The bottom line is he has to reduce the price if he wants to sell the club. The Aussies aren’t trying to raise extra funds to meet his asking price in case anyone thinks that. I’m not ‘toeing the party line’ on this one, I know.
So James, presumably both LDT and RD are fully aware of this? I mean we have all been assuming for some time that the Aussies either don't have the necessary funds or else don't have the appetite to buy at RD's asking price. In which case why do both RD and LDT continue to say a price has been agreed and LDT continues to say he is in regular touch with the Australian consortium? For what purpose?
We are being spun a yarn by LDT that a price has been agreed and either there are a few things to be sorted out around the payment structure, or else waiting for the Aussies to submit paperwork to the EFL. In the absence of any communication from the Australians to the contrary, it would appear neither of those things are actually being progressed.
Seems to me they have two options:
1. Just sit there in the hope RD may eventually cave in and reduce his price or 2. Try to move things along by telling RD they are prepared to walk away by X date if a lower price cannot be mutually agreed
If they are employing tactic no. 1, that truly could be a long game with no certainty of success. Given the passage of time if they are really that interested in buying the club, I would have expected them by now to have resorted to no. 2, which allows them to move on to other things if RD won't budge.
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better. But as they have other business interests they don’t benefit by withdrawing in the the event of RD calling their bluff in scenario 2.
The only benefit is that if they are really interested in investing in English football they can draw a line under this one and move on.
Given the length of time they have supposedly been working on this, they just don't feel like credible potential buyers and am not sure why LDT or RD would feel they are - except perhaps it allows them to justify their asking price to other potential buyers.
I know this is all old ground we have covered many times around on here, but would just be nice to flush out some real information.
Any buyer who puts in a sensible bid for the club, and doesn’t withdraw when the bid is rejected, lacks credibility?
Any buyer who comes in and buys the club at the hyper inflated price Roland is asking also lacks credibility, because he doesn’t know the true value of the club.
I think it’s time The I think it’s time the Aussie consortium pulled out Then I think it’s time to ramp up the protests both home and In Belgium
Would be quite funny if the protests worked, and Roland decided to sell. Only the Aussies had just pulled out after receiving advice from a pussycat on CL!
The bottom line is he has to reduce the price if he wants to sell the club. The Aussies aren’t trying to raise extra funds to meet his asking price in case anyone thinks that. I’m not ‘toeing the party line’ on this one, I know.
So James, presumably both LDT and RD are fully aware of this? I mean we have all been assuming for some time that the Aussies either don't have the necessary funds or else don't have the appetite to buy at RD's asking price. In which case why do both RD and LDT continue to say a price has been agreed and LDT continues to say he is in regular touch with the Australian consortium? For what purpose?
We are being spun a yarn by LDT that a price has been agreed and either there are a few things to be sorted out around the payment structure, or else waiting for the Aussies to submit paperwork to the EFL. In the absence of any communication from the Australians to the contrary, it would appear neither of those things are actually being progressed.
Seems to me they have two options:
1. Just sit there in the hope RD may eventually cave in and reduce his price or 2. Try to move things along by telling RD they are prepared to walk away by X date if a lower price cannot be mutually agreed
If they are employing tactic no. 1, that truly could be a long game with no certainty of success. Given the passage of time if they are really that interested in buying the club, I would have expected them by now to have resorted to no. 2, which allows them to move on to other things if RD won't budge.
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better. But as they have other business interests they don’t benefit by withdrawing in the the event of RD calling their bluff in scenario 2.
The only benefit is that if they are really interested in investing in English football they can draw a line under this one and move on.
Given the length of time they have supposedly been working on this, they just don't feel like credible potential buyers and am not sure why LDT or RD would feel they are - except perhaps it allows them to justify their asking price to other potential buyers.
I know this is all old ground we have covered many times around on here, but would just be nice to flush out some real information.
Any buyer who puts in a sensible bid for the club, and doesn’t withdraw when the bid is rejected, lacks credibility?
Any buyer who comes in and buys the club at the hyper inflated price Roland is asking also lacks credibility, because he doesn’t know the true value of the club.
Bit of a Catch 22.
I sort of agree with your second point but not you questioning the first.
A potential buyer has completed DD and subsequently assessed the fair market value of the asset. The seller says he wants more (likely much more). If the potential buyer doesn't say something like "On that basis we will therefore need to withdraw our interest", the seller could legitimately assume that a stand-off exists and wait to see who blinks. If the buyer has walked away the seller knows not to wait for a blink that isn't coming! So he moves on to another potential buyer or runs after the first bidder blinking like very blinking thing!
There is no strength in hanging around saying nothing when the price is not acceptable - the strength is in walking away. The DD is done and if the seller comes back saying ok then, the potential buyer has lost nothing in terms of position.
Of course you have to factor in to the above analysis the fact that the seller is as mad as a box of frogs.
The bottom line is he has to reduce the price if he wants to sell the club. The Aussies aren’t trying to raise extra funds to meet his asking price in case anyone thinks that. I’m not ‘toeing the party line’ on this one, I know.
So James, presumably both LDT and RD are fully aware of this? I mean we have all been assuming for some time that the Aussies either don't have the necessary funds or else don't have the appetite to buy at RD's asking price. In which case why do both RD and LDT continue to say a price has been agreed and LDT continues to say he is in regular touch with the Australian consortium? For what purpose?
We are being spun a yarn by LDT that a price has been agreed and either there are a few things to be sorted out around the payment structure, or else waiting for the Aussies to submit paperwork to the EFL. In the absence of any communication from the Australians to the contrary, it would appear neither of those things are actually being progressed.
Seems to me they have two options:
1. Just sit there in the hope RD may eventually cave in and reduce his price or 2. Try to move things along by telling RD they are prepared to walk away by X date if a lower price cannot be mutually agreed
If they are employing tactic no. 1, that truly could be a long game with no certainty of success. Given the passage of time if they are really that interested in buying the club, I would have expected them by now to have resorted to no. 2, which allows them to move on to other things if RD won't budge.
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better. But as they have other business interests they don’t benefit by withdrawing in the the event of RD calling their bluff in scenario 2.
The only benefit is that if they are really interested in investing in English football they can draw a line under this one and move on.
Given the length of time they have supposedly been working on this, they just don't feel like credible potential buyers and am not sure why LDT or RD would feel they are - except perhaps it allows them to justify their asking price to other potential buyers.
I know this is all old ground we have covered many times around on here, but would just be nice to flush out some real information.
Any buyer who puts in a sensible bid for the club, and doesn’t withdraw when the bid is rejected, lacks credibility?
Any buyer who comes in and buys the club at the hyper inflated price Roland is asking also lacks credibility, because he doesn’t know the true value of the club.
Bit of a Catch 22.
I sort of agree with your second point but not you questioning the first.
A potential buyer has completed DD and subsequently assessed the fair market value of the asset. The seller says he wants more (likely much more). If the potential buyer doesn't say something like "On that basis we will therefore need to withdraw our interest", the seller could legitimately assume that a stand-off exists and wait to see who blinks. If the buyer has walked away the seller knows not to wait for a blink that isn't coming! So he moves on to another potential buyer or runs after the first bidder blinking like very blinking thing!
There is no strength in hanging around saying nothing when the price is not acceptable - the strength is in walking away. The DD is done and if the seller comes back saying ok then, the potential buyer has lost nothing in terms of position.
Of course you have to factor in to the above analysis the fact that the seller is as mad as a box of frogs.
"There is no strength in hanging around saying nothing when the price is not acceptable"
And there's the rub.
According to even LDT they have been talking on a regular basis. According to Jim White, Richard Murray, Airman Brown and others a deal has been close multiple times.
They appear to have been saying a lot but Duchatelet clearly isn't listening.
In his mind there was a negotiation and that is it. To every one else he is bonkers and is asking too much.
The bottom line is he has to reduce the price if he wants to sell the club. The Aussies aren’t trying to raise extra funds to meet his asking price in case anyone thinks that. I’m not ‘toeing the party line’ on this one, I know.
So James, presumably both LDT and RD are fully aware of this? I mean we have all been assuming for some time that the Aussies either don't have the necessary funds or else don't have the appetite to buy at RD's asking price. In which case why do both RD and LDT continue to say a price has been agreed and LDT continues to say he is in regular touch with the Australian consortium? For what purpose?
We are being spun a yarn by LDT that a price has been agreed and either there are a few things to be sorted out around the payment structure, or else waiting for the Aussies to submit paperwork to the EFL. In the absence of any communication from the Australians to the contrary, it would appear neither of those things are actually being progressed.
Seems to me they have two options:
1. Just sit there in the hope RD may eventually cave in and reduce his price or 2. Try to move things along by telling RD they are prepared to walk away by X date if a lower price cannot be mutually agreed
If they are employing tactic no. 1, that truly could be a long game with no certainty of success. Given the passage of time if they are really that interested in buying the club, I would have expected them by now to have resorted to no. 2, which allows them to move on to other things if RD won't budge.
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better. But as they have other business interests they don’t benefit by withdrawing in the the event of RD calling their bluff in scenario 2.
The only benefit is that if they are really interested in investing in English football they can draw a line under this one and move on.
Given the length of time they have supposedly been working on this, they just don't feel like credible potential buyers and am not sure why LDT or RD would feel they are - except perhaps it allows them to justify their asking price to other potential buyers.
I know this is all old ground we have covered many times around on here, but would just be nice to flush out some real information.
Any buyer who puts in a sensible bid for the club, and doesn’t withdraw when the bid is rejected, lacks credibility?
Any buyer who comes in and buys the club at the hyper inflated price Roland is asking also lacks credibility, because he doesn’t know the true value of the club.
Bit of a Catch 22.
I sort of agree with your second point but not you questioning the first.
A potential buyer has completed DD and subsequently assessed the fair market value of the asset. The seller says he wants more (likely much more). If the potential buyer doesn't say something like "On that basis we will therefore need to withdraw our interest", the seller could legitimately assume that a stand-off exists and wait to see who blinks. If the buyer has walked away the seller knows not to wait for a blink that isn't coming! So he moves on to another potential buyer or runs after the first bidder blinking like very blinking thing!
There is no strength in hanging around saying nothing when the price is not acceptable - the strength is in walking away. The DD is done and if the seller comes back saying ok then, the potential buyer has lost nothing in terms of position.
Of course you have to factor in to the above analysis the fact that the seller is as mad as a box of frogs.
I genuinely get many of the points people are making. But I agree with your last point in particular. Normal rules don’t apply!
The bottom line is he has to reduce the price if he wants to sell the club. The Aussies aren’t trying to raise extra funds to meet his asking price in case anyone thinks that. I’m not ‘toeing the party line’ on this one, I know.
So James, presumably both LDT and RD are fully aware of this? I mean we have all been assuming for some time that the Aussies either don't have the necessary funds or else don't have the appetite to buy at RD's asking price. In which case why do both RD and LDT continue to say a price has been agreed and LDT continues to say he is in regular touch with the Australian consortium? For what purpose?
We are being spun a yarn by LDT that a price has been agreed and either there are a few things to be sorted out around the payment structure, or else waiting for the Aussies to submit paperwork to the EFL. In the absence of any communication from the Australians to the contrary, it would appear neither of those things are actually being progressed.
Seems to me they have two options:
1. Just sit there in the hope RD may eventually cave in and reduce his price or 2. Try to move things along by telling RD they are prepared to walk away by X date if a lower price cannot be mutually agreed
If they are employing tactic no. 1, that truly could be a long game with no certainty of success. Given the passage of time if they are really that interested in buying the club, I would have expected them by now to have resorted to no. 2, which allows them to move on to other things if RD won't budge.
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better. But as they have other business interests they don’t benefit by withdrawing in the the event of RD calling their bluff in scenario 2.
The only benefit is that if they are really interested in investing in English football they can draw a line under this one and move on.
Given the length of time they have supposedly been working on this, they just don't feel like credible potential buyers and am not sure why LDT or RD would feel they are - except perhaps it allows them to justify their asking price to other potential buyers.
I know this is all old ground we have covered many times around on here, but would just be nice to flush out some real information.
Any buyer who puts in a sensible bid for the club, and doesn’t withdraw when the bid is rejected, lacks credibility?
Any buyer who comes in and buys the club at the hyper inflated price Roland is asking also lacks credibility, because he doesn’t know the true value of the club.
Bit of a Catch 22.
I sort of agree with your second point but not you questioning the first.
A potential buyer has completed DD and subsequently assessed the fair market value of the asset. The seller says he wants more (likely much more). If the potential buyer doesn't say something like "On that basis we will therefore need to withdraw our interest", the seller could legitimately assume that a stand-off exists and wait to see who blinks. If the buyer has walked away the seller knows not to wait for a blink that isn't coming! So he moves on to another potential buyer or runs after the first bidder blinking like very blinking thing!
There is no strength in hanging around saying nothing when the price is not acceptable - the strength is in walking away. The DD is done and if the seller comes back saying ok then, the potential buyer has lost nothing in terms of position.
Of course you have to factor in to the above analysis the fact that the seller is as mad as a box of frogs.
Yep, bobmunro has put it much better than perhaps I did in my original note. You indicated earlier on James that the Aussies aren't looking to raise extra funds to meet his asking price. Maybe if they sit in there long enough they will wear RD down, only time will tell. However, I think they would be playing a better hand if they made a show of being prepared to walk away. Am I being harsh in saying "they don't feel like credible buyers"? Lord knows!
The bottom line is he has to reduce the price if he wants to sell the club. The Aussies aren’t trying to raise extra funds to meet his asking price in case anyone thinks that. I’m not ‘toeing the party line’ on this one, I know.
So James, presumably both LDT and RD are fully aware of this? I mean we have all been assuming for some time that the Aussies either don't have the necessary funds or else don't have the appetite to buy at RD's asking price. In which case why do both RD and LDT continue to say a price has been agreed and LDT continues to say he is in regular touch with the Australian consortium? For what purpose?
We are being spun a yarn by LDT that a price has been agreed and either there are a few things to be sorted out around the payment structure, or else waiting for the Aussies to submit paperwork to the EFL. In the absence of any communication from the Australians to the contrary, it would appear neither of those things are actually being progressed.
Seems to me they have two options:
1. Just sit there in the hope RD may eventually cave in and reduce his price or 2. Try to move things along by telling RD they are prepared to walk away by X date if a lower price cannot be mutually agreed
If they are employing tactic no. 1, that truly could be a long game with no certainty of success. Given the passage of time if they are really that interested in buying the club, I would have expected them by now to have resorted to no. 2, which allows them to move on to other things if RD won't budge.
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better. But as they have other business interests they don’t benefit by withdrawing in the the event of RD calling their bluff in scenario 2.
The only benefit is that if they are really interested in investing in English football they can draw a line under this one and move on.
Given the length of time they have supposedly been working on this, they just don't feel like credible potential buyers and am not sure why LDT or RD would feel they are - except perhaps it allows them to justify their asking price to other potential buyers.
I know this is all old ground we have covered many times around on here, but would just be nice to flush out some real information.
Any buyer who puts in a sensible bid for the club, and doesn’t withdraw when the bid is rejected, lacks credibility?
Any buyer who comes in and buys the club at the hyper inflated price Roland is asking also lacks credibility, because he doesn’t know the true value of the club.
Bit of a Catch 22.
I sort of agree with your second point but not you questioning the first.
A potential buyer has completed DD and subsequently assessed the fair market value of the asset. The seller says he wants more (likely much more). If the potential buyer doesn't say something like "On that basis we will therefore need to withdraw our interest", the seller could legitimately assume that a stand-off exists and wait to see who blinks. If the buyer has walked away the seller knows not to wait for a blink that isn't coming! So he moves on to another potential buyer or runs after the first bidder blinking like very blinking thing!
There is no strength in hanging around saying nothing when the price is not acceptable - the strength is in walking away. The DD is done and if the seller comes back saying ok then, the potential buyer has lost nothing in terms of position.
Of course you have to factor in to the above analysis the fact that the seller is as mad as a box of frogs.
Yep, bobmunro has put it much better than perhaps I did in my original note. You indicated earlier on James that the Aussies aren't looking to raise extra funds to meet his asking price. Maybe if they sit in there long enough they will wear RD down, only time will tell. However, I think they would be playing a better hand if they made a show of being prepared to walk away. Am I being harsh in saying "they don't feel like credible buyers"? Lord knows!
Who knows. Certainly not me.
I only know that dealing with Roland is not straightforward. I also know that in order to walk away to make him to drop the price you’d have to hope that’d he’d act like a rational person. But he isn’t.
Shocking that we’re now hoping the EFL, of all people, will come to our rescue.
You only have to Listen to failed football club owner Simon Jordan, teaching RD a lesson on football club ownership to see that trying to do a deal with RD is going to be next to impossible. I don’t blame the Aussies or any other bidders one bit. This is down to one man - even his niece got bored of his lunacy and left to join the massives.
anyone putting any blame on the Aussie lot is being pretty unfair ImO.
You can not blame somebody who has not bought us - whatever their good points or bad. Duchatelet owns us and says he wants to sell us. We do know there are people who want or at least wanted to buy us, but they can't agree a sale with the owner. Why should they buy us if the deal is not right?
That live sky reporter had no ffing clue about reality or Charlton at all...'bad news Charlton Fans, the EFL will not be buying your club'... no shit Sherlock
Be interesting to see how they can assist a sale, less interesting is the ongoing investigation is into the running of the club, 5 minutes googling would tell them all they need to know
That live sky reporter had no ffing clue about reality or Charlton at all...'bad news Charlton Fans, the EFL will not be buying your club'... no shit Sherlock
Be interesting to see how they can assist a sale, less interesting is the ongoing investigation is into the running of the club, 5 minutes googling would tell them all they need to know
What they mean is that they will deal with the paperwork within half an hour just to get rid.
Forget when Oz guys did DD and "agreed a price" but believe it was prior to 31 Jan 2018, since which RD, sacked a manager, has sold Holmes, Konsa and Grant undermining two successive promotion pushes, thus diluting the assets of the original approach. Can't fathom that under the circumstances the NDA still applies.
On whether the deal has ever been close, the issue IMO is that the participants have believed that to be the case and the professionals assisting them have taken their lead from that, but neither side in the deal has been realistic about what actually had to happen to close it.
Of course, RIch Cawley, Giuseppe on the Standard, Jim White and I were going to believe what was coming from the participants and the professionals. Richard Murray too, if you like. But what if the participants believing it was the problem?
Just listen to Duchatelet or read what he says. The man is a buffoon. On the other side you have Gerard Murphy, who @JamesSeed obviously knows and likes, but at this stage we have to ask whether he is credible himself. I accept he is well intentioned and that he may be a tremendous guy, but where is the evidence that he is up to the task in hand?
Andrew Muir is an altogether different matter, but he has never to my knowledge been anyone’s source.
On whether the deal has ever been close, the issue IMO is that the participants have believed that to be the case and the professionals assisting them have taken their lead from that, but neither side in the deal has been realistic about what actually had to happen to close it.
Of course, RIch Cawley, Giuseppe on the Standard, Jim White and I were going to believe what was coming from the participants and the professionals. Richard Murray too, if you like. But what if the participants believing it was the problem?
Just listen to Duchatelet or read what he says. The man is a buffoon. On the other side you have Gerard Murphy, who @JamesSeed obviously knows and likes, but at this stage we have to ask whether he is credible himself. I accept he is well intentioned and that he may be a tremendous guy, but where is the evidence that he is up to the task in hand?
Andrew Muir is an altogether different matter, but he has never to my knowledge been anyone’s source.
Strewth, there goes your job right there Cobber ;-)
Copied this statement from chairman Ken Anderson on the Bolton Wanderers site. Big mess.
I would like to update everyone on the potential takeover but unfortunately confidentiality clauses prevent me from doing so. However, I can confirm that discussions are ongoing with several parties and I am hopeful that completion will happen this week.
Obviously, the delay is very disappointing but to be honest l am not surprised as it seems a regular event with takeovers these days. I am sure that you have all heard of similar situations for example at Newcastle where at least two potential takeovers with two different highly respected individuals involved have not been able to complete a deal so far.
Similar situations have occurred at Hull and Charlton and several other clubs. I would like to be able to give you more information as to why the transaction was delayed, but unfortunately, as l am sure you will appreciate, I am restricted by NDA and confidentiality clauses. It is important however to appreciate that these transactions take time as was clearly seen with the recent Wigan takeover.
A great deal has and no doubt and will continue to be written and said about my ownership and time at the club, so I thought it would be a good time to look back and also clarify some of the misapprehensions.
When l was first asked to assist, the club was on the brink of going into administration or even worse liquidation and my involvement was to be short term to try to arrange some investment or short term bridging finance.
Prior to my involvement, to the best of my knowledge and belief, Trevor Birch had already sold off the training ground at Euxton to Wigan Athletic, the North Stand offices and several of the car parks to Michael James (Prescott Business Parks) for circa £12m. At the same time, a charge over the hotel was also given to Michael James Holdings together with a first charge over part of the training ground to Brett Warburton creating nearly £9m of new secured debt. Unfortunately, all these funds totalling circa £21m had been utilised before my involvement.
Dean Holdsworth and his associate Michael Collins had taken out a £5m loan from BluMarble through Sportshield with debentures and also gave charges effectively over everything the club and its associated businesses still owned. Although it has to be said that the club only actually received £4m of the £5m. Subsequent events and what happened to both of them and the loan have already been well publicised.
It was the legacy of the above debts and loans, as well as some non-commercial and dubious agreements with numerous agents, suppliers, caterers, professionals and other contractors as well as a rates burden of at least treble what it should have been, based on what the other local football clubs and hotels have paid and which did not make any commercial sense.
I accept that the council is not responsible for the legislation and have been very supportive, but all of this has effectively financially hampered the club during the entire time l have been involved. The amounts involved have cost the club several millions of pounds to date.
During my ownership we have done our best to substantially reduce costs and increase revenues and now have one of the lowest debts and operating costs in the Championship. When you consider that the debts when I first arrived were close to a quarter of a billion pounds it just goes to show how much has been achieved. Indeed, I am pleased to say that the 2018 accounts will show a small profit, which I understand is the first time this has happened since the 2006 accounts were published.
However, despite all of this good work, the club is still not self-sufficient and costs continue to exceed income, which has made operating the club and hotel extremely difficult. Unfortunately, every month continues to be a financial challenge. I fully appreciate how frustrating this is for all the staff at the club and hotel and of course the supporters, but I can assure you that I have done my utmost to try and address the ongoing problem by looking for new investment.
For the record, the sale price being quoted is very wide of the mark. Indeed, the proposals that I have had would effectively recoup what I paid for my shares, so no huge profit as is constantly stated in the media and social media.
Whilst, l am the first to admit that the way l have had to operate the club and its associated businesses is far from perfect and open to criticism, l do believe that there was little or no alternative if the club was to survive both on and off the field until any new investment could be sourced. I can assure you that it had nothing to do with brinksmanship, it was simply to help the club to survive.
Despite all of the above, I am proud of what has been achieved during the last three years, be it the excellent training facilities with the new dome that was achieved with the help and support of the Community Trust and Development Association, the Academy achieving Category 2 status, and the club earning promotion from League One at the first attempt during an embargo that was also a legacy of the last regime.
It is also a great achievement that we have been able to attract the Rugby League semi-finals for a second year running and also been selected as one of the venues for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup as well as hosting music concerts, numerous conferences and many other events including the IberCup to the Stadium and Hotel.
I am also proud to say that there were not the redundancies and mass staff walkouts that the usual doom and gloom mongers predicted. Actually, very few people have left during my ownership.
It has been well publicised about my ongoing battles with some of the media, social media forums and pundits, but I have no regrets on that front whatsoever. I will always defend the people around me when they are unfairly criticised and as I have stated previously the actions that I took were simply because a number of the statements made were and continue to be factually incorrect and there were unjustified criticisms of the team management and academy. I have no problems with opinions as that’s what makes football fascinating, but factually incorrect statements about the club or my staff I will not accept.
Unfortunately, several people seem to want to give the indication that they know what’s going on at the club, when in reality they know very little if anything and often incorrectly speculate or worse still, in some cases create stories such as the Turkish buyer and the North West consortium backed by Russian money and the latest one from Bahrain. I have had no contact whatsoever with any of them.
A number of the sensational headline reports in the local media these last few days are exactly that and again wide of the mark and factually incorrect in most cases. I suppose it helps sell newspapers and keeps journalists in the limelight. As regards the letters being printed, I have no problem with these, as I fully understand the sentiments being expressed. Even if some of the comments are not accurate, I put this down to them expressing what they have read or heard.
Indeed, I do believe that the media and social media have played a major part in influencing and promoting the recent fan protests, which together with the recent vile, abusive and threatening comments posted on social media towards me and my family and then in January, the police advising me that it might not be safe for us to attend home or away matches have made me reappraise whether for the sake of my family and our safety I should continue to be involved with the Club.
Despite all of this, I have decided to reinstate all media privileges with immediate effect.
I have previously commented on the substantial additional costs the club incurred because of the protests and now I understand that there will be another protest before the Millwall match, which will mean incurring additional policing costs which as everyone knows the club can well do without.
I can now understand why Ed Davies decided to stop financially supporting the businesses back in 2015 after losing circa £200m. I had to put a further £800,000 in to pay the salaries in January as I have done on many other occasions.
Obviously, I am concerned, disappointed and deeply regret that I had to take the decision to delay paying the staff salaries on time last month, which is the first time this has happened during my ownership and apologise unreservedly to all the staff and sincerely thank them for their continued support and patience, but it is difficult to accept putting a further £1m into a club that does not want you there and worse still it is not safe to even go to the club.
Football, unfortunately, is littered with stories of owners losing huge amounts of money and still being vilified by the fan base and you need to look no further than Aston Villa and Sunderland for recent evidence of this, but there are many more. That said, I have decided to continue to financially support the club until someone else comes in and have today told payroll to process the staff salaries and to pay any amounts due to the police and others to ensure that the Millwall fixture and future games go ahead.
Apparently, it has been well debated what the alternatives were if the takeover did not take place and I am told the potential repercussions of this for the club were discussed in detail some weeks ago in a recent radio forum, as well as in the local media and social media, and the overwhelming view was the sooner I go the better, as was made very clear for everyone to see at the West Bromwich Albion game and in recent comments/articles by Neil Bonnar, sports editor at the Bolton News, who certainly made his opinions clear about me going as has Marc Iles, who regularly says ‘Enough is enough’.
Despite all of this, I have been working tirelessly alongside Paul Aldridge to try and find new investors and unfortunately have had to tolerate a great deal of tyre kickers and time wasters along the way, but our efforts have never and will not waver until the sale is completed.
I sincerely hope that all of these people along with the Supporters’ Trust, (who for the record have made no contact with the club, as far as I am aware, about helping to pay the salaries) will get behind the new owners by supporting them and giving them the time to settle in and deal with everything and hopefully retain Championship status.
Copied this statement from chairman Ken Anderson on the Bolton Wanderers site. Big mess.
I would like to update everyone on the potential takeover but unfortunately confidentiality clauses prevent me from doing so. However, I can confirm that discussions are ongoing with several parties and I am hopeful that completion will happen this week.
Obviously, the delay is very disappointing but to be honest l am not surprised as it seems a regular event with takeovers these days. I am sure that you have all heard of similar situations for example at Newcastle where at least two potential takeovers with two different highly respected individuals involved have not been able to complete a deal so far.
Similar situations have occurred at Hull and Charlton and several other clubs. I would like to be able to give you more information as to why the transaction was delayed, but unfortunately, as l am sure you will appreciate, I am restricted by NDA and confidentiality clauses. It is important however to appreciate that these transactions take time as was clearly seen with the recent Wigan takeover.
A great deal has and no doubt and will continue to be written and said about my ownership and time at the club, so I thought it would be a good time to look back and also clarify some of the misapprehensions.
When l was first asked to assist, the club was on the brink of going into administration or even worse liquidation and my involvement was to be short term to try to arrange some investment or short term bridging finance.
Prior to my involvement, to the best of my knowledge and belief, Trevor Birch had already sold off the training ground at Euxton to Wigan Athletic, the North Stand offices and several of the car parks to Michael James (Prescott Business Parks) for circa £12m. At the same time, a charge over the hotel was also given to Michael James Holdings together with a first charge over part of the training ground to Brett Warburton creating nearly £9m of new secured debt. Unfortunately, all these funds totalling circa £21m had been utilised before my involvement.
Dean Holdsworth and his associate Michael Collins had taken out a £5m loan from BluMarble through Sportshield with debentures and also gave charges effectively over everything the club and its associated businesses still owned. Although it has to be said that the club only actually received £4m of the £5m. Subsequent events and what happened to both of them and the loan have already been well publicised.
It was the legacy of the above debts and loans, as well as some non-commercial and dubious agreements with numerous agents, suppliers, caterers, professionals and other contractors as well as a rates burden of at least treble what it should have been, based on what the other local football clubs and hotels have paid and which did not make any commercial sense.
I accept that the council is not responsible for the legislation and have been very supportive, but all of this has effectively financially hampered the club during the entire time l have been involved. The amounts involved have cost the club several millions of pounds to date.
During my ownership we have done our best to substantially reduce costs and increase revenues and now have one of the lowest debts and operating costs in the Championship. When you consider that the debts when I first arrived were close to a quarter of a billion pounds it just goes to show how much has been achieved. Indeed, I am pleased to say that the 2018 accounts will show a small profit, which I understand is the first time this has happened since the 2006 accounts were published.
However, despite all of this good work, the club is still not self-sufficient and costs continue to exceed income, which has made operating the club and hotel extremely difficult. Unfortunately, every month continues to be a financial challenge. I fully appreciate how frustrating this is for all the staff at the club and hotel and of course the supporters, but I can assure you that I have done my utmost to try and address the ongoing problem by looking for new investment.
For the record, the sale price being quoted is very wide of the mark. Indeed, the proposals that I have had would effectively recoup what I paid for my shares, so no huge profit as is constantly stated in the media and social media.
Whilst, l am the first to admit that the way l have had to operate the club and its associated businesses is far from perfect and open to criticism, l do believe that there was little or no alternative if the club was to survive both on and off the field until any new investment could be sourced. I can assure you that it had nothing to do with brinksmanship, it was simply to help the club to survive.
Despite all of the above, I am proud of what has been achieved during the last three years, be it the excellent training facilities with the new dome that was achieved with the help and support of the Community Trust and Development Association, the Academy achieving Category 2 status, and the club earning promotion from League One at the first attempt during an embargo that was also a legacy of the last regime.
It is also a great achievement that we have been able to attract the Rugby League semi-finals for a second year running and also been selected as one of the venues for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup as well as hosting music concerts, numerous conferences and many other events including the IberCup to the Stadium and Hotel.
I am also proud to say that there were not the redundancies and mass staff walkouts that the usual doom and gloom mongers predicted. Actually, very few people have left during my ownership.
It has been well publicised about my ongoing battles with some of the media, social media forums and pundits, but I have no regrets on that front whatsoever. I will always defend the people around me when they are unfairly criticised and as I have stated previously the actions that I took were simply because a number of the statements made were and continue to be factually incorrect and there were unjustified criticisms of the team management and academy. I have no problems with opinions as that’s what makes football fascinating, but factually incorrect statements about the club or my staff I will not accept.
Unfortunately, several people seem to want to give the indication that they know what’s going on at the club, when in reality they know very little if anything and often incorrectly speculate or worse still, in some cases create stories such as the Turkish buyer and the North West consortium backed by Russian money and the latest one from Bahrain. I have had no contact whatsoever with any of them.
A number of the sensational headline reports in the local media these last few days are exactly that and again wide of the mark and factually incorrect in most cases. I suppose it helps sell newspapers and keeps journalists in the limelight. As regards the letters being printed, I have no problem with these, as I fully understand the sentiments being expressed. Even if some of the comments are not accurate, I put this down to them expressing what they have read or heard.
Indeed, I do believe that the media and social media have played a major part in influencing and promoting the recent fan protests, which together with the recent vile, abusive and threatening comments posted on social media towards me and my family and then in January, the police advising me that it might not be safe for us to attend home or away matches have made me reappraise whether for the sake of my family and our safety I should continue to be involved with the Club.
Despite all of this, I have decided to reinstate all media privileges with immediate effect.
I have previously commented on the substantial additional costs the club incurred because of the protests and now I understand that there will be another protest before the Millwall match, which will mean incurring additional policing costs which as everyone knows the club can well do without.
I can now understand why Ed Davies decided to stop financially supporting the businesses back in 2015 after losing circa £200m. I had to put a further £800,000 in to pay the salaries in January as I have done on many other occasions.
Obviously, I am concerned, disappointed and deeply regret that I had to take the decision to delay paying the staff salaries on time last month, which is the first time this has happened during my ownership and apologise unreservedly to all the staff and sincerely thank them for their continued support and patience, but it is difficult to accept putting a further £1m into a club that does not want you there and worse still it is not safe to even go to the club.
Football, unfortunately, is littered with stories of owners losing huge amounts of money and still being vilified by the fan base and you need to look no further than Aston Villa and Sunderland for recent evidence of this, but there are many more. That said, I have decided to continue to financially support the club until someone else comes in and have today told payroll to process the staff salaries and to pay any amounts due to the police and others to ensure that the Millwall fixture and future games go ahead.
Apparently, it has been well debated what the alternatives were if the takeover did not take place and I am told the potential repercussions of this for the club were discussed in detail some weeks ago in a recent radio forum, as well as in the local media and social media, and the overwhelming view was the sooner I go the better, as was made very clear for everyone to see at the West Bromwich Albion game and in recent comments/articles by Neil Bonnar, sports editor at the Bolton News, who certainly made his opinions clear about me going as has Marc Iles, who regularly says ‘Enough is enough’.
Despite all of this, I have been working tirelessly alongside Paul Aldridge to try and find new investors and unfortunately have had to tolerate a great deal of tyre kickers and time wasters along the way, but our efforts have never and will not waver until the sale is completed.
I sincerely hope that all of these people along with the Supporters’ Trust, (who for the record have made no contact with the club, as far as I am aware, about helping to pay the salaries) will get behind the new owners by supporting them and giving them the time to settle in and deal with everything and hopefully retain Championship status.
BREAKING: I hear there will be some very interesting #cafc takeover coverage coming out from more than one outlet in the next 24 hours - and that's before we even get to VOTV150 on Saturday, which has a few insights of its own. You can order it now at http://www.votvonline.com
Copied this statement from chairman Ken Anderson on the Bolton Wanderers site. Big mess.
I would like to update everyone on the potential takeover but unfortunately confidentiality clauses prevent me from doing so. However, I can confirm that discussions are ongoing with several parties and I am hopeful that completion will happen this week.
Obviously, the delay is very disappointing but to be honest l am not surprised as it seems a regular event with takeovers these days. I am sure that you have all heard of similar situations for example at Newcastle where at least two potential takeovers with two different highly respected individuals involved have not been able to complete a deal so far.
Similar situations have occurred at Hull and Charlton and several other clubs. I would like to be able to give you more information as to why the transaction was delayed, but unfortunately, as l am sure you will appreciate, I am restricted by NDA and confidentiality clauses. It is important however to appreciate that these transactions take time as was clearly seen with the recent Wigan takeover.
A great deal has and no doubt and will continue to be written and said about my ownership and time at the club, so I thought it would be a good time to look back and also clarify some of the misapprehensions.
When l was first asked to assist, the club was on the brink of going into administration or even worse liquidation and my involvement was to be short term to try to arrange some investment or short term bridging finance.
Prior to my involvement, to the best of my knowledge and belief, Trevor Birch had already sold off the training ground at Euxton to Wigan Athletic, the North Stand offices and several of the car parks to Michael James (Prescott Business Parks) for circa £12m. At the same time, a charge over the hotel was also given to Michael James Holdings together with a first charge over part of the training ground to Brett Warburton creating nearly £9m of new secured debt. Unfortunately, all these funds totalling circa £21m had been utilised before my involvement.
Dean Holdsworth and his associate Michael Collins had taken out a £5m loan from BluMarble through Sportshield with debentures and also gave charges effectively over everything the club and its associated businesses still owned. Although it has to be said that the club only actually received £4m of the £5m. Subsequent events and what happened to both of them and the loan have already been well publicised.
It was the legacy of the above debts and loans, as well as some non-commercial and dubious agreements with numerous agents, suppliers, caterers, professionals and other contractors as well as a rates burden of at least treble what it should have been, based on what the other local football clubs and hotels have paid and which did not make any commercial sense.
I accept that the council is not responsible for the legislation and have been very supportive, but all of this has effectively financially hampered the club during the entire time l have been involved. The amounts involved have cost the club several millions of pounds to date.
During my ownership we have done our best to substantially reduce costs and increase revenues and now have one of the lowest debts and operating costs in the Championship. When you consider that the debts when I first arrived were close to a quarter of a billion pounds it just goes to show how much has been achieved. Indeed, I am pleased to say that the 2018 accounts will show a small profit, which I understand is the first time this has happened since the 2006 accounts were published.
However, despite all of this good work, the club is still not self-sufficient and costs continue to exceed income, which has made operating the club and hotel extremely difficult. Unfortunately, every month continues to be a financial challenge. I fully appreciate how frustrating this is for all the staff at the club and hotel and of course the supporters, but I can assure you that I have done my utmost to try and address the ongoing problem by looking for new investment.
For the record, the sale price being quoted is very wide of the mark. Indeed, the proposals that I have had would effectively recoup what I paid for my shares, so no huge profit as is constantly stated in the media and social media.
Whilst, l am the first to admit that the way l have had to operate the club and its associated businesses is far from perfect and open to criticism, l do believe that there was little or no alternative if the club was to survive both on and off the field until any new investment could be sourced. I can assure you that it had nothing to do with brinksmanship, it was simply to help the club to survive.
Despite all of the above, I am proud of what has been achieved during the last three years, be it the excellent training facilities with the new dome that was achieved with the help and support of the Community Trust and Development Association, the Academy achieving Category 2 status, and the club earning promotion from League One at the first attempt during an embargo that was also a legacy of the last regime.
It is also a great achievement that we have been able to attract the Rugby League semi-finals for a second year running and also been selected as one of the venues for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup as well as hosting music concerts, numerous conferences and many other events including the IberCup to the Stadium and Hotel.
I am also proud to say that there were not the redundancies and mass staff walkouts that the usual doom and gloom mongers predicted. Actually, very few people have left during my ownership.
It has been well publicised about my ongoing battles with some of the media, social media forums and pundits, but I have no regrets on that front whatsoever. I will always defend the people around me when they are unfairly criticised and as I have stated previously the actions that I took were simply because a number of the statements made were and continue to be factually incorrect and there were unjustified criticisms of the team management and academy. I have no problems with opinions as that’s what makes football fascinating, but factually incorrect statements about the club or my staff I will not accept.
Unfortunately, several people seem to want to give the indication that they know what’s going on at the club, when in reality they know very little if anything and often incorrectly speculate or worse still, in some cases create stories such as the Turkish buyer and the North West consortium backed by Russian money and the latest one from Bahrain. I have had no contact whatsoever with any of them.
A number of the sensational headline reports in the local media these last few days are exactly that and again wide of the mark and factually incorrect in most cases. I suppose it helps sell newspapers and keeps journalists in the limelight. As regards the letters being printed, I have no problem with these, as I fully understand the sentiments being expressed. Even if some of the comments are not accurate, I put this down to them expressing what they have read or heard.
Indeed, I do believe that the media and social media have played a major part in influencing and promoting the recent fan protests, which together with the recent vile, abusive and threatening comments posted on social media towards me and my family and then in January, the police advising me that it might not be safe for us to attend home or away matches have made me reappraise whether for the sake of my family and our safety I should continue to be involved with the Club.
Despite all of this, I have decided to reinstate all media privileges with immediate effect.
I have previously commented on the substantial additional costs the club incurred because of the protests and now I understand that there will be another protest before the Millwall match, which will mean incurring additional policing costs which as everyone knows the club can well do without.
I can now understand why Ed Davies decided to stop financially supporting the businesses back in 2015 after losing circa £200m. I had to put a further £800,000 in to pay the salaries in January as I have done on many other occasions.
Obviously, I am concerned, disappointed and deeply regret that I had to take the decision to delay paying the staff salaries on time last month, which is the first time this has happened during my ownership and apologise unreservedly to all the staff and sincerely thank them for their continued support and patience, but it is difficult to accept putting a further £1m into a club that does not want you there and worse still it is not safe to even go to the club.
Football, unfortunately, is littered with stories of owners losing huge amounts of money and still being vilified by the fan base and you need to look no further than Aston Villa and Sunderland for recent evidence of this, but there are many more. That said, I have decided to continue to financially support the club until someone else comes in and have today told payroll to process the staff salaries and to pay any amounts due to the police and others to ensure that the Millwall fixture and future games go ahead.
Apparently, it has been well debated what the alternatives were if the takeover did not take place and I am told the potential repercussions of this for the club were discussed in detail some weeks ago in a recent radio forum, as well as in the local media and social media, and the overwhelming view was the sooner I go the better, as was made very clear for everyone to see at the West Bromwich Albion game and in recent comments/articles by Neil Bonnar, sports editor at the Bolton News, who certainly made his opinions clear about me going as has Marc Iles, who regularly says ‘Enough is enough’.
Despite all of this, I have been working tirelessly alongside Paul Aldridge to try and find new investors and unfortunately have had to tolerate a great deal of tyre kickers and time wasters along the way, but our efforts have never and will not waver until the sale is completed.
I sincerely hope that all of these people along with the Supporters’ Trust, (who for the record have made no contact with the club, as far as I am aware, about helping to pay the salaries) will get behind the new owners by supporting them and giving them the time to settle in and deal with everything and hopefully retain Championship status.
Comments
Any buyer who comes in and buys the club at the hyper inflated price Roland is asking also lacks credibility, because he doesn’t know the true value of the club.
Bit of a Catch 22.
Only the Aussies had just pulled out after receiving advice from a pussycat on CL!
I sort of agree with your second point but not you questioning the first.
A potential buyer has completed DD and subsequently assessed the fair market value of the asset. The seller says he wants more (likely much more). If the potential buyer doesn't say something like "On that basis we will therefore need to withdraw our interest", the seller could legitimately assume that a stand-off exists and wait to see who blinks. If the buyer has walked away the seller knows not to wait for a blink that isn't coming! So he moves on to another potential buyer or runs after the first bidder blinking like very blinking thing!
There is no strength in hanging around saying nothing when the price is not acceptable - the strength is in walking away. The DD is done and if the seller comes back saying ok then, the potential buyer has lost nothing in terms of position.
Of course you have to factor in to the above analysis the fact that the seller is as mad as a box of frogs.
And there's the rub.
According to even LDT they have been talking on a regular basis. According to Jim White, Richard Murray, Airman Brown and others a deal has been close multiple times.
They appear to have been saying a lot but Duchatelet clearly isn't listening.
In his mind there was a negotiation and that is it. To every one else he is bonkers and is asking too much.
But I agree with your last point in particular.
Normal rules don’t apply!
I only know that dealing with Roland is not straightforward.
I also know that in order to walk away to make him to drop the price you’d have to hope that’d he’d act like a rational person. But he isn’t.
Shocking that we’re now hoping the EFL, of all people, will come to our rescue.
anyone putting any blame on the Aussie lot is being pretty unfair ImO.
But they will “continue” to assist Roland with the sale.
no shit Sherlock
Be interesting to see how they can assist a sale, less interesting is the ongoing investigation is into the running of the club, 5 minutes googling would tell them all they need to know
Of course, RIch Cawley, Giuseppe on the Standard, Jim White and I were going to believe what was coming from the participants and the professionals. Richard Murray too, if you like. But what if the participants believing it was the problem?
Just listen to Duchatelet or read what he says. The man is a buffoon. On the other side you have Gerard Murphy, who @JamesSeed obviously knows and likes, but at this stage we have to ask whether he is credible himself. I accept he is well intentioned and that he may be a tremendous guy, but where is the evidence that he is up to the task in hand?
Andrew Muir is an altogether different matter, but he has never to my knowledge been anyone’s source.
Big mess.
I would like to update everyone on the potential takeover but unfortunately confidentiality clauses prevent me from doing so. However, I can confirm that discussions are ongoing with several parties and I am hopeful that completion will happen this week.
Obviously, the delay is very disappointing but to be honest l am not surprised as it seems a regular event with takeovers these days. I am sure that you have all heard of similar situations for example at Newcastle where at least two potential takeovers with two different highly respected individuals involved have not been able to complete a deal so far.
Similar situations have occurred at Hull and Charlton and several other clubs. I would like to be able to give you more information as to why the transaction was delayed, but unfortunately, as l am sure you will appreciate, I am restricted by NDA and confidentiality clauses. It is important however to appreciate that these transactions take time as was clearly seen with the recent Wigan takeover.
A great deal has and no doubt and will continue to be written and said about my ownership and time at the club, so I thought it would be a good time to look back and also clarify some of the misapprehensions.
When l was first asked to assist, the club was on the brink of going into administration or even worse liquidation and my involvement was to be short term to try to arrange some investment or short term bridging finance.
Prior to my involvement, to the best of my knowledge and belief, Trevor Birch had already sold off the training ground at Euxton to Wigan Athletic, the North Stand offices and several of the car parks to Michael James (Prescott Business Parks) for circa £12m. At the same time, a charge over the hotel was also given to Michael James Holdings together with a first charge over part of the training ground to Brett Warburton creating nearly £9m of new secured debt. Unfortunately, all these funds totalling circa £21m had been utilised before my involvement.
Dean Holdsworth and his associate Michael Collins had taken out a £5m loan from BluMarble through Sportshield with debentures and also gave charges effectively over everything the club and its associated businesses still owned. Although it has to be said that the club only actually received £4m of the £5m. Subsequent events and what happened to both of them and the loan have already been well publicised.
It was the legacy of the above debts and loans, as well as some non-commercial and dubious agreements with numerous agents, suppliers, caterers, professionals and other contractors as well as a rates burden of at least treble what it should have been, based on what the other local football clubs and hotels have paid and which did not make any commercial sense.
I accept that the council is not responsible for the legislation and have been very supportive, but all of this has effectively financially hampered the club during the entire time l have been involved. The amounts involved have cost the club several millions of pounds to date.
During my ownership we have done our best to substantially reduce costs and increase revenues and now have one of the lowest debts and operating costs in the Championship. When you consider that the debts when I first arrived were close to a quarter of a billion pounds it just goes to show how much has been achieved. Indeed, I am pleased to say that the 2018 accounts will show a small profit, which I understand is the first time this has happened since the 2006 accounts were published.
However, despite all of this good work, the club is still not self-sufficient and costs continue to exceed income, which has made operating the club and hotel extremely difficult. Unfortunately, every month continues to be a financial challenge. I fully appreciate how frustrating this is for all the staff at the club and hotel and of course the supporters, but I can assure you that I have done my utmost to try and address the ongoing problem by looking for new investment.
For the record, the sale price being quoted is very wide of the mark. Indeed, the proposals that I have had would effectively recoup what I paid for my shares, so no huge profit as is constantly stated in the media and social media.
Whilst, l am the first to admit that the way l have had to operate the club and its associated businesses is far from perfect and open to criticism, l do believe that there was little or no alternative if the club was to survive both on and off the field until any new investment could be sourced. I can assure you that it had nothing to do with brinksmanship, it was simply to help the club to survive.
Despite all of the above, I am proud of what has been achieved during the last three years, be it the excellent training facilities with the new dome that was achieved with the help and support of the Community Trust and Development Association, the Academy achieving Category 2 status, and the club earning promotion from League One at the first attempt during an embargo that was also a legacy of the last regime.
It is also a great achievement that we have been able to attract the Rugby League semi-finals for a second year running and also been selected as one of the venues for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup as well as hosting music concerts, numerous conferences and many other events including the IberCup to the Stadium and Hotel.
I am also proud to say that there were not the redundancies and mass staff walkouts that the usual doom and gloom mongers predicted. Actually, very few people have left during my ownership.
It has been well publicised about my ongoing battles with some of the media, social media forums and pundits, but I have no regrets on that front whatsoever. I will always defend the people around me when they are unfairly criticised and as I have stated previously the actions that I took were simply because a number of the statements made were and continue to be factually incorrect and there were unjustified criticisms of the team management and academy. I have no problems with opinions as that’s what makes football fascinating, but factually incorrect statements about the club or my staff I will not accept.
Unfortunately, several people seem to want to give the indication that they know what’s going on at the club, when in reality they know very little if anything and often incorrectly speculate or worse still, in some cases create stories such as the Turkish buyer and the North West consortium backed by Russian money and the latest one from Bahrain. I have had no contact whatsoever with any of them.
A number of the sensational headline reports in the local media these last few days are exactly that and again wide of the mark and factually incorrect in most cases. I suppose it helps sell newspapers and keeps journalists in the limelight. As regards the letters being printed, I have no problem with these, as I fully understand the sentiments being expressed. Even if some of the comments are not accurate, I put this down to them expressing what they have read or heard.
Indeed, I do believe that the media and social media have played a major part in influencing and promoting the recent fan protests, which together with the recent vile, abusive and threatening comments posted on social media towards me and my family and then in January, the police advising me that it might not be safe for us to attend home or away matches have made me reappraise whether for the sake of my family and our safety I should continue to be involved with the Club.
Despite all of this, I have decided to reinstate all media privileges with immediate effect.
I have previously commented on the substantial additional costs the club incurred because of the protests and now I understand that there will be another protest before the Millwall match, which will mean incurring additional policing costs which as everyone knows the club can well do without.
I can now understand why Ed Davies decided to stop financially supporting the businesses back in 2015 after losing circa £200m. I had to put a further £800,000 in to pay the salaries in January as I have done on many other occasions.
Obviously, I am concerned, disappointed and deeply regret that I had to take the decision to delay paying the staff salaries on time last month, which is the first time this has happened during my ownership and apologise unreservedly to all the staff and sincerely thank them for their continued support and patience, but it is difficult to accept putting a further £1m into a club that does not want you there and worse still it is not safe to even go to the club.
Football, unfortunately, is littered with stories of owners losing huge amounts of money and still being vilified by the fan base and you need to look no further than Aston Villa and Sunderland for recent evidence of this, but there are many more. That said, I have decided to continue to financially support the club until someone else comes in and have today told payroll to process the staff salaries and to pay any amounts due to the police and others to ensure that the Millwall fixture and future games go ahead.
Apparently, it has been well debated what the alternatives were if the takeover did not take place and I am told the potential repercussions of this for the club were discussed in detail some weeks ago in a recent radio forum, as well as in the local media and social media, and the overwhelming view was the sooner I go the better, as was made very clear for everyone to see at the West Bromwich Albion game and in recent comments/articles by Neil Bonnar, sports editor at the Bolton News, who certainly made his opinions clear about me going as has Marc Iles, who regularly says ‘Enough is enough’.
Despite all of this, I have been working tirelessly alongside Paul Aldridge to try and find new investors and unfortunately have had to tolerate a great deal of tyre kickers and time wasters along the way, but our efforts have never and will not waver until the sale is completed.
I sincerely hope that all of these people along with the Supporters’ Trust, (who for the record have made no contact with the club, as far as I am aware, about helping to pay the salaries) will get behind the new owners by supporting them and giving them the time to settle in and deal with everything and hopefully retain Championship status.
Ken
BREAKING: I hear there will be some very interesting #cafc takeover coverage coming out from more than one outlet in the next 24 hours - and that's before we even get to VOTV150 on Saturday, which has a few insights of its own. You can order it now at http://www.votvonline.com