Thetownend.com

SPANISH striker Ibon Arrieta and midfielder Steve Adams will both sign contracts with Swindon Town this week in the clearest indication yet that a takeover at the County Ground is imminent.
The Swindon Advertiser understands a deal, believed to be with Portuguese investors, could well be finalised within days.


http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/display.var.1596920.0..php

ermm dont know what to make of that  :?

still believe it when i see it

I think there shoud be a question mark at the end of that headline.

That's the way I've read that article.

Since May I have consistently heard a deal is only days/weeks away, I have to admit to have lost all confidence that it will ever happen.
As you say 'Believe it when I see it'.
 :cry:

for once dell we agree  :wink:

Well we are now 5 weeks into the 8 week period specified by the board for the completition of the takeover. I would imagine things must be close to being done. We seem to be signing players again.

Sorry dude at work so just copied and pasted quick. I read the first few lines before reading the entire article.

It wasn't a criticism mate, as the Adver article doesn't have the question mark, it was just my take on things.

 :oops: Just noticed the Adver does ask a question.  Sorry Gazza.

Portuguese now?!

They've been round the world and back since 5 weeks ago. And since when was Portugal in Eastern Europe?!

Saw Brevett and the two swarthy gents at Exeter.

At one point I thought they were queing up at the turnstile :D

when has anybody said they were Eastern European I must have missed that one, it has been rumoured since the news broke that they were Portuguese.The biggest question that needs answering is are they buying or are they investing ? not what country they come from

...and how much as £10 doesn't go far these days.

I couldnt have put it better myself Steve! actually they looked a little more greasy than swarthy to me!  :D

Perhaps it is their greasiness that is making them so difficult to pin down

And are we going to be a feeder club :?

If we are a feeder club then i'm not going to be any part of it, i will not support STFC if we turned into a feeder club!!

bye then

I don't like Feeder, they're shit.

Would you support the club then if it was purely used as a feeder club and the new owners were not worried about promotion/relegation, got rid of sturrock and put someone else in charge like brevett or some other person who has no experience.

Would you still go to watch STFC knowing all that was happening? I know alot of people wouldn't!

Serious question, If the showcase/feeder club rumours are correct would you be happy to support a team that serves only to make agents a profit?
That would be the end for me also as I would have no interest in such a venture as the heart and soul of the club would die IMO. Decisions made by the clubs hierarchy would be done to benefit themselves rather than to benefit STFC.

Obviously all rumours at the moment but it isn't a scenario I'd have any interest in!

Totall agree glos_robin, as i said to red macca would he really still support the club if it was in this situation, as you say the club would die and for alot of supporters it will be the end, our club would just be used and for nothing else, they would not give a dam about anything else apart from showcasing the players.

yeah but what if we're getting loads of decent portuguese players in?

as long as they've not played for benfica (because they're my least favourite portuguese club) then i think that would be ace.

Surely the heart and soul of a club is it's fans?

I'd still go. I don't think the feeder club scenario is going to happen, but if it did they wouldn't be here very long as it wouldn't work.

We'd probably end up back in League 2 and have to start again.

Don't want to add fuel to the fire, but I've heard the rumour from another source.  

My neighbour [who isn't actually a footie fan] works for a company who are heavily into sponsorship at the CG - he heard from one of the bosses, that the mystery backers are Portugese, and have some involvement with another club !!

I've no idea how reliable this is - but they do say 'no smoke without fire '

Without knowing the details, it's hard to judge, but my first instinct is I don't want to see my beloved STFC become just a feeder club to benefit others !!

I saw the Legends game tonight, and you could see what it meant to some of them, just to wear that red shirt again !!  Can't see any foreign journeymen feeling that way !!

at the end of the day everything which is heard from "my mate jim" is just pure speculation and no one should believe any of it until the deal is done and the words come from the new investors mouth.

but then again if he does say we're a feeder club then all these folk will come out and say i told you so.

At the end of the days it's speculation and shouldn't be believed.

things are happening we know that much.
what exactly it is i've no idea.

*We could become a feeder club.

*We could get investment on condition certain people still have influence.

*We get taken over fully by better off field management, with proper investment to boot.

Three blindingly obvious statements to three different scenarios. Neither one is more or less speculative than the other and neither one is more or less factual than the other. I'd hate scenario one to happen, would be extremely annoyed by scenario two and joyous if scenario three occurred. I can't draw any conclusions from what I know (or don't know) and don't see the point.

I can see the reasoning for talking up and supporting the Fans' Consortium, I can also see the reason for trying to expose and lambast the errors made by the current incumbents (I have done both, probably in too much excess). However, I don't really see the reason for excessive positivity or negativity regarding the 'investors', given the lack of details we have to go on. I'm miffed that we don't know who these people are and what their motives are and it makes me suspicious about it (I don't really expect much in the way of the deal pleasing me). There is a chance that the investment could be fucking excellent news though. I'll take my view at the top of the fence and I'll fall on one side once more details are released.

Basically what I've been saying for weeks.

But more eruditely put :D

Don't know why but I just have this niggling feeling that anyone who believes that scenario three is likely to happen is kidding themselves.

I just think that there is absolutely no way that someone is going to come in like a knight riding on a white horse, buy the club, clear our debts, provide a new ground and then also provide the multi-million pound investment required for us to progress on the pitch - No matter which angle I view this from, I just can't see this happening.   :nono:

This is just my gut feeling however and should not be construed as a critiicism for those who believe it could happen so please do not come back and moan at me. I am not criticising those who think this could happen, nor those who are just willing to wait and see what happens - I am just giving my opinion - that's all.

yes i would support themn still as it stands it is the only fucking option we got

To be honest I dont see how the "feeder club" arguemnt might work based on the invlovement of portugese agents. I'd understand it a lot more if it were the OWNERS of a portugese club.

Even so I dont see how it would differ too much to the way STFC has always been. We get players cheap, if they turn out to be good we sell them on to a profit to a bigger club who have more cash. This has always been the case and always will because we are not going to turn into a european superpower anytime soon.

If we do get a few portugese players coming over to put themsleves in the shop window for a bigger club, dont you think it suits everyone concerned if they were actually quite good. No-one is going to make any money if they are shite are they?

And why would they replace a manager who has one of the best reputations in lower league football with a no-mark like Brevett? again, not the greatest plan to make money if you are investing several million in a football club.

:clap:

I think the fear is of an agreement in place like the club that was owned in Belgium by a company Wenger was involved in.  To be fair part of that was to get around EU passport controls, but essentially it's the arrangement that is the fear:

Basically, a company (in this instance it was agents and Managers who were shareholders) purchased a football club in Belgium.  They then used this club to funnel Ivorian players through in the main, but also other Africans.  The financial contracts were held by the company who then loaned the players to the club they also owned in Belgium.  If they turned out to be good then a clubs in Europe were alerted and got the player at a decent rate, the company keeping the profits.  While the club got decent players from time to time, they had to suffer the misses as well, and ended up getting no real money from the deal.  When the company moved on the club, I think, went bust, as fans were treated to what became a shit team with no money of their own but operating costs they couldn't afford.

I'm sure there is a more in depth fact filled version, I'll have a look.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/programmes/newsnight/5036342.stm

here we go, ignore the stuff about passports and Arsenal to some extent and just consider the way the club were used instead.  That is the sort of thing people mean by feeder club, not the relationship that exists between Liverpool and Crewe.

If that happened to my team, I;d have to say it was no longer STFC.

No, you'd have the option not to be part of it. If we became in effect somebody elses reserve team or a showcase club for agents we wouldn't be STFC anymore, just like we wouldn't be STFC any more if we went to Chippenham.
Rob's post highlight how shit such a deal would be for fans and hopefully it remains just a rumour.
I wouldn't do 80 mile round trips every other week for home games just help people with get rich quick schemes. The club would lose its own identity and have no ambition of its own.

Fucking hell, some people ain't half starting to twist this fucking "takeover" bollocks out of all recognition.

I ain't read it all and don't intend too, but jesus? Talk about old women gossiping themselves into a self-induced state of paranoia.

Si Pi's post makes sense and will be the one i consider the winner.

That does of course depend on whether anyone should have a competition on most sensible post within a extremely speculative thread. And whether i get to decide the winner. My head says it will be the mods. My heart says it would be destroyed by speculation about the posts yet to appear which could in fact win, or, could just be copying Si's post and claiming he edited his own to look like theirs as he himself is a mod...

:shhh

But there would be no point in doing that other than to get round EU citezenship. As our work permit laws are (thankfully) pretty harsh what would be the point in doing it for players who already have EU nationality?  

It'd be a whole lot cheaper to get some DVD's of you clients best footballing momnets burnt to DVD and mailed to every club in eurpoe and would propably have more effect if you wanted people put in the "shop window" We're only in league 1 for fucks sake

I'm not passing judgement on whether it would or wouldn't happen.  I'm merely giving the details of how such a system works.  I think people are debating two different things - Feeder clubs and affiliate clubs.  The latter would not be an issue - Crewe work that way with Liverpool.  People would have an issue with being used as in the example shown.


To be honest, I have no idea on there intentions with us though.

All I have to say is... "Swindon til I die!"

I don't know about feeder clubs etc. All I do know is that the new investors have been dealing with Mikey D & Co.  
Mikey D would not deal with the fans consortium, because it had supporters involved. (My conclusion)
They also want to keep things under wraps, until it's a done deal.
There has to be money involved. At least 5 million, for the first season.
So..................... WHY ?
Bill P is/ was a white knight who gave us all an erxceptional opportunity. .. Some input into how our club is run. (probably why Mikey D & Wills wouldn't deal.
The answer has to lie with MIkey D, & Wills making money AND the new investors thinking they can. Probably due to ground development.

But not supporting this club is not a option

It wouldnt be the same club any more though. The heart would be ripped out of the club if any of these scenarios played out.