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CBD saffy said:
Donald has been approached by a consortium looking to buy the club, whose debts stood at £110.4m in their last published accounts, over a year ago. His part, however, would only be a small one, and his interest appears to be as much about gathering information to help his own club.

“If I’m honest I am not that heavily involved,” he admitted to BBC Radio Solent.

“What has basically happened, it is common knowledge the club is for sale and there are a few consortiums and whenever there are consortiums there is generally a shortage of money somewhere along the line and I always get asked if I’d be an investor.

“I always say yes because it gets me knowledge of lots of things that happen at different clubs and I can take that away and it helps me here.

“That is the situation at Sunderland, there is a lead investor and they have asked me would I be involved and I have said ‘Look, I won’t rule it out but it needs to make sense.’

“Quite where exactly it is, I don’t know, I think there is quite a few people interested in Sunderland at this time.”

As Donald says, plenty of investors are thought to have approached Short about buying his club, although they will have been required to sign non-disclosure agreements which makes knowing how many and who hard to know with any certainty.

Last summer a German consortium and film, television and music production company Fulwell 73 both had talks with Short, but he called them off when he felt they were meandering nowhere and harming the on-field progress of the club.

The Football League’s dual ownership rules would force Donald to sell Eastleigh, even though they play in the Conference, to invest in Sunderland.

“In all honesty I have some attractive football clubs that would have made me money and I have said I can get involved if it doesn’t affect Eastleigh but it has both times so I have just said no,” Donald revealed.

“It is extremely unlikely anything will happen but if remotely something did happen it would mean I would have to let Eastleigh go but it would have to be an absolutely sensational deal for that to be the case.

“I have put an awful lot of hard work and money into Eastleigh and I have ambitions of getting them in the Championship.

“If for any reason this deal looks different to all the others put on my desk, this club is debt free and run a certain way and there is no way on this earth I would ever jeopardise Eastleigh’s future over making some pounds somewhere else.”

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This was just one week ago.
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Brutal dildo
 
Congratulations lads. It's a perfect scenario if the debt has been wiped out (well over £100m) and the EPL parachute payments are still coming in as you'll be loaded. I think Short is writing off the debts owed to him but I do wonder if the £70m? debt to other investors isn't secured against these parachute payments, but even if it is the prospects of turning the club's fortunes around are vastly improved. In the 3rd division Sunderland should piss all over everyone else. The gates are 3-6k for other clubs a lot of the time so you'll have a major advantage even with a half full stadium where ticket sales will make a big difference to revenues compared to being in the Championship or Premier League. The main thing a takeover brings is an injection of positivity into the club and maybe potential signings not seeing it as a sinking ship anymore so good players being attracted in. Sacking Coleman is also a major plus as he is a terrible manager in any league.

Hands up, I've had a good laugh at your expense this season, as rivals do, but you have some good supporters who have put up with some ****e and then some so hopefully this is the turn around for you.
 
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Here's a thought. We are starting again from scratch as a club, maybe Rodwell will impress the new manager and play, surely if he wants to play he'd be decent for league 1.
 
Bizarreknives said:
Here's a thought. We are starting again from scratch as a club, maybe Rodwell will impress the new manager and play, surely if he wants to play he'd be decent for league 1.
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That would be interesting to see what the fans would think of him being on the pitch again???
 
Smiffy said:
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.
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They don't go to the owner, they go to the club mate.
 
Burly Hurley said:
There are almost no circumstances I can imagine where he'd be accepted by the fans on the pitch wearing our colours.
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Got to say I agree and a clean slate should be exactly that, time to get rid of driftwood and let the young ones with the right about of experience added loose. It would be nice to see a young academy team grow
 
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Bizarreknives said:
Here's a thought. We are starting again from scratch as a club, maybe Rodwell will impress the new manager and play, surely if he wants to play he'd be decent for league 1.
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I'm hoping our new owners will give him an ultimatum along the lines of 'bugger off or we will shatter your kneecaps!'
 
I think this is massive for Sunderland if all above board and true. Wiping off the debt is certainly not something many could see Short doing. The financial situation must have been pretty bad for him to cut his losses in such a manner. Unless this is some lovely grand nice gesture which is highly unlikely? If it is it does beg the question why didn't he just throw a nice 10m gesture at it in July or January to ensure Championship status was retained?

Obviously no club wants a double relegation or dropping from the heady heights of the PL to League 1. Long term it may not turn out a bad thing. Sunderland will be a big fish in a little pond and it might be fun on the way back up. You might get a bit of momentum behind you. I don't think the PL is the be all and end all despite what Sky want you to believe. Football is football and watching your teams players try their nuts off in any division is what being a supporter is about. Its great if its high quality players in the PL but lets face it, the two NE clubs are just PL also rans at best when there now, at least until a rich owner with a countries wealth backing them decides to take one of us over.

So while I have thoroughly enjoyed your demise as is the norm for rival supporters, I do think this could be some light at the end of the tunnel for you. Some of your supporters may have deserted the team but they will be back with a bit of hope.
 
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