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...

6 May 2011: CVA

So the lack of bloggage merits an apology, although it's not entirely my own fault - the 'Rich Text' editor used by blogger (at least the one I seem to have) has forgotten how to do paragraphs and that makes blogging a good deal less instant than it should be. Still, it's a steak compared to Twitter's hamburger.

So while I should be updating on life in Kokomo, new job which is 100% work-from-home, the delights of an eight-month old baby (although Gloria's Facebook does a better job of that one and the promotion of Saints, not to mention Doctor Who old and new ('The War Games', Patrick Troughton's last serial from 1969, was superb - start to finish - and blew my previous statements about Troughton and writer Terrance Dicks right out of the water)... anyway, while I should be talking about that, I'm not, mainly due to lack of time and my annoyance with having to put paragraph HTML tags around everything I write.

That said, today is a big day for Plymouth Argyle. Monday saw Saints win 3-1 at Home Park to ensure they were promoted and Argyle were relegated, but today is a bigger fixture for Argyle - the Creditor's Meeting where everyone owed money by Argyle votes on whether to accept an offer of 0.77p in the pound that they're owed.

Yes, that's right - not 77p in the pound but 0.77p in the pound, less than 1% of what they're owed. James Brent's 'last-man standing' bid appears to be the basis of this offer (we'll know for sure soon), while rival Paul Buttivant appears to be offering a massive 3p in the pound. Problem is, Buttivant has yet to convince the Administrator that he actually has any money... he is sounding off about it, and starting to appear to be another 'Pinnacle' (see the Saints saga from two years ago for details on that one). So, the meeting goes ahead as I write this and the offer is on the table.

Thanks to the wonder of Twitter (hamburgers are good when you need something quick, right?), and the fact that the Administrator let the media stay in the meeting, we have live coverage of the meeting... and the news is...

The CVA has been approved.

In addition, the Administrator says he has signed exclusivity with the preferred bidder (wow! didn't think that would happen to be honest) but we don't know who it is -- the Administrator won't tell us. Yet.

"Can't say who preferred buffers are - until June 14 - but are genuine football people" - which would actually seem to rule out James Brent, although you can never assume anything...

Further updates to follow, no doubt...

Update: While not giving away the identidy of the preferred bidder, the Administrator is saying who it isn't - and it's not James Brent, and it's also not Paul Buttivant. Which leaves us with the little-known Irish bid or some dark horse bid that nobody had a clue about before. Let the guessing begin...

5 April 2011: Lifted

Just past midnight in the UK, and the embargo is lifted.

Not that there's much to say. Matt Slater on the BBC website for the first time names James Brent as the front-running bidder for Plymouth Argyle, and a statement released to Pasoti via the Argyle Trust puts a little more detail on it, including their plans to 'run the club within its means' which is what they were doing, with astonishing success, some seven years ago. Still no agreement with the Mastpoint people who are holding up proceedings while trying to get their money back from the stadium mortgage, but it appears that agreement is the only thing holding proceedings up.

In other news, the first CVA offer to creditors has been put together by the administrator - 1p in the pound. A darn fine way to cut the debt, I'm sure you'll agree, but I doubt the creditors will be happy with that. Story seems to be that it's this administrator's way of making the actual offer (probably closer to 5p in the pound) a little less disastrous-sounding when it comes out.

Still, worst that can happen there is Argyle fail to exit administration via a CVA and get a further points deduction of 17 or so and end up in the Blue Square Home For Former Football League Clubs, before bouncing back a season or so later and preparing for another one hundred and twenty-five years of mid-league obscurity.

The worst that will happen if Mastpoint fail to renegotiate the debt, conversely, is that Argyle cease to exist. But as of right now that's looking a little less certain that a while back.

4 April 2011: Embargo

Rumours are that things are afoot at Home Park.

Except that there appears to be an embargo in place on any news until tomorrow, so we'll have to wait.