure and sport. We have a phenomenal amount of expertise in building these types of eco-systems." FFS, does no one think of asking him to name a few examples??? There are so many fine words in what he says, without the faintest piece of evidence to suggest that any of it is true. I suppose he's attracted to the Longman because it's also full of garbage. File alongside Johnson's 40 new hospitals

I'd love to know what these "assets" are that he keeps banging on about "liquidising" to fund the deal. He didn't have any to speak of in his accounts as of 30 September last year. The Factortech fund specialises in short-term (<5 year) loans to SMEs (in this case Seventy7), secured on the SME's assets and on their receivables. So ICTFC's assets will be the security for the loan. I doubt very much if there are "receivables" - ie money owed to ICTFC - in the short term. But note that future transfer fees received, prize money, TV money, etc, could all go (via Seventy7) to Factortech if that's what's required to pay back the loan. The Factortech fund details are here: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/64f7c0e377d181192992983c/6601ccf202de094025ac1a10_Factortech Cell A factsheet_22.03.24 PB (1).pdf If that doesn't work, go to https://www.factortech.com/ , scroll down and click on "factsheet" under "02 Jersey Longer Term Vehicle". You'll see that the target return, to Factortech and its investors, is 18%-20% pa. The management fee is 2% pa. The performance fee is 35% pa - not sure how this would be worked out - based on the increase in valuation of the business to which the loan has been made? So it's difficult to see how Makwana could make money out of this - and it shows that there will be plenty of money going into other people's pockets should the club ever be profitable. Now that I have thought about it, the Courier interview and the article quoted above are greatly disappointing. First of all, they could and should have gone to town on where the money is coming from - and how it gets paid back. I'd also have asked for details of other things that he is currently involved in, and of past involvements. If the reporter didn't feel capable of asking business questions, then he could have gone for the "human aspect" angle. "Why do you want to own a football club? Especially one more than 500 miles from your home? How often will we see you? How long are you in it for?". And the clincher: "Can you explain the offside rule?"

He basically says that he will set up a trade creditors' relief scheme by the end of August. And also pay all salaries at the end of August - money which he could lose if the deal doesn't go through. As to how much it's all worth: "There was only one area that he could not discuss and that was the total value of the deal and future investment because both sides have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as lawyers pour over contracts." Basically, it doesn't tell us any more that we had already worked out, and the hard questions are either not asked or are ducked. There is at least a lack of the BS which you find on his website and social media. I may have more to say once I have read it more carefully....