Its been very obvious for sometime that Donald does not have the finances to run the club, hence the continued cost cutting. I'd go along with what you have said, he may think that fans returning will get him out of this financial hole Covid has made but since February, the cash flow and business plan, I'd say what business plan, will be in tatters. Yes, I too think he may well lose the lot of his personal wealth if he keeps thinking "I'll hold on". I'd guess he is well into using his "takeoverLoan" from FPP
It would be interesting to know if SD has dipped in to FPP loan. Not sure we would ever find out unless it reflected in the sale price.
Another key thing to remember is that, whilst some are saying "he'll probably hope we start the season well and he'll stay", the financial picture isn't really any more rosy for us in the championship, we'd still likely be losing money. I'm sure I heard you'd only end up with about £8m a year more in the championship. Players will have wage rises built in, and you'd need to spend a bit to have any hope of being competitive , it wouldn't go far. He'd likely get a higher offer because he'd be selling a club only one step off the PL riches, but it would be a huge risk even for him. He'd have to hope we start well, hope he can fund us this season, hope we actually go up (we started well under Ross), then he has to hope he gets the kind of bid he wants from people with proof of funds and hope he can complete it fairly quickly to prevent losing loads more. And if he negotiates and it falls through he's stuck funding another season. Regardless of how we look in the league, I think he knows he needs to be getting out now.
We can but hope mate, just need to battle that dirty little 3 letter word that starts with E and ends with O
Knowing Sunderland’s luck he will decide to hold on and we miss the play-offs and are even more ****ed then we already are.
That pretty much sounds like the big picture, Plus there has been too much going on at the club recently that points to something must be happening. I'm not convinced Donald is as bad an ogre as some make out. The odds were pretty stacked for us gaining promotion, and we knew he came in to try and achieve that and flip the club, He admitted that from the start. I'll be interested to read what is said in the aftermath. It's an example of why I'm not a betting man. I know a Bookie and he has a helicopter, And i have a drone I'd of probably sold the drone if i was a gambler.
I was told this at the end of May / beginning of June, but didn’t really want to say anything, but having heard the same from various sources since, thought I would. Jones seems to be more about the transfers etc, but in terms of day to day jobs, Rodwell is making decisions without consulting SD.
If Donald gets us up he wouldn't be able to finance a guaranteed stay which means he'd have half a season to sell the club. Anyone buying would need to heavily invest but pay more for the club than they could buy it for now. The trouble is that, even with our support, there's little opportunity for income ... half a dozen loons on a Transit van roof won't pay the wages.
Then he would be totally screwed financially. He can't hang on, he's got to be desperate. His only hope of hanging on is investment, and who will do that in the current climate? His £37m price tag is pie in the sky.
I could not see it getting that far for him...I think he is already knackered for money despite what he is trying to portray. There's not many financial institutions out there that would be willing to lend him the readies to fund the club longer term. The biggest drawback for that would be the FPP "takeover loan" facility he already has with the Dell Boys. I think I could safely say that caveats and agreements that would have been put in the facility agreement, would secure FPP first and foremost. No bank or finance house, even more so in the current climate, would accept being a second charge over any loan to Donald.
How can SD afford to run the club without serious investment? The club isn't making as much money from selling a streaming service than it would having fans in the ground. Obviously we are all hoping the rumours are true of aia takeover and it's in the hands of the EFL... So the pressure on him to sell must be massive!
Did he? Maybe it's time and my dislike of him now re-writing history in my head but I can't remember him ever admitting this at any point in his time here. As far as I recall he was here to get us in the premier league and would sell some of his shares for investment if needed but first choice was develop players who became first team and were success, they would fund the club through sales of those players if required. Last I heard him mention the sale he reckoned it was as the fans didn't want him despite the other two (that we know about) attempts to sell befor that, admittedly I have stopped reading/listening to anything he says so maybe missed something. He has said one thing and done the opposite from day one and expected us all to be too thick to notice. At least Charlie told us what he thought about us. Biggest upset for me is the generation of talent that has gone under him. I used to believe it was due to the big clubs knocking and the kids not wanting to stay here, but I'm now learning more towards them wanting the kids gone for the compensation money as they have short term goals (flip the club) so will be gone by the time these kids would make an impact.
