The ticketus arrangement was against season ticket sales and with 8000+ sold I believe we should have the required cash to repay though not much change after!!!
According to the local paper in Brighton in Buckley is off to them.. I reckon we must be getting over a million for him. 50% goes to Rochdale I think.. Not really a surprise actually as Malky clearly doesn't rate Buckley as much as others and one wonder if Buckley himself has asked to move.
OK the "fire sale" seems to be gathering pace - DG detail now agreed and I believe there is £3m cash upfront which will keep Barclays and Ashcroft happy (in the short term). The difference between the ST revenues and transfer revenue is the ST money has already been counted into the financial model, the club needs player sales as this is "new cash", not debt. Buckley - no surprise there, but again the question arises of how much cash and when - Brighton clearly have cash to burn (16,000 ST sold and the bounce of promotion), but if there is a big sell on back to Rochdale then there is little to go round and Malky's "begging bowl" is well down the queue. And then there are rumours about Malky's position. I cannot see him forming a working relationship with Baz the clown. If I were Malky I would ask "what is my budget"? There have been several steers like the 40% rule, but it is clear Malky is well down the queue as the club was on the debt limit with every institution at the end of the season. If anyone thinks the budget is not precise then they are wrong - Ashcroft's man knows the situation precisely. The flex factor is based on staged cash receipts on player transfers. Time to get my calculator out me thinks.
Will someone please order some fire extinguishers, to quell the fire sale! I know said yesterday it was not but today I have this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. If we sell anymore of our assets I can see MM taking a hike as well especially if he cannot replace these guys!
Starting to think we are being prepared for life in L1 and L2, I also think we are being prepared to go into admin, clear more of the debt and then become more attractive to a new buyer where Baz takes his money and runs!
http://www.watfordfc.com/page/NewsDetail/0,,10400~2372078,00.html http://www.swanseacity.net/page/Latest/0,,10354~2372095,00.html Officially on the websites now
If he takes us into administration does'n't that end the takeover and it all reverts back to Ashcroft? I vaguely remember reading something like that somewhere. I am sure though that there was a clause that Basini is not allowed to make any profit until the bonds are paid off. As the debt is the bonds I can't see him taking us into administration.
If it were his money admin would serve no purpose, its very difficult to see whats in this for Bassini unless hes a paid lackey working on behalf of somebody to take the club into oblivion but at minimal cost and the only potential winners from that I can see are Sarries as the Copthall thing must be a smokescreen, how on earth can they hope to get planning unless there are some very smelly brown envelopes about? What fuels the negativity on our side is the lack of openness already shown with not enough information as to the vision and how it will be achieved added to too much transparency on the fact that we want to sell some of our best assets. We'll see in this window whether 3.5 is a good number or not and then be able to judge, with the new rules I'm thinking it will be a depressed market so I hope we'll see some decent raw talent come in the door for peanuts, whats difficult to swallow is nothing coming in as yet and no real rumours when we know our weakness this season was depth and left backs, what is being done to address these issues?
Surely they can't look to bring anyone in until they know what money they have to play with and where it has to go which is why I think agreeing a fee early and upfront is a good thing. It would surely be madness to bring people in gambling that a 'bidding war' would happen for DG and they find we have exposed ourselves to too high a fee on the new players? There certainly has to be more to this takeover than what we already know, the business case for it as it stands seems bizarre.
Yes agreed which is why I see some benefit in the early deal. Also as it stands yes we've accepted Swansea but its firmly in the court of WBA, etc to come up with alternate bids immediately if they're really interested as nothing is signed sealed delivered and as far as I know no exclusive deal offered. It would be nice to know what our revenue target from the transfer window is, who are the "not for sale" backbone and how much is available for purchases given the sales targets are met and what sort of targets we're looking for but it would probasbly be best to keep some of that info close to the chest. I actually like the idea of getting in KP and beefing up the LB position with a reasonably expensive (2 shillings and sixpence) acquisition along with getting in another 4-6 first squad players of high potential low cost, probably looking mainly at academy releases. To me MT and JE are the points where I would start to worry with of course MM, the rest are part of the production process but if you take away the machinery of production it shows a lack of commitment to what I believe is the plan and a willingness to direct by the tail.
Well I guess we'll learn over the next couple of weeks if the early acceptance of the DG bid and (if it happens) the WB bid are precursors to us tying up a few early inward deals to have a good tight squad when the season opens. Norway - I have to say again I don't think there's anyway Bazini can make a fast buck at this, and he's already sunk a goodly chunk of his master's cash into the club which he is realistically not going to get back until Lord A is paid off in full. Those of you talking about loan sharks are (with all due respect) talking out of your collective arses. The ticketus deal is pretty straightforward and anyone in business with cash flow issues will be very familiar with the concept of factoring or invoice discounting, which this is a variant of. Those who think that banks would lend to a loss making business with security already held over its assets - where have you been for the last 3 years? does the term 'credit crunch' not ring any bells?
A latest tweet from Jon Marks: jonmwfc Jon Marks Newspaper in the Midlands hinting that West Brom may consider another bid for Danny Graham #watfordfc
Makes sense H, its a way to open the flood gates or not depending on the seriousness of the bidders intent. Contract trigger point has been found now its down to the bidders to give Danny the best option and hopefully up the numbers a wee bit..
This has been discussed to death so theres not much i can add - but i will say that, from a purely footballing point of view, its not a disaster til Malky goes and/or we get to September 1st and the departed players havent been replaced. The latter definitely wont happen, as it seems we're doing our business early, leaving plenty of time for replacements to be found. As for the former, the board have made it clear that they wont be letting opposition clubs talk to Malky, so this only becomes an issue if Malky himself has had enough and wants to leave; do you really think that just because the club is selling players, he'll want to up sticks? It happened in his first season, his second season, and its happening again - it should come as no surprise. The only issue then is the lack of communication from Bassini et al - this is the concern for me, but arrangements for a meeting have surely been made. Dont throw in the towel yet my fellow Hornets, triumph through adversity is what Watford FC does best!!
