SOUTHEND United‘s future remains incredibly uncertain ahead of another crunch week for the club.
Southend City Council must agree a deal with current Shrimpers chairman Ron Martin for the revised Fossetts Farm plans before a consortium headed up by Justin Rees can officially take charge of the club.
But, despite the council setting a deadline of last Friday, those key discussions are now set to continue in the next few days.
In a statement issued on Friday evening, council leader Daniel Cowan said: “Today we have had further crunch talks with Citizen Housing and a number of key items moved close enough to our red lines in the last couple of hours that I have approved us moving forward with negotiating new heads of terms.
“Our terms only being partially met and a late hour means that we need to do further work with external advisers which if proves to be good will enable us to move closer to developing heads of terms ready for new due diligence.
“We have worked every minute possible this week to get this completed but ultimately we needed the input and acquiescence of others just to get to this point.
“Though we could not have done more on our end, I hope it was enough.”
The statement came after a turbulent day of talks.
And Cowan hinted at it being far from straight-forward in his statement.
He added: “Late last night we received proposed heads of term from Citizen Housing and whilst they had moved from the deal which failed due diligence they did not satisfy the criteria we set out last week.
“We set that criteria informed by the due diligence so that the proposal would have a fair chance of passing new due diligence, it could get through planning and the council wasn’t taking dangerous risks with public money.
“We said that we would walk away if our position was not met and would not return for further talks once we had done so.
“The future of the club and the finances of the city are important to me but I was elected to lead the city for all residents and my first priority must be to people’s services which is why I have to take a hard line on where our red lines are drawn.
“However, I have always said if there is a way forward that works for the city and saved the club then I have to be receptive to a well-evidenced counterproposal.”
Chairman Martin had previously planned to build a new stadium for the Shrimpers at Fossetts Farm with the current Roots Hall stadium – the club’s home of 69 years – being knocked down and replaced by housing.
However, the consortium have no interest in switching stadiums and additional housing has now been placed onto the plans for Fossetts Farm instead.
‘We have worked every minute possible this week. We could not have done more, I hope it was enough’
Cllr Daniel Cowan
If built, that would see £20 million being paid to the consortium to help redevelop Roots Hall.
The consortium have already pumped more than £3.5million into the club and have made it clear what must happen for them to remain involved.
In a statement issued earlier this month, the group insisted that alongside heads of terms being agreed for Fossettss Farm they also require more security from Martin and an acceptable time estimation for the remaining due diligence.
The consortium is understood to be considering their next move and a statement is likely in the next couple of days.
But to add to the uncertainty, Blues are back in the High Court on Wednesday due to a winding up petition issued by Stewarts Law and PG Site Services which totals around £500,000.
The winding up petition has also seen the Shrimpers placed in a transfer embargo but that is nothing new at Roots Hall.
The Essex side were banned from making signings for 15 months due to debts owed to HMRC before those restrictions were lifted last December.
The club were also deducted 10 points for not paying the tax bill but the Shrimpers still finished ninth in the National League last season. Manager Kevin Maher has been unable to add to his squad so far this summer, while striker Callum Powell has left to join Braintree Town.
The long-suffering supporters continue to fear the worst and this week England legend Alan Shearer also spoke out in support of the club.
The National League continue to monitor the situation.
