With the first round of fixtures a little over three weeks away, the National League must decide on Southend's participation right now. The inevitable result of further delay is disruption and expense for other clubs and their supporters - there may be Oldham supporters wanting to make a weekend of their trip to Southend for example - and home clubs will need to arrange and pay for catering and other logistics that are necessary ahead of games.
Staff have not been paid for three and four months and currently have no hope of receiving anything at all, the water has been cut off, we are hearing the familiar Ron Martin takeover fluff yet again, his motives and plans are unclear, the few players they have left are refusing to train due to no medical cover, they are not permitted to sign anyone, the training ground has been badly neglected and is barely fit for purpose etc... surely there can only be one outcome here?
EDIT: I note their debt according to the last set of published accounts (for the 2020-21 financial year) was £18.6m, which will surely be far higher on the filed accounts for 2021-22. They are not showing on Companies House yet.