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Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away might have been great tonight but it'll be ******* hilarious in a couple of months when they're on it.

If you have legitimate and perfectly legal ways to avoid paying tax why wouldn't you use them? Though those IoM aircraft VAT deals do not look legal, but I digress. I don't actually think that there's anything dodgy or shady about the dealings and ownership of the club. That £10m facility, secured by a charge on the ground, is close (by my calculations) to being fully used with the drawings from it being used to fund clearing the past debts, the failed stadium costs, the annual operating losses of ?£1.2m and the interest of c. £0.6m payable on the loan. I don't think there's anything particularly to see here other than the obvious: loss-making club exhausts its line of secured credit sometime this season ? March. At that point either there is an immediate sale of a loss-making club with no net assets, or Dwane Sports puts more money in to either continue funding the losses or tide it over until sale, or DS can just call in the security on the ground and sell it, then wind up the club (to avoid being prosecuted for trading when insolvent) and walk away only having lost their initial purchase cost. With the obvious exception of that arch-belter Henbury there is a widespread realisation amongst Rovers' fans that they are very much drinking in the last chance saloon. I am very surprised that the BEP has not done a financial analysis of their position and started asking some questions. A good journalist should be spotting a crisis before it happens not waiting until it happens and claiming "Nobody saw this coming". Here's a simple question for them to put to the Rovers' Chairman: "When do you expect the £10m secured loan facility upon the Memorial Ground to be fully drawn and how will you fund the club's operating loss and the payment of interest upon that drawn loan thereafter?". It's a simple question.

The Millwall fan said the only thing missing was the "fackin coconut shy"!

Darryls Season strategy Concentrate on FA Cup Concentrate on Caraboao Cup if fall,out of FA Cup,and Carabao Cup - ensure progress in Checkatrade Trophy Ensure detail input into new stadium Ensure detailed input into new training ground ahhhhhhh well Mind The Gap

"The away end is covered, but by a plastic tent thing which seemed quite temporary"....wrong Mr Port Vale fan, it's permanent. In fact, I'm sure they were playing Port Vale when a wayward shot nearly knocked the whole thing down. Why isn't that Sag journalist trying to find out what's going on at the club instead of trawling the Internet for the handful of comments out there about the Mem that are'nt taking the piss? No mention of the comparison to Chernobyl Millwall fans loved the place...

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Whether you are one of us, one of them trying to work us into a lather, or one of them who loves their club dearly and are angry at the way things have gone, you are one of the funniest and most original posters on here.

Agree. Anybody attending the matches is letting all EFL fans down by helping support this farce of a competition. Ideally their crowds would be much, much lower.

They like losing 4-2 to basement teams this week..!!

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Swindle still 2 - 1 up. Looks like another defeat to a div 4 team. Meanwhile their neighbours are now regularly beating prem opposition.

All purpose exile name - Bristol Movers Move to Kent - Bristol Dovers Move to Sussex - Bristol Hovers Move to Bath - Bristol Loofahs Try something new (giving up football) - Bristol Roofers

Yeah ****** right we should.

The precedents are that new clubs now tend to start no higher than the equivalent of Western League Premier. Recently, that’s where reformed Aldershot, Hereford and Salisbury restarted (probably a few more but that’ll do for an example). It causes problems with away attendances but usually only for one season, if you are the best funded by miles you tend to get promoted. In one respect I like the way it spreads the money around, every other team in that league gets a bumper home gate. I know in Hereford’s season in the Midland League the attendance for their game at a club was invariably more than the rest of the season’s home gates combined. In other respects it’s daft, clubs with home gates of 100 usually can’t cope with (say) 500 visiting supporters (and since most games are local that can easily happen). Throw in a bit of bad behaviour from the visitors and it’s a bad recipe. Should the implosion happen I think relocation to Twerton is very likely, followed by rapid amalgamation of the clubs should the EFL be content for Bath City to take over the sags’s EFL persona.

er - yes!

I can practically hear Hamer's answer now: a twenty minute ramble bringing in some dated cultural references talking about football finance in general terms, parachute payments, how small clubs can't compete, problems at other clubs, how he found his lost sock under the bed that morning. Everything but answer the question. And to give him his credit he is a decent and avuncular speaker who has over many years mastered the art of saying nothing at great length but in an entertaining way.

Very concisely put, and possibly one for Twentyman to broach next time he invites Hamer or Wally onto his show (not that I expect either to answer with any honesty or clarity).

They have got a VERY wealthy supporter. A true gashead, loyal and proud, apparently. It’s “definitely” true because someone once took a picture of him stood with a bloke wearing a Rovers shirt. That makes him a gashead, you know..! I can’t think what his name is at the moment, but he was a co-founder if some financial services firm and has recently started taking quite a supportive interest in developing local sport, within Bristol. Oh.... what is his name....?!

That’s the point! People hate the competition and are letting people know it. They should be applauded for that (not the result, that was hilarious) but can’t people get it into their heads that the low crowds are intentional? It really isn’t difficult to understand. Apologies if I’m coming across as a Gas sympathiser but if we take the piss out of the 1% where they don’t deserve it then it undervalues the 99% when they do.

That's not their style.

I think he did miraculously to get them out of the Conference at first time of asking, let alone the second promotion, he appears to have been hamstrung at this level by the owners though. He has been loyal and successful given what he had, I for one wish him well when he finally gets out of there, he deserves it for putting up with that shower.

I hear rumours that the fence is about to be reposessed.

I wonder if he has much ambition - he seems to have stayed at Rovers under some sort of misplaced loyalty, and his star is not so bright or ascending now. Just feel a more ambitious manager would have jumped at some of the alleged offers he had

That was easy, the Aust Ferry.......

Love this snippet from the sags forum this evening, even they recognise now that their ground is crap and the club are a total shambles. Reading through the posts it appears a certain realisation has now hit home that a car crash is approaching!!

To be honest I wanted them to go through as every round creates a monetary loss. But as it is we've just received our daily gift so we may as well laugh hysterically.

Beaten by 10 man Swindle Div 4, Beaten by Notts County Div 4, Beaten by WHU youth team. Have things on the pitch ever been so bad. Waels of dissent on Slagchat.

It was bloody annoying when I had to work in Swansea - If I drove ten miles up the road from where Ilived I could see the ******* place across the water but it took me five hours to drive there.

According to my gashead ‘mate’ Rovers have put out a strong team aswell. They really are shit.

Invasion Of The Ground Snatchers.

An association with horses leads to Bristol Hoofers. And dogs - Bristol Rovers - OK they're already called that, now we know why.

They'll surely have a Highlands branch of their supporters club. Won't they?

Ahem, EFL League 9 as I'm sure that it will be renamed in North Bristol.

A seasonal poem by B J Tann RA “Dirty days hath November” Bathed in darkness by the Jordan bank a tented village lays desolate and forlorn As riders approach, behold, a shimmering shaft of light penetrates the deepening gloom and a purveyor of conveniently sized plastic food containers comes forth Pity, say the wise men from the East, we backed you each-way in a handicap with less than sixteen runners and if you had finished in the first three we may have been in business (With acknowledgement to Mark and Shania Twain from Staple Hill)

Could be Bristol Pirates or Bristol Robbers then. Or even Bristol FA.

YES. Actually its, Oh Yes.

Truro must be in that world of pain too. I think their ‘derby’ this season is with WSM, must be a 300 mile round trip.

I remember reading an interview with someone associated with the Wick Academy where they said that they were struggling with attendances due to the travelling distances involved, especially as they had lost their only local derby with the rise of Inverness Caledonian Thistle. It's 110 miles and 2 1/4hr drive to Inverness...... that's some "local" derby.

I don’t think for one second that they will go under, however if the shit was to hit the fan big time I’d have much more sympathy for them if they hadn’t constantly thrown 1982 in our face for the last 30 odd years.

I'm fairly certain they have had it chaps. From the latest noises emanating from Chernobyl, it appears to be a fire sale and if a buyer cannot be found very quickly then all subsequent options will v bad news for the Blue Few. I genuinely believe that within 12-24 months they will end up 'back where they belong' - ground sharing with Bath City in L2. Obv we are going to laugh long and hard in the short term, but celebrating the financial demise of any football club (even them!) leaves a bit of a nasty taste. For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not suggesting we give them any 'help' (we all remember '82 etc) but should we really 'gloat' if / when the brown stuff finally hits the fan.......

those things being the death, funeral of Geoff Dunford

I’m not psychic but I predict the following Wally will sell up some other dubious muppet will buy them for a pound promuse them the earth, give it the I’ve always loved the gas blah blah blah gas chat will lap it up, wally will still be the saviour who handed over the baton mr tan or whoever will be dragged around as the new messiah while they play at Weston and mutter were coming for you

Or I suppose they could take the ground for the debt and then sell the club without either it or the debt; and then rent the ground to the club until they want to sell it to developers. I would guess they'd want something like £600k a year rent to match the interest lost; and we can dust off the "rent boys" monciker for them again. You couldn't see an outside investor wanting to buy the club on these terms so it would probably be a fans' consortium. The one at Exeter has run that club decently but they have the huge advantage of owning their own ground and have recently pulled down a stand to redevelop it. There probably are enough wealthy Rovers' fans to pull this off short term but they would need to build a new ground or arrnage a groundshare pretty soon as £1.2m of losses plus £0.6m of rent will empty a lot of pockets in short order.

One things for sure, it wouldn’t look more derelict and full of tumbleweed, than it does now........

This is where the BEP/gAss love in does them no favours at all. The way they fawned over Wael when he first came in , Billionaire/saviour/15k watch , was pathetic . Now a real local paper would be asking questions not trawling through 3 years of away fans comments to find the five good ones. Evolution , not revolution, is fine . But eventually even evolution needs investment , but in the meantime lets carry the bloke down Gloucester road on OUR shoulders

My boy used to play there for Coalpit Heath and it was a nightmare for flooding. As soon as there was any sort of rain at least two of the pitches would be unplayable

Celebrating staying up one week, then being relegated to Non-League the next, by a team wearing their own kit does take some beating for me. Then the picture of that bloke being chased by a horse...... Along with pinching their top player for peanuts............and I'm sure there's still plenty more to come...............

Some absolute belters...... He isn't wrong. Looks like UWE will have a Cat 2 academy before the evolving Sags! It then climbed to 6th....Not like Sags to exaggerate things is it? Arthur Daley Hamer.....The Pompey fan warned the deluded ones... Yes, it's an "Evolving" one. This may happen very soon! Even the betting companies are well aware of how deluded Sags are!

Well, yes...that's what they're saying NOW. That wasn't the case when the Al Qs took over. They let their true colours show on Gaschat talking about waving handfuls of fivers at Morecombe fans to show how rich they were , outspending Lansdown, 6th richest club in the country, 'mind the cash', "a new era is comin SHITHEADS" etc. They really, really don't help themselves.

In other words it’s shite. The Bolton fans if I remember rightly named it Chernobyl.