Serious takeover talk

There's a tiny aspect of this whole thing that keeps popping up in my mind.


Either ...

Donald gave a bunch of people, with no absolutely no connection to SAFC, permission to register a new business at Companies House using the SOL as the address of the company .....

... or they're not unconnected.

I can't help feeling that something has been signed. I was told, point blank, that a deal had been done. I quite naturally believed/hoped, encouraged by what RR/ALS had said, that a takeover was what was being referred to.

I accept that my not be the immediate case but, after the Sun said the deal was definitely off, I naturally asked if their statement was true.

To paraphrase what I was told ...
"Get a grip, ignore that and don't panic. Tell people it's nonsense even if you're ridiculed."

That's what I've done and it's now appearing to have some substance.

 

Is it back on in some capacity now?

 

I think the end is nigh for SD, I can’t see a way forward with him at the helm.

I like him as a person and appreciate his effort trying to make our club feel like ours again, but I think it’s time to move on.

 

This is where we need GOM, could it be something as simple as the deal is done but they have to release funds from around the world to pay and there are tax and regulations to go through?

I can't see them having a few million just sitting in a bank account ready to buy stuff

 

Bit of idle speculation: I think the Sun article is bollocks, no way will he expect to sell up and then get the same money again if other people's work gets us to the PL, he knows no one is going to let him double his money when he hasn't even got us out of this league. But what if there is a small grain of truth that they've totally got the wrong end of the stick with?

It's been rumoured that FPP are concerned at the potential risk (clubs like Leeds with higher gate receipts struggling to get into the PL). Maybe Donald has suggested payments on promotion, not on top of a full purchase price but with a lower initial price. Maybe he stays on in some capacity so can start getting a wage, he gets most of his money back, and the rest is dependant on promotions, showing them that he is confident and again slightly lowering their risk.

Probably not like, maybe they just invented a story out of thin air, wouldn't surprise me with that rag

 

I wouldn’t describe him as a chancer but I do think he joined us because he saw opportunity to cut costs and make a profit. He has done it mostly respectfully but I’m not one for thinking he’s our saviour.

 

I know it’s not impossible for a deal to be back on after it seemingly is off, but for the same journalist to say it’s off only to say it’s more or less on a few days later speaks volumes.

 

Weren’t they both somewhat involved with the club I am not disagreeing with you just would make sense if the were at the time of said Chairmen

 

I think it's more Donald's inspiration as it seemed to work at Oxford for Eales

 

Was never off.

 

What makes you feel it’s not off I agree with you like I think it’s on as there hasn’t been any official statements

 

I am sure I read somewhere that sd and cm were interested in taking over oxford and sartori was involved. Apparently there was tittle tattle about real estate development had the deal gone through.
Apparently that was not popular with the then owners ( allegedly, I am led to believe etc etc ).
When it gets down to it where there's football, there's money, and where there's money there's every chance of people getting up to no good.
Very difficult to distinguish the white hats from the black hats these days. Very very blurred

 

That sounds 100% plausible to me.

Certainly, far more sensible than the unsupported cr*p that has been posted by Spoony & Kittens Mittens, after they've been spoonfed by someone with an anti SD agenda (GA perhaps)?

 

The fact that the owners, the people who know say it’s ongoing, and the Americans haven’t made any form of statement distancing themselves from it despite major press coverage.

They are asset managers, they will say themselves when the deals dead, if it dies.

 

How do people think the land lies now?

I think it’ll still go through and they’ll still own a majority but SD will still be around.

 

They don't need to do anything, it's Donald who's taking all the flak and is under pressure.

He's not handling the pressure, or situation, at all well imo.

I'm not saying he's deliberately risking the prospects of the club ....
... but he's a businessman with virtually no real allegiance to Sunderland.

 

I appreciate you can't say much but is it a case of the investors are serious players on the world stage and it's a whole world different to who he would usually deal with?

 

I’ve been reading that he asked for an additional payment if we reached the PL, making his return £40million.

Facts are his return was always put at around that, and if we hit the PL the new owners have £180million guaranteed.

I don’t think he’s being unreasonable, why wouldn’t he want to do the best for himself as well? I know if that was me or you, and as you say his shallow allegiance to the club, you’d think ‘once in a lifetime, I’m making sure I max this’.

I think it’ll get there. First and foremost a manager needs appointed now, it’s looking like they hadn’t planned for replacing Ross and that is absolutely schoolboy given the importance of this season.

 

Take a little time to consider you're closer to Donald's wealth/lifestyle/ambition than he is to theirs.

I was in an interview, on Friday, for a client who makes the Sheikh I worked for look like a man living in a shop doorway.

Me and Mrs Smug are used to dealing with the mega rich but we were a little stunned with what was being proposed.

Donald has an insurance business and a lower league football club ...
... he's a Simon Grayson to their Ferguson.

 

Absolutely agree 100%. He expected us to bounce straight back up then flog us straight on for a nice profit. People who believed he was going to be our saviour were massively naive. I'm not trying to say don't ever get excited or put a negative spin on things but haway ffs, chairman of eastleigh to chairman of safc.... He's played us from the start with bollocks of Santori investing just to give a smoke screen until the club is flipped. That went tits up now he hasn't for a clue what to do, we need this man out asap.