Kanji

As long as he gets over 320m I’m guessing he’ll sell and he will squeeze price.

This is what people are missing, they'll only have a figure they want to offer after due diligence and seeing what the club is currently earning etc. Not true at all in every scenario. Right for some buyers but don’t discount deep pockets. Depends on the owner and business plan. An owner who values the club upon stabilization of their plan in 5 years at X. They will pay higher based on their cost of capital to purchase it. Some who have higher cost of capital will underwrite lower initial basis if they don’t believe they can grow it to a level attainable. It’s not as straight forward in this case because we’re not a club who is like Liverpool or Spurs where there isn’t so much that can be done outside of player investment. We have so many damn things you can invest in and improve.

PCP and co will likely have their own in house and outside counsel looking at every players contracts, sponsor contracts service contracts etc. they’ll have their finance people looking at the deal itself and running through the analysis. My guess is the hardest sticking point will be the HRMC tax thing and it’s potential penalties.

A Due Diligence Data Room is the place where the company places copies of the financial, legal and business documents that define the history and future of the company for prospective investors to review prior to submitting a formal offer. http://www.duediligencedataroom.com/What-is-a-Data-Room.html I've been involved in a few company takeover processes myself (was a member of the executive management team in a company put up for sale). My experience is that 80% of initial interested parties pulls out before entering the data room stage. Cheers for explaining So I think we can be safe to assume they are actually seriously interested then. 100% agree with Milburn. Data room will have everything. They’ll probably call the groups for offers in 3-4 weeks. Run a 2nd round if close and then award deal. I’m hopeful that purchase and sale contract markup will be part of this too to speed it up. In these big scale deals you don’t give NDAs or allow access unless it’s credible buyers who’ve already shown they are capable buyers and have the cash to get it done.

Need to start Mitro man

Cabaye nearly snapped his leg the fucking prick

Aye, since that's the whole reason he's selling. It would be standard to provide new owners with a warranty against ongoing litigation. It’s absolutely market and standard to be indemnified from pending litigation, and perhaps even reserve in escrow/title company an x amount of pounds to pay any fine, legal costs etc.

That shoulder barge on Zaha was pure taste

You can have him in Ireland

Replaces Lukaku with Rooney and Sandro

Sir Bobby (and this club by extension) made Bellamy a hell of a lot of money; he could have easily wasted away at Coventry etc. if it wasn't for what Sir Bobby did for him. Same could be said about Dyer who pissed away millions here after being a perma-crock. I respect the hell out of how good they were when on form and fit but their lack of humility doesn't surprise me.

Obviously

What? she clearly doesn't have the capital to buy a football club, those who she represents might but we have no idea who it is atm. But if she's part of said group, then she's one of the buyer's of said group. She's part of the consortium. She's part of the capital stack if she's putting her money in...

Likely IMO

I thought this at first but one of the reports from today that I read said she wanted to be the director/chairman herself. seems like this was the one where she actually had interest in being part of the ownership group with her capital behind it or taking some stake in running the club. But who the f*** knows. this whole debt owed to Ashley thing has nothing to do with legality or not, he somehow thought it was a great idea to create this odd "interest free debt" that is more less just equity he's put in.I think he's structured in a way that at the very end, if he was fucked and doomed - he'd at least get that back and then whatever "value" he placed on the club itself.

Parky's conspiracy theory mindset has bled into this thread now

I don't think you're far off with this. I reckon Rafa has probably told him 'one more s*** window and I'm off' and Ashley is desperately trying to get rid of it before the inevitable, hence the very public advert. He'll want to sell it at the top and, in his view, it's probably there. I remember when we went down the first time and the rumoured figure was £90m + the debt so he's probably quite content to get somewhere close to his value and some shitty tie-in for Sports Direct. The 400m or 450m is aspirational and it's something you tell anyone and everyone so you're not negotiating against yourself and I've never for one second believed that price. I think it's fairly obvious right now that Ashley has taken up whatever counsel he values and everyone has told him that if he decides to hold long term he's going to either have to put more money than the club generates by month (as he seems reluctant to use any bank facilities to finance transfers or defer monthly payments for transfers to spread cost) or he's going to lose Rafa Benitez, deal with another relegation battle, put more money in over what's generated and the value of the club will continue to degrade while his gross investment in the club continues to increase; again he will never get that money back in that scenario. Finally he also needs to consider that his Buyer pool over the next few months likely turns its attention elsewhere if he doesn't strike a deal, he also will likely be weary of any other economic issues around the world that you can't forsee over the next 6+ months...he simply HAS to do a deal now or he's fucked.

My guesswork is that he's desperate to get a deal done because if Rafa walks he'll have to put more money into the club, he'll battle relegation again, and he's NEVER going to get a higher price than he can over the next few months. Feel like 325m-375m will get a deal done based on nothing else but my own take on everything I've read and listening to takeover experts etc on this whole thing.

Would proper love to see Lee Ryder talk to someone about the nuances of a complex takeover deal.

I know it's Ashley but don't believe this at all tbh. Classic sales technique

I'd not give him much more time at all - we look worthless when he comes on; we haven't looked the part since Mitro came on for Joselu vs West Ham in terms of 2nd half striker impact. Also think Dwight's best attribute was his pace and movement, he looks heavier, slower, and sluggish - and we're not creating those chances for him anymore like we did in the Champo.

laziest thing you could do is put a sports team in Austin and Nashville and just point to it being a hot market to be in

Thought Columbus was a huge soccer city

I love the Vince McMahon rumors pop up every time

Agree. having said that, Ulker and Yildaz Holdings companies are fucking massive. Had no idea they also own Godiva. This guy has spent his entire life studying and working to be a global champion in the field of biscuits, etc.