I heard recently that the charities and creditors haven't been paid yet, although apparently Portsmouth FC are not liable, presumably because Chanrai took it on as personal debt. Or something like that, I haven't a clue really.
Well I warned him what was going to happen, they missed the bit about "cynically going into administration", fat lot of good that did, we were docked ten points the following season and that is why it took a year longer than planned to get back into the Championship, I am sorry some posters are a bit nasty but quite frankly the post encourages that kind of response.
1. You are clearly a bitter, bitter person. 2. From what a gather, Leibherr paid off all the debts in full. 3. We didn't get a new stadium, or even just a stand, following our exit out of aministration. 4. We did incur a 10 point deduction. 5. We've had to sit through relegation, and the loss of major players due to our financial problems. It's not as if the club or, more importantly, us fans weren't punished in any way. 6. Administration was basically solely down to the stadium mortgage. We didn't spend stupid amounts of money on players (tranfers and wages) to order to achieve success, whilst ignoring the future consequences. To this day, our record transfer fee is still only 4 million. 7. All of this is nothing to do with us. We're fans, not board members. The fact that mistakes were made in the past by our owners, shouldn't ever prevent us from being happy with our efforts on the pitch. Don't blame us.
Please try, but only on the Blue few board when they savage you, you will find them much more receptive, especially SB3, he is a lovely bloke.
On the ethics of it: for it to have been an unethical way for the team to turn things around, you would have to believe that the team is a sentient organism that runs itself, rather than a company that has its decisions made for it by a board and chairman. Your conceit seems to be that the team was intentionally run into the ground as a means to shed debts and come out of it with a new stadium and better financial footing; this makes no sense in reality...the previous ownership would have nothing to gain from doing so, and it's pretty doubtful that the current management was in on the scheme, given that neither Liebherr nor Cortese were even aware of the club's existence at the time. Thus, one would have to be a blithering idiot to see something unethical in that sequence of events. Instead, it's just the all-too-common tale: an incompetent management group ran the club into the ground, lost their investment, and nearly put the team out of existence. Thankfully, we've had a much more uncommon story since...a business-savvy owner and chairman who have not only turned the team on the pitch around, but are committed to doing so in a sustainable fashion. So while it is certainly possible that we'd be back in the Championship two years from now if promoted this year (it's a struggle for any promoted team to avoid that fate), rest assured that the move back down wouldn't be accompanied by the sort of financial woes of the past.
silly responses to this post...such a shame, i've had a lovely day with Hornets and Saints fans...great banter...none of this nastiness. Happily the Saints fans that have sniped on here are not representative. Well done on your win today, though as Saint fan said to me, the score flattered. However, your team played better than ours. Good luck for the rest of the season.
You spent ten times longer writing this than it would have taken you to find out how very very wrong you were! Glad you aren't looking after my pension you bell end!
i think the responses were aimed at the OP rather than watford fans in general, people just get annoyed with WUM articles like these
...If we do go up I doubt we will go down,why?<see signature> You'll be able to watch us in the champions league in 10-15 years time on ITV.
The business of this club has been conducted in an ethically sound manner ever since the takeover, and I'm damn proud of that. Oh and we did take the 10 point penalty so not sure how that is relevant. We suffered, recovered and have nothing to apologise for.
still, seems a shame after such a great day...to see such negative responses from a team that won a football match. Thanks though, that's helped put Southampton fans back on the 'they're good people too' category again
We shouldnt be bitter with each other both wfc and sufc are great clubs who generaly punch above their weight. Sufc were unlucky they got relegated just after getting the new ground. Certainly no wfc fan should critisize southampton our problems were caused by big wages and transfer fees- the only reason we didnt go into administration is that our debts were to our owners so they couldnt get out of them. I see both our clubs as good ones - we produce young players and id like us too finish on a nice end, id love to see you promoted, prefably beating cardiff in the playoff final! Also i read all responses as too the op soz no probs with the responses(hes probanly a ps fan anyway
Nasty things and they smell vile (the insect not the fan). It has made me think about how easily we were pushed into admin. Most teams leave lots of outstanding debts and tax bills, but it was just the mortgage on stadium and overdraft (important though that is). We didn't know it at the time but it has turned out to be one of the best things to happen to us. We could have trailed on struggling for years.
