Southend rebuild 'going to plan' despite expected £2m loss

Justin Rees was the co-founder of Sydney-based company Eighty20 Solutions

Southend United expect losses of about £2m in the current financial year despite last summer's takeover by a consortium headed by Australian Justin Rees.

COSU (Custodians Of Southend United) bought the National League club from previous owner Ron Martin following years of financial turmoil at Roots Hall.

The consortium originally comprised 10 individuals, but they have since added US-based technology entrepreneur Shivaas Gulati, and are open to further expansion in terms of people with a stake in the club.

"No matter how many owners we have, we'll always have a max of six or seven people on the board, because if you had 20, 30, 40 that would be a bit unruly," Rees told BBC Essex.

"There is space for more people who share our vision and share the values. It's not for the fainthearted financially, not everyone would be up for it, but we've added Shivaas, and if the right person came along and wanted to join the team and share the load, why not?"

Southend are 14th in the National League table, having only missed out on the play-offs last season because of a 10-point deduction which resulted from their past financial issues.

Club chairman Rees said on-field matters remained manager Kevin Maher's "domain" but one of the reasons for the current financial picture was the board's desire to strengthen his squad.

"The expected losses are just under £2m this year, similar to last year, but I think we've improved in certain areas. Instead of banking all that (money), we've invested into the squad and everyone is seeing that off the pitch as well with facilities and different things we've done around Roots Hall.

He continued: "We're moving training ground in the middle of the season which is quite disruptive but a lot of investment is going into the training ground.

"We want to be an EFL club but that doesn't just mean having a few EFL players, it means having EFL infrastructure, EFL training faciltiers, EFL sports science - we need to be an EFL club in every way, not just on a Saturday at three o'clock."

Rees said the consortium was still trying to fine tune the way they run the club.

"My background is project management. You set budgets, you set strategies, you stick to it - but it doesn't mean you don't deviate when you feel the time is right. We're finding the right balance, structure versus flexibility," he added.

"Getting the takeover done was particularly stressful, but we're in the position we want to be in now and we're doing a lot of work. Every day there is something going on, we're trying to propel the club forward and getting the club where we all think it should be.

"The scale of the rebuild of the club is pretty self evident to a lot of people but you can't change everything overnight.

"It's going to plan, but maybe a little slower than I would have liked, such is the natural desire to do everything quicker. I'm sure all fans share that - everybody wants everything done yesterday."