JUSTIN Rees insists the consortium will not walk away from the deal to buy Southend United lightly.

But the Australian has warned they will not keep pumping money into the Shrimpers without actually owning the club.

Rees and the fellow members of the consortium are still waiting to take charge of Blues, despite having agreed exchanged contracts with club chairman Ron Martin for the sale of the club just before Christmas.

And Rees has stressed there are limits to what the consortium are willing to spend at this stage.

“Of course we won’t walk away lightly and I think we’ve definitely already shown commitment to this deal and the club but there are limits,” said Rees.

“We are optimistic everything will go through but ultimately it’s out of our hands what’s happens from here.

“It’s other people’s decisions that will impact things but we really need this whole situation sorted.

“It’s time for it to be done one way or another.”

The consortium have funded the club since December and have already invested £3.5million into saving the Shrimpers.

However, the deal has been delayed due to the council’s ongoing due diligence into the property side of the transaction while the funding partners of the Martins has also yet to give the go-ahead.

The delays have caused more pain for Blues who were back in the High Court last week following a winding up petition issued by Stewart’s Law.

The case was adjourned for a further six weeks and has now resulted in the Shrimpers being placed into another transfer embargo.

It is understood Blues remain in talks with the National League to try and lift the restrictions ahead of the forthcoming season.