Crouch pays Saints' wages for April (From Daily Echo)

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Former chairman Leon Crouch helps keep Southampton FC afloat

9:17am Tuesday 19th May 2009 in Saints News

Former chairman Leon Crouch

Former chairman Leon Crouch is helping to keep Saints afloat as talks to buy the club continue to drag.

The Daily Echo can reveal that the Lymington-based businessman contributed towards April’s wage bill and has agreed to stump up some cash for May’s salaries as well if a buyer is not found in time.

That follows the £50,000 cheque he wrote out to the club on the day Mark Fry arrived at St Mary’s as the Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC administrator back on April 2.

Crouch, who was ousted as football board chairman 12 months ago following the return of Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde, declined to comment on the story or the specific amounts of money involved.

It is understood that two month’s wages for the entire club would not come up far short of £1m.

There were three 23,000-plus attendances in April which helped cover that month’s wagebill and also some of this month’s.

But in the absence of any new deal being struck yet and with Saints having not sold any players either to bring in much needed funds, Crouch’s contributions are being seen as crucial to the club’s survival.

There had been serious concern over whether the club would be able to continue to function at this stage with no new owner in place.

The May wage bill will be paid on May 28 but the funds need to be cleared by this Thursday.

Potential new owners of Saints are being asked for a non-refundable deposit in the region of £500,000.

That will be used to cover a month’s wages while full due diligence is carried out, hopefully leading to a takeover.

Crouch – who was the second largest individual shareholder of Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC with a 10 per cent stake – has also paid to underwrite the Saints Aid concert at St Mary’s this coming weekend.

It is not known how long he will continue to support the club financially while a buyer is sought.

But his contributions have helped Fry buy some extra time in which to find a buyer – but that extra time is measured in days rather than months.

Fry has been trying to knit together a deal in what is becoming a long and drawn out attempt to bring talks to a successful conclusion.

Having set the Matt Le Tissier-backed Pinnacle group an initial deadline of Friday, and then extended it to yesterday, it is understood a further extension has been granted until today.

Tony Lynam, who is managing the Pinnacle bid, told the Echo last night: “We are still working on it and are in the final stages.

“It is reaching crunch time but we are still confident.”

Pinnacle have been talking to Fry now for over a fortnight.

At the same time the Echo understands Fry has been in contact with the consortium being fronted by Stuart Green and Marc Jackson for the first time since they lodged a bid for the club over a week ago.

That initial offer was for £8m up front with a further £2m deferred and another possible £5m in payments due on promotions, ultimately back to the Premiership.

It appears that initial deal was well below the one scratched out by Pinnacle.

But whether any further cash could be found as time starts to run out, and whether there is a deal to be struck with creditors who face losing their investments, remains to be seen.

In addition, an overseas group of businessmen remain very interested in acquring the club.

As revealed in yesterday’s Echo, the group – whose lawyers have been in contact with Fry for around a week – are waiting to step in if the Pinnacle consortium fail to meet their latest deadline.

It is believed the group have pieced together a business plan to show Fry and the creditors if they can stump up the £500,000 deposit and win preferential bidder status.

Comments(63)

Charlie George's Lawnmower says...
9:20am Tue 19 May 09

Good for Leon.

Shame on those other rich Saints fans who are doing nothing to help the club in it's hour of need.

Why hasn't the Echo approached Gavyn Davies to see what he can do for the club??????