The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[Clark W Griswold]

I would say something (at the very least) is definately in the pipeline, it seems to me that he's been thinking about it or trying to get something done for quite a while. Wouldn't surprise me if it's close, but can't see it being done from the point of view that he's said we are 'for sale' and not 'sold'. On the other hand, i can't see him telling us about being for sale if he's not got anything at all going on, or gone some way down the line, because if he's doesn't sell this summer we could be in for a horrendous season ahead with that in mind.

[OzVilla]

With all respect if the sale of the club is a done deal what was yesterday all about? If a deal has been done, the sensible, professional thing to do would be to make a holding statement or no statement at all. To feed the long suffering fans a pill with that much sugar on it tells me that the deal which was supposed to have been done had either fallen through or never was. We have a terrible record of reactive decision making - MON compo, Houllier illness, TOSM appointment, establishment of the Bomb Squad, to list but a few examples. We have form for making a bollox of things. Why should the sale of the club be any different?

Brian, you're depressing me now.  Can you please not let logic and considered opinion cloud my blind optimism in future.

[paul_e]

It's also very rare for the seller to announce the new owner, so he can't give details really, particularly if there's still negotiations on the contract.  If he said, "we're pretty much sold, I can't tell you who to but we're just finalising things" he puts himself into a corner if anything goes wrong or if the new owners don't like it, etc.  It also doesn't tell us anything that we want to know, like who they are, how rich they are and what experience they have of running a football club.

I had no problem with the statement yesterday and I think it was vague enough that we can't make any assumptions about where we are in the process.

[aj2k77]

Surely the £90m loans he converted to shares was a big sign he was preparing to move on and therefor I'd expect him to have prepared at least a little for an end of season sale.

[DBTW]

As fans, we have kept in the dark regarding the running of the club since Lerner arrived and they do a very good job of keeping things away from the press.

To me, the Statement yesterday feels like it was writted a long time before it was released.

[The Laughing Policeman]

If it's a done deal, why didn't Randy just say yesterday that he has sold the club and after the Fit & Proper shit has been done with the PL all will be revealed?

Oh, and the lady on the deli counter in my local Waitrose reckons it'll be someone foreign who'll buy us.

Waitrose?

Posh git!

And my home is Grade 2* Listed.

[glasses]

Surely the £90m loans he converted to shares was a big sign he was preparing to move on and therefor I'd expect him to have prepared at least a little for an end of season sale.

I've mentioned many times that this was the biggest indicator that he was readying the club for sale

[DBTW]

If it's a done deal, why didn't Randy just say yesterday that he has sold the club and after the Fit & Proper shit has been done with the PL all will be revealed?

Oh, and the lady on the deli counter in my local Waitrose reckons it'll be someone foreign who'll buy us.

Waitrose?

Posh git!

And my home is Grade 2* Listed.

I bet you wear a sarong on your days off too

[bobdylan]

I would say something (at the very least) is definately in the pipeline, it seems to me that he's been thinking about it or trying to get something done for quite a while. Wouldn't surprise me if it's close, but can't see it being done from the point of view that he's said we are 'for sale' and not 'sold'. On the other hand, i can't see him telling us about being for sale if he's not got anything at all going on, or gone some way down the line, because if he's doesn't sell this summer we could be in for a horrendous season ahead with that in mind.

That hasn't seemed to worry him for the last 4 seasons.

[Percy McCarthy]

could it be that Randy might have told the truth yesterday? Lots of people assume he is a fantastic businessman who's been furtively and furiously marketing the club for months on the QT, and has a buyer lined up, because the alternative, i.e. his statement yesterday, was childishly naïve and damaging, both to the club's reputation and value. Well that's because it probably is. He has demonstrated on numerous occasions he has no real business acumen, both at AV and the Browns. My hunch is that he has agonised over this for a while just as the General said, and that the final decision to sell was taken very recently. Just a thought. Often the truth is stranger than the ITK fiction, and it sometimes hurts.

Worryingly - if you look at the way we went about trying to sell off the members of the "bomb squad" (basically letting it be known to all and sundry that they were unwanted and overpaid instead of providing them with a shop window and creating any kind of incentive for anyone to buy them), it doesn't suggest that there's a great deal of business acumen floating around at the club.

I had no reason to think Randy wasn't a good businessman to start with. Then, because of his managerial appointments, I started to see that he was maybe not much more than an enthusiastic amateur. Now he just seems like an amateur.

[LondonBoy]

Listen lads, it's in it's final stages.

We're going to be very happy and the window is going to be sensational.

Spoke to source this morning, said its 99% done.

[silhillvilla]

Been in back to back meetings since 8am, have i missed anything ?

[brian green]

Oz Blind and Optimism are my middle names. I have bought my season ticket bought a car park space for my new car and booked my cataract operations for the summer.  I fully expect us to make a pigs ear if the sale of the club but what the hell. Bring it on.

[john e]

I think its a nice thought to think we are well on the way to being sold with someone firmly in the pipeline,
 even all done and dusted, makes us feel better

but I doubt it,
 I think the club went up for sale officially yesterday because whatever else has happened up to this point hasn't come through,
 we are at the early stages with any buyer if there is indeed someone interested, in my view

but I don't know anything, just summising on what i'm reading

could take a while with lots and lots of internet speculation over the coming weeks

[ozzjim]

Been in back to back meetings since 8am, have i missed anything ?

It appears not unfortunately. Was the same as you and just had a leaf through to see.

Apart from DW betting £20 that it happens by season start - considering the reluctance of DW and parting with money, for all the rumours, ITK and general hysteria, I would say that is the most telling thing to have happened yet!