The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[aj2k77]

At the very least all the signs now point to a deal being in the offing, last summer it was wishful thinking. None of us wanted another season of Lerner and Lambert and some people tried to kid themselves in to thinking it wasn't going to be. Next season will almost certainly be a new combination of Owner and Manager and for that I'm excited, if a little apprehensive.

[Ads]

I think by the 11th July we will have new American overlords.

[AVH87]

As long as we have new owners in this Summer, I'm not going to panic even if it takes another 5-6 weeks from now. That still gives over a month of the transfer window being open for us to bolster the squad for the long season ahead. Yes, ideally you want your signings in before the season starts, but by the end of August there will only have been 3 or 4 games.

[saunders_heroes]

I wouldn't be surprised if we're well into the 6 weeks exclusivity already. A friend of a friend who works at the Villa told me that there's been people at the club going over the books for the last couple of months and that all the heads of departments (other than Krulak's favourite Nicola Keys) have been told they're not wanted by the new regime.
Hopefully it's not bullshit, but time will tell as always.

[CT Villan]

Despite all of the trepidation on here about not spending, Fox says twice in that piece...

"I still believe we will be able to make the changes we want to in the summer to make the squad more competitive for the start of the season

I think we'll be able to do the business we want to do in the summer even with this other dynamic happening and I have a great deal of confidence in Tim's ability to get performances out of players we have."

Sounds to me like business as usual, no ?

[Steve67]

I am certain that we are still bidding for players and telling them that we are being bought, so, don't sign elsewhere. Be stupid not to bid for players as we can sew up the deals when business is concluded with the club buyers.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

As long as we have new owners in this Summer, I'm not going to panic even if it takes another 5-6 weeks from now. That still gives over a month of the transfer window being open for us to bolster the squad for the long season ahead. Yes, ideally you want your signings in before the season starts, but by the end of August there will only have been 3 or 4 games.

Hopefully the new owners will have been well in place by then and their intentions clear.
No need to panic but starting the season amongst the bottom feeders won't help new owners, management, players, fans.


I need to stop worrying - it's the beginning of June ffs!
UTV!

[john2710]

I would hope that things will be done quickly, 4 weeks or so. This process must have been in place awaiting the end of the season.

We won't be spending any money until this is either completed or it falls through. Why spend £10m, when you might have £30m next month?

It's not ideal, but I think we must be close this time.

[olaftab]

I wouldn't be surprised if we're well into the 6 weeks exclusivity already. A friend of a friend who works at the Villa told me that there's been people at the club going over the books for the last couple of months and that all the heads of departments (other than Krulak's favourite Nicola Keys) have been told they're not wanted by the new regime.
Hopefully it's not bullshit, but time will tell as always.

That is not quite legal. They are employees and the new owners have to work within a framework that protects  their employment rights and furthermore no one wants to remove key employees like heads of department  as they are there to make the business operate effectively.

[pauliewalnuts]

That Fox stuff makes it pretty clear really that:

- we can't be spending transfer money while this party are in due diligence
- he realises that
- he has told Sherwood that he's going to have to wait until the takeover goes through / falls through
- he thinks that this could take a while, hence the "get more out of what we have" line.

That's really pretty unfortunate timing - that six week exclusivity period starting in the second week of June.

If the process lasts a full six weeks, we're going to possibly find ourselves struggling. Not great.

It's pretty frightening stuff.

Is it? I'd say it isn't perfect but you have to think someone who is looking to a football club in the PL would also understand if they are at this point to get it done as quickly as possible. I don't mean rush things but at least by efficiently meticulous so to speak. The last they are going to want is their shiny new toy to be fucked from the start. So they will want to give the manager as much opportunity as possible to improve things, and the closer this comes to be finalized the more Sherwood (if he remains as manager) will be brought into things.

With all due respect, that's just conjecture.

How do you know what their approach will be re Sherwood? While they are doing the due diligence, their main concern will be not to spend 150m on something that isn't worth 150m. Any concerns about how things develop following a purchase is not going to kick in until that actually happens.

They are not in any position to do anything about the manager - bring him in, or freeze him out - until a purchase goes through.

How do you know they don't already have a manager who has been working with them in the pre-purchase phase, and is primed to take over?

We don't know any of this. That's the potentially problematic thing about all this - we don't know what is going on.

[saunders_heroes]

I wouldn't be surprised if we're well into the 6 weeks exclusivity already. A friend of a friend who works at the Villa told me that there's been people at the club going over the books for the last couple of months and that all the heads of departments (other than Krulak's favourite Nicola Keys) have been told they're not wanted by the new regime.
Hopefully it's not bullshit, but time will tell as always.

That is not quite legal. They are employees and the new owners have to work within a framework that protects  their employment rights and furthermore no one wants to remove key employees like heads of department  as they are there to make the business operate effectively.

Well that's that one blown out of the water.

[Dante Lavelli]

We won't be spending any money until this is either completed or it falls through. Why spend £10m, when you might have £30m next month?

Very hypothetical scenario for the money boffins out there but say:

We spend 50m on players before take-over takes place.  The club is then sold for 200m rather than the reported 150m. 
Could we write off the 50m in transfer fees as part of the purchase of the club (as I understand investment in infrastructure is exempt from FFP)?  Originally Randy was allegedly asking for 200m therefore hiding the 50m would not be that unrealistic. 

It'd be a very handy head-start over other clubs who need to comply with the FFP rules.  Albeit randy would be fucked if the deal fell through.

[Toronto Villa]

I wouldn't be surprised if we're well into the 6 weeks exclusivity already. A friend of a friend who works at the Villa told me that there's been people at the club going over the books for the last couple of months and that all the heads of departments (other than Krulak's favourite Nicola Keys) have been told they're not wanted by the new regime.
Hopefully it's not bullshit, but time will tell as always.

That is not quite legal. They are employees and the new owners have to work within a framework that protects  their employment rights and furthermore no one wants to remove key employees like heads of department  as they are there to make the business operate effectively.

I find that hard to believe also. Especially for operational staff. Why would any new owner suddenly insist on that as part of the takeover? Maybe down the road once they have done a full evaluation of the various departments. Also any acquisition I have been involved in generally the first to go are surplus senior management and certainly not operations or admin staff. Not initially anyway.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Staff have been informed! Wait haven't we done this before?
 

[PeterWithe]

Im a little puzzled by those worrying about the effects the period of exclusivity will have on next season.

We've been shit for ages, another few weeks wont make any difference.