Sale of the Club

[Peter Venkman]

The timing I feel was a major problem, coming so close to the transfer deadline that Paolo was unable to complete any transfers in time.

I personally would have delayed the takeover for one more week to allow Paolo time to make the signings he wanted thus it not causing any disruption to the team and on pitch management. Obviously that is if the sale had been agreed in time for this, there could have been thoughts that the sale of the club would not happen for Black to do this, he must  have had his reasons, lets see what they were before attacking him too much eh?

[Batch]

The timing was piss poor.

This is my view. Maybe he always had this time frame as his exit strategy, even pre-season. It just seems silly to fund squad building to the extent of a squad capable of competing for the Championship only to pull the plug  if so.

Unless PDC's contract is so strong that he was guaranteed x amount budget per-season, or unless he was pretty sure a buyer could be found I suppose.

Not saying we don't have 9 million reasons to be thankful (if that's what he writes off).

[joteddyred]

However you see it and i agree with you to be fair it is not the thing to do.....leaving at the time he did,beginning of season or the end in my view.
Its like getting a team of climbers a 1000 feet from the top of Everest then turning round and saying ....fuck it ive had enough and walking them all back down again.

The timing was piss poor.

Totally agree with this.  The timing couldn't have been any worse and I can't help but be pissed off at that.

[hobodan]

I don't agree that we spent big to get Paolo, he was desperate to get into management and we gave him a chance. He has subsequently proven to be successful, with a fair backing I will add.

8,000 gates at this level with our ticket prices is very good, certainly enough to mount a promotion campaign.

Football as a whole needs to change, the current regulations in place obviously didn't prevent us from making a loss of 250k per month or whatever the real figure is. I was under the impression that we had reached our wage percentage maximum against club turnover. It genuinely came as a surprise to me that we as a club were / are losing this amount every month. I want to see us (and every club) competing fairly within our means & not being able to overspend.

Playing fairly within our means is more compelling to me than being bankrolled and batting above our weight, with the off chance that mr sugar daddy will pull the plug.

[Flashheart]

He wanted to cut his losses which is very understandable. It is very selfish to expect him to stay on and continue throwing his money into a bottomless pit. Nobody here would be happy to throw money away with the knowledge you will not get it back so how can you expect another person to do the same.

[hobodan]

Andrew black and co did a great thing by rescuing the club, paying off the debts to HMRC ect. But it feels as if they have undone a lot of the good work by allowing us to operate at a loss and selling us down the river. If Andrew black did not want to be in this situation then it was ultimately in his control to make sure we operated within budget. Weather the fans or Paolo would have liked the situation, we may not be where we are in the league but we wouldn't be in the position we are now off the field yet again.

[Arriba]

I asked this question the other day and I would still like someone more clued up than myself to answer it.

If Black wanted the 9 million he is apparantly writing off back,what chance would there be of him getting it,or any of it?

[wigglesworth]

However you see it and i agree with you to be fair it is not the thing to do.....leaving at the time he did,beginning of season or the end in my view.
Its like getting a team of climbers a 1000 feet from the top of Everest then turning round and saying ....fuck it ive had enough and walking them all back down again.

The timing was piss poor.

I agree. The timing of this is the biggest downside, and I'm a bit perplexed by it but understand if it really is just a case of 'enough is enough'.

Do we really know if it would have been any better had Mr Black agreed to wait until the end of the season though? Pulling the money supply is going to hurt whenever its done. I remember hearing rumblings from someone alot closer to him than I am that he was looking for a way out midway through last season.

If the team of climbers had no business being anywhere near the summit of Everest without the highly paid specialist support team, oxygen, and personal helicopters, and whatever else you need to climb everest - all of which was paid for by maxing out multiple credit cards with no means of ever paying off then weren't they in a bit of a false position anyway?

Ok I concede thats a rubbish analogy  

[horlock07]

If the rumours of Black wanting out for 12 months are true I would suggest he has gone way beyond the call of duty funding, and considering to fund this season, but it had to end somewhere. I suspect that the 31st Jan deadline has been there for sometime hhence the posturing etc with Fitton Wray etc, linked to this I wonder if the new owners have been in the frame for a while and had done the deal with Black which was possibly being held up by others?

The timing is shit but I honestly cannot see that the plug was pulled. He had to stop funding at some stage and its not like its a couple of quid he would have to bung in.

[Flashheart]

What if he timed his decision to stop funding the club with when he first decided he wanted out?

[Stevecourty]

Black has done good things but handled this whole affair shockingly. Yes we can all applaud his 9 million input and he's a top man for doing so BUT it was his business and we all spend our own money on a business to then come out and say he is owed that money in the first place is ludicrous. He's put the club under a cloud that needn't of been there. If he had waited a few months he'd be selling a club in the championship without really spending much more. Now he's selling a club in a crisis without one of its major assets and possibly without its beloved manager. The man despite all his good deeds has shat on his good work with a few weeks of craziness that will derail our season

[dave_bambers_right_sock]

Steve claridge is a Bell-end cunt

Corrected

[wigglesworth]

Black has done good things but handled this whole affair shockingly. Yes we can all applaud his 9 million input and he's a top man for doing so BUT it was his business and we all spend our own money on a business to then come out and say he is owed that money in the first place is ludicrous. He's put the club under a cloud that needn't of been there. If he had waited a few months he'd be selling a club in the championship without really spending much more. Now he's selling a club in a crisis without one of its major assets and possibly without its beloved manager. The man despite all his good deeds has shat on his good work with a few weeks of craziness that will derail our season

If he'd waited a few months, he'd be selling a club that he'd sunk another £x,x00k into which may or may not be in the league above. The only certainty was that he would have to bankroll until the end of the season, the rest is speculation.

I'm not even convinced we'd be finanically better off in the Championship.

[ahounsell]

I asked this question the other day and I would still like someone more clued up than myself to answer it.

If Black wanted the 9 million he is apparantly writing off back,what chance would there be of him getting it,or any of it?

Very little chance. The only way would be if the new owners were prepared to pay him back as part of the takeover, or if he decided to sell off some players to enable the club to pay some of it back.

[ghanimah]

Black has done good things but handled this whole affair shockingly. Yes we can all applaud his 9 million input and he's a top man for doing so BUT it was his business and we all spend our own money on a business to then come out and say he is owed that money in the first place is ludicrous. He's put the club under a cloud that needn't of been there. If he had waited a few months he'd be selling a club in the championship without really spending much more. Now he's selling a club in a crisis without one of its major assets and possibly without its beloved manager. The man despite all his good deeds has shat on his good work with a few weeks of craziness that will derail our season

He's sold the club (subject to FL approval) and one of the assets was part of the deal.

It's all very well waiting until the end of season, but that would've meant upheaval in the boardroom at a time when we could be changing divisions (and in playoffs) which will probably require significant changes of the team personnel, and also a time, when players' contracts usually come to an end.

If a takeover is going to mess up a transfer window I'd rather it was the one just gone, not the one in preparation for next season.