Thetownend.com

Well it looks like we have come full circle;

ANDREW Fitton insists no-one is holding his consortium to ransom but admits the "technical hitch" over future ground development rights could still scupper the whole Town takeover deal.

The Ramsbury businessman revealed after Saturday's 3-2 FA Cup win over Forest Green Rovers how a technicality surrounding development rights for a new stadium now lies in the hands of lawyers as they attempt to solve the impasse.

His latest revelations have led some fans to accuse the selling party of greed but Fitton was quick to dismiss this last night, insisting "everyone" was working hard to seal the deal.

advertisementSome supporters carried a coffin with a wreath on Saturday, which read: RIP STFC' in a symbolic gesture about the club's plight.

Fitton has revealed the major issue is whether the rights are the club's to sell, with former investor Bill Power in the middle of a legal battle over whether he owns shares in STFC or is owed £1.12 million from a loan.

If Power is deemed to have purchased shares then he will also own a percentage of the development rights, with Fitton's lawyers expected to approach Power's legal team some time this week.

Shaw Park Development currently hold the rights to any ground development - a joint venture between Town's Holding Company and St Modwen - but Fitton admits the Power complication' is a major issue.

He said: "St Modwen are not the problem. I think they would do whatever it took to get it done.

"They are certainly not holding us to ransom.

"But fans will remember the Wills family took money from a man called Bill Power and whether or not he owns shares in the holding company depends on a legal process.

"They could only sell the development rights if he does with his approval and, although I am not saying Bill Power would not do this, it is not a five minute process. I don't know what will happen but the sad thing is it could scupper the whole deal."

Fitton was a guest of the Wills family for Saturday's FA Cup win after which he explained to fans why the deal was taking so long.

He said: "What we agreed at the outset was to say we want everything back where it should be; the club, the development rights, the ground - and then we can move forward.

"It just isn't as simple as that. This deal is complicated, in fact it's overly complicated for its size, and we've got to solve those complications.'' The next few days will be crucial to the takeover, with Fitton insisting things could become "very difficult" if the problems are not ironed out this week.

He said: "They say in this life that 80 per cent is certainty. I would say we are somewhere above 50, but less than 80."

Would really like to see Bill Power involved with the Fitton consortium but I can not see this happening.Hopefully BP will take 1.2 Mill and the deal can go through.

Could this not be resolved by the club saying - OK Bill, it was a loan. We'll pay your £1.2M back by Y? Or has it gone to far for that?

I'm sure Fitton was just trying to explain the situation. I am at a loss to explain why if it has been known about for so long we are only now at the stage of contacting Power?

That's certainly a possibility. Just seems to be one big mess.

The article seems to suggest Fitton has come to some agreement with the HC and St Modwen over a future development.

It looks pretty complicated, but Bill seems a very decent bloke and I'm sure he'll do everthing he can to help.

i'm sure if it means getting shot of the current board, bill would be pretty sympathetic and accomodating...

This is a major problem.

BP is currently at loggerheads with the club due to the shares/loan situation.

With Fitton looking at this week to finish the deal I don't think it's gonna happen.

BP, due to the court case, won't be able to have any input in this as it'll mean he does own shares, something he has refuted all along.

So.................Fitton wants to buy the whole package, the current owners want to sell the whole package, but a deal can't be finalised until the other shareholders (BP?) agree to the deal and that won't happen because BP is adamant he hasn't got any shares.

What a fucking shambles................................

i'm sure bill is aware of what's going on at STFC through communicating with phil emmell, mike wilkes, mark devlin or any of the trust bods. if he's aware that this is our last chance saloon, am i the only one who thinks he'll swallow his pride and drop the court case?

In return for £1.12 million?

The ball's firmly in SSW's court.

I don't think Fitton will stump up an extra 1.12 million, why should he?

BP would probably go for it, as long as he gets his money back, but who's gonna pay him?

Don't want to sound negative or anything, but I really can't see this having a positive outcome.........................

I would like to think that Andrew Fitton either conceded to Bill Power that he genuinely does own part of the club or gives him his money back.

No matter what I dont want BP to come out of this looking like the bad man, which the club is making him out to be, not sure what Fittons take is on BP but I really would like to think they can come to an agreement over this as BP seems to be a reasonable enough guy.

I don't think BP's a bad guy. Neither is Fitton IMHO.

But what they both are, first and foremost, is businessmen.

BP will want his investment/loan back in full and Fitton won't want to pay out another £million plus for a club thats only asset is a possible ground redevelopment.

BP wants/deserves his money back.

The club want rid of the whole issue so the takeover can go through. We hope/assume.

The club need to make BP a settlement offer asap if they want this to go through. Obviously finding that figure is easier said than done, and this is all based on the assumption that we know the full story, which would be a first.

But once a figure is decided these things can ahppen v quickly. So it's positive in that we have two people, Fitton and BP, who will want to see to it that the club survies and prospers.

This is a far better situation than what we thought it was last week. Which begs the question - how many supposed 'sources' at the club are actually churning out acurate information. Winding-up order, Diamandis being the major hitch in the takeover....

He'll want a proportion of his monumental legal cosst paid too...

No Mr Fitton, 80% is bollocks, haven't you read the splash screen on here.  :D

Very good point. Vilifying certain members of this board is a habit that as members of this forum we all slide into.

Don't have a go people, we don't know exactly what is going on and i'm just agreeing with his point. I dislike the board and want them out as much as any of you.

Why can't Bill Power be part of the consortium??

I am starting to agree with you, there are an awful lot of scaremonger's  on these forums. How do we know that there is an HMRC deadline ? I really want these cowboys out of our club but some of the hysterical hype around deadlines and people not selling unless they get 18 trillion pounds payoff.
I think todays message from Fitton sums up the whole thing, it is and always has been about Mike D and BP falling out and we are still paying for that mess now. The board should do the honourable thing settle up with BP and close the sad chapter in the Towns history once and for all.

We can still blame Mike or the Board as someone is responsible fro trying to ensure Bill's investment is recorded as shares (in an attempt to avoid having to repay him).  The irony would be funny if it wasn't so annoying.

Presumably the best option now is to offer a settlement.

it must be said the 1.2 million will be nothing compared to the sums being made from the ground development. it seems it would be a huge climb down to pay BP his money back or include him in the development profit. either way 1.2 million is a lot of money to you and me.

Precisely, the easy option right now has to be to just climb down and accept Power's position.  the club then gets to keep all the future profits which should more than outweigh the £1.12m.

That would be brilliant & is something I have been hoping for

Give up! thats not the way business works. Why would Fitton want to share his profits with a stranger? why would he wnat to share his profits at all? He already has a consortium of close business allies.

Not trying to be clever, but I actually thought he would be, on the assumption that he would presumably like to part of it, and no-one would want to settle with him..

Maybe it could still happen.

I have for a while thought Bill P would enter the equation, because he allegedly owns shares in the HOLDING Co.  What puzzles be is that he is now alleged to hold shares IN Shaw Park Developments. How did that supposedly happen. !?
Regrdless, though all the club / Will need to do is conceed that it was a loan & that they owe Bill 1.2 million plus costs plus interest.  I'm sure that  contingency has been made for them losing the Court case any way ! ?

haha you think this board will have a contingency plan  :soapy tit wank:

The holding co. owns 50% of SPD it has been said. Therefore if BP "owns" 22-33% of the holding co. he owns 11-16.5% of SPD. As for contingency, that smacks of forward planning, prudent financial management or an admission of defeat. All qualities in abundance at STFC board level.

Plaese note I did put ! & ? after that line.
But actually, A fitton, probably has

But if B P's interest in Shaw Park arises through his supposed share ownership in the Holding Company, why the sudden problem now. They haven't consulted Bill on selling another comapny owned by the Holding Company (The Football club itself) to BEST holdings, or is it that Fitton is more thorough & professional than the Amigo's were

It seems that AF is indeed more diligent.

The whole who owns what in which company thing is a can of worms though. Depending on which figures you take there seems to be more than 100% in total floating around. Maybe it's a BOGOF organised by somebody in accounts after she (or he ...) heard about double entry bookkeeping.

Whatever shares have been issued, it should all come out this week ... it says here.

The back drop to all of this is what this perceived value is in the redevelopment of the CG.

It is not a big site and has a covenant on it, where do they think they are going to make millions anyway!

The mind set at SN1, is that they can somehow cover the whole 38 acres with houses, surrounding a stadium based on the Madjeski. This is obviously what Bowden had in his head, when he was at the fans forum in February. He refered to it as "potential" & seemed to think it was tens of Millions. I would guess he was told all of this by the existing "General  manager".
Of course if they were ever be able to do this we WOULD be talking massive profits. (How many houses would you get to an acre ?)

Those of us who live in the real world know that it's a total non starter as it would be opposed by the locals, & the Council wouldn't work with the currenty lot any way. They rejected the TRUSTs redevelopment proposals as being "fatally flawed". Bowden as good as admitted that he hadn't looked at said proposals, but there wasn't enough housing (to generate the huge profits they want).

This is absolute rubbish about Power holding up the consortium.

The board owe Power 1.2 million. This will be ratified by the high court in the very near future.

Thats because Bill Power knows that shares in Shaw developments are useless. The whole company is a fraud.

Even if it were to be allowed the sale of the development SHOULD be used to offset the cost of the ground and investment in the team and the club for the future...

Will that be the case though...

Seriously doubt it ..

Any monies that are gained out of it will go to those that have skimmed money out of the club for years, the ones that built a monumental pile of debt in order to skim still more off the top of the club, whilst all along knowing that they are going to bust the company to rid themselves of all debt and now when they have drilled it into the ground, they expect to be entitled to funds from the development ...

CRAP ! ! ! !

Surely fraud maybe the Police, The FA and the DTI should look at this more closely...

Shocking I say

given that some people on here seemingly have close links to BP, anybody care to enlighten us as to how he'd approach this?

Got to love this comment on the Adver story:



 :mrgreen:

Anybody?

Everybody! SCREAM!

What if this is a smokescreen to blame Power for a failed takeover? Wouldn't put it past this lot.

Why would Fitton play along to the smokescreen? He doesn't need to justify his reasons should he pull out of a deal. He owes the board no favours. A conspiracy theory too far for me.

I do understand why the spidey sense is tingling though. Seems odd to point the sticking point in Power's direction if the legals haven't even contacted him yet. And why does allegedly owning 23% (?) of the holding company influence things? Surely the alleged 23% of the 50% of Shaw Properties isn't enough to influence things? Is it to prevent Power from claiming 11.5% of future redevelopment profits if he loses the court case?

I guess I don't understand, and even if I did it makes no difference, we just have to wait and see.

I know i am probably wrong but you cannot help but think of a conspiracy theory with these people, they seem to ruin everything and blame it all on other people.
They don't like Bill Power and for them he would be the perfect person to blame to make him look like a bad guy to the fans.
I don't know much about the current situation, i just hope it finally get's sorted this week.

Fitton has made it pretty clear the new people want "all or nothing". Everything under one roof.

IF it is now the case that the club want to say that it is a loan then that ends the court action presumably and any costs are against the club.

IF the club is still trying to say it is shares then the court case goes ahead or Bill withdraws the action and picks up any costs, and SSW has to negotiate a price for the shares with Bill.

IF nobody can agree and Fitton walks away then SSW gets nothing and so does Bill as inevitably the future would non-existent.

So it would seem the message to SSW and Bill would be ... agree a price around the development rights and the £1.2m pretty damn quick or both end up empty-handed. Better to swallow pride and take something (whatever the rights and wrongs are), than to end up with no club and no prospect of any money.

It's like trying to untangle the web of the Spider of Woe.

And not like those cool tidy nice shaped ones you get. We're looking at something rivals this monstrosity which descended upon Lake Tawakoni State Park recently.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/lake_tawakoni/media/images/web_600x450.jpg

Having spoken to a few people about this today, a few people think that this matter seems a bit iffy, especially bringing it up at the last minute like this, some people seem to think that they are just using Bill Power as a scapegoat because they know that this takeover is not going to go through and obviously Power could be used as the fall guy.

Fitton is a set up by Wills and Diamandis

Never intended a takeover

Powers fault .. youre having a laugh

Tell me your fishing.
You can't seriously think that.

If the takeover collapsed and the board blamed Power some people would believe it and blame Power as well but most of us know that Bill Power has the club's best interest's at heart.
He would never do anything to make STFC fold, in my opinion he seems like a good man and businessman and no matter what the board say i wouldn't blame Power for anything, the board would be held responsible no matter what crap they come out with.

Im so glad I wont be online for 2 days as the amount of people who think they understand business at this level is a joke.

You say that, but him having this court date while we are trying to be taken over looks a bit different. I've no doubt he's a nice man and he'd like to see swindon succeed, but he's a business man first and foremost, looking after number one.

:D
Grumpy cunt

Yes i do agree he will look after number one but i think he cares about the club and he would not want us to fold, I just have some bad thoughts in my mind that Power is going to be used as a scapegoat in all this, I just don't understand why this was brought up so late? surely they would have know about this from the beginning? that's why it looks suspicious.

Im being serious, I doubt one person has been at this level before.  Its an extremely complex takeover

I am a grumpy cunt tho

Ok so we'll all close our eyes, hope for the best and not try and get our head round things because we're not multi millionaires?  what a load of bollocks

Agreed on both counts!  :P

He has a point. The amount of people acting like they know everything probably know fuck all, just scaremongering - me included.

i'll hand my resignation into the trust board immediately and refrain from ever discussing boardroom matters in the future.

so just a lightweight busybody then??!!!  :soapy tit wank:

i prefer the term "token idiot"

What a butch of pricks, not about money, its about being at a level of busienss where you would understand this type of unique deal.  I dont think we as fans can do anything now as if its as close to us going under as has been reported the only thing we can do is hope and pray that this takeover goes through.

Fuck me its the TEF's Alan Sugar :wanker:

Todd... you're fired!

Why am I a wanker? serious have you ever been involved in a take over of a comapny involving future development rights? This is for the lawyers to understand and advise Fitton

In that case you can't resign - the Trust Board needs one of them in the interests of democratic representation of the people!

Because you were getting all billy big bollocks.

There's lots of things I've never done or never been involved in. That dosnt mean that I cant try an understand them though. The way you were talking above paints us as retarded yokels who should go shovel some hay or something and let them gert clever lawers deal with dem legal things.

I'd say that a lot of people who post regularly on boardroom matters on here are intelligent enough to at the very least try and comprehend what s going on.

Anyway i withdraw my wanker comment. Can we all just get along and laugh at fatburys comment in this thread please?

technically fred fills that quotient... ;)

ash - i agree with what you're saying but don't underestimate the knowledge of some of the people on here. i don't know why you need to be so condescending and patronising about it either.

small man syndrome...

I didnt intent to be patronising nor condensending, just would love to know about this deal, and a about how this rights things work.  I honestly dont know about it and dont think anyone on here does either

I will just go watch porn and keep my mouth shut

Technically Fred fills many quotients but never democratically ... he just takes it all by default (including Trust Secretary!)  :wink:

So I am afraid you remain the closest to the title by virtue of your democratic co-option!

Must be pretty crap porn if you manage to keep your mouth shut!!  :P

any tips mav?

  I think you're right mate.....we're into fine detail here, the sort of shit that means lawyers can get away with charging mega bucks...all we can do is sit and wait.

Just been reading this, surely this isn't diamandis? http://forum.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=30490#30490
Someone is on a wind up i reckon.

I understand what you're saying.

Although I think STFC don't quite understand how it works themselves, after lighting their own bonfire and pissing straight on it with the BEST deal, not to mention the Bill Power fiaco.

As Fitton said, the deal is more complicated than it should be. Even the lawyers are probably trying to figure out a way round Diamandis.

that is clearly a wind up.

Fraid not - apparently I am a wanker without any outside assistance!!  8)

 I see Ipswich have managed to sort a takeover, whereby the suitor clears 30 mill+ of debt and is injecting 15 mill in the playing side.   They now have to put it to an EGM for ratification.

That's what I said.  Only first.



That makes me great and you a grumpy copycat.  :face:

Wind up surely. Mike D wouldn't even think about showing his face on one of the forums surely?  :shock:

This is going to shag us getting a new manager.

Funnily enough, in the back of my mind, I was thinking something very similar.

Saturday's interview he said he wasn't being held to ransom - implying SSW etc - Monday's interview, lo and behold, Bill Power gets bought up into conversation.......

Well it seems Mr Power is happy to talk to Fitton over the deal...quote from todays adver-

FORMER Town investor Bill Power would welcome the chance to settle his dispute with the club out of court, if it means the rapid resolution of Andrew Fitton's takeover.

Fitton yesterday revealed the debate over whether Power purchased shares or loaned money to the club has resulted in a legal problem surrounding the takeover.

The Advertiser understand Power would be happy to reach an amicable agreement' if he gets his money back, giving the green light to the deal.

Begs the question - why did it appear yesterday as a problem - in other words, why the fuck didn't someone try and contact BP when they knew that this issue arose, PRIOR to blurting it out in the Adver, thus (one assumes) trying to pass the buck to BP should the takeover fail.

The whole thing stinks - at the end of the day, there is no way on this earth that just as the deal is about to be signed, something like this has arisen. If it is an issue, (which it clearly is of mammoth proportions), it has always been an issue which begs the question - why has this come out so late in the day?

Very clever politicking (sp)/spin on someone's part - just can't work out who.

If somebobdy gave Power his £1.2m back then it was never going to be a problem was it? It's what Power wanted, so why would he turn it down!

What we don't know is whether this (£1.2m) is being offered, or a compromise amount , or nothing at all and the legals are working to nullify the SPD deal.

At a TRUST meeting in May (or June), Mike Wilkes said about the BEST bid, "what exactly are they buying ?". It turns out they were going to purchase shares in the Football club. In other words if Bill was supposed to own shares in the holding Company, how come they were selling off the holding Co's major asset (The football club) without consilting all shareholders
Jim Little was asked about Bill P's supposed shares in the holding Co, & said that Mike D was dealing with it. My take was that they were just going to use there majority share holding to railroad the thing through, & not give Bill any say in the matter. Now it appears that they have a similar problem with SPD, but the "Mikey D will deal with it" line isn't working any more.
What I'm trying to say is that, from the outside anyway, people have been aware of this from early summer.
Fortunately, Bill P is a reasonable guy & as reported (above) is willing to cut a deal. It's really a case of weather the current owners are willing to sell, & is Fitton willing to do a deal with Bill,

At a TRUST meeting in May (or June), Mike Wilkes said about the BEST bid, "what exactly are they buying ?". It turns out they were going to purchase shares in the Football club. In other words if Bill was supposed to own shares in the holding Company, how come they were selling off the holding Co's major asset (The football club) without consilting all shareholders
Jim Little was asked about Bill P's supposed shares in the holding Co, & said that Mike D was dealing with it. My take was that they were just going to use there majority share holding to railroad the thing through, & not give Bill any say in the matter. Now it appears that they have a similar problem with SPD, but the "Mikey D will deal with it" line isn't working any more.
What I'm trying to say is that, from the outside anyway, people have been aware of this from early summer.
Fortunately, Bill P is a reasonable guy & as reported (above) is willing to cut a deal. It's really a case of weather the current owners are willing to sell, & is Fitton willing to do a deal with Bill,

Sorry folks but i just do not buy this at all.

How can Power be the stumbling block- surely Fitton, his lawyers and the board have known about this issue with the shares/loan status of his investment since the beginning or am i missing something- how can  this be a last  minute hitch??

Think maybe the board are lining up Power as the bad guy and a scapegoat should the takeover fall through.

Exactly my take on it......

Fuckin hell always a conspiracy isn't there

That may be the case, but it won't wash with anyone except for the very naive.  One would have thought that the due dilligence would have thrown it up, but may be the current lot said something along the lines of Mikey D is sorting that out so don't worry (What they said to Jim Little). Lets face it, Sturrock was under the impression that Bill P has no money & didn't put anything into the club!

Fuckin hell always a conspiracy isn't there

They've got to you haven't they?

I'm wrapping my head in tinfoil, that'll stop Diamandis mind altering rays. You can never be too careful.

I'm with batch. Although does cling film work? I think we're out of tinfoil.

We are out of both so I am using Christmassy kitchen roll

I look like Santa Singh

 Yeah, but its not tinfoil is it?   Its aluminium foil.   That's the trouble with this Boardroom forum, people keep getting their facts wrong.  You'll be telling me next that Jeffrey Dujon was a wicketkeeper rather than a manatee.

Next you'll be telling me crispy seaweed isn't made from seaweed. Philistine.

  Fucus.....I've always assumed that the Philistines morphed into the Palestinians.....odd really, as teh Hebrews have always been the Hebrews.

  Bombay duck is made from duck though.

You can grind up tin foil, put it in a drinking straw and blow it over a bunson burner for some cheap fireworks. Rather amazingly, the same effect can also be achieved with custard powder.

 Apart from the fact its aluminium foil....yes.

Interesting post from banbury on thisis:

The ball is firmly in the Court of the Wills family. They must not listen to Diamond and deal directly with Bill Power / Fitton.
Resolve this difficulty and a deal can be made.

Fitton wants the deal to go through but is finding "issues" that can only be resolved by Corporate Lawyers.
Why do we have all of these separate Holding Companies.......to even contemplate suggesting a great way of hiding the lost money !!

This deal can go through but the future of our Club remains with the Wills family. Not long now before we are forced to pay our Debts.

SSW faces personal financial meltdown. If he choses to once again listen to that "trusted advisor" we are all doomed. Are the Wills family that stupid to bring down the collapse of the football club and their own possesions.

SSW - YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET ANY MORE MONEY. ACCEPT WHAT IS IN FRONT OF YOU.

The natives remain angey and frustrated.


I totally agree with what he says about him not going to get anymore money and to accept what is in front of him.

Him and Diamandis are going to be held totally responsible if this club goes down the pan.

Seton Wills will lose a lot if we go bust so if he doesn't sell then i don't understand why, us going bust will make him a hated man and he will lose everything he put into the club with no future profits or anything.

If he doesn't sell it's because Mike D said so  :-))(

I cannot see seton wills not listening to diamond mike, thing is he needs to finally show some balls and ignore diamond and get on with it and sell, surely he cannot keep listening to whatever diamond says when we are on the verge of collapse? he is going to lose a lot of money, the time has come for him to ditch diamond mike.

Banburys posts are just repetive waffles.

Everytime he posts people act like its a message from their dead Nan.

He's quite reliable isn't he? or have i got that wrong?

reliable? Read what was posted in bold up there... not exactly illuminating is it? It doesn't actually say anything.

Yes he is.

I know Banbury quite well, bit of a family friend.

So do and I can 100% vouch for him

ok, so he is reliable, but has he actually said anything? no.

Im sure he knows stuff but he never lets on what it is he actually knows.he's very oooh look at me  "I know more than you" without ever spilling the beans and ive said so to him on more than 1 occasion both on the message boards and in real life.

All his posts ever really say are

"the walls are closing in,Diamond is this,Diamond is that,the ball is in the Wills court"

Sorry but im always annoyed by people that claim to know the inside track but never give facts.I completely understand why people sometimes cant give details but if you cant back up what you are saying dont present it as fact and tap your nose.

Fucking good post Oevil!

I cant claim to be a mate of Banbury red, I wouldn't know the fucker if he walked into me, but he does seem to have an insiders ear on things. I'm sure I read on thisis that hes mates with Devlin and Power, so he's got a head start on the rest of us.

I agree with the 'I know something you dont know' thing. It gets on my fucking tits as well, not just Banbury, life in general, but if thats the price to pay for getting an inside line I'm not going to worry.

The Wills seem like risking being labelled as right cunts if they dont sell to Fitton. The deal may not be what they really want but hey, if its the only fucking deal on the table they'll have to eat shit or suffer the consequences. From what I can make out Diamond blew the possibility of Wills getting upwards of a couple of million out of the BEST deal due to his greed and the belief that another better deal is always just around the corner ( I bet the cunt is an addictive gambler - classic delusional symptoms).

If the 'walls are closing in' on the Wills and they have any doubt about which way to go, they need only look back at what they could have banked if they'd ignored the advice of their advisor. They need to cry a tear over what has happened, rue what they've lost financially, then fucking move on. Posh cunts always survive anyway. They'll just flog off another stately home to the National Trust then lease it back on a peppercorn rent in exchange for letting fucking peasants walk around it in the summer.

Think it sums up everybodys optimism/will to live when this thread goes quiet.

I'm still clinging onto some hope that the silence from all angles means that somethign might be happening. God knows why

Ed said on RS last night that he had spoken to AF "a few hours ago" and there had been no change, nothing to report.

If it is being left to the lawyers to sort out, I don't think they have any sense of urgency. In the current situation surely messrs Fitton,Wills & Power could short circuit the whole process.

The end of our season then. Mid table shit for us

I admire your optimism. Mid table would be OK really this season.

Did Fitton put an end of week timescale on the takeover, or did I imagine it.

Somebody elsewhere said that he had said it could go into the New Year before completion. I don't recall hearing that?

I've read that somewhere too. How the hell it could go on that long before it all going tits up I don't know.

Sorry, I'm no help at all. I blame man flu.

Fitton did say something about this week, i know he's going away again at the weekend to America again i think.

I don't recall him saying anything about the new year either, surely it cannot go on for that long?

I presume if this takeover is still dragging on next week then there will be protests at the Brighton game? if the weather is ok maybe even more people might turn up this time? we should keep protesting at every home game until they are gone.

he said that last night as well, pretty much word for word - unless RS are rehashing stuff

can you hear me playing my violin for you?  :wink:

I will be protesting at the Southend game. On my own.

I'm no medical expert, but it's probably ebola. You should be more supportive by hottailing it over to Sussex to provide him with assorted snacks and drinks, change the TV channel, that kind of thing.

Andrew Fitton did indeed speak about it possibly going over into Christmas and the new Year, he stated that he just wanted the deal done and dusted and any time scales put down were by HIM not by the board or outside influences such as the FL or FA or creditors, as in his words...a good takeover is a fast takeover.

He said he was going out of the country again on Friday but didnt think the takeover will be completed by then.

It was all in the interview played in full by BBC Swindon at 6pm on Saturday as I was driving home from the game.

I dont know if the whole interview is available online anywhere?

Not for man flu  :D  Or ebola, he'd be mush by the time I got there, I just put him on the roses.

God. I am really getting bored of this take over lark :shock:

Takeover? What takeover? I don't remember reading anything about that!

This is what i think will happen with regards to the takeover, the board will make this takeover drag on and on, they will probably say something like it will be completed in the new year or something.
When January comes they will sell players like Brezovan, Ifil, Tozer and a few more and then the bills will be sorted and they won't go anywhere.
I really think that will happen, they just won't sell this club and go.

 You missed out Byrne and Williams being appointed as managers, and us getting relegated.

  Its a well worn template.

I completely disagree as to get out the transfer embargo we have to pay the CVA and I don't think the current board have any intention of paying it.  If it was as simple as selling players then paying the debts they would of done that after selling Parkin, Fallon, Lukas etc, they just don't like putting money back in or settling debts.  So I think it will go one of 2 ways either they will sell to Fitton or they will take us under, the current board have no where else to go.

I think the transfer embargo doesn't include selling players, it's only for bringing players in.

Forgot about that, they would probably appoint Byrne/Williams as well, i wouldn't fancy our chances of staying in the league then especially if the above players are sold.

I'm not saying they couldn't sell players I am saying even if they did it wouldn't pay off any debts it would mysteriously disapear on running costs so they would still have the CVA to pay, they have reached the end of the road they now have to decide to either sell or take the club under.

I know that money always goes missing and they never pay the bills but you never know they might do it just to piss us fans off, we would still have a club then but they know we would be furious that they would still be around running the club.

Couple of points
Bill Powers money was supposed to pay off the CVA, but disapeared else where.
The Poyet/ Wise compo could have been used but vanished
The Lucas money could have been used, but went into the same blackhole.
If that IS their plan they are gioing to have to break this habit.
The CVA if it is deemed as "failed" would mean the whole £5,000,000 becomes payable.
Even if that is not the case, they would still have to pay the £1,800,000 owed to the Inland revenue as well as the CVA AND the footballing debts. Nearer £3,000,000 than £2,000,000.
I would suggest our whole squad wouldn't fetch that, particularly if it is an obvious "fire sale".
In other words, "PLan B" is liquidation & the fulfillment of Diamndis's promise last December on BBC radio

I detest the board but if they paid the CVA off it wouldn't piss me off I would be delighted as I would know the club survives but it wont buy them much more time we know at least 80% of the fan base have lost faith in them and will crank up the pressure as soon as they fuck up again which we know they will.  This is why I believe they really are near the end, sell up or go under.

I agree, Brezovan would probably go for around 700,000 plus add on's knowing our board, 500,000 for tozer, 400,000 for ifil, that's only 1.6m and there isn't really anyone else to sell so that wouldn't be enough, they would need at least another 1.4m.

Diamandis probably will take the club down as promised, but then if that happened i would'nt be surprised if the fans took him down.

we'd be lucky to get half of the prices you've quoted there.

I think that's a massive over estimation for how much they'd go for. I'd probably more than half those estimations.

great minds ben...

Wow. I must have got distracted for it to take me 5 mins to write that. Got old CM going in the back ground.

I'm sure if it reached that point where we had a 'fire sale' a lot of the players would be entitled to walk away for nothing due to breaches of their contract.  

I’m sure there have been a couple of examples over the past few years of the PFA intervening and players walking from clubs facing oblivion.

That is very true Dazza, if the players have not been paid for something like 2 months they are entitled to leave on a free as it is breach of contract.