FPP to take full control

Also re: sand running through Donald's fingers, the club is not projected to make a loss this season. It is not running through his fingers until the end of this season at the earliest, at which point he has to commit to a path with it of spending it or paying it back.

His problem is that if he wants to stay, he also wants FPP to continue their deal and potentially loan him more money, which means he would ideally like to use the loan for it's intended purpose and then pay it back out of club profits. If there are no bids that get anywhere near his valuation, then he's going to have to stay and were going to have to get used to it, because he clearly can't afford to take a 50% loss on what he paid/owes.

The fact that FPP are basically positioning themselves to walk away and what looks like one of Methven or Donald is giving quotes that say they're the most likely buyers, to me, is a sign that things are not going well on that front.

 

I’ve noticed if you just skip 5 pages every morning the comments still carry on from where you left it.

 

All of the information that's been presented appears so contradictory to me that it seems that we're still at the stage where pretty much anything could happen.

 

Yep. That's it, most people accept (me included) that there is a chance anything can happen. FPP are tied to us financially until they're not, so ruling them out categorically is never possible.

What I will say is that I don't think it's a coincidence that FPP closed off the Ltd company on Thursday, and Donald went into damage control mode the day after, saying they were the most likely bidders. The most logical interpretation of those events is that FPP are showing signs of walking away - whether people believe that is 4D chess is up to them - and Donald is in negotiations with another party who he cannot drive the price up with unless FPP seem to be interested.

I read it as 'I've spent a week telling these lads they have to add another <X> million to their bid because the yanks are minutes from completing, and now they've undercut my position'

 

If in doubt..believe nowt

 

That's the stance I'm taking.

Until there is something to believe.

 

I can see how you interpret this but i'm a devious old bastard.

I would therfore disagree with your sentence in red. To me the most logical interpretation is that they're calling SD's bluff.

It would take a matter of days to reopen the Ltd company and they also have the option of buying Madrox.

We know that FPP have done due diligence and it has been alluded to that 10 days ago they were going through the books. SD is after a price, FPP don't agree with his valuation and aren't budging. FPP close down the LTD company and immediately after that a story breaks stating that SD will reduce his price.

He's a small fish and the big fish have just scared the **** out of him.

 

Excellent post and exactly as I see it, including the amount of profit. The cost was £37m, that is a fact in the Madrox accounts. It doesn't matter how much of that the shareholders have actually paid. If they sell for £35m, the shareholders will receive back £2m less than what they have paid in (SD will get back 74% of £2m less than what he's put in to be precise).

 

In a nutshell the yanks are saying. This is our offer, take it or leave it.

 

While the £9m loan is unspent and sat in the bank, it is irrelevant. They will use that unspent cash to repay the loan.

 

Which effectively keeps the price lower for any other buyer which in turn keeps FPP's bid competitive (whatever that bid may be) with the added complication of FPP having the right to authorise any other buyer unless the loan is paid back? Is that a fair assumption?

 

Great in theory but in practice?

Imagine trying to get agreement between 928K shareholders on anything (even with elected reps).

Then getting them to 'cough up' for player transfers!

 

Sunderland Till I Die series II iirc

 

Barcelona manage it.

 

Why do you always think everything's about you, in this case it wasn't.

 

Do they?

I, genuinely, don't understand how that balances out with appointing Presidents who seem to be elected based upon their promises to provide funding to buy players x,y & z.

 

Not sure what you mean. How what balances out? They're run like a sporting club. The socios pay about 140 Euro a year in order to have vote. Then there's season ticket money, advertising, TV money that the elected President can spend. I'm sure there are behind the scenes shenanigans going on but that's the basic principle.

 

From memory aren't most of the German clubs fan owned as well. I'm sure i heard something about that a few years ago.

 

Yeah, they have the 50+1 rule. Where slightly more than half has to be fan owned. I believe there are one or two exceptions. Possibly Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen who are essentially works teams.

 

yep,

Just found this https://www.bbc.com/news/business-22625160