Thetownend.com

Swindon Town chairman to step aside when takeover goes through
           
           


  OUTGOING chairman Sir William Patey believes he will have succeeded in what he set out to achieve if the takeover of Swindon Town is completed today, as the former diplomat prepares to walk away from the County Ground.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/10223226.Swindon_Town_chairman_to_step_aside_when_takeover_goes_through/?ref=rss
           
           
           

Don't think he'll be missed too much, give him more time to spend at the dentist!! 

Wtf?! Walking away?! Jesus fucking christ, didn't see this coming. Well that's my season ticket being thrown pathetically across the room in the general vicinity of a bin.

who?

Didn't the Adver run with this story about a week or so ago?

Yeah they did.

I think Sam is on holiday so whoever is stepping in for him, is clearly rehashing a load of old stories.

Sounds like it, pages to fill I guess.

I would rather there was a big headline saying "Takeover completed"! :D

While Patey came across as surprisingly undiplomatic for a diplomat, it was never his fault he couldn't tell the fans what they wanted to hear.

I have to agree with all of that. Not his fault, he was brought in to do a job which he has done, was not that good a public speaker or that much of a communicator though which seems a bit weird considering his background.

“That is what we set out to achieve, and the club will move forward on a new basis which is basically debt free, and that would be a big success in our book.

Job done really.

Diplomats are not known for public speaking, or for communication skills though, are they?  More known for an ability to have a handle on detail and thrash out covert deals behind the scenes.  He certainly seems to have succeeded there.

He was/is Andrew Black's man, first & foremost.  Wasn't really working for the Club at all.  Another stint that will add to an already impressive CV...but cannot see him being remembered for very long by anyone outside the boardroom.

Yeah you are probably right there Ardiles, I think I just expected maybe a little more from him given the last few communicative chairmen we have had.

But hes done his job and as you rightly say he will not be remembered by many for anything other than that interview with the BBC when he was off to the dentists and sounding like a man running out of breath, which was probably just the BBC picked a bad time to interview him really.

Quite right...although I suppose most of us secretly hoped, SWP, might have known someone willing to throw petro-dollars at us....rather than the gentleman looking to make something of Cheltnumb.

As you know, I'm also highly sceptical about 'the gentleman looking to make something of Cheltnumb'.  Wait & see mode.  Those that have spoken to him like his enthusiasm, but I'm far from convinced he's the right man to take us forward - at least for now.  That said, the 'petro-dollars' idea makes me shudder.  Probably in a minority here, but not a route I'd want to go down anyway (not that I could see anyone from that part of the world wanting to invest in STFC.)

Well we don't have much choice do we. Its Jed or bust.

The way I see things (probably wrongly) the sale of Matt Ritchie should let us continue to try for promotion until the end of the season, then all bets are off.

But somehow it all feels "normal" again!

Not me, I'm with Ardiles on this. Anyone looking for the "rich sheik" route need only look at the two Nottingham clubs and Pompey and remind themselves of the old saying "Be very careful what you wish for, you might get it"

Do you mean "normal" as in back to being dysfunctional? 

Reality is there are about 10 weeks of the season left, the Ritchie money should cover the wages for this...then season ticket money starts to come in. The new owners will then want to look to trim the wage bill.

Close the door on your way out SWP!

Thanks for all the good work you have done for the good of the club. Fuck all. Now fuck off

Given the nice big bonus SWP is probably on for getting the club sold, I imagine he is as keen as anyone to get the sold sign up!

Is it true he changed the directors contracts at STFC so they all got paid etc?  Wonder if the new mob will carry this on or will go back to being unpaid?

It's true the Articles of Association were amended so that directors could be paid. Whether they all are or indeed any of them is another matter. And it's not true that SWP instigated the change - he may have asked for it, but it was at Black's behest as majority shareholder. But I don't think it requires too much of a leap of logic to suppose that the change was required to allow SWP to be given a salary in return for his 2 days a month or whatever it was and (probably more to the point) a nice chunky "Sold the club" bonus on departure.

"dysfunctional" isn't the word i would use, but a reset back to where we scrape around buying players and occasionally land the odd cox or Parkin that fires us up the league.

If it stops us going bust so be it. The difference this time seems to be that we should be better placed financially than ever before. Unless we have money owing to Black that needs to be repaid at a specific time.

Patey says in the article the club will be virtually debt free.

So is it likely Black has written off the money he has put into the club?

Last I heard was some secured debt remained. I wasn't sure what this means in terms of when/how/if we need to pay it back.

Is this understood to be the case? Does it need paying back by a certain date?

Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

This was rumoured somewhere on the net, a secured debt owed to Arbib, something about it being linked to the County Ground was mentioned, not sure what it actually was though.

Sorry its not of more use.

I think I asked Paul this before, but I can't remember what the answer was!

Si Pie's your man:
http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=50498.msg1154300#msg1154300

Wonder if this is the case stll....

Apologies Si Pie, I think it was you.

Generally these kind of questions do go to Paul and Si Pie as they seem to know what is going on. Perhaps they should have their own forum, much like that total dunce 4D.

Reg you keep raising this matter on every thread that the new owners have no cash, will look to trim the wage bill etc, have I missed the posts that have illustrated this as I was under the impression that we didn't know the background or in fact names of all members.

I've looked into this further and have looked at the wording in the mortgages and charges documents filed at Cos House rather than the accounts.

From what I can see it looks like the holding company's, AB's and SMA's debts are secured against the undertaking and all assets & property present and future. There is an additional debenture which refers to the leasehold but this only gives the person entitled as SMA.

In English, that means if they wanted payment they could appoint administrative receivers to recover their debts out of any income the club received and instruct sales of any assets (most likely players) in order to recoup their dosh also.

Which is where the mix up in the media reporting came from I reckon. Entering administration wouldn't have 'wiped out' any debts per se, but it would have allowed them a way to recoup as much as possible whilst still keeping the club running day-to-day. The club would have been a horrific mess if this would have happened, no players left etc.

You could hypothesise that the above action would have been taken unless Ritchie was sold pronto. The other less cynical view would be that we needed to sell Ritchie to fund wages and the running of the club in the weeks post-sale and pre-football league ratification.

So the short answer to your question is pretty much a yes.

Unless he says he's staying on I will relinquish my season ticket and turn my back on my support since 1979.......

[url width=769 height=255]http://s11.postimage.org/u2j5e4w77/Untitled.jpg[/url]

never trusted Patey since watching The Shadow Line...

[url width=460 height=287]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01921/shadowlinereview_1921797c.jpg[/url]

Thanks for that.

So while we are massively better off than pre-Black, we will in likelihood still need to find a bit to pay them back. Its fair enough, but obviously worst case at some point  we'd be left with a St Modwen debenture style scramble, though I'm sure Black would be more accommodating.

I've no more info than the bit floating around in cyberspace and from talking to people...and I'd say the consensus, is that the new lot will bring some football experience to the table, rather than a sack of cash.  In that regard we've been spoilt these last 5 years.

Think people need to get used to the idea that we'll be operating under a George Osbourne model.

A consensus from other people that also know nothing?

TBF you do have a point.

So back to the Diamandis-era omnishambles then? :)

I'm a bit more optimistic than that personally. But let's at least let them get their feet under the table and see how things pan out before we start judging (either way)

It still shocks me that the vast majority of our fans have written off the new consortium before we know essentially anything at all about them, just a few internet rumours.

At least let them get in and tell us and show us what their plans are before we write them off as being worthless and useless and with no money etc etc etc

Yeah but Reg's consensus says they're skint

No chance, we're football fans...if they've not signed Messi by Monday evening they can do one.

It's Reg's consensus vs Jed's consortium. The Big Fight Live on ITV4!

Amen to that.

A consensus of people that know a little bit...that's sadly where we're at atm. 

5 years ago we were in a similar position, but once the names Black Wray and Arbib leaked out, it didn't take long to formulate a view that here were some fellas with serious money.

Our best period in history came without money behind the owners in the mid 80's to early 90's.  We operated at a small loss each year, sold the odd player for a few quid to make ends meet, and invested in the Manager (as well as a bit of "creative" accounting for a few of the earlier years I suppose, but small fry of about £100k).

Money is not the be all and end all, and new owners will find a club in a relatively healthy state with the first real rise in revenue for decades.  The current CE is behind a rise in Commercial revenues that is pretty unique in our recent history.

So, even if they are not minted, a way exists to survive and even succeed with a bit of elbow grease and the right team in place.

Good use of a new word...it was an answer to a question in a recent University Challenge, having been accepted by the OED in 2012.   Still no idea what it means though...and just because it's accepted in Oxford, doesn't mean we have to accept it here.

After all, I don't see the word bopard in the OED.

were those names leaked out? i recall them being announced post takeover.

Black's name was leaked out before the takeover went through but I dont think the others were, I know this because I remember doing a fair bit of investigation work to find out about Andrew Black well before the takeover went through.

Omnishambles refers to series of rolling fuck ups around and after (but by no means limited to) Osbourne's "pasty budget" where the government didn't seem to be able to get anything right. It's also a pretty good description of the Wills/Diamandis era so when you said we were likely to be operating under an Osbourne model, that doesn't just refer to austerity but also blithering incompetence on a scale not seen here for the last 5 or so years

fairly sure Arbib's name didn't come out until significantly later.

Wray isn't exactly minted either is he?

No Arbibs name came out well after the takeover went through and no Wary is not rich but his brother certainly is, not that thats any relevance to anything now :) .

Betfair were linked to the deal in October more or less 2 months before it happened.

It will depend on the deal structure, what debts are paid off/written off and what charges are released I'd expect. I doubt we'll know for a while yet!

Osborne, it's Osborne...  :)

Bugger. See, the omnishambles has started already ;)

Paul, you're right down with the cats, dude. Omnishambles was Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year 2012.  :toocool:

 :hmmm: really

Does he have his own song?

What about to the tune of the old cornflakes ad - 'Patey, Patey, very very Patey, not done much lately'

 :D

Oooh, so there isn't a Pete Doherty link there after all.