FPP to take full control

[Billy Batts]

I don't think anything has massively changed. I think FPP have always been interested but aren't in any rush and will wait until a fair price is reached.

They provided a loan for two purposes imo; firstly to make sure they're in pole position so Donald can't just sell to anyone else, this will let them see what the market value is without risk of anyone else getting in first. Secondly we all know they don't want to run the club day to day, so the loan lets them see how well the current management team do with it. Show they can spend the money wisely and they might be prepared to keep them on in a salaried position with a small shareholding. Do ****e and they'd replace them. It's easier to keep them there, hence giving them the chance especially when it they fail it doesn't adversely affect FPP, they're protected by the fact it's a loan and not an investment. From everything I've heard I'm sure they'll come in, but only when the timing suits them in terms of cost and once they've evaluated whether they need a new management team.

So why would Donald be listening to offers for the club from other people? Surely FPP have him by the short and curlies?

 

[Salad]

As you know, I'm no Donald apologist, but I don't think he's an outright liar. I think he's very often tried to dance around how he purchased the club, which manifests itself in a 1,000 word answer to a yes or no question. The irony of him not being a liar is apparent in the fact that a lot of criticism is built around his own words in podcasts etc.

Said it before, but for him to directly answer that question about FPP making a bid with 'no' in such categorical fashion would be absolutely beyond extraordinary if it wasn't true, and to say they likely weren't interested in owning the club if they are would basically have no benefit. It would potentially be opening him up to all kinds of legal issues if they did and were unhappy that he was painting them in that light.

Being new to this can I just ask

Are you a fan
Do you have any formal involvement with the club
Do you go to games
Do you live locally

 

[Billy Batts]

You are not alone mate. Most of us have struggled to get our heads around all the apparent truths,half truths and untruths of all this,and the contradictions which have gone along with it. I don't suppose we'll ever get to bottom of it until it all plays out,if then.
For my part,I've had confidence in what Smug has been posting about it,both on here and the on other place, from the beginning,so I'm going to continue to look for any updates from him. I also think the analyses of Cheval and GG are reasoned and well thought out, and are probably not too far from the reality.

Oh yeah I've got confidence in the info Smug is getting is cosher, met him a few times and he's a sound bloke, just don't understand it all really!

 

[Vincemac]

I only trust what smug is saying
I take no notice of the rest

 

[Kittenmittons]

Being new to this can I just ask

Are you a fan
Do you have any formal involvement with the club
Do you go to games
Do you live locally

Yes
No
Yes
Yes

 

[Salad]

Yes
No
Yes
Yes

Ok cheers fair enough

 

[Nacho]

I only trust what smug is saying
I take no notice of the rest

Same here I don't even listen to Donald any more I think he's been deflecting from the truth for a while.

 

[Kittenmittons]

So why would Donald be listening to offers for the club from other people? Surely FPP have him by the short and curlies?

Because they didn't ever make a bid to own the club outright, and he did not believe they were interested in doing so now.

If he wants to sell to someone else, providing (as it would appear) he hasn't spent much, if any, of the loan, it's a non-issue for him.

 

[Vincemac]

Same here I don't even listen to Donald any more I think he's been deflecting from the truth for a while.

Yeh smug is the one I listen to mate

 

[Kittenmittons]

None of the info (however well intended) put on messageboards or texts etc by anyone reflected the deal that happened in November. It's a bit head-in-the-sand to not listen to our owner make categorical statements about the nature of the deal such as FPP never making a bid and instead listen to people not involved in the deal.

If the info was good, they'd already have 'taken over' and we would be 'happy with the details' of the arrangement with them. The fact they haven't and we aren't should really be enough to have a wonder whether future info is accurate.

 

[Guinness Guzzler]

So why would Donald be listening to offers for the club from other people? Surely FPP have him by the short and curlies?

Presumably because FPP haven't committed to buying and they're apart on valuation. If Donald can get someone else to come in and offer him vastly more than FPP have then either they have to up their bid or he can pay them off and accept the other bid. Either way its in his interest to get other offers, if he thinks their offer is well below market value, this could help him prove it (or demonstrate to him that he won't get a better offer elsewhere)

 

[The Norton Cat]

I've completely lost interest in all of this now, to be honest. Until something concrete happens, it all seems to be speculation to a greater or lesser degree. Donald owns the club and he probably won't own it in the foreseeable future.

 

[Nacho]

None of the info (however well intended) put on messageboards or texts etc by anyone reflected the deal that happened in November. It's a bit head-in-the-sand to not listen to our owner make categorical statements about the nature of the deal such as FPP never making a bid and instead listen to people not involved in the deal.

If the info was good, they'd already have 'taken over' and we would be 'happy with the details' of the arrangement with them. The fact they haven't and we aren't should really be enough to have a wonder whether future info is accurate.

Thing is though it doesn't matter where we stick our heads because none of us have any say in any part of it so what we choose to believe is utterly inconsequential.

All we can do is wait and see what happens.

 

[Guinness Guzzler]

Because they didn't ever make a bid to own the club outright, and he did not believe they were interested in doing so now.

If he wants to sell to someone else, providing (as it would appear) he hasn't spent much, if any, of the loan, it's a non-issue for him.

Surely whether he's spent the loan or not is immaterial though? They loaned the money to Madrox, and he has now effectively donated money to SAFC. So, as I see it, he can't now take that money out of SAFC to repay it as that would create a debt from Madrox to SAFC? So either way the money to repay it has to come out of his pocket whether we've spent any of it or not?

 

[Billy Batts]

So what was the point of FPP in the first place?

 

[Kittenmittons]

Surely whether he's spent the loan or not is immaterial though? They loaned the money to Madrox, and he has now effectively donated money to SAFC. So, as I see it, he can't now take that money out of SAFC to repay it as that would create a debt from Madrox to SAFC? So either way the money to repay it has to come out of his pocket whether we've spent any of it or not?

They can pay it back quite easily while Donald administers both parties. Once he's paid FPP off, he can very simply wipe out the debt between the two. I quite strongly suspect that as you alluded to earlier, his existing debt to the club is going to be a sticking point for any potential owner though. Not that anyone remembers, but that was pretty much the crux of why I started trying to document what Donald had told us about his financial running of the club and piecing it together into a coherent narrative.

 

[Kittenmittons]

So what was the point of FPP in the first place?

They wanted to come in gradually, do a loan now, if it goes well, excellent, come on board with equity. Then further down the line maybe more, until one day in a few years, perhaps they would take on a majority shareholding.

Unfortunately, none of this meant they were clamouring to buy us outright now, it just ended up getting out of hand because Donald appears to have tried to get them to do just that (and subsequently told loads of people unofficially that it was a takeover', but they ended up sticking with their original plan.

 

[ISOE II]

Because they didn't ever make a bid to own the club outright, and he did not believe they were interested in doing so now.

If he wants to sell to someone else, providing (as it would appear) he hasn't spent much, if any, of the loan, it's a non-issue for him.

I’m not so sure. My coworkers were in the box next to the Yanks and the Yanks told them they were buying (it sounded as a complete purchase) and it was a done deal. Dunno what changed but I believe my coworkers.

 

[FulwellBri]

Being new to this can I just ask

Are you a fan
Do you have any formal involvement with the club
Do you go to games
Do you live locally

4 very leading questions.
Living locally is neither here nor there in terms of this issue, neither does formal involvement. Some people dont go to every game.
Why would he be on this board unless he was a fan .
Tbh your questions reek of football snobbery.
I rarely missed a game for 15 years, and for over 20 years kept my season ticket/card going even though I rarely used it.
Your inference is my views dont count.
There are plenty of people that can answer yes to every 1 of your questions but whose understanding of safc, finance, and football club ownership etc is probably on a par with what they know about the intricacies of brain surgery.

 

[Kittenmittons]

I’m not so sure. My coworkers were in the box next to the Yanks and the Yanks told them they were buying (it sounded as a complete purchase) and it was a done deal. Dunno what changed but I believe my coworkers.

Yeah that's fine, but Donald said they didn't make a bid and if that was factually incorrect, that would open all kinds of problems for him.

I believe the guy who had millions to lose by making false public statements about a very wealthy third party mate.