31 August 2011: Threads

News from Home Park after all the champagne-popping nothingness of last week?

Not much. Except:

Wages not paid. They were promised to be paid. Administrator (probably) becomes responsible for wages at midnight tonight, although not legally until 14 September.

Sparksy just tweeted: "EGM on 8 Sep to disband the #pafc Shareholders' Association"

And a couple of injury-prone players have joined on loan! Could be the shortest loans in the history of the game... more as it happens.

26 August 2011: Extended

No longer a rumour: the administrator has yet again officially extended the deadline for Kevin Heaney to find some money down the back of the sofa with which to buy Plymouth Argyle. Everything is in order, he says, just doing legal paperwork now, and he's satisfied that Heaney has the money.

So, yet again, no actual money has changed hands. Follow the money, that's the key here... and we've seen none so far.

Late Tuesday appears to be the new date. When presumably it'll all be moved again.

Weird thing is that there is no longer anything legally binding to stop the Administrator talking to James Brent and the contingency plan now. But you can bet you bottom dollar he won't - there appears no interest in actually saving the club for the Administrator (who isn't even in Plymouth today, he's in Sheffield), rather saving face by continuing to give his ridiculous Preferred Bidder every chance to complete.

That said, if Heaney does come up with 6 million quid all of a sudden, then I'll happily be proved wrong and glad that there's still a football club in Plymouth.

24 August 2011: Birthday

Apologies for lack of posts.

About 30 minutes after that one about the sheep-pig, we got a phone call saying Gloria's younger sister had died in a car accident. We've been to Texas and back since, and the process is slow and painful, but thanks to all for the kind words, thoughts and prayers.

Other stuff seems mundane and certainly less important, although today marks a year since little Hannah Elise came into our lives. Hard to believe that a year ago we were in 14-hour labour ending in c-section, and this screaming, pooping (seriously, three times on that little table while they weighed and measured her) red newborn is now walking around, eating with a fork, saying 'noooo' (among about six other words), putting a backpack on by looping the strap over her head (that's a cute one to see, showed my mum on Skype this morning and she was impressed) and about to dive into a panda bear cake on Saturday when we have some people over.

Plymouth Argyle may not last that long. The Administrator has continued to go past deadline after deadline for the 'Preferred Bidder' (despite taking said bidder to court a couple of weeks ago, only to be shown the door due to loopholes in the S&P Agreement), meaning that this Friday could be the final deadline where the Preferred Bidder fails (because he is a chancer with no money) and where the actual, real, bid - the one by the supporters trust, the fans groups, and more importantly Plymouth City Council and an actual millionaire supporter (one James Brent of Akkeron) - yes, a real bid, may be given less than 24 hours to complete a deal that the tyre-kicking preferred bidder has had six months to do and has failed to do so.

Unless Mr Brent is willing to pull out the chequebook and sign his life away, there's a good chance this might be it for Argyle. We'll see. The fans are on a vigil outside Home Park until either Saturday's game (or the announcement of liquidation). Not important really, not compared to the first paragraph of this post, but sad to see.

30 July 2011: Sheep-Pig

What is this mysterious creature? A genetic experiment gone wrong or a Photoshop special?

Actually, it seems it's a genuine animal and there's no funny Dolly The Sheep business going on at all. Far from being something new and weird, it's actually something old and weird - a 'Mangalitsa' pig, originating from central Europe, and a reminder that a lot of the farmed animals we are familiar with today are only a small subsection of what there used to be... we've carefully farmed the ones we like, let the rest die away slowly and then get used to what we see as being first 'normal' and then 'the only way it can be'. Even pigs with spots on are considered special and different, and who knows how those black-feathered bronze turkeys survived the move to white turkeys (less flavour but easier to intensely-farm and without the speckled look when you pluck them).

Having said that, of course, I'd never heard or seen of this type of pig (yes it IS a pig) until yesterday when I got my occasional marketing email from Uptons the butcher over in Southampton. Seems Simon has got his hands on a few of these pigs and for one week only they're selling them (and sausaging them, I'm pleased to report) at the shop over there. I'd be very curious to see how it tastes - would expect something a little wild-boar-ish, but the email says it's a fairly light meat. I wonder what they're doing with the left-over wool. The email also says they've bought the building next door (the old bed shop) and are going to expand into that, so maybe they're going to have some kind of wool-mill in there or something next to the new fish counter.

Meantime what to report from here? Heat wave has been a little ridiculous, especially with the air conditioning breaking again (new system put in yesterday seems to help), went to see the Atlanta Braves lose to Cincinnati last weekend (and wisely left before it got too disastrous - final score 11-2 to the Reds) and Hannah is walking everywhere, pointing, saying 'no' and 'bye' (two rather negative words for her intial vocabulary I'd suggest) and not far off her first birthday. Argyle continue to fail to resolve anything and legal issues at various levels look about to take off (they could do a Dispatches programme entirely about the shady goings-on of this football takeover), but it's all very tiresome somehow.

Oh, and Mark Cavendish won the green jersey at last in the Tour De France. I know I'm a week late in mentioning it but blogging hasn't been my strongpoint. Question is, which team will he ride for next year? I do hope it isn't Team Sky... purely because he needs to be the main leader of his team, with a team that had multiple aims he would surely not do as well. Partly because of the leadout train, but mainly because HTC spent most of the flat stages of the tour with Danny Pate and Lars Bak at the head of the race chasing down breakaways. Cav's green jersey is certainly him in a big way, but really it belongs to the whole team, and Team Sky won't be able to be as dedicated as that. Certainly not if they want to produce a tour winner by 2014.

On the other hand, there's a pig that looks like a sheep, so maybe anything is possible?

6 July 2011: Sham

Plymouth Argyle deal to sell ground to 'Irish Consortium' (actually Truro City owner Kevin Heaney) has been signed. No money has changed hands. Again.

So instead of the original plan of six-week exclusivity in return for one million pounds, Heaney and his 'anonymous backers' (who probably don't exist, at least not any more) have now had three months for about 300k.

The Fans' Trust is making as much noise as possible, but in a footballing world where it's not only acceptable but seen as a good move for Portsmouth to be run as an international money-laundering operation, nothing will be done about the deal which, despite the remit of the administrator, is not and has not been the best deal for the creditors.

The irony is that Kevin Heaney appears to still have no money to back up this 'bid' and so in a few weeks it will all come crashing down again, unless he can dig somebody up quickly. And given that rejected-by-the-administrator rival bidder Paul Buttivant has set a Private Investigator to take a look into the proceedings, I doubt Buttivant is someone Heaney can talk to.

I've actually had enough. If I were in Devon, I wouldn't be going this season. The whole thing stinks almost as much as the Pompey 'takeover', except it's been executed less cleanly and too many false statements have been exposed.

Still, who's to say Truro City won't start playing at Home Park now that their owner, in direct contravention of league regulations, controls both clubs? And Peter Ridsdale can run the footballing side of the business from inside prison, where he could be heading as he's in court this month in Cardiff facing substantial fraud charges.

What a mess.

17 June 2011: Secrets

Was planning on blogging when I get the time to describe my exciting new Kokomo adventure of playing on an 11-a-side football ("soccer") team with people half my age. But that can wait, partly because I don't have time right now and partly due to some breaking Pasoti Argyle news.

So, if you click here and go about halfway down the page you'll see a short report from IJN and his buddies from the Argyle Fans Trust who heard (thanks to useful links in Plymouth City Council) about a meeting taking place between the 'Preferred Bidder' for Plymouth Argyle and the Council concerning plans for Home Park. This meeting had previously been mentioned as happening sometime today by the Council, but the time, location etc were a secret. Unless you have useful links with Plymouth City Council. (Clarification: the guys are now saying the meeting was by chance - my previous sentence was based on info from yesterday and a discussion on the 'Open Diary' held by Plymouth City Council, so I don't yet retract it).

So off they went to the Penthouse Restaurant at the Holiday Inn, and there was Truro City Chairman and several-times-failed-Argyle-bidder Kevin Heaney, along with a couple of architects. Overheard were such phrases as "They've got to say yes, or they'll be in danger of being blamed for Plymouth Argyle going out of business" before IJN and co introduced themselves and saw, on the table, sets of architectural plans for Home Park and the surrounding area. Heaney, to be fair, didn't tell them to shove off but instead did (reluctantly it sounds) answer a few questions, including the key one: are you involved with the Preferred Bidder? Yes, came the answer.

The problems are these:

1. Heaney has no money, at least certainly not enough to deal with the crippling debt Argyle remain in despite the CVA... the 'footballing debt' has to be paid in full (along with tax and NI on that amount) and that debt not only sits around 17 million but continues to rise as long as a settlement isn't reached.

2. On a related note, as long as the settlement isn't reached, the footballing debt will grow and grow, and it appears that the payments for exclusivity have been both late and in small installments, meaning that actually Argyle have lost money through the exclusivity process because it's taking so long. Speculation over the last few days is that the next (small) installment won't be paid, thus the exclusivity will end and Argyle will have to go begging back to James Brent/Paul Buttivant with the story that the debt is now substantially more than before the exclusivity period.

3. Here's the thing really: Kevin Heaney cannot own Argyle. And that's because he owns Truro City. The 'Fit and Proper Persons Test' for league owners isn't exactly challenging (remember Pompey had some guy passed who didn't even exist) but the one thing you can't do (and the one thing they check for) is own two football clubs.

4. The administrator (who is increasingly looking like he's screwed up big time with this exclusivity thing) has also stated specifically that Heaney will not be involved with Argyle post-admin. Although of course the administrator has been known to be economonical with the truth in the past.

5. Oh yeah, Kevin Heaney has no money. So someone else is probably involved in the background, and the noises are it's someone Japanese and someone who's name begins with 'R'. And ends with 'oy Gardner'. Despite they fact they ran Argyle into the ground over the last two years and were said by the administrator to not be involved at all.

So on we go. Entertaining, interesting but overall not positive. All that Heaney (and whoever else is involved) have done is driven the club into more debt by these silly games, and it's looking murky right now as to whether Argyle will start the season - and even if they do, whether they can continue as the footballing debts mount. Something needs to be done.

Incidentally, one of Wayne Rooney's wage packets would not only completely solve Argyle's problems but allow for some serious positive expansion. But hey, there's no disparity between clubs in English football, is there?

Update: Plymouth Argyle issue a statement confirming Heaney's involvement, but being a little unclear (in fact, directly contradicting itself) on whether he's an 'advisor' or whether he has an 'interest' in the property side of the proposed deal. Details also given on the two-part deal - firstly for Heaney (or whoever) to buy the ground and lease it to the club, which will be 100% owned by Peter Ridsdale. So when the administrator said Heaney could not and would not be involved, it was a big pile of porkie pies.

Not that that's a surprise. I'm losing faith rapidly in any conclusion to this smelly, suspicious deal. And nobody has said where the money is coming from to pay the wages of the players, now some six months in arrears and which must be paid in full ("footballing debts").

2 June 2011: Untimely

Becky asks about the Vibrams. And here's the news - they're going back to the shop.

Nothing to do with the pain in my calf muscles, but mainly because despite having them for only six weeks, the stitching is all coming apart on one of them and as it's still under a ninety-day warranty, they're going back so I can get a replacement. Whenever I can get back down to Indy, at least, and given that we're going to Texas for a couple of weeks (leaving tomorrow) and won't have time to stop at the shop on the way, it may be no more Vibraming for me until we get back.

Which is a shame, because I'm making progress. Less pain in calf muscles and now able to run at 10.6 km/h (up from 10.1) without the calves tightening up too much. Still only doing 30 minutes at a time though, which is very short, but really... it's like learning to run all over again. Very very weird.

Argyle latest though isn't so good, rumour tonight is that the "Irish" bidders missed their second payment for exclusivity, apparently they've now read up on the football creditor's rule and they want out of the whole thing. James Brent better still be interested, or it's night-night Plymouth Argyle. Fixtures out in a couple of weeks, and Argyle's name may yet be missing from the League Two list.

Just like my Vibrams, it's all unravelling...