The thing about parachute payments is that you have to use them or lose them! As we know only too well churning the squad with the money and offering inflated contracts after you've left the premier league is a mugs game. Burnley with just £5m parachute money last season have shown how to do it. Look at the top ten this season and you have a mix of clubs who are there for different reasons. Watford and ourselves are there because of our European networks which are just as effective as parachute payments. Meanwhile there are a few Northern clubs with parachute money that runs out sooner or later... Blackpool, Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan, Birmingham whereas Boro and ourselves have taken our medicine and are coming back stronger as a result.
Agree with much of that except Boro are in similar debt to Bolton, reliant on one owner and still spending much more than they earn with high profile players/manager.
Sure, they are having a good season but I wonder how long they can keep it going without promotion bailing them out.
We have already beaten one team soon after they changed manager(Watford) & they were a much better team, so not sure why Lennon turning at Bolton should leave us seriously worried considering 11 teams have already failed to beat us this season.
The thing about parachute payments is that you have to use them or lose them! As we know only too well churning the squad with the money and offering inflated contracts after you've left the premier league is a mugs game. Burnley with just £5m parachute money last season have shown how to do it. Look at the top ten this season and you have a mix of clubs who are there for different reasons. Watford and ourselves are there because of our European networks which are just as effective as parachute payments. Meanwhile there are a few Northern clubs with parachute money that runs out sooner or later... Blackpool, Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan, Birmingham whereas Boro and ourselves have taken our medicine and are coming back stronger as a result.
Agree with much of that except Boro are in similar debt to Bolton, reliant on one owner and still spending much more than they earn with high profile players/manager.
Sure, they are having a good season but I wonder how long they can keep it going without promotion bailing them out.
Sure Boro debts might be higher but their owner was worth more. I think I'm right in saying that Boro chopped a load of the expensive players left over from the Premier league some 15 months ago - someone posted a link or covered Boro in the preview of our game last season. The next main event in all of this is the FFP deadline just six or seven weeks away. Not sure when figures and possible sanctions will be published but anyone with an interest in sustainable football clubs will be able to see where each club sits.
One of my daughters was at uni in Leicester and Lennon, as a Leicester City player, used to play snooker in a City pub regularly with some of her friends and always insisted on buying a round of drinks for all the students playing and watching.
According to the BBC, Phil Gartside is in Thailand having discussions about a possible takeover/investment. I honestly can't see any potential purchaser willing to take on the debt owed to Eddie Davies (£150m out of the reported £163.8m reported last December). That must surely make any possible bid untenable, unless Davies writes it all off!
According to the BBC, Phil Gartside is in Thailand having discussions about a possible takeover/investment. I honestly can't see any potential purchaser willing to take on the debt owed to Eddie Davies (£150m out of the reported £163.8m reported last December). That must surely make any possible bid untenable, unless Davies writes it all off!
Trouble is it is a big big world out there. There will always be parties that see an investment in an English football club as an opportunity to 1) make money, 2) lose money, 3) massage their egos and 4) 1-3
I think 2) is closer to the truth with a lot of these potential takeovers. A good way to lose or launder money for accountancy purposes...
The market in second hand football clubs fluctuates but we changed hands for £14m with another £10-14m of long term debt in place when we were bottom six in the Championship. And rumours around Palace talk of a £70m price tag. So why would anyone take on more than £30m of the Bolton debt mountain given that they are a lot further from the play-offs than we are AND their losses are a lot bigger. This strikes me as the same world tour that Murray and his representation made as the parachute monies started to run out...and we know how that ended.
Mate is a Bolton fan. He reckons that Eddie Davies will write off the debt, it's already on very friendly terms (something like guaranteed not to be called in for 10 years).
TBH if it wasn't for the debt, they'd be a relatively attractive club - decent history, newish stadium, just outside Manchester, currently underperforming. You could build a narrative around them not being United or City for people put off by both.
Mate is a Bolton fan. He reckons that Eddie Davies will write off the debt, it's already on very friendly terms (something like guaranteed not to be called in for 10 years).
TBH if it wasn't for the debt, they'd be a relatively attractive club - decent history, newish stadium, just outside Manchester, currently underperforming. You could build a narrative around them not being United or City for people put off by both.
Does Eddie Davies have a family? If so, are any of them sane?
The problem is that the level of debt owed to Davies seems to be more than his total net worth from any of the sources I can see. He did make a lot out of the club in various fees and also was taking 5% interest rate on the debt at one stage, although it sounds like he may have softened that now. The attached link is quite interesting, although a few years old...
Eddie Davies will never get that money back. The debt has, defacto, already been written off.
Eddie Davies either needs to continue to provide the funding to cover Bolton's ongoing losses, perhaps in the hope of a return to the Premier League, further increasing his own losses, or sell to the highest bidder. The level of existing debt has no bearing on that price.
Mate is a Bolton fan. He reckons that Eddie Davies will write off the debt, it's already on very friendly terms (something like guaranteed not to be called in for 10 years).
TBH if it wasn't for the debt, they'd be a relatively attractive club - decent history, newish stadium, just outside Manchester, currently underperforming. You could build a narrative around them not being United or City for people put off by both.
It could be argued that being near Manchester (and quite near Liverpool) is more of a hindrance, as much of the support in the area will gravitate towards the larger clubs.
The problem is that the level of debt owed to Davies seems to be more than his total net worth from any of the sources I can see. He did make a lot out of the club in various fees and also was taking 5% interest rate on the debt at one stage, although it sounds like he may have softened that now. The attached link is quite interesting, although a few years old...
Eidur Gudjohnsen is training with Bolton with a hope to them offering him a contract. Seems rather desperate from both parties. Can't imagine a thirty six year old forward sorting out there on the pitch problems. Though I'm surprised he's been without a club since May, would have imagined he'd be offered a lucrative deal in USA, Middle East etc.
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Sure, they are having a good season but I wonder how long they can keep it going without promotion bailing them out.
The next main event in all of this is the FFP deadline just six or seven weeks away. Not sure when figures and possible sanctions will be published but anyone with an interest in sustainable football clubs will be able to see where each club sits.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29878720
I think 2) is closer to the truth with a lot of these potential takeovers. A good way to lose or launder money for accountancy purposes...
So why would anyone take on more than £30m of the Bolton debt mountain given that they are a lot further from the play-offs than we are AND their losses are a lot bigger.
This strikes me as the same world tour that Murray and his representation made as the parachute monies started to run out...and we know how that ended.
TBH if it wasn't for the debt, they'd be a relatively attractive club - decent history, newish stadium, just outside Manchester, currently underperforming. You could build a narrative around them not being United or City for people put off by both.
http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/why-bolton-have-so-much-debt.html
Eddie Davies either needs to continue to provide the funding to cover Bolton's ongoing losses, perhaps in the hope of a return to the Premier League, further increasing his own losses, or sell to the highest bidder. The level of existing debt has no bearing on that price.
Seems rather desperate from both parties. Can't imagine a thirty six year old forward sorting out there on the pitch problems.
Though I'm surprised he's been without a club since May, would have imagined he'd be offered a lucrative deal in USA, Middle East etc.