Hopefully RD and KM have learnt from their mistakes and put their trust in Riga, allowing him to select the players he wants and providing him with a realistic budget for the club to move forward. This will, if being the case end the disastrous transfer policy of the recent past and help results on the pitch to improve.
Surely if this Is were to be the case there would be a chance that the regime and fans could discover common ground and we move forward together.
The protests have been useful to date by putting pressure on the regime to change, if they do provide Riga with the funds for a couple of decent signings before the transfer window closes and possibly a few loan signings if required then they can be deemed a success and we should then concentrate our efforts on getting behind the team rather than protesting at games. Chants of RD out during the game can only have a negative effect on the team.
I have been a season ticket holder since the 80's and will be reviewing my decision on the whether to renew my season ticket or not during the closed season. My decision will be based on the funds and freedom Riga is provided by RD to build his squad. Until that time I will be getting fully behind the team.
Not renewing season tickets is the ultimate protest in my opinion and a decision that true supporters do not take lightly.
I am not happy with what has taken place under the regime to date but I am hopeful that things can change, I am also not convinced that their is a suitably wealthy alternative to RD waiting in the shadows ready to take over so change is essential.
"We need this whole thing to fail. And fail badly for them to budge."
Your premise could be wrong Carly burn.
If we have a couple of relegation with 1500 pound a week the top wage, and we were down to 7000 crowds he could then prove we could break even and sell the odd young player to a championship club for a million or so with add ons. The big game would be the League 2 clash of CAFC V CAFC. With Charlton and Crewe having 9 academy players each with a couple of journey men to make up the number.
If we get relegated a good third of the turnover is lost immediately from central deals, i.e. TV deals. He'll lose a big chunk of ticket, commercial and hospitality revenue too - so say 50 per cent in total. We're already £5-£6m adrift and while new players will cost less, Ms Meire has been busily signing lots of players up on long deals that they won't get elsewhere, making them hard to shift. You won't get the wage bill down that easily, ditto the fixed costs of the stadium. Closing stands is peanuts. Far from breaking even, he'd be bleeding money.
They're not trying to destroy us, but some of the policy and decision making are breathtakingly naive and incompetent.
I'm generally in favour of the cock-up theory of history rather than the conspiracy version, so I kind of agree with you, but it is getting to the point where I think "Seriously? Can anyone be this inept without making a conscious effort at it?"
lets pull our heads out of our arses for one minute shall we? rd and km are not evil robots - yes they have proceeded to make some utterly ludicrous mistakes but the investment in the academy will b a massive plus and maybe an investment that a more popularist - here for the immediate glory - owner would not have taken - if they let riga get on with things now and allow him to control the football side of things then i am willing to go with it - in 5 years time our best academy talent will not b poached and we may just become a force again - however odd things seem now, if we stay up, i think we may just have a bright future - however unpopular that might sound - btw - i contributed to the protest fund and will not renew season ticket until i see a change in approach to the 1st team but i do not believe the current regime r trying to destroy us - do u? really?
If ...if ... maybe ...if ...until ...
The protests continue
point taken and agreed with and that is why i will not be renewing - after 35 yrs unbroken service - my season ticket, until i have seen what happens between now and august - and what the real alternatives to rd are
You're going to be disapointed, then, as no prospective buyer is really going to show their hand in advance. RD appeared to be very promising and look how that is turning out !
r u an expert on football club deals? i've seen loads where the buyer publicises the fact he wants to buy
The club have openly said there's been potential buyers, via the information handed out at the Fans Forum.
Do you believe everything KM says? If there is a buyer please encourage them to step forward, surely now would be a good time for them to exert pressure on the owner to sell with the fans protesting and the media coverage as leverage. If a truly viable buyer were to step forward I believe 100% of the fans would support them, but this buyer is yet to make themselves known???
Do you believe everything KM says? If there is a buyer please encourage them to step forward, surely now would be a good time for them to exert pressure on the owner to sell with the fans protesting and the media coverage as leverage. If a truly viable buyer were to step forward I believe 100% of the fans would support them, but this buyer is yet to make themselves known???
Well I can think of one person who was representing a potential buyer who did exactly what you're suggesting, in fact, he's partly responsible for just how successful the protests have been...
Decent question that needs to be answered in the context of this conversation actually.
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
Decent question that needs to be answered in the context of this conversation actually.
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
Didn't KM say they've had lots of Investment enquiries ?
Edit - we don't know what the Varney rumour was do we ? It never happened.
Decent question that needs to be answered in the context of this conversation actually.
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
Didn't KM say they've had lots of Investment enquiries ?
Edit - we don't know what the Varney rumour was do we ? It never happened.
We also don't know what the approaches that the club have had are and, if they ignore all of them, nor do they.
If someone is willing to come along and take the club with all the debts written off then that is not a serious offer anyway. If we assume that the club was purchased for £14m and the funding has been £25m in two years then even if RD just covers his costs that is £39m. Add in any legacy creditors and short term finance, and the interest on that £25m and we must be close to £50m.
That sounds like a lot of money for an 'investor' to stump up and as much as we don't like the man we can't really expect RD to walk away with millions less than he's spent - especially if he doesn't really want to sell. It's a bit like your house being worth £500k and you don't want to move but someone knocking on your door and offering you £100k to f**k off. I suspect we would all decline their kind offer - even if they hung around outside your front lawn singing abusive songs to you once a fortnight.
Decent question that needs to be answered in the context of this conversation actually.
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
Didn't KM say they've had lots of Investment enquiries ?
Edit - we don't know what the Varney rumour was do we ? It never happened.
We also don't know what the approaches that the club have had are and, if they ignore all of them, nor do they.
If someone is willing to come along and take the club with all the debts written off then that is not a serious offer anyway. If we assume that the club was purchased for £14m and the funding has been £25m in two years then even if RD just covers his costs that is £39m. Add in any legacy creditors and short term finance, and the interest on that £25m and we must be close to £50m.
That sounds like a lot of money for an 'investor' to stump up and as much as we don't like the man we can't really expect RD to walk away with millions less than he's spent - especially if he doesn't really want to sell. It's a bit like your house being worth £500k and you don't want to move but someone knocking on your door and offering you £100k to f**k off. I suspect we would all decline their kind offer - even if they hung around outside your front lawn singing abusive songs to you once a fortnight.
Do you really imagine the Varney offer was being put forward oblivious to the substantial level of debt that's been published in the accounts?
Decent question that needs to be answered in the context of this conversation actually.
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
If someone is willing to come along and take the club with all the debts written off then that is not a serious offer anyway. If we assume that the club was purchased for £14m and the funding has been £25m in two years then even if RD just covers his costs that is £39m.
I believe the £14m purchase price is part of the £25m that they say they have "invested" not additional.
If they had spent £12.5m a year then we have precious little to show for it.
Decent question that needs to be answered in the context of this conversation actually.
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
Didn't KM say they've had lots of Investment enquiries ?
Edit - we don't know what the Varney rumour was do we ? It never happened.
We also don't know what the approaches that the club have had are and, if they ignore all of them, nor do they.
If someone is willing to come along and take the club with all the debts written off then that is not a serious offer anyway. If we assume that the club was purchased for £14m and the funding has been £25m in two years then even if RD just covers his costs that is £39m. Add in any legacy creditors and short term finance, and the interest on that £25m and we must be close to £50m.
That sounds like a lot of money for an 'investor' to stump up and as much as we don't like the man we can't really expect RD to walk away with millions less than he's spent - especially if he doesn't really want to sell. It's a bit like your house being worth £500k and you don't want to move but someone knocking on your door and offering you £100k to f**k off. I suspect we would all decline their kind offer - even if they hung around outside your front lawn singing abusive songs to you once a fortnight.
Do you really imagine the Varney offer was being put forward oblivious to the substantial level of debt that's been published in the accounts?
To be fair I wasn't referring to the Varney offer that, as I understand it, hasn't been made because no discussions have taken place.
I was referring to the suggestion that if the club have had lots of approaches there must be many serious buyers out there that are better than what we currently have. Realistically I suspect that most people that approach clubs like ours to buy it have neither the financial resources to buy, and run, it nor much, if any, idea as to how much it is, realistically, going to cost.
Until the Varney offer is published we will have no idea if it is a good deal to the current owner or, for that matter, if it is desirable to the fans. Just because you might know Airman doesn't mean that the rest of us do.
Do you believe everything KM says? If there is a buyer please encourage them to step forward, surely now would be a good time for them to exert pressure on the owner to sell with the fans protesting and the media coverage as leverage. If a truly viable buyer were to step forward I believe 100% of the fans would support them, but this buyer is yet to make themselves known???
Well I can think of one person who was representing a potential buyer who did exactly what you're suggesting, in fact, he's partly responsible for just how successful the protests have been...
Peter Varney is an employee, not the owner - why hasn't the owner stepped forward to assert pressure if he is serious? this is key to the whole thing in my view - if he does, then that is different - clubs have investment / buyout interest quite frequently but doesn't normally get very far - where were all the credible buyers 3 years ago?
I believe the £14m purchase price is part of the £25m that they say they have "invested" not additional.
If they had spent £12.5m a year then we have precious little to show for it.
They are expensive hobbies these football clubs aren't they?
You can see, however, why I am not 100% convinced that serious buyers, with the resources to fund the club, are queuing up around the corner to drop £50m to just buy the club and take on it's debts.
Decent question that needs to be answered in the context of this conversation actually.
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
Didn't KM say they've had lots of Investment enquiries ?
Edit - we don't know what the Varney rumour was do we ? It never happened.
I think that's what KM said, but as I say - that's why it would be good to clarify what's an investment and what's a takeover, and whether these words are being use interchangeably.
That said, I'm fairly certain that e @Airman Brown confirmed in a subsequent VOTV posting that it was indeed the possibility of a takeover that Varney was attempting to initiate contact about.
The Peter Varney emails certainly helped to intensify the protests but do we know for sure that the investor was prepared to buy if we forced RD to sell. Also as I stated before if the investor is keen to purchase the club now would be the perfect to time to come out of the shadows and declare his intentions. The lack of action in this respect leads me to think he is either no longer interested or merely wanted to invest i.e. become a part owner. Neither of these scenario's will be any use if we force RD to sell. It is better to protest for change until such time as a suitable purchaser is on the scene, we do not want to be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Fans are frustrated including me but I do not see the point of forcing him out with no credible plan for what comes next. Lets get behind the team and help them to stay in the Championship, come the end of the season we may find that the appointment of Riga and a change in transfer policy has worked its magic, if not we do not renew our season tickets until real change is evident.
Do you believe everything KM says? If there is a buyer please encourage them to step forward, surely now would be a good time for them to exert pressure on the owner to sell with the fans protesting and the media coverage as leverage. If a truly viable buyer were to step forward I believe 100% of the fans would support them, but this buyer is yet to make themselves known???
Well I can think of one person who was representing a potential buyer who did exactly what you're suggesting, in fact, he's partly responsible for just how successful the protests have been...
Peter Varney is an employee, not the owner - why hasn't the owner stepped forward to assert pressure if he is serious? this is key to the whole thing in my view - if he does, then that is different - clubs have investment / buyout interest quite frequently but doesn't normally get very far - where were all the credible buyers 3 years ago?
Peter Varney is an employee? I'm a bit confused by this post, but it's fair to say he was representing someone who was potentially interested in becoming an owner.
If I remember rightly, there were options other than Duchatelet 2 years ago - and it's been mentioned subsequently that Roland was actually selected out of other options. Once again, that's if my memory serves me correctly and if we've been told the truth.
The Peter Varney emails certainly helped to intensify the protests but do we know for sure that the investor was prepared to buy if we forced RD to sell. Also as I stated before if the investor is keen to purchase the club now would be the perfect to time to come out of the shadows and declare his intentions. The lack of action in this respect leads me to think he is either no longer interested or merely wanted to invest i.e. become a part owner. Neither of these scenario's will be any use if we force RD to sell. It is better to protest for change until such time as a suitable purchaser is on the scene, we do not want to be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Fans are frustrated including me but I do not see the point of forcing him out with no credible plan for what comes next. Lets get behind the team and help them to stay in the Championship, come the end of the season we may find that the appointment of Riga and a change in transfer policy has worked its magic, if not we do not renew our season tickets until real change is evident.
Also, as I hinted at earlier, if you want someone to sell some thing that they want to keep you have to pay a premium. Many of those looking to take on a football club are expecting the outgoing owners to waive the 'friendly debt'. Look at Bolton. With the owner reportedly willing to waive something like £140m it would seem that they still can't find someone that will take it for free!
We don't know what the 'offer' from Varney, or any of the other potential buyers (now or when RD bought it) was. I can't believe that Slater and Jimenez took anything other than what paid them the most money.
If we were to find a buyer that does not have deep enough pockets for the long term we could find ourselves in a worse position than we are in now, i.e. yet again facing bankruptcy. These are frustrating times in respect of the first team but at least we are not going bust and the youth teams and the Sparrows Lane redevelopment are things we should be encouraged by. If, and I know its a big if RD changes his recruitment/first team policy things will be good. I'm prepared to give till the end of the season and review matters then.
The club may "not be for sale" But that's a whole different thing to there not being a price at which Roly Douchebollox will sell. He's only about the statistics, numbers, spreadsheets. His notion that a football club can be run without haemorrhaging cash (risible that it is) can be overlayed on ANY football club. He 'chose' Charlton because we were available at a price (entry cost/investment) that suited RD's sums, no other reason. Only the douchebollox's addled synapses know what he considers to be a sustainable "business-model". There will come a point when one of 2 things will happen: 1) a new party offers the staprix prick a sum of money which matches or exceeds his acceptable exit value - i.e. gives him more money today than the PV of his (imagined) future revenues from CAFC or 2) the level at which his CAFC project is haemorrhaging cash will become unacceptable to his model and he'll "be forced to liquidate" shut down the football operations and flog off the remaining assets to tourniquet the flow. The septuagenarian shitforbrains imagines a 3rd possibility i.e. his crackpot notion of a lower league English football club washing its face financially but we all know that to be impossible, leaving only 1 or 2 as the achievable outcomes. I'd be interested to know whether he uses lots of hallucinatory narcotics or is just built this mad.
League One was awful, I don't want to go back. If we do I know who to hold responsible.
What struggling/never really doing anything in the championship most seasons Is worse than doing well and being a bigger fish in league one? Never had Charlton fans down as football snobs but that's what a few of you seem to have become. Maybe it was those years being spoilt in the prem that done it? The same will happen to palace I suppose. The season we're having at the moment is miles better than the last three we had in the championship. Do you know what, it feels like we've 'got our Millwall back'. Now where have I heard that phrase recently?
League One was awful, I don't want to go back. If we do I know who to hold responsible.
What struggling/never really doing anything in the championship most seasons Is worse than doing well and being a bigger fish in league one? Never had Charlton fans down as football snobs but that's what a few of you seem to have become. Maybe it was those years being spoilt in the prem that done it? The same will happen to palace I suppose. The season we're having at the moment is miles better than the last three we had in the championship. Do you know what, it feels like we've 'got our Millwall back'. Now where have I heard that phrase recently?
Did you get someone to ghost write for you Millwall fan? It's very rare that a Millwall fan speaks sense
League One was awful, I don't want to go back. If we do I know who to hold responsible.
What struggling/never really doing anything in the championship most seasons Is worse than doing well and being a bigger fish in league one? Never had Charlton fans down as football snobs but that's what a few of you seem to have become. Maybe it was those years being spoilt in the prem that done it? The same will happen to palace I suppose. The season we're having at the moment is miles better than the last three we had in the championship. Do you know what, it feels like we've 'got our Millwall back'. Now where have I heard that phrase recently?
And if course you can't beat a bit of inverted snobbery either
The Peter Varney emails certainly helped to intensify the protests but do we know for sure that the investor was prepared to buy if we forced RD to sell. Also as I stated before if the investor is keen to purchase the club now would be the perfect to time to come out of the shadows and declare his intentions. The lack of action in this respect leads me to think he is either no longer interested or merely wanted to invest i.e. become a part owner. Neither of these scenario's will be any use if we force RD to sell. It is better to protest for change until such time as a suitable purchaser is on the scene, we do not want to be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Fans are frustrated including me but I do not see the point of forcing him out with no credible plan for what comes next. Lets get behind the team and help them to stay in the Championship, come the end of the season we may find that the appointment of Riga and a change in transfer policy has worked its magic, if not we do not renew our season tickets until real change is evident.
The buyer was willing to buy Charlton. Airman Brown has confirmed that and I've been told the same by other sources.
The plan was to buy the entire club not to be part owner.
Peter Varney was acting on their behalf. It was not the owners of Ebbsfleet.
It is quite common for very wealthy owners to want to keep their identity a secret until later in negotiations to prevent the price being increased. For example my house is not for sale. If Bill Gates knocks on the door and asks to buy it I might be tempted to say "Yes, but it will cost you £2m" (a lot more than it is worth) because I know Bill Gates is loaded and can afford £2m. NB Bill Gates is NOT the buyer to the best of my knowledge.
As for the "lack of action" we don't know what is going on behind the scenes, or at least I don't. Obviously Colin does.
My view is that the initial contact to Roland was made in August '15 when the club was doing well at the start of the season. KM delayed any meeting and so now the club is threatened with relegation and a potential £7m+ drop in income and so a less attractive proposition. Varney's Kuwaiti buyers may have lost interest or may be waiting to see what division the club is in next season and be reviewing their offer based on that.
Interestingly at the time that the news of Varney's buyers were made public I bumped into another former CAFC director who told me "The problem is (Roland) doesn't want to sell because if he did I've got a group of people who want to buy the club".
So there is other interest. Of course, interest is not the same as a done deal and may not get passed due dillegence if even that far but regardless there are multiple potential buyers out there.
"We need this whole thing to fail. And fail badly for them to budge."
Your premise could be wrong Carly burn.
If we have a couple of relegation with 1500 pound a week the top wage, and we were down to 7000 crowds he could then prove we could break even and sell the odd young player to a championship club for a million or so with add ons. The big game would be the League 2 clash of CAFC V CAFC. With Charlton and Crewe having 9 academy players each with a couple of journey men to make up the number.
If we get relegated a good third of the turnover is lost immediately from central deals, i.e. TV deals. He'll lose a big chunk of ticket, commercial and hospitality revenue too - so say 50 per cent in total. We're already £5-£6m adrift and while new players will cost less, Ms Meire has been busily signing lots of players up on long deals that they won't get elsewhere, making them hard to shift. You won't get the wage bill down that easily, ditto the fixed costs of the stadium. Closing stands is peanuts. Far from breaking even, he'd be bleeding money.
Could we arrange to put Roland & Airman together in a locked room for a couple of hours ?
AB could put to RD the basic facts regarding the financial situation at our Club , the situation should we get relegated and the common sense facts & figures which show that breaking even in the Douchatelet experiment is a pipe dream.
The Peter Varney emails certainly helped to intensify the protests but do we know for sure that the investor was prepared to buy if we forced RD to sell. Also as I stated before if the investor is keen to purchase the club now would be the perfect to time to come out of the shadows and declare his intentions. The lack of action in this respect leads me to think he is either no longer interested or merely wanted to invest i.e. become a part owner. Neither of these scenario's will be any use if we force RD to sell. It is better to protest for change until such time as a suitable purchaser is on the scene, we do not want to be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Fans are frustrated including me but I do not see the point of forcing him out with no credible plan for what comes next. Lets get behind the team and help them to stay in the Championship, come the end of the season we may find that the appointment of Riga and a change in transfer policy has worked its magic, if not we do not renew our season tickets until real change is evident.
Just what "credible plan" do you want ? We are currently in a car being driven fast towards the edge of a cliff. The only credible plan we need is how to get out of the car. What comes after that doesn't need to be considered until the first objective is achieved.
However, you are right about one thing. We will probably need "magic" to get out of this mess !
Roland is married to a bad trade, it's haemorraghing and all his averaging is only gonna increase the hit when he bails take your medicine now you fuckwit and get out while there's a bid in town, it's a losing trade and they are the hardest ones to take a hit on because no one is gonna be paying over the odds for you to get anywhere near a scratch trade
Roland is married to a bad trade, it's haemorraghing and all his averaging is only gonna increase the hit when he bails take your medicine now you fuckwit and get out while there's a bid in town, it's a losing trade and they are the hardest ones to take a hit on because no one is gonna be paying over the odds for you to get anywhere near a scratch trade
I love it when Ooh Aah goes all Gordon Gekko : - )
Comments
Surely if this Is were to be the case there would be a chance that the regime and fans could discover common ground and we move forward together.
The protests have been useful to date by putting pressure on the regime to change, if they do provide Riga with the funds for a couple of decent signings before the transfer window closes and possibly a few loan signings if required then they can be deemed a success and we should then concentrate our efforts on getting behind the team rather than protesting at games. Chants of RD out during the game can only have a negative effect on the team.
I have been a season ticket holder since the 80's and will be reviewing my decision on the whether to renew my season ticket or not during the closed season. My decision will be based on the funds and freedom Riga is provided by RD to build his squad. Until that time I will be getting fully behind the team.
Not renewing season tickets is the ultimate protest in my opinion and a decision that true supporters do not take lightly.
I am not happy with what has taken place under the regime to date but I am hopeful that things can change, I am also not convinced that their is a suitably wealthy alternative to RD waiting in the shadows ready to take over so change is essential.
There are alternatives to Duchatelet.
If there is a buyer please encourage them to step forward, surely now would be a good time for them to exert pressure on the owner to sell with the fans protesting and the media coverage as leverage.
If a truly viable buyer were to step forward I believe 100% of the fans would support them, but this buyer is yet to make themselves known???
The Varney deal was mentioned as an "investment", which ultimately turned out to be a "takeover".
I'm going to presume an Investor will pool funds alongside Duchatelet, essentially working with him whilst diluting the Belgian ownership. Whilst a Buyer, quite obviously, removes Duchatelet from the picture completely by replacing him.
Edit - we don't know what the Varney rumour was do we ? It never happened.
If someone is willing to come along and take the club with all the debts written off then that is not a serious offer anyway. If we assume that the club was purchased for £14m and the funding has been £25m in two years then even if RD just covers his costs that is £39m. Add in any legacy creditors and short term finance, and the interest on that £25m and we must be close to £50m.
That sounds like a lot of money for an 'investor' to stump up and as much as we don't like the man we can't really expect RD to walk away with millions less than he's spent - especially if he doesn't really want to sell. It's a bit like your house being worth £500k and you don't want to move but someone knocking on your door and offering you £100k to f**k off. I suspect we would all decline their kind offer - even if they hung around outside your front lawn singing abusive songs to you once a fortnight.
I was referring to the suggestion that if the club have had lots of approaches there must be many serious buyers out there that are better than what we currently have. Realistically I suspect that most people that approach clubs like ours to buy it have neither the financial resources to buy, and run, it nor much, if any, idea as to how much it is, realistically, going to cost.
Until the Varney offer is published we will have no idea if it is a good deal to the current owner or, for that matter, if it is desirable to the fans. Just because you might know Airman doesn't mean that the rest of us do.
You can see, however, why I am not 100% convinced that serious buyers, with the resources to fund the club, are queuing up around the corner to drop £50m to just buy the club and take on it's debts.
That said, I'm fairly certain that e @Airman Brown confirmed in a subsequent VOTV posting that it was indeed the possibility of a takeover that Varney was attempting to initiate contact about.
It is better to protest for change until such time as a suitable purchaser is on the scene, we do not want to be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
Fans are frustrated including me but I do not see the point of forcing him out with no credible plan for what comes next.
Lets get behind the team and help them to stay in the Championship, come the end of the season we may find that the appointment of Riga and a change in transfer policy has worked its magic, if not we do not renew our season tickets until real change is evident.
If I remember rightly, there were options other than Duchatelet 2 years ago - and it's been mentioned subsequently that Roland was actually selected out of other options. Once again, that's if my memory serves me correctly and if we've been told the truth.
We don't know what the 'offer' from Varney, or any of the other potential buyers (now or when RD bought it) was. I can't believe that Slater and Jimenez took anything other than what paid them the most money.
If, and I know its a big if RD changes his recruitment/first team policy things will be good. I'm prepared to give till the end of the season and review matters then.
But that's a whole different thing to there not being a price at which Roly Douchebollox will sell.
He's only about the statistics, numbers, spreadsheets.
His notion that a football club can be run without haemorrhaging cash (risible that it is) can be overlayed on ANY football club. He 'chose' Charlton because we were available at a price (entry cost/investment) that suited RD's sums, no other reason.
Only the douchebollox's addled synapses know what he considers to be a sustainable "business-model". There will come a point when one of 2 things will happen:
1) a new party offers the staprix prick a sum of money which matches or exceeds his acceptable exit value - i.e. gives him more money today than the PV of his (imagined) future revenues from CAFC or
2) the level at which his CAFC project is haemorrhaging cash will become unacceptable to his model and he'll "be forced to liquidate" shut down the football operations and flog off the remaining assets to tourniquet the flow.
The septuagenarian shitforbrains imagines a 3rd possibility i.e. his crackpot notion of a lower league English football club washing its face financially but we all know that to be impossible, leaving only 1 or 2 as the achievable outcomes.
I'd be interested to know whether he uses lots of hallucinatory narcotics or is just built this mad.
The season we're having at the moment is miles better than the last three we had in the championship. Do you know what, it feels like we've 'got our Millwall back'. Now where have I heard that phrase recently?
The plan was to buy the entire club not to be part owner.
Peter Varney was acting on their behalf. It was not the owners of Ebbsfleet.
It is quite common for very wealthy owners to want to keep their identity a secret until later in negotiations to prevent the price being increased. For example my house is not for sale. If Bill Gates knocks on the door and asks to buy it I might be tempted to say "Yes, but it will cost you £2m" (a lot more than it is worth) because I know Bill Gates is loaded and can afford £2m. NB Bill Gates is NOT the buyer to the best of my knowledge.
As for the "lack of action" we don't know what is going on behind the scenes, or at least I don't. Obviously Colin does.
My view is that the initial contact to Roland was made in August '15 when the club was doing well at the start of the season. KM delayed any meeting and so now the club is threatened with relegation and a potential £7m+ drop in income and so a less attractive proposition. Varney's Kuwaiti buyers may have lost interest or may be waiting to see what division the club is in next season and be reviewing their offer based on that.
Interestingly at the time that the news of Varney's buyers were made public I bumped into another former CAFC director who told me "The problem is (Roland) doesn't want to sell because if he did I've got a group of people who want to buy the club".
So there is other interest. Of course, interest is not the same as a done deal and may not get passed due dillegence if even that far but regardless there are multiple potential buyers out there.
AB could put to RD the basic facts regarding the financial situation at our Club , the situation should we get relegated and the common sense facts & figures which show that breaking even in the Douchatelet experiment is a pipe dream.
Guess I can dream on....
However, you are right about one thing. We will probably need "magic" to get out of this mess !
take your medicine now you fuckwit and get out while there's a bid in town, it's a losing trade and they are the hardest ones to take a hit on
because no one is gonna be paying over the odds for you to get anywhere near a scratch trade