Seems Brent is now hopeful that the take over could be done quicker than expected: http://www.teamtalk.com/plymouth-argyle/7204415/Brent-wants-quick-takeover Not long now I think
Mrs LaLa you havn't used Beau as a friction toy have you...........he doesn't seem to have any legs left.
I'm not bothered when it is as long as it is. I think this one is going to happen so have stopped worrying. Ibet Saturday was a bit of an unusual day out for him sat in the Devonport end. Bet he hasn't encountered that very often. Pity the apathetic locals couldn't have done a bit better in numbers just to give him a bit more encouragement.
I thought Brendan Guilfoyle was supposed to be releasing a statement today ? The Daily Telegraph had a full column article about Argyle today .......very good to.
Once again, please don't expect miracles and then be disappointed when they don't happen. "In an interview on BBC Radio Devon Brent was asked if he could complete a sale by 10 October. "We do have a lot of dependency on other people moving at the same pace, so that date would be challenging," Brent said." "It's frustrating having a lot of dependencies on other people, each one of which potentially has veto, but the various stakeholders thus far have been absolutely great and they've been passionate to make sure the club survives." The good news is that this bid doesn't have the complications of Heaney and I presume Risdale, but patience friends, patience.
I think a lot of people have been patient Distant so you have to excuse them just a little with the current euphoria. Remember it wasn't that long ago you were saying that a plan B was unlikely and we rested on the one on the table. Most people aren't getting carried away just yet but I think the present atmosphere in the news and around the club is something to be cheerie about and people will grasp at anything following recent history.
Plan B hasn't happened yet Sensible, it's merely been agreed in principle. We now go into due diligence & contract negotiations and, as Brent has implied, many people have vetoes and the whole thing could yet fall over at any stage. That is the way of such deals. Success is likely to require the players & staff to waive at least October's wages and there shouldn't be a shock-horror reaction when that happens. If there delays of only 2 & a bit weeks, it could be November too. If it wasn't for the fact it was the League who scuppered the Heaney/Ridsdale deal, I doubt they'd be so patient in allowing time for another deal to take place. Certainly if the reverse had happened [i.e. fan pressure stopped the Heaney/Ridsdale transaction when the League wanted it to go ahead in order to regularise the club's position], then we would be dead meat by now. PS We all hope for a quick solution of course. My big hope was that fans would be reunited with their club, its new owners, management and players after great bitterness. That possibility is back on the table now and I wouldn't want it to slip away through people turning against Brent if things drag on a bit for innocent reasons.
Hasn't that just been done......isn't that the reason for the announcement yesterday.........waiting for the "golden share" to be returned to the club by the Football League.
No Plymborn it hasn't. It's been agreed in principle was what was said. That's good news and gives strong hope it will happen but unless having been out of circulation I've missed something, there is still a period of due diligence & contract negotiation to go. Roughly speaking, that seems to put us where BIL were when they went INTO exclusivity as preferred bidder. You know how long things went on from there. Still, we don't have the complications of Two Clubs Heaney and Crown Court Ridsdale this time, which obviously made the League refuse to give the Share back, so at least that shouldn't delay things. Also, the administrator's side should have their groundwork done, having been through the process once already with BIL. The remaining big hurdles are 1) getting the creditors to agree to the new deal [we know Lombard were reluctant last time, but Guilfoyle should now know where they are coming from] and 2) persuading the League that the club will be soundly financed in future. I haven't seen any info on how well advanced those things are. I'm not trying to be negative, merely suggesting after this long haul, patience is in order.
Point taken.........I thought there was one outstanding debt from what has been said that Brent had been negotiating, and had replied satisfactory......possibly the Lombard ground mortgage......that did seem to be the hold-up with Heaney. Brent has spent all his time on this even to the extent of cancelling a business trip I think to India. So most of the debts have been checked out from what Brent has been saying and I don't think he's in the business of giving us any old flannel.........most estimates seem to say 10th Oct onwards and before the end of the month.
I think it is such a shame that this did not happen in July. We could have had so much more time to bring in players and staff, giving Reid chance to play with a squad he had chance to shape... Still I think we have the best guy for the job now and even if it does drag on a bit longer I wouldn't care. I have more confidence in Brent having the funds available to buy than I ever did with the Ginger Weasel. COYG!!
I may not be particularly wise in the ways of big business or indeed takeovers Distant but I do not agree with all of what you say. It was never in the interests of the football league to allow Argyle to fall. I don't think they have been particularly lenient with Argyle I think it is in their interests to be patient. I also think that the supporters of the club along with all the players and staff have been patient also and do not think now that we are this close will start rocking the boat now. The other alternative for the creditors is to receive nothing so I also do not believe they will rock the boat either. The fault in all of this remains in my view with the Administrators who have allowed a bid to continue when it was obvious to most sane people that the funds were not in place as continually stated. If these are credible people in their field then I shudder to think what the uncreditable are like. There remains a deep suspicion that Argyle were put more in jeopardy than they were already in due to some sort of pre deal concocted by those in the driving seat. There is no direct evidence to support this but nonetheless the suspicion remains and it is a viable theory. I firmly believe that this deal will go ahead, it is plan B and it was said by people that a plan B could not happen. This was never quantified by reason apart from the clock. It proves that there was always an option for plan B and the prevous statements were plain lying. Maybe there would not be in any other business and I understand you have experience in this sort of field but it is not in football. Football is a law unto itself.
Sensible I stated my reservations about Ridsdale's dominant position early on but kept my mouth shut later on the basis that an enemy lifeboat was better than drowning. Where you are 100% wrong is to think the creditors do not have an option. To be honest they have an option which I for one would take like a shot on any one of 91 league clubs. Football is NOT a world unto itself. Clubs are owned by limited companies which follow company law. If the creditors don't make a deal, the League don't come into it. The crucial parties - Lombard and Gardner's concert party have security over Home Park. They'd get more money for the property interest if it wasn't for the need to sustain a football club at the cost of what - several million? Not only is there no need to subsidise a failing club, which they don't give a sh1t about, they can put that money in their pockets by putting the club under, plus potentially releasing a bigger development acreage since there's no need for a stadium. The only restraint is doing a planning deal with the Council. Do I make myself clear? I'm showing my teeth here, there's nothing like buying guaranteed property value at a huge discount off a failed company, but I'm a kitten compared to the beasts circling this club. You do not understand how close this has come to disaster due to the value of the property vastly outweighing the [negative] value of the football club. The issue with Plan B is twofold. Firstly, there is time. Can the club run on without cash long enough for Plan B to be completed? That's the trivial issue. The second, much much more important issue is what Brent has alluded to, which is risk. There are a thousand steps in these processes which may be imagined as a thousand steps along a cliff path. One single false step in that thousand means calamity. BIL had got to Step 995. Brent starts from Step 1. You work out the relative risk. Could the club survive until a Plan C if Plan B goes under in 3 weeks on Step 742? We all hope so don't we, but how many times can you get lucky?
I understand that these people could say no but I still do not believe they will. In many other situations they may have done so but football seems to plod along in it's own sweet way and for some reason the normal laws of the jungle in putting a club to the wall do not happen. I would add the word yet to that but I don't believe Argyle will be the one to start it off. I also understand that football is a plc and company rules should apply but they don't appear to. Why I don't know. The land, unless there is a change of heart from the Council, is worthless without a football team to play on it. If the council were to change it's mind don't you think there would be an element of political suicide in that? Politicians of whatever standing in my opinion and that is all this is are always thinking of their own scalps rather than the greater good of mankind. I am not underestimating the perils that might be there in the dark on your cliff path Distant. I understand that this will not happen just because a bunch of supporters want it to. I just feel it will is all. I still blame the Administrators for most of the current mess. From a layman's perspective it looks completely and utterly dodgy and I am far from the only person who thinks so. I am not crying illegal or accusing these people of being crooks or anything else. Just pointing out that they seem either in league with the former devils or incompetent or even both. It's so much like Delboy it is unreal. If I had wandered into Home Park months ago with an offer stating I had the money, honest I really have but not on me, how far would I have got. They would have believed me? Well the simplest of questions is why when the proof was not cast iron did they believe the previous front runner. Then you get statements from Ridsdale saying that Brent was his choice all along. Do you believe that? He picked the Administrators by recommending them to the previous Board. He was in league with Heaney from the start on the promise of the club for a £1 and strangely enough the Administrators, Ridsdale's choice,went along with it saying as you did that there was really only one offer in town worth considering and the others could not happen. I would have taken anybody to save the club like a lot of people would but I would have lived in fear thereafter of what their real intentions were. Lo and behold we are now half way down root B and not at step 1 of 1000. I also stand by what I've said regarding the FA. It is not in their interests once a season has kicked off to pull the plug on a league side. They will give this the rest of the season if they have to. I don't profess to know the ins and outs of this saga or how business works and I bow to your knowledge of such things which are greater than mine. All of my opinion is based on gut instict alone and probably we will never know the truth of everything. Perhaps we are better off not knowing.
I'm convinced in my own mind that the League scuppered the BIL deal and tat the reason was Ridsdale. Can you imagine the outcry if they allowed him to take charge of Argyle and then in 6 month's time he's found guilty of fraud at Cardiff? Heaney they could always deal with later if it did turn out he was lurking at both Argyle & Truro, but allowing Ridsdale in with a football related court case already in motion? The circumstances of the League statement were interesting. It was said a decision had been deferred. Deferred pending what? A deferral is always subject to something - further information or some event to occur in the future but we were never told. Deferred pending a different deal I reckon!
