The Takeover Thread - Duchatelet Finally Sells (Jan 2020)

Chizz said:

JamesSeed said:

PragueAddick said:

Re my earlier post, there is also Cawley's resonant tweet yesterday (my emphasis) " Duchatelet knows this will open the portals of hell" Cawley is a proper pro who played a blinder for us yesterday, again. if he was just reading "us" in the tweet he would not have included the first two words, I believe. A year or more ago Duchatelet would not have given a toss. So I wonder what RC has heard that allowed him to write that.

It totally backs up what GM told me. RD is far more sensitive to protests and reputational damage than we realise. This was after conversations they had with him at the time of the playoff win. 

James, with regards to his sensitivity to both protests and reputational damage, would it be fair to assume he's much more concerned about the latter than the former? 

I think he thinks they’re connected. 

Airman Brown said:

PragueAddick said:

I've realised that I can trash this "protest affects sale" once and for all. In the case of "the Europeans" it is exactly part of the attraction of the club. That is because their intermediary is a proper fan, who has briefed them ( with a/v evidence) that the vinegar pissers are often the same people who rescued and helped develop the club over 20 years. Since the main man owns a club with a strong community identity which he has built on, he sees the parallels and likes them. Nor, i believe, will the breakeven story impress them
one bit. What matters is an agreed price with 100% transparency on the debt they would take on. And you can quote all that to de Turck. 

Sadly though it may be too late but I hope to find out more next week.

All parties now saying the same thing - Duchatelet impossible to deal with.

Yup. Aussies still have bid in, and are waiting for Roland. Probably same with Europeans.

I have a horrible feeling Roland is beginning to enjoy the position he’s in (based on nothing more than a hunch and the LB factor). 

Solidgone said:

JamesSeed said:

PragueAddick said:

PragueAddick said:

JamesSeed said:

GM and Aussies still in the hunt, but there’s no one around to deal with them at the moment, apparently. Chaos. 

Hi James. Who told you that, and why, I wonder? I know that it is untrue. 

The word fed back from the club about the Aussies is that they lost one of their investors and have not been heard of since. But that too could be disinformation, or a part truth.

If they’d gone, why would they tell me they haven’t? That doesn’t add up.

Over time they’ve lost several investors - each time Roland moved the goalposts. Can you blame them for pulling out, when they get effed about by Roland?

But you’ve just said they haven’t pulled out? I’m confused. 

I'm guessing he means that individual members have left the consortium each time Roland pi**** about as distinct to the consortium as a whole giving up on it.

Same difference in terms of tangible action though.

Hot Summer.

JamesSeed said:

Redmidland said:

If all 3 major parties have walked, as it seems now from posts on here recently, then my thought of something going on in the background around new owners is very wide of the mark. 

Don’t think Aussies have walked. To walk they’d have to withdraw their bid. 

Other than the Aussies & the Belgium regime, does anyone know what their bid is..?

happyvalley said:

1976, Kent win The Sunday League ( again) & The Benson & Hedges Cup ( again).

The Sunday League that season was fairly close. 

1. Kent W-10 L-6 Pts 40 
2. Essex W-10 L-6 Pts 40 
3. Leics. W-10 L-6 Pts 40 
4. Somerset W-10 L-6 Pts 40 
5. Sussex W-10 L-6 Pts 40 
6. Notts W-9 L-7 Pts 36  

JamesSeed said:

Redmidland said:

If all 3 major parties have walked, as it seems now from posts on here recently, then my thought of something going on in the background around new owners is very wide of the mark. 

Don’t think Aussies have walked. To walk they’d have to withdraw their bid. 

Not convinced that would be correct. Bid not accepted therefore it is invalid .. no need to formally withdraw. 

Aussies walking?  Never gonna happen. 

1976

JamesSeed said:

stonemuse said:

JamesSeed said:

Redmidland said:

If all 3 major parties have walked, as it seems now from posts on here recently, then my thought of something going on in the background around new owners is very wide of the mark. 

Don’t think Aussies have walked. To walk they’d have to withdraw their bid. 

Not convinced that would be correct. Bid not accepted therefore it is invalid .. no need to formally withdraw. 

Jeez, I’d better tell the Aussies then. 


You’re wrong btw ;-)

Fair enough. So they must formally withdraw their bid? Surely it has a time limit? 

1977 Star wars released.

Redmidland said:

PragueAddick said:

I've realised that I can trash this "protest affects sale" once and for all. In the case of "the Europeans" it is exactly part of the attraction of the club. That is because their intermediary is a proper fan, who has briefed them ( with a/v evidence) that the vinegar pissers are often the same people who rescued and helped develop the club over 20 years. Since the main man owns a club with a strong community identity which he has built on, he sees the parallels and likes them. Nor, i believe, will the breakeven story impress them
one bit. What matters is an agreed price with 100% transparency on the debt they would take on. And you can quote all that to de Turck. 

Sadly though it may be too late but I hope to find out more next week.

Hi mate is the sentence above a 'gut' feeling, or were you told a few weeks ago they were defo walking away? I was kinda hoping that they were going to see if RD would ask them to come back and negotiate again, although what about I wouldn't have a clue because surely the price had been agreed?

Hi Malc, hope you are keeping well.

the exact status of my knowledge of the situation is that the intermediary has just returned from a much needed holiday with his wife recovering from a serious op. As yet, he has not received a proper briefing from the guy who met with Duchatelet team (and I don't know if he met with RD himself). He hopes to get that next week and then feed info back to me. The extent of the info may be proscribed by the NDA. However the earlier feedback he got exactly mirrored @Airman Brown comment above. Goalposts being moved more times than at the Olympic Stadium in summer. Whether they are prepared to come back or have concluded that he really is impossible, we don't currently know. 

It would appear that among the other many things RD has not learnt despite his age, you can add the necessity of building up a level of trust between negotiating parties. People ask how he can have become so rich when he is so incompetent. I suspect that when his companies have bought, he has had the usual raft of professionals handling negotiations. As with other aspects of his football tenure, which he regards as his personal plaything, he wants to handle this himself, with predictable consequences.

At Melexis, his most well known company, he is just one of the directors now. I reckon they persuaded him to leave it to the professionals. If only his clubs could have done the same. At least at Jena they were able to do so, and as a result they are in their second season in a higher league, albeit having started badly.