7:00am Wednesday 2nd July 2008
By Neil Meldrum
ALAN Pither claims his 11th hour rival bid to buy Cherries is the club's answer to a secure future.
Pither, along with partners Gerard Day and Melvyn Newman, last night decided to go public in an exclusive interview with the Echo after Cherries administrator Gerald Krasner revealed a fresh bid to buy the club was placed on the table on Monday night.
Day is a St Albans-based finance expert, while Newman is one of the country's biggest fruit farmers and lives in Canterbury.
However, while Krasner would not be drawn on the names of those behind the new offer at yesterday's press conference, Pither, the frontman of Bournemouth Holdings Ltd, a new company set up last month with the sole purpose of acquiring the football club, has decided to speak out.
The Echo understands Pither has provided substantial funding, along with Mostyn, to pay wages recently, with Pither, Day and Newman believed to have been the main money men behind preferred bidder Mostyn's consortium up until last week.
Relations, however, apparently turned sour before last Tuesday's delayed press conference.
That sparked Pither to make his own bid for the ailing club on Monday, with Mostyn now understood to be working with a new consortium put together with the help of new Cherries chief executive Alistair Saverimutto and his Sport-6 marketing company.
Saverimutto and Sport-6 had previously expressed an interest in fronting up a bid for both Chester City and, it is understood, Luton Town before linking up with Mostyn more recently.
Pither revealed last night that Bournemouth Holdings had struck a deal with New Milton-based Parkcrest Construction for the land behind Dean Court's East Stand and the option on the land behind the South Stand. The deal is now understood to be going through the legal process.
Pither told the Echo: "We've been involved with the club on and off since November, but Jeff (Mostyn) came to us six weeks ago because he had nobody else to go to and we put a deal together.
"I've been in the club for the past five weeks, three days a week, and I was introduced to the staff three weeks ago as the new owner. On Thursday I got a call from Jeff saying, I'm going to do this deal on my own'."
Pither would not be drawn on rumours of a disagreement on funding between Krasner and the consortium as it stood last week, but Krasner, in yesterday's press briefing, said: "The deal I've had to strike to pay the wages last week is that I needed some money and people who've given me the money have the right to exclusivity. When I asked other people at the same time, Are you prepared to up your offer to give me money?' the answer was, We're not in a position to do that'."
When asked whether his bid was made in anger after the split with Mostyn, Pither replied: "There was a lot of people out there who wanted to steal' the club for £1 and with the inside track we had, we could have been one of them.
"But we weren't and we've got the best interests of the club at heart. Our bid, I believe, is the best one for the club.
"We want to buy the club and it's a proper bid. The money to buy the club is still sitting with my lawyer and it was there under the old offer."
On the land deal with Parkcrest, Pither added: "I'm in the process of buying the land behind the East Stand and the option on the land behind the South Stand. Those deals are going through the legal process.
"I told Parkcrest the plans we had for the land, we'll probably get them to do the build, and we will stick half the profits back into the club.
"I'd like to take the club forward and, with regard to the property deals, even if I'm not the owner, I'm not saying I wouldn't put any of that money back into the club.
"But I don't want any bad press for the club going forward and if Jeff is the one who takes it forward then I hope he makes a success of it."
Administrator Krasner confirmed Pither's consortium as the new bidders when contacted by the Echo last night. Mostyn declined to comment in a phone call from the Echo last night.
Krasner, meanwhile, is understood to have given Mostyn a deadline of Friday for further funding.
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk