FOUR hundred and 90 days since Ron Martin first put the club up for sale – Southend United are finally in safe hands.
It has been a long, painful, exhausting and agonising 17 months for all of us with Blues in our hearts.
And, being completely honest, I find it tough to accurately encapsulate the emotions experienced during the Shrimpers’ path to salvation.
They say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone and the serious risk of not ever heading to Roots Hall again for a Blues match really hit me incredibly hard.
I won’t be alone in feeling that way and it has been a sustained period of gut-wrenching anxiety not really knowing what might happen next.
I have worked all but two of the 490 days we have waited for Blues to be saved, attending every court case, every protest and written endless stories.
It has pretty much dominated my life and meant I have never left home without my laptop in case of any new developments.
Don’t start playing the violins for me though, because this is a football club which means absolutely everything to me.
I have been watching the Shrimpers since I was seven and as a supporter of a lower-league side you quickly learn there will be plenty of pain, defeats and poor performances.
Of course it’s not nice but it’s par for the course.
However, what everyone connected with Southend United has had to endure in recent years is most definitely not.
The long list of issues is by now well known but it is quite simply disgusting what has happened and just how low our club has been allowed to fall.
On three separate occasions I genuinely thought Blues would be no more.
The first was in the High Court when the judge visibly mulled over his verdict before agreeing to an adjournment due to the attachment of the club’s supporters while the second was the aftermath of a 3-0 defeat at York City last October.
Red cards to Harry Taylor and Gus Scott-Morriss and an injury to Collin Andeng Ndi left me wondering if Blues would be able to fulfil their next fixture.
The third time was the most recent and came when the National League released the statement revealing a £1million bond must be paid unless there was a change of ownership.
I’m sure it’s OK to share now, but little more than hour after the bombshell announcement ,chief executive Tom Lawrence rang me to put my mind at ease.
And shortly after came the statement from the consortium confirming they would not be walking away from the deal despite the added difficulties.
Once again, the group were true to their word and here we are today celebrating a fresh start for the Shrimpers.
For far too long the club has been engulfed by never ending negativity which can now at long last be consigned to the past.
I never ever want to go to the High Court again, I don’t want to mark the club’s pay day in my diary for a story and I never want to type embargo or due diligence again.
Instead, I want to celebrate everything that is good about our club.
That most definitely includes Kevin Maher, his staff, the players, Tom Lawrence, the office staff and the outstanding supporters who have been the heartbeat of the club.
The consortium too deserve so much credit for going above and beyond to ensure future generations can continue to watch football in our community.
Words will never do justice for what they have done and the togetherness created will help to generate upward momentum moving forward.
The forthcoming season will still be extremely tough and there is no divine right for the Shrimpers to succeed.
But all that can be analysed far more another day.
Right now it is about celebrating the end of the club’s darkest chapter and what should be considered the biggest victory of the season, whatever unfolds between now and next May.
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