No guarantees over Southend takeover - Rees

The consortium led by Justin Rees exchanged contracts for a takeover in December

The head of a consortium looking to take over Southend United says he cannot give a "carte blanche" guarantee that the deal will go through.

The consortium, led by Australian businessman Justin Rees, exchanged contracts to buy the club from owner Ron Martin in December.

But the takeover has been held up by the local council having to carry out due diligence over the property element of the deal.

"We have demonstrated pretty strongly we would not walk away from this deal very lightly, but everyone has their limits," Rees told BBC Essex.

"We are optimistic that it will go through, but we're always cognisant that it's not in our control."

He said the consortium had spent about £3.5m on the club's infrastructure so far, including new training pitches.

"We can't give carte blanche whether we will or won't walk away. Others will decide whether this deal goes through," he continued.

"If the property aspect goes through, we will own the club. We'd like it to be done as soon as possible, whilst respecting processes that need to happen.

"We can't be expected to keep funding a club for another X months with a disrupted pre-season, so we really do need this process to close. It is time for this to be done one way or the other."

Transfer embargo 'not a surprise'

The Shrimpers are facing the latest in a series of winding-up petitions - this one lodged by legal firm Stewart Law LLP over unpaid work done for the club in previous disputes, and a judge warned on 15 May that the six-week adjournment granted would be the last prior to liquidation.

Meanwhile, the National League have imposed a fresh transfer embargo on the club, which could affect planning for next season.

Southend were subject to a previous embargo for over a year before it was lifted in December.

"The rules are fairly clear that if there's a winding-up petition that hasn't been satisfactorily dealt with, you go under an embargo," said Rees.

"This winding-up petition has been active since February, so technically the rule could have been applied then... it was a surprise because nothing materially changed in the last week, but now our focus should be on what it takes to remove that embargo so we can get back to our pre-season planning."

Chief executive Tom Lawrence added: "We're focusing really hard on getting the embargo lifted so we can push transfer targets across the line.

"(Head of football) John Still and (manager) Kevin (Maher) have been working in the background so we have targets already lined up and hopefully we'll be able to bring them in sooner rather than later."

'Almost unimaginable situation'

Local MP Anna Firth has held talks with all parties involved in the takeover deal

Following last week's announcement that the club had again been placed under a transfer embargo by the league, Southend West MP Anna Firth said in a statement: "It seems almost unimaginable that we have again found ourselves in this situation.

"However, when it comes to Southend United, matters are rarely straightforward."

She said she had recently spoken to all parties involved and believed there was a "genuine willingness" to finalise the deal as soon as possible but the "multi faceted" nature of the takeover had to be "properly scrutinised".

Southend reached the 118th anniversary of the club being founded on Sunday.

They played in the Championship, the game's second tier, in 2006 but lost their place in the English Football League following relegation in 2021.

Since then, the Shrimpers have finished 13th, eighth and ninth in the National League, but this season only missed out on a play-off place having been docked 10 points because of their financial problems.

Council should 'move quicker'

Rees said the current situation was "incredibly frustrating" as every potential date they had been given for completion has been missed.

"It ultimately comes down to the council finishing their due diligence, which we were told would take six to eight weeks in January," he said.

"Due diligence has multiple phases and a lot of them have concluded, so it's certainly moved forward.

"When we get the results of that, it will tell us all we need to know. Ultimately, if that deal signs off then everything will go through."

He added: "We need this process to finish without external pressure from people like ourselves, it's an important process to protect taxpayers' money - but we do have a right to say 'please do it quicker' because we are also taxpayers, the people we owe money to, our creditors, and staff are also taxpayers.

"We want it done properly so we all know where we stand and can all move on, but I think it needs to come to a head within a couple of weeks."

The Southend United Fan Protest Group plans to attend Monday's council meeting to seek answers about the timeline for the due diligence process.

"We believe these demands do not prejudice the DD outcome and are of interest to Southend fans, local tax-paying residents and the consortium alike," the group posted on X, formerly Twitter.