The breaking News thread...

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I'm not sure why you would think any of the consortiums would drop their pants in order to allow themselves to be bent over and screwed by the competition. Bit naive don't you think?

no flies on you

You suggested it.

my naive reference was related any expectation that details of the commercial negotation be made public. Iles (and others) seem to be castigating the club for not being open about their position in those - moving goalposts etc etc. Yet he doesnt ask the same question of the consortia (who quite rightly would tell him to do one). But rather than write a story that says 'consortium unwilling to reveal plans' or 'consortium wants cake with cherry on top' he chooses to run with a bit of tittle tattle about SS/ ED is difficult, as though SS are the good guys/ wronged party. Repeating myself they may turn out to be, I dont know and I bet Iles doesnt either

Apologies. I misunderstood what you were getting at. As you were

[Prufrock]

Dunno if it's been mentioned, but Shola Ameobi has apparently offered to play for us for nowt, only he can't re-sign because of the transfer embargo.

Wow, if true, he's a stand up guy who's putting passion for the game first. It's easy to be cynical and say clubs aren't going to be lining up to sign him, but that's a really professional gesture. Although technically shouldn't that be in the transfer thread?

Surely the one thing that gesture is not is professional ?

[BWFC_Insane]

Not being able to sign a player who has offered to play for free truly is a new low point.

[thebish]

Not being able to sign a player who has offered to play for free truly is a new low point.

is that a lower low-point than not being able to pay the admin staff? or is it not really a new low point at all?

[Enoch]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

[thebish]

Surely the one thing that gesture is not is professional ?

I dunno, he could very easily have said "no pay, no dice" and buggered off elsewhere. It may well be for selfish reasons, to keep his fitness levels up in case of a better offer coming along, but I'd like to think that's not the case seeing as he's offered to play until the end of the season for nothing. I can't recall a player ever offering to do that. Unless I'm missing a tongue in cheek comment?

yeah - Pru is gently reminding you that the difference between a "professional" player and an "amateur" is that the professional gets paid for it!

[BWFC_Insane]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

Some people assume that Eddie has the best interests of the club above all else. And that by extension Birch's mandate is to carry out his duties with the best interest of the club paramount.

However, my point was (in context) that it is very possible that Eddie has other interests in this process and not necessarily all aligned to the future safeguarding of the club.

Why would he keep putting barriers in front of an offer that has been recommended at board level? Does he disagree with Birch and the board or is he not getting what he wants out of it? If the latter, already that isn't something that is "in the best interests of the club".

[Prufrock]

Surely the one thing that gesture is not is professional ?

I dunno, he could very easily have said "no pay, no dice" and buggered off elsewhere. It may well be for selfish reasons, to keep his fitness levels up in case of a better offer coming along, but I'd like to think that's not the case seeing as he's offered to play until the end of the season for nothing. I can't recall a player ever offering to do that. Unless I'm missing a tongue in cheek comment?

yeah - Pru is gently reminding you that the difference between a "professional" player and an "amateur" is that the professional gets paid for it!

Yeah - sozzles!

[thebish]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

Some people assume that Eddie has the best interests of the club above all else.

so you claim... but what is actually the case, I think, is that most people think that ED is a businessman who will always look to get a decent deal for himself - but that he is also a long-running major supporter of the football club and also cares what will happen to it and will do his best to see that it falls into the best pair of hands he can negotiate... I think the complexity of sorting that out is sufficient to explain the long-running saga and there is no need to resort to any conspiracy theory bollox about motives.

[Prufrock]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

Some people assume that Eddie has the best interests of the club above all else.

so you claim... but what is actually the case, I think, is that most people think that ED is a businessman who will always look to get a decent deal for himself - but that he is also a long-running major supporter of the football club and also cares what will happen to it and will do his best to see that it falls into the best pair of hands he can negotiate... I think the complexity of sorting that out is sufficient to explain the long-running saga and there is no need to resort to any conspiracy theory bollox about motives.

Yup! There may come a point where he has to pick one of those, but there's clearly all sorts of smoke and mirrors going on with people trying to negotiate the best positions for themselves. I don't think we'll know what has happened until any deal is done, if we ever do. No point driving ourselves mad in the meantime.

It'll be reet.

[BWFC_Insane]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

Some people assume that Eddie has the best interests of the club above all else.

so you claim... but what is actually the case, I think, is that most people think that ED is a businessman who will always look to get a decent deal for himself - but that he is also a long-running major supporter of the football club and also cares what will happen to it and will do his best to see that it falls into the best pair of hands he can negotiate... I think the complexity of sorting that out is sufficient to explain the long-running saga and there is no need to resort to any conspiracy theory bollox about motives.

All of that would be reasonable IF Eddie was actually selling the business for a substantial price. But IF as reported he's asking for £1 then what deal is he trying to negotiate for himself? The serverity of the situation and timescales required also mean that he isn't in a position to hang around.

Also how on earth can he judge what the best pair of hands is? I get if he's asking for a certain upfront financial committment. Beyond that though, what constitutes the best thing for the club? One might well argue that the Eddie Davies model of ownership is something to be avoided at all costs. You may argue differently, but the point I'm making is, I'm not sure that the outgoing seller is often in the best place to assess who is the best option to take their business forward.

Finally as far as conspiracy theory goes, we are talking about a bloke with a severe lack of transparency across his business comittments and financial arrangements. There have always been a lot of grey areas and those are now more prominent as we need him to sign off a sale of the club to SOMEONE who has the ability to get us to the end of the season in one piece. I definitely do not think there is anything close to approaching sufficient explanation of where we are, where we're going and what is happening to avoid looking beyond the obvious. There is no conspiracy theory here at all. Every day the club is losing time and potentially losing assets. The longer this drags on for the greater the damage. We may already be at a point where a considerable amount of damage has been done. Every day that this drags on for is a problem. If there is someone there who has put the money down to get the club through, I cannot think of one benefit for the club of stalling and delaying, but I can think of many huge downsides. Further I cannot see any argument as to how someone with the best interest of the club can let this happen without either stepping in with their own money or accepting the money that has been put down. The option of doing neither is literally the worst possible thing that could happen to this football club.

[Worthy4England]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

Some people assume that Eddie has the best interests of the club above all else. And that by extension Birch's mandate is to carry out his duties with the best interest of the club paramount.

However, my point was (in context) that it is very possible that Eddie has other interests in this process and not necessarily all aligned to the future safeguarding of the club.

Why would he keep putting barriers in front of an offer that has been recommended at board level? Does he disagree with Birch and the board or is he not getting what he wants out of it? If the latter, already that isn't something that is "in the best interests of the club".

Some people assume that Eddie doesn't have the best interests of the club above all else, and that Birch is working for him to get the best deal for Eddie and fck the Club.

It's very possible that this is also incorrect and that there is a balance somewhere closer to the centre.

No bugger outside of the negotiations knows whether he keeps putting barriers there and/or if he does why - so your pointless speculation is just as valuable as my pointless speculation.

If he disagrees with Birch and the Board, he could certainly remove the former in very short order...

[Enoch]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

Some people assume that Eddie has the best interests of the club above all else. And that by extension Birch's mandate is to carry out his duties with the best interest of the club paramount.

However, my point was (in context) that it is very possible that Eddie has other interests in this process and not necessarily all aligned to the future safeguarding of the club.

Why would he keep putting barriers in front of an offer that has been recommended at board level? Does he disagree with Birch and the board or is he not getting what he wants out of it? If the latter, already that isn't something that is "in the best interests of the club".

Some people assume that Eddie doesn't have the best interests of the club above all else, and that Birch is working for him to get the best deal for Eddie and fck the Club.

It's very possible that this is also incorrect and that there is a balance somewhere closer to the centre.

No bugger outside of the negotiations knows whether he keeps putting barriers there and/or if he does why - so your pointless speculation is just as valuable as my pointless speculation.

If he disagrees with Birch and the Board, he could certainly remove the former in very short order...

That's what I said!

[thebish]

Also how on earth can he judge what the best pair of hands is?

like anyone does when they make a decision wisely - take the time to properly weigh up all the options and seek all the reassurances that you can possibly find - and last time I looked we still have time.

I reckon he's in a better position than I am to make that judgement - maybe also he's in a better position even than you are!

[Bruce Rioja]

Unless you know what Eddie wants and what the plan is, and you don't, then you cannot possibly know that either way.

The biscuit has been taken!

Some people assume that Eddie has the best interests of the club above all else.

so you claim... but what is actually the case, I think, is that most people think that ED is a businessman who will always look to get a decent deal for himself - but that he is also a long-running major supporter of the football club and also cares what will happen to it and will do his best to see that it falls into the best pair of hands he can negotiate... I think the complexity of sorting that out is sufficient to explain the long-running saga and there is no need to resort to any conspiracy theory bollox about motives.

All of that would be reasonable IF Eddie was actually selling the business for a substantial price. But IF as reported he's asking for £1 then what deal is he trying to negotiate for himself? The serverity of the situation and timescales required also mean that he isn't in a position to hang around.

Also how on earth can he judge what the best pair of hands is? I get if he's asking for a certain upfront financial committment. Beyond that though, what constitutes the best thing for the club? One might well argue that the Eddie Davies model of ownership is something to be avoided at all costs. You may argue differently, but the point I'm making is, I'm not sure that the outgoing seller is often in the best place to assess who is the best option to take their business forward.

Finally as far as conspiracy theory goes, we are talking about a bloke with a severe lack of transparency across his business comittments and financial arrangements. There have always been a lot of grey areas and those are now more prominent as we need him to sign off a sale of the club to SOMEONE who has the ability to get us to the end of the season in one piece. I definitely do not think there is anything close to approaching sufficient explanation of where we are, where we're going and what is happening to avoid looking beyond the obvious. There is no conspiracy theory here at all. Every day the club is losing time and potentially losing assets. The longer this drags on for the greater the damage. We may already be at a point where a considerable amount of damage has been done. Every day that this drags on for is a problem. If there is someone there who has put the money down to get the club through, I cannot think of one benefit for the club of stalling and delaying, but I can think of many huge downsides. Further I cannot see any argument as to how someone with the best interest of the club can let this happen without either stepping in with their own money or accepting the money that has been put down. The option of doing neither is literally the worst possible thing that could happen to this football club.

Can you pause for a while now please? You've just typed pages and pages of stuff without actually saying anything whatsoever. Cheers.

[BWFC_Insane]

Also how on earth can he judge what the best pair of hands is?

like anyone does when they make a decision wisely - take the time to properly weigh up all the options and seek all the reassurances that you can possibly find - and last time I looked we still have time.

I reckon he's in a better position than I am to make that judgement - maybe also he's in a better position even than you are!

I think it is very difficult for him to make any sort of sensible judgement beyond something very obvious and the question of "can you put the money down to prove you can afford it"? He can look at a business plan but it means very little.

Someone is hardly going to have submitted a plan with the words "asset" and "stripping" scibbled out!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

That's what I said!

No it's not, you said something similar using different words.
(If I managed to find out where Insano lived and I snuck round there and shot him, do you think I'd get away with diminished responsibility?)

[Enoch]

That's what I said!

No it's not, you said something similar using different words.
(If I managed to find out where Insano lived and I snuck round there and shot him, do you think I'd get away with diminished responsibility?)

Yours, or his?

[Lord Kangana]

I think he (BWFCi) has actually raised some valid points that no-one has really either argued or disproven by simply taking a contrary position.

The scant amount of evidence that we have before us would suggest that ED is putting his own interests before those of the club - otherwise he would still be bankrolling us whilst a suitable buyer was found, rather than making the club's staff and HMRC dangle for their money.

Its of little consequence that he can do what he likes as the owner. BWFCi raised the point of whose interests they seemed to be acting in. It seems clear that, with the evidence we have, its 1) ED 2) Club.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I think he (BWFCi) has actually raised some valid points that no-one has really either argued or disproven by simply taking a contrary position.

The scant amount of evidence that we have before us would suggest that ED is putting his own interests before those of the club - otherwise he would still be bankrolling us whilst a suitable buyer was found, rather than making the club's staff and HMRC dangle for their money.

Its of little consequence that he can do what he likes as the owner. BWFCi raised the point of whose interests they seemed to be acting in. It seems clear that, with the evidence we have, its 1) ED 2) Club.

I'll agree that ED is mainly looking out for ED. I don't think it follows that either Birch or the directors are necessarily looking out for EDs interests ahead of the club.
The scant amount of information we have isn't evidence, not even scant evidence, of any scenario. It might just as well be likely that there is no movement because the 'offers' from the consortia are utter tripe. I'm not arguing they are, just saying they might be... but I'm not going on and on and on about it for page after page exploring every tiny angle of attack to get back to very same meaningless speculation constantly.