Does this mean that Bain is also on his way if the takeover is approved? Statement from Stewart Donald on Eastleigh's website. It is with great sadness and regret that I have to inform the Eastleigh fans that I have put our football club up for sale. I have spent over six years at the club and from the very first moment I arrived I have been welcomed and treated with great respect and kindness and I am truly grateful for the support everyone has given regardless of how well the team have performed at any given time. It is an emotional decision for me and one that I did not expect to have to make. However, with my potential involvement in Sunderland, it is a condition that I must relinquish control of Eastleigh. If the rules were different I would have loved to remain with the club for many years to come. Eastleigh has become, and will always be, extremely close to my heart. I have always tried to look after the club to the best of my ability and this will never be more important than now when considering perspective new owner/s. The football club is in the strongest financial position it has ever been in. With a much-improved stadium and increased revenues enabling the club the ability to seriously compete in the top tier of non-league football and whilst I have been unable to deliver League football, I hope the fans will reflect on my chairmanship as a positive one. My focus now must move to finding a suitable owner who will understand the ethos of the club. It is vital to ensure that the club continues to provide affordable football and progresses on the field whilst incurring absolutely no debt. I always ensured Eastleigh was run without debt and that any money provided was never going to create any debt. I would like to assure the fans that I will not charge for the sale of the club and do my very best to ensure that the club is passed to an individual or group that understands these principles and is committed to continuing them. I will obviously remain as owner for a short period and hopefully, I will get to see some of you before I depart and if not I will return and watch as many games as I can. Thank you all again for making my ownership such an enjoyable experience.
And the article talks about significant cuts to the playing side. On what basis can they presume that? Like we have capacity to deal with further cuts. Everythings just assumptions without knowing the full facts.
It would be interesting to know if the club will still get the benefit of the parachute payments or whether these go to Short. If we are debt free and still have the parachute money then we will start next season as hot promotion favourites whoever our next manager is.
Great point! Unless the new owners have signed a contract with Short to say he can have the parachute payment, next season, which seems highly unlikely. That money will be coming to us
Just Echo talk, obvious that the wage bill will be ridiculous in League one, its how you reduce it that is the problem, without further damaging the club, we all know one significant cut that could be made with no effect on the playing side, but its illegal.
But how do we know why we have to reduce the wage bill? Why should we presume they dont know what theyre doing? Maybe their financial plan includes running the first season at a loss to keep certain high cost players in order to achieve a speedy return to the Championship?
Fantastic news about the takeover, finally getting rid of Short should be a shot in the arm for the club and us fans who've seen him turn our club to ****. This new guy seems to want to run us sensibly which is great news after a decade of sacking managers once a year and changing the DoF and other staff higher up on a regular basis, far too many mistakes have been made which must have cost us tens of millions. If the debt has been wiped out then that is great but with Short I can't help but feel that there will be a sting in the tail with it somewhere along the line. Either way this is the first time in months that I've heard anything about Sunderland and felt positive about it, starting to look forward to next season now, onwards and upwards.
Statement from Stewart Donald: “All of us involved in this takeover believe that Sunderland AFC represents an extraordinary opportunity. Our group have been involved in building/re-building clubs in order to reach their potential and we believe that over the last decade we have acquired the necessary skill sets to overcome challenges that we face at this club. The situation needs to be addressed with realism, focus and dedication. For a club with one of the best fan bases, stadiums and academy’s, we find it completely unacceptable for such a club to be in league 1. We want to restructure the club and make it sustainable and with the help of the fans, we want to restore the sense of pride at Sunderland AFC and reconnect it with the local community. We are rolling our sleeves up to do what needs to be done to ready this club to start competing at a high level again.”
His contract probably says that in the event of his passing , the benefits of the contract pass to his wife . ...... mind you , if she can get up and head a ball ....
Incredible that there’s spurts of negativity being spouted here. Hats off to you Ellis. I’ve been a vicious critic but you’ve written off £114million and that’s incredible for us. He’s damn right as well, we haven’t been debt free since the late years of Roker. Amazing.
My thoughts entirely! A fantastic farewell gesture from Short and aslong as we have the parachute payment we should be OK surely...
I don't know that it's negativity- cynicism certainly. It just seems a bit odd that one minute we're hearing that there is a plan for Short to stay involved while certain investors fund the playing side and/or Short wants a variety of clauses and conditions attached to any deal to today hearing that he's wiped out the debt and cleared off. If there is truth in all of that then it is a remarkable turnaround on Short's part.
Also an incredible turnaround from our new owner, who just last week said it was highly unlikely that any deal would be done.
I hear that Coleman’s contract was substantial, hence the removal. Grapevine mind, not a reliable source or inside info, but talk is that it was pure cost.
I understand people being a little sceptical mate but read through, there’s some bona-fide negativity. That’s a cancer of our side of the club we need to work on. Ellis has done a massive solid, he’s kept us afloat and he’s left us debt free. Magnificent gesture at the end of an awful tenure. Daft thing is he’d have lost a hell of a lot less investing 2 years ago.
A new name has emerged from the mists of uncertainty surrounding the club’s new ownership, with Spanish private equity firm Thesan Capital suggested to be helping finance the Stewart Donald led consortium’s purchase of Sunderland AFC according to a source close to proceedings. https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/20...m-the-new-sunderland-owners-financial-backers
