Parky

FS will hire AS that's for sure.

FS was the first into the secret mountain. If he comes out alive....It might be game on.

It's perhaps believable as it is closer to a realistic price.

Nobody will pay 100m as is. 100m+ 100m debt= 200m You honestly believe he is asking for the loan to be repayed as well? there's no loan. What he did was guarantor the debt against his own wealth, the debt is still there. potential buyers are seeing this+ the wage bill for a useless squad, and running a fucking mile,...hence no sale. If this is the case then we can forget a sale in the near future.

Nobody will pay 100m as is.

Why would Shearer, or any other self-respecting manager, sign a contract like that? For the same reason he jumped in to try and save us. Slightly different situation now though - with 8 games to go, the club needed to do something to try and lift the players, and focus them on the task of trying to stay up, which unfortunately failed. The players knew it was 8 games, and what and who they were playing for, for those 8 games. This time, it would be appointing him on a rolling contract when potential new owners may not want him ,and may end his rolling contract pretty quick, leading to more uncertainty for the players that are left. That's the whole idea of a rolling contract.

Leaving it another few weeks means our best players will leave, we won't have time the remove most of the s*** high earners from the side (meaning a s*** unmotivated side and the huge wage bill staying in place) and we may not even be able to get a decent manager. It would end up costing the new owners more then they could possibly save on the price of the club. IMO they'd only do that if they have no idea about Football. I think its quite possible that the buyers are holding on until Owen, Viduka etc contracts are up as theres at least a 1 million pound saving if the end of contract payment rumours are true, i know 1-2million is not a huge amount but it would pay 2 players 15k a week for a year, so if it was a case of holding on for 2-3 days then its sensible, but as you say holding on any longer than the middle of this week is just crazy. Unfortunately for them those payouts will be paid by the club and so will still be there to be dealt with by the new owners when they come in. How so? Every week MA pays the wages and bonuses and running costs it one less week of cash for the new owners to find....UNLESS MA is racking up some big debt somewhere to borrow the money to keep the club running. Like a £40m overdraft with a bank ?

Why would Shearer, or any other self-respecting manager, sign a contract like that? For the same reason he jumped in to try and save us.

Agreed.

If there is an interested buyer, the psychologically battle will be between them and Ashley and very little to do with the club. You need to think about it in these terms. It's like a poker player slowly running out of chips, you start playing bluffs when you know they don't have the financial muscle to call any longer. My whole thing is that waiting until it falls apart is, in my mind, waiting until things like players leave (nonpayment/fed up/all request transfers), staff is gutted (sounds like it's already happened), fan dissatisfaction(nothing new) and an even further plummetting of our already low standing in the game amidst the chaos we're currently embroiled in. These things aren't all easily transferred into £ amounts and could end up costing a new owner a lot more than whatever they save by waiting for it. There's probably a sweet spot where the two lines cross, I just have no idea where it is. Nor do I, I'm just debating/discussing what the possible hold ups could be and the possible outcomes. A football club is an intangible asset, it isn't like gold, there isn't a price on the stock market and it is also difficult to find a valuation in correlation with other clubs - Villa only cost 62m for instance and it is rumored Pompey is changing hands for 20m...NUFC is a unique asset in many other ways as it is a monopoly with a vast fanbase which is on the whole unquestioning in its support. The damage done in this scenario is relative to the valuation. The real value of the club is actually around 240m if we were operating in the PL and had a fair wage structure, but IMO the actual value of the club maybe even double that if we started playing niche one football anytime soon. I sometimes sell ideas as part of what I do and if I was selling the club I would bear in mind that new owners would only be interested if they had negligible interest in residuals, hence letting it get a little worse might not be such an issue with them.

Would have done no harm giving AS a rolling contract and then let the new owners decide without strings. That would have been a credible solution instead of just sitting there doing nothing.

If there is an interested buyer, the psychologically battle will be between them and Ashley and very little to do with the club. You need to think about it in these terms. It's like a poker player slowly running out of chips, you start playing bluffs when you know they don't have the financial muscle to call any longer.

I suspect you'd make a very poor businessman. One of the reasons we're in the state we are is cause Ashley bought the club Thomas styleee.

It's nothing like buying a car.

Might it not be common sense to see if the club shifts most of the 70m wage bill? Or do you think a new owner is just going to take that on as well? That's not quite what you said though, is it? You said they should "sit back and wait for things to get worse" as it would strengthen their hand. Waiting to see who or what gets shifted doesn't make sense as all transfers have been suspended, haven't they? Has time stopped? I thought transfers begun on July 1st?

Might it not be common sense to see if the club shifts most of the 70m wage bill? Or do you think a new owner is just going to take that on as well?

Leaving it another few weeks means our best players will leave, we won't have enough time the remove most of the shit high earners from the side (meaning a shit unmotivated side and the huge wage bill staying in place) and we may not even be able to get a decent manager. It would probably end up costing the new owners more then they could possibly save on the price of the club. Plus they have competition which makes a waiting game even more dangerous. Most of those are the problems of the current owner. Why should a prospective owner give a fuck if it means strengthening his hand. Without new owners MA will be doing all he can to reduce the wage bill anyway. I don't see huge competition for the ownership of NUFC sorry. Explain why buying a worse product for less is a better idea than buying a good product for more? The only concern of someone buying the club is not just getting the most cut rate/discount price possible. If it was, then yes, they'd wait until the club was half a step from administration before jumping in with the lowest possible offer. But what would they really be getting for their frugality, and would we want owners like that? The worse a state the club is in when it is bought means more effort on the part of the new owners to rectify this. Nothing is truly saved, nor is their hand strengthened ANY, by waiting until the club is worth nothing before buying. Why not wait till admin or receivership or when MA just runs out of cash/goodwill? "Why not wait ..." to do what, exactly? What question are you even asking here?

Leaving it another few weeks means our best players will leave, we won't have enough time the remove most of the shit high earners from the side (meaning a shit unmotivated side and the huge wage bill staying in place) and we may not even be able to get a decent manager. It would probably end up costing the new owners more then they could possibly save on the price of the club. Plus they have competition which makes a waiting game even more dangerous. Most of those are the problems of the current owner. Why should a prospective owner give a fuck if it means strengthening his hand. Without new owners MA will be doing all he can to reduce the wage bill anyway. I don't see huge competition for the ownership of NUFC sorry. Explain why buying a worse product for less is a better idea than buying a good product for more? The only concern of someone buying the club is not just getting the most cut rate/discount price possible. If it was, then yes, they'd wait until the club was half a step from administration before jumping in with the lowest possible offer. But what would they really be getting for their frugality, and would we want owners like that? The worse a state the club is in when it is bought means more effort on the part of the new owners to rectify this. Nothing is truly saved, nor is their hand strengthened ANY, by waiting until the club is worth nothing before buying. Why not wait till admin or receivership or when MA just runs out of cash/goodwill?

Exactly. They get to keep the money for their project rather than just having it vanish into MA's black hole.

There's one poit of view from where that would seem to be most irrational. If you're buying a business that you wish to run you'd rather want to have it in as good condition as possible, not run down and in a state of disrepair that it would cost considerable finance to get it up and running again. More so where that business is a football club that operates on different timescales to ordinary business - I would have thought. If there is anyone in the wings I think they'd rather pay 60m than 100m, I know I would.

Leaving it another few weeks means our best players will leave, we won't have time the remove most of the shit high earners from the side (meaning a shit unmotivated side and the huge wage bill staying in place) and we may not even be able to get a decent manager. It would end up costing the new owners more then they could possibly save on the price of the club. IMO they'd only do that if they have no idea about Football. I think its quite possible that the buyers are holding on until Owen, Viduka etc contracts are up as theres at least a 1 million pound saving if the end of contract payment rumours are true, i know 1-2million is not a huge amount but it would pay 2 players 15k a week for a year, so if it was a case of holding on for 2-3 days then its sensible, but as you say holding on any longer than the middle of this week is just crazy. Unfortunately for them those payouts will be paid by the club and so will still be there to be dealt with by the new owners when they come in. How so? Every week MA pays the wages and bonuses and running costs it one less week of cash for the new owners to find....UNLESS MA is racking up some big debt somewhere to borrow the money to keep the club running.

Leaving it another few weeks means our best players will leave, we won't have enough time the remove most of the shit high earners from the side (meaning a shit unmotivated side and the huge wage bill staying in place) and we may not even be able to get a decent manager. It would probably end up costing the new owners more then they could possibly save on the price of the club. Plus they have competition which makes a waiting game even more dangerous. Most of those are the problems of the current owner. Why should a prospective owner give a fuck if it means strengthening his hand. Without new owners MA will be doing all he can to reduce the wage bill anyway. I don't see huge competition for the ownership of NUFC sorry.

It's plausible but seems unlikely, unless they're really skint and haggling down to an affordable price, which does not bode well. Whoever they are they'll be aware that the longer they wait, the smaller the rebuilding time and therefore the higher the chances of failure. This is very much a case of the bird in the hand. Agree with that as well.

He will be getting paid a rate on time taken I would geuess + whatever when the deal is done, he will have a set rule of of what Ashley wants and will be sticking to those guidelines when thrashing out a deal. The final say with be Ashleys and the longer it takes the more Harris will earn. They charge about £700 a day retainer plus added fees for all other expertise they draw on.