Thetownend.com

Takeover set for completion a day too late for Paolo
           
           


  SWINDON Town are expected to officially have new owners later today, less than 24 hours after Paolo Di Canio announced his resignation as manager of the club.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/10236070.Takeover_set_for_completion_a_day_too_late_for_Paolo/?ref=rss
           
           
           

The Adver has learnt that the Football League required paperwork to be re-submitted by the Robins, which held the takeover process up recently

*Conspiracy alert*

So the Football League's fax machine was broken, and subsequently we've lost our manager.

No, you've got it wrong.

Jed fucked it up on purpose because he wanted to push Paolo out. FACT!

your mental

Think FH's comment was tongue in cheek - but correct nonetheless!!

Do you honestly think I believe that shit?

So after all the mocking Bob Holt was right, buying a club is much like buying a house, full of red tape than at the last minute someone loses the paperwork and you have to send it all again!

The football league is full of shit!

Di canio didn't quit over the takeover alone. It's a number of issues. Wray was on talk sport last night and said as much as that.

No, that's been disproved because Jed twittered it. Fact.

The point was that the sequence of events as portrayed in the media and via PDC are that the club didn't exactly bend over backwards to keep him. That they acted unprofessionally by not informing him of a player sale, that the lines of communication between old/new owners and PDC have been cut.

Its not fact, its one side of a story. But it is a conclusion that could be reached from it. One of many conclusions. Any of them could be right, wrong, or somewhere inbetween.

But if it makes you feel intellectually superior to label us as thisis mongs knock yourself out.

What exactly makes you thing they did not try to bend backwards to keep him happy?

What part of their negotiations, and there were negotiations, were you not happy with? By all accounts it appeared that the meeting went very well so what more could they have possibly done?

PDC himself said he agreed to stay so what more than that could the board be expected to do?

It's not a matter of feeling intellectually superior at all. It's a simple understanding that we know fuck all and are therefore in no position to make wild assumptions but if you do want to act like a mong Batch then be my guest.

You put up a status on FB about not being in a position to judge yet you are doing exactly that.

Flasheart, you speculate the same as anyone else and make judgements like those you criticise. You slated di canio for quitting due to the takeover not being completed yet, but it is for far more than that. You're as mongy as the rest of us.

I criticised PDC according to what he said himself. Others are judging the new lot based on guesswork.

Arriba, I agree with you when you say we just have to wait and see and that their actions will truly tell who they are. Let's wait for them to get started first, innit.

he said there were a number of broken promises which shows he quit for more than a delay in the takeover.

Personally I don't want the lot in waiting to take over.Id rather start from scratch.

This new lot could be the best thing to ever happen to the club. There's another two or three members of the consortium to be revealed yet and one, or all, of those could turn out to be stinking filthy rich and willing to use it.

They could also be the worst thing ever for us and their first action could be selling Ferry, Wes and anything else that isn't bolted down.

We just don't know. We wouldn't know if it was a different consortium either.

The departing lot are filthy rich. Can't see the new lot being better and even if they are their agenda will not be for the benefit of stfc. It will be for them.

Is there 2 or 3 more?

Mike Newells Barmy Army FACT someone on thisis said so it must be true

At least, provided the link below is right.

Jed has said Martin Luton King is not on the board which leaves 2 to be revealed yet. Not sure whether or not Jed will be on the board either, which will leave 3 spaces.

http://banburyunitedfc.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1296

As long as the names are not Perry Deakin and Miller from the Port Vale fiasco

I think they have both publicly been discounted. Deakin certainly has.

I'd strongly suggest if this new lot were the real deal the first two things to happen since their involvement wouldn't have been to sell Ritchie and let our manager walk away...

Unfortunately this is spot on.

Theres loads of supposition and conjecture around the takeover but the only unarguable facts are that we sold a player for a firesale price to grab some cash and the manager has walked.

Its understandable that people want to believe the new owners will be as supportive of the club in cash terms as the previous ones, but the facts do not point in that direction.

So how do you and DV know the new lot sold Ritchie when A Black has himself said that he was the one that did it?

How is this an unarguable fact?

Technically both of these happened while the club was still run by Andrew Black.

how can the consortium sell a player registered to a club they do not even own?
how can the consortium keep hold of a manager employed by a club they do not even own?

these facts matter not to our dear VD, he loves a good conspiracy!

Hence why I said involvement rather ownership.

Lets not play silly buggers here, if the potential new owners were going to seriously invest in this club - they would have found a way around it, leaving Black and/or the club with other options.

People who want to invest don't let two of their best assists go, regardless of technicalities

Sop you'd expect them to throw 400k into something that does not belong to them?

I never said they did, did I?

They didn't exactly do much to stop it though or try and protect the asset they are trying to buy...

they do not own the club and have no involvement until the deal is ratified by the football league.

Ritchie was sold because we could not afford to continue in the absence of Black's funding. the consortium wouldn't put money into the club because they have no involvement as of yet.

Paolo was not "let go", he quit fully aware that he was making demands that could not be met by either the current owner or the potental owners. he effectively made a threat to the FL by demanding the deal be complete by 5pm yesterday. that's his decision and his alone.

If they are serious investors (which still remains to be seen) then I'd say they would/could have been able to negotiate something somehow...

So you'd expect them to throw 400k into something that does not belong to them?

negotiate what exactly?

"don't sell Ritchie, here is £400,000 of our money"

the Paolo resignation was out of everyone's hands.

This.

Yes, that's exactly it.

There were only two options. Sell Ritchie or have the consortium who don't own the club pay the 400k. Nothing else what so ever two groups of business men could possible do.

Nothing at all.

i seriously don't understand what you're suggesting the consortium could have done.

i'm not having a go at you.

If you were buying a house and had exchanged contracts and the old owner said can you pay for a new conservatory while you are waiting what would you say ?

Is is an unarguable fact that Richie was sold.

If the new owners are going to stump up loads of cash and the takeover is going to go through imminently the sale would have been pointless. Therefore the fact that it happened means that one or both of those premisses must be false.

I dunno. Old and new pay 200k each. Black pays the 400k as a loan which the new lot pay back as soon as the takeover goes through. New lot pay the 400k and Black takes 400k off the asking price. Sell the Charlie Austin sell on fee. Defer wages/rent for a month till everything goes through.

These lot are wealth business men for a reason and I expect they've had to do a few deals in their time or take a few risks.

I'm no business expert but I still believe there must have been more potential ways around the short term cash flow issue.

We've had this one before.

If I'd exchanged contracts on a house I wouldn't expect the owner to sell the roof. If I wanted to make good of the house I'd rather pay for a conservatory and keep the roof than end up with no conservatory and no fucking roof.

But Black had already stated NO more money hence the threat of Admin and the new Potential owners were as it said Potential , until the FL give the green light they are rightly not going to put a penny in. There are so many questions with so few answers at the moment but the one thing I think we need to acknowledge is that the new consortium cannot be blamed for anything until they actually takeover officially.

Black has clearly indicated that he will not put any further money into the club, not in the form of a loan, a good will gesture, nothing.

the new owners could have injected £400k but as per the analogy below, they may never see that money again - as you say, they're wealthy businessmen for a reason and that reason isn't giving cash away.

the Austin sell-on fee is complicated, i have no idea how it works.

wage deferral would be tantamount to administration, the PFA would fuck us over.

the point is that you could end up paying for a new conservatory but never own the house...or the conservatory. until the FL ratify the deal, the new owners will not put any money into the club.  it's unfortunate but that's the fact.

The cash from the Ritchie sale has already sustained the club for a couple of weeks, as we have learned the hard way an 'imminent' sale does not mean short enough that no bills or wages need to be paid. I don't think it necessarily means either of the premises are false, just that we can't ignore our outgoings until the football league manage to find their fabled rubber stamp.

Plus, there were no guarantees the takeover was/is going to be ratified. The remainder of the Ritchie money should see us through another month and a half if this all goes tits up, giving us time to try and find other options rather than calling in the administrators straight away.

Basically everything I've read from PDCs statements and the little else that is in the publib domain. This is very much one side of the argument, it may be half truths, or falsehoods, but that's what we have for now until the takeover is complete.

I took this and applied a little logic, self-sustainability would be hard to do based on Paolo's tenure thus far. Hence its not unreasonable to think the loss of Di Canio could be a reason for the apparent lack of contact. This could be horseshit, I don't know, we'll see what Jed has to say and see if anything else shakes out.

Hell its not impossible PDC got wind of another clubs interest and used it as an excuse.


That's not true. You seem to imply I have made my mind up about the new consortium. Actually, my opinion of them isn't so different from yours. Wait and see. Its just I choose to discuss negative aspects too, which are opinions,suppositions, and definitely not facts..

And while we are talking about FB status it was your "The TEF is like thisis" status that prompted my post in the first place. If you've got something to say, say it directly on here rather than 'oooh look at them, aren't they stupid' type posts on FB and Twitter.

If we all waited until all the facts were known without providing opinion, possibilities it would be fucking dead on here.

Suspect this will upset you, I actually quite like (most of!) your posts.

Batch mate, you want to take an internet holiday for a day or two. You are seriously going to end up in an early grave.

absolutely.

likewise, it's not fair to blame Black. the money was there but Paolo demanded it earlier in the season. i've even seen people on Twitter blaming the Adver/Sam Morshead for misreporting events.

It would not be beyond reason to think they needed the cash to tide us over until the end of the season, at which point new investment or re-evaluation of the playing budget made. Or as above the sale was not 100% certain when the call to sell was made.

It mystifies me why PDC only found out from Ritchie himself though (assuming that version of events is accurate).

Sometimes you need to let it out. A meltdown is good.

 I'm absolutely fine now, my collection of singing potatoes agree.

Paolo has stated himself that communication between him and the board had been non-existent for quite sometime so not sure it's so mystifying!

no doubt that was a massive fuck-up on behalf of Black though - totally uncalled for given Ritchie's service to us.

OK so if it was totally in the hands of the old board fair enough. *IF* Paolo was given assurances by the incoming board he wouldn't be sold, and I may have misunderstood that - it may have been old board, then its not unreasonable to expect a phone call if something changed.

Batch.

You bit on a tongue in cheek remark that was not even directed at you and chose to take offence at it.......

This forum has degraded into a thisis type train crash and what the fuck is wrong with me saying so on FB or anywhere else?

I think I'm on my period Flash. Sometimes, well most of the time I take things too seriously and/or personally. I've let it out and feel better now!

Incidentally, I don't actually mind being argued down.

how would the incoming board be able to give assurances Ritchie would not be sold?

If half a million quid will only plug the gap for a couple of months the clubs finances are in a lot worse state than anyone is letting on.

I hope the optimists are proved right but the only hard facts to emerge so far tell me that the days of funding the sort of squad we have now are coming to an end at least for the time being.

Just to be clear, I dont blame either the old owners or the new owners Im just giving my opinion on how I think its going to pan out.

if these days are coming to an end, then i don't think it's a bad thing.

the player turnover we've had has been huge and extremely expensive. it ws never going to be sustainable, it's just unfortunate that it's all culminated in such fallout that it makes Chernobyl seem relatively cosy

Part of the negotiations to take over. You can't very well agree to buy a company if the current owner agrees to sell at £x if they then afterwards sells all the assets that price was based on.

If people only want to deal with facts then they are as follows. The owner decides to end any funding which then sees the clubs best player sold to a rival team at a cut price to cover bills.That sale was made without the managers consent or knowledge. We've not won since and the manager has quit. That's not even mentioning a faceless new board in waiting we know little about. It's a fucking joke.

fair point, but if administration was the other option then purchasing the club would be a far less attractive prospect.

Absolutely. 100%. If selling Ritchie kept us out of administration, and this is likely, it HAD to happen. No ifs, buts or maybes.

Its a shame the way it was handled by all. If Paolo's story is 100% correct.

Get your point but we did beat colchester.

Will they now want to re-negotiate the price, as they are now buying a club without Paolo?
Back into teh melting pot for a few more days/weeks?

you've been supporting STFC a lot longer than me, you've seen the club come through far worse times - this is just all happening very suddenly in a short period of time and is very amateur hour.

we will triumph.

Do people actually think this is going to happen today (takeover)? I have my doubts, only based on how quiet everything remains at present.

Maybe, maybe no.

I hope that helps.

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, I ain't saying.

[url width=600 height=414]http://www.netanimations.net/11544.gif[/url]

Exactly - I have been the first to criticise Morshead in the pas although he has handled the sale really wellt, but the stick certain people were giving him last night on here was bizarre especially as I suspect he knows (but possibly cannot report) a considerable more than anyone on here.

you're right but my rant still stands barring that one result.

One thing that played on my mind previously, what day did the Ritchie deal go through?

I thought it was deadline day (i.e. the Thursday), but when he was interviewed on FiveLive he kept banging on about it being the Wednesday?

I may have just got confised, but it struck me as odd at the time?

Nah it was on the Wednesday.

OK, I'm not going mad then!

No, I'm not even convinced it will happen at all.

When the Adver reports that it "understands" the deal will be ratified "tomorrow", "in the next few days" or "by the end of the week", I suspect it is merely repeating what it has been told by 'Jed'. After all, every single one of these timeframes has proven false thus far.

This isn't aimed at you but I do find there is a certain irony in posts criticising the lack evidence behind reporting, using the term I suspect.

Given the speed of the Ritchie deal, I doubt the consortium would have been able to get the funds to the club/A Black within that short time-frame.

Whether the new owners were really consulted or not is probably up for debate too. Who put the entire team up for sale prior to that? I doubt it was the consortium.

The theory (which I’ve seen a few times) that the entering consortium wanted to cut costs immediately and run the club on a show-string budget doesn’t seem logical to me:

a) Who would plough a vast amount of money into a loss making company and expect it to break-even overnight? It is unrealistic.
b) It could jeopardise promotion to a division which would bring in more money, we’re entering the final stage of the season and we’re right up there.
c) They sanctioned loan deals after Ritchie’s departure (potentially incurring more costs).
d) A consortium that tight on funds wouldn’t be interested in buying us.

All theory and speculation, but my hunch is Black gave the consortium an ultimatum. Let me sell Ritchie or the deal is off.

Oh, I know, I have even less to pin my speculation on than the Adver does!

But the paper is clearly not getting its information from the Football League, which leaves either the old board or the new board. And I hardly expect the departing Patey to be supplying them with daily updates considering he couldn't be bothered to communicate with the media - or even his own manager - when he was active in his position as chairman.

I guess I'm just firmly in the 'I'll believe it when I see it' camp where anything to do with this new lot is concerned.

I was under the impression Black sold the club for £1 and wiped X amount off the amount he was owed - obviously just to get the club off his back.

I suppose the consortium have at least enough funds to keep the club going - but that may well be by selling our playing assets, getting rid of a high earning manager and backroom staff and replacing them with cheap, usually useless, alternatives.

They award themselves high salaries various other perks and they get to pocket a heap of wonga, club goes into a nosedive, they fuck off and everyone's a winner.

Except us long suffering fans, of course.

These people have no intention of pushing the club forward - it's just a way of making money for them.

Going back to the original headline...still nothing confirmed on the ratification of the takeover today!

I'm sure someone 'understands' it will happen today though.

Where does it say they have bought the club for a quid? If that was the case, why did it take so long? Why were the local consortium preferred? Doesn't seem right to me. The rest of your post is purely conjecture at this stage (just like my previous post I would add).

My point being, without wishing to sound all 'Maverick' is we need to wait and see what the details are before we can even speculate on the rest. Some people are already talking protests but wouldn't have a clue what they were really protesting about.

Morshead on Talkshit soon

KR has gone loopy

I think people are understandably upset. We've gone from looking as stable on and off the pitch as we have for a long time to (briefly) leader-less in the boardroom and the dugout.

Fans are going to want to lash out and blame someone for the sudden change in situation, part of the vitriol and arguments we've seen recently are in large part due to people - as you rightly say - not really knowing who or what it is they are supposed to be angry at.

My ability to give a shit is rapidly declining.

(Note to self: eat more fibre.)

No Takeover today Morshead has just revealed!

Takeover delayed for another day!

I think it’s good that people are concerned with who is coming in. I remember myself and PaulD spending entire evenings, usually until the early hours, digging up stuff on BEST Holdings, particularly John Little (as did others I’m sure).

A lot of people were just rejoicing the new saviours however. Thankfully the deal didn’t go through.

There's a lot of conjecture floating around and it isn't helping anyone. I'm struggling to keep up with fact and fiction.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Im past caring now

FML  :crash:

Maybe there is no takeover...it's all just an optical illusion!

Surprise!!!

boring

There must be something wrong here!

Can they stop giving us a day that the will takeover be done? The amount of times it changed is ridiculous.

Oh no it isn't.

Sums the past few weeks up, a piss poor pantomime

Tomorrow's adver headline:

Takeover set for completion 2 days too late for Paolo.

And so on.

Apparently -

We have no reason to believe the continued delay of the takeover has anything to do with the credibility of the incoming consortium. They have had financials checked and fit and proper persons tests completed. Their ability to run club is not an issue. We will get a reason for the latest delay and let you know in due course.

SM

cue endless complaints about a lack of information

Sam is indicating there is nothing wrong.

Without wishing to sound too pedantic if nothing was wrong PDC would still be in charge, Jed & his boys would have been sat in the boardroom for the last 3 weeks & Matt Ritchie would have been pinging in crosses for Bradley Wright Phillips to tuck away. There's plenty wrong. Morshead doesn't know a lot, just like everybody on here.

But that means clearly something's wrong, why else would we all be making stuff up, guessing, blaming conspiracy theories and showing a hatred for a board we don't yet even know?

Fuck this, I'm grabbing my pitchfork and fucking off down that blind alley marked "smokescreen for asset strippers."

To The Football League: @football_league when ru gonna agree the STFC takeover *cunts*?

From The Football League: @thisismong We ratify when we want, we ratify when we waaaant. We are the Football League, we ratify when we want.

ha, i wondered how long it'd be before someone had a moan at Sam Morshead.

Don't think you can really blame the Football League for the problems. The real issue was filing the paper work the day before the transfer window closed, if they'd have waited 48 hours then we'd have the loan signings and all would be rosy. If it had been done during the summer then no one would have noticed or cared about the delays.

Though it probably didn't help our cause announcing to the world we were on the verge of administration and putting our entire squad up for sale to raise the funds we desperately needed. Didn't exactly send the message we were a financially solvent club and in a position to sign more players.

So have the FL told the Advertiser  " their ability to run the club is not an issue" if not why doesn't someone from the club tell us this instead of the advertiser?

It's between the consortium and the FL. The club can't comment as the outgoing board are still in charge.

I couldn't be less surprised. Can the Adver take that ridiculous 'day too late for Di Canio' headline down now?

Sorry that's what I meant, Someone at the club is passing on updates to the Advertiser to publish without breaking the NDA so why not stop some rumours by telling supporters themselves.

On the plus side, if we win tonight take the 3 points off the 10 we'll be docked for administration and we've only lost 7!!!

Everybody and anybody associated with the club is a complete cunt

i always look forward to your well reasoned and sensible posts, KR.

Fucking hell. You do post some crap.

Thank you. I do spend an inordinate amount time getting my posts just right!!!

Or to be honest, I'm so pissed off with the club at the moment I'd like to kick it in the cunt

Is anyone remotely surprised that it hasn't been sorted today?  An absolute farce and anyone who is kidding themselves there is nothing wrong, well they're kidding themselves. 

Rumours suggesting it will be sorted by the end of the week at the earliest now. (source: Me)

Also, didn't the recent takover at Leeds take 6 weeks or so to get ratified?

Not at all, no.

We've all been led to believe that this takeover would happen in a matter of days, when in reality it probably would be more like a few months. Hate all the speculation on thisis. Writing stuff for the sake of it. Bit like this post I suppose  :D

Just a bit more on the time it is taking...GFH Captial finalised a deal for Leeds on 21st November and it was 'officially' completed on 21st December.

I posted this before, but Reading's takeover took 6 weeks after submitting to the FL.  As someone mentioned above, Leeds took 4 to 5 weeks.

I think the issue here appears to have been an assumption and continual reporting of the fact that the the FL would somehow do this a lot quicker.

Which suggests xtremely poor journalism from a number of outlets over the last month or so resulting in false expectations & ultimately the resignation of our best assest.

so basically it's Sam Morshead who made Paolo quit?

Not at all. It probably looks as though I'm giving Sam a hard time with some of my posts & I genuinely don't mean to. He's a fan like the rest of us & obviously wants the best for the club but he along with others in the press have, over the last fortnight at least, been stringing us along with 'understands it will be ratified tomorrow'. Either he's guessing or he needs to get better sources. It's not an easy job being a journalist in these circumstances but I would rather read boring facts than exciting rumours.

nah, i'm sure he's just making it up as he goes along

That Ian Longdon from BBC wiltshire was at my gig last night.  He was a bit perplexed and going back after the show to help out.  Busy time for these chaps.

I would imagine there are many on here who would second that. It must be very boring when there are actually no facts to report on. Makes a little rumour all the more appealing!!  :D

The question is though, were Reading & Leeds stopped from signing players on loan during that time.

I know we don't take much notice of takeovers at other teams, but I can't recall any other team being stopped from making loan signings during a takeover.

Alan Tate joined Leeds from Swansea on loan on the 22nd November as the first new signing following the takeover by GFH Capital. Therefore it appears to be perfectly acceptable for clubs to sign players on loan whilst awaiting comfirmation of fit and proper tests, unless you are Swindon Town apparently.

It took me 5 mins on line to find that which suggests that either there is more to this than meets the eye or the press haven't looked into this.

Their FPP test pass was confirmed on the 8th December BTW.

So perhaps the outstanding loan fees would suggest that we have been under an M Bongo?