Unless stapleton was being lied to ?
The accounts would be a yearly audit, so they might not have reflected the current situation which forced the club into administration.
If the last set of accounts looked OK and Todd told the other directors everything was under control, then maybe the locals might have not found out until it was too late ??

If you're a Director (actually Deputy Chair), Shareholder, and an accountant by profession, in a company where a lot is going on, you make it your business to view the accounts rather more frequently than the annual audit. Only if Stapleton was given (fraudulently) false accounts would he have a leg to stand on. Even then you might expect him to realise something was wrong.

Deacster, if the downfall started the day the Club bought the freehold from PCC as many suggest, then I put my hands up and admit it was a massive error of judgement. It is why it must not be allowed to happen again.

Damon thanks for reply and respect your honesty, however comments certainly not aimed at you.

Give a little respect to Synan for answering the questions and i thought as much with The Riddler

Is he saying that they had plans similar to those being executed today, but wasnt supported by the Council and others in a position to make the plans realistic?

Ridsdale adds to his glorious reputation

Unless stapleton was being lied to ?
The accounts would be a yearly audit, so they might not have reflected the current situation which forced the club into administration.
If the last set of accounts looked OK and Todd told the other directors everything was under control, then maybe the locals might have not found out until it was too late ??

If you're a Director (actually Deputy Chair), Shareholder, and an accountant by profession, in a company where a lot is going on, you make it your business to view the accounts rather more frequently than the annual audit. Only if Stapleton was given (fraudulently) false accounts would he have a leg to stand on. Even then you might expect him to realise something was wrong.

Creative accounting seems to have made Argyle look more profitable than it was. It looks as if the income from player sales wasn't necessarily transparent and might have needed a forensic examination of the accounts to detect. I'm not suggesting for one minute anything illegal it's just the way of the world.

Ridsdale adds to his glorious reputation

I think he would respond in much the same way as Liberace did when criticised once: "I cried all the way to the bank"

Interesting that Abe, the Japanese businessman based in London I believe was also part of Kevin Heaney's plans to buy Argyle out of administration, in fact if I recall correctly he was the money behind the deal. Unfortunately for Heaney (and fortunately for us ) Abe walked away.

[PL2 3DQ]

Interesting that Abe, the Japanese businessman based in London I believe was also part of Kevin Heaney's plans to buy Argyle out of administration, in fact if I recall correctly he was the money behind the deal. Unfortunately for Heaney (and fortunately for us ) Abe walked away.

Also, Richard Thoma (unless it's typo and it's Thomas) is a new name mentioned, he wasn't a named member of the Mastpoint consortium.

Earlier this year Mastpoint wrote off £4m and made a short statement...

'Plymouth Argyle Football Company Limited was placed into administration on March 4 2011 and with no prospect of repayment the company decided to write off the loans made to that company.'

Whilst I have very little time for Risdale, at the darkest moments of the crisis I believe he was the one person involved in the whole shambles that fully appreciated the perilous situation at the time:
Understanding the urgency of paying off HMRC (who were at the time trying very hard to wind up the club, as an example to others), this was achieved by selling the last of our players who were worth anything, paying off the ~£750000 tax owed and then quickly going into administration with a club appointed administrator, rather than HRMC appointed which would have been the case if they had not been paid.

Despite the whole shambles, of greed and mismanagement at the time, without this one piece of decisive action I believe the club would no longer be in existence, and no-one else involved with the clubs "management" at the time had the insight or ability to act decisively to take these unpleasant but necessary actions.

I hate to write anything positive about the man, but that is the situation as I see it. He presumably only took the action to benefit himself, but I still believe it probably saved our club.

[PL2 3DQ]

Whilst I have very little time for Ridsdale, at the darkest moments of the crisis I believe he was the one person involved in the whole shambles that fully appreciated the perilous situation at the time:
Understanding the urgency of paying off HMRC (who were at the time trying very hard to wind up the club, as an example to others), this was achieved by selling the last of our players who were worth anything, paying off the ~£750000 tax owed and then quickly going into administration with a club appointed administrator, rather than HRMC appointed which would have been the case if they had not been paid.

Despite the whole shambles, of greed and mismanagement at the time, without this one piece of decisive action I believe the club would no longer be in existence, and no-one else involved with the clubs "management" at the time had the insight or ability to act decisively to take these unpleasant but necessary actions.

I hate to write anything positive about the man, but that is the situation as I see it. He presumably only took the action to benefit himself, but I still believe it probably saved our club.

We didn't enter quickly into administration, it was a drawn out process, the directors announced an "intent" to go into administration (I think that was a first in football), although we still lost the 10 points. HMRC eventually forced our hand and we had to actually enter into admin with an administrator of our choice.

Given George Synan's answer that Ridsdale had investors lined up if the club went into admin ("the best chance of survival being administration and that he had investors waiting") a cynic might argue that the notice of "intent" of entering administration was a delaying tactic to enable the so-called investors to get their act together.

It isn't clear to me that the put options were ever exercised - or (if they were) whether it was net new exposure to Kagami on top of the original 'investment'. If so, he took a big hit over the course of his involvement.

No wonder Peter Ridsdale took that break from his walking holiday to offer his "services" to Argyle.

As soon as he walked into the Home Park boardroom, he must have immediately realised how out-gunned and out of their depth the board were and what an opportunity it presented for his corporate raider shenanigans.

Whoever you hear from, whatever their role at the time, the over-arching sense you get is of a group of men who were either in denial, wrapped up in their own egos or concerned only for their stock portfolios.

One can only hope that no other football club will ever find itself depending on Peter Ridsdale for it's well-being and future ever again.

I imagine Preston will be currently

He is banned from acting as a company director until 2020. How that actually works while he is "Chairman" at Preston is anyone's guess.

He's the very creatively titled 'Chairman of Football' whatever that amounts to!