ianovthetoon

exactly

Because he's worth less than the overdraft is for would be my thinking. But surely on paper he'd be worth more if he owned the club.

It's not wholly related, but when the paddies bought Sunderland, did they inherit the debt?

Where did you get this from? There's no way the club's worth anything like £200m+. Writing off that loan has to be part of any realistic deal surely. The key word there is realistic. I don't any more than anyone else on here but I could well believe that Ashley's insistence on recovering his loan is a key reason for there being no takers so far. I've seen nothing from any reliable source that indicates the loan is being written off. When you buy a business you inherit its assets and liabilities and the loan is simply a liability of the company. It is indeed, I put it in specifically. If Ashley is attempting to the sell the club for £100m plus £110m debt to Ashley plus any overdraft, then any and all bids have almost certainly been pure fabrications. If he is trying to sell the club for that, then he isn't seriously trying to sell it at all. (I don't believe this is the case.) The only realistic way he could sell the club for anything like £100m is if he wrote off the debt. If this is the case and if the money from player sales is going towards reducing that debt, then should a sale go through he is effectively "trousering the cash" as it is reducing his losses and is money the club will never see again. How does he get that cash out of the club though? People on here who are significantly more clued up on finances than I keep saying it would be illegal. There's nothing illegal about paying off a debt. The debt is to Ashley. The money would go into Ashley's bank account. This would still have to be reflected in the club's accounts though I guess. Although it's never been mentioned anywhere it would be completely unrealistic for Ashley to expect anyone to pay him £100M, then owe him a further £100M. I do remember reading that although we have allowed clubs to pay transfer fees on the drip, that Ashley has paid upfront for players we have purchased. I guess that could mean any incoming fees are being used to pay off the loan he gave us. Even with that in mind though, he won't recoup that much as surely any fees now due would be owed to the new owners. Maybe he's managed to bank the Milner money though

Most transfer fees are spread over a few years. We're still paying for transfers, and the savings from the wage budget are set against the reduced income for the coming year

I think what he has done, is put the ball firmly in Barry Moat's court. Quite simply, get the money, you've got the club. We've had countless speculation about what was happening, and this, although not definitive in any way shape or form is a step forward, and a step nearer to getting the twat out of the club

I'm sure this will be a done deal by the end of the week. Everything else would appear to be in place, all we need is an agreement in principle from Barclays that Barry Moat can have the same terms overdraft as Mike Ashley. There'll probably be a last minute flurry of transfer deals, with players no doubt sounded out over the possibility of a move here. Plus anyone signing has almost 2 weeks to get settled in as after the Leicester match we've got the international break. Good times ahead, hopefully

Thing is, Ashley does most things cloak and dagger. How many times were we linked to players before they signed, such as Colo, Jonas etc. Truth is, nobody knows what will be said tomorrow, and whilst everyone may think that he is going to take the club off the market, I just can't see how he can do this. Not only does it make a mockery of the last 3 months, but it makes no sense, given the vitriolic attitude of the club's supporters to him. Add to this the quotes from the radio where Llambsarse said that there were people almost at signing stage, it would just be total madness. Apart from a full sale the only other plausible possibility for me would be for someone to buy in to the club. No doubt tomorrow will pass like all of these other so called deadlines, but I'm cautiously optimistic that there will be some good news, and who knows, we may be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. One thing that is worth mentioning is that there has been nothing at all from Keith Harris for a long while. He did say he expected the sale to go through by the end of the month, and as we're approaching this, let's hope he was right

You mean 6 or 7 new faces in dont yer? Exactly. I reckon Lovenkrands will sign, irrespective of who comes in. I still think Sol Campbell would rather play for us as well. I'd love us to go for Beckford, he'd be relatively cheap, and even if we doubled what he'll be on at Leeds it will be a modest Championship Salary. Add 3 or 4 Loans from the Premier League to that and I think there's the makings of a good squad there. We've played some pretty average teams and beat them without playing particularly well. The biggest test we'll come up against early doors will be the game after the international break, away to Cardiff. We'll have pretty much a 2 week break to work with any incoming players, so that will help. Going out the door, I'd offer to buy Geremi's contract off him for 50% of it's value which would make him a free agent, and therefore he'd be able to attract a move elsewhere as his wage demands would be less. That saves about £2M straight away. I find it difficult to believe that the wage bill is anywhere near the £48M bandied about too. Colo and Jonas are supposed to be on ridiculous money, I'm sure I remember reading the complete opposite when they signed. I'm pretty sure they are on nearer £40k per week. Similarly Enrique will be on a similar amount. The only players that will probably now be earning in excess of £50k per week will be Butt, Smith, Geremi and Barton. If Shearer takes over, I'd expect Barton to leave anyway, even if it's just on loan. Pay Geremi off, and take the hit on Smith and Butt as they will be useful in this division. If you take in to account staff that have been paid off too, I reckon the current wage bill will be nearer £40M, still high but far more sustainable if only for a year. I'd still expect Colo and Jonas to be off before the end of the transfer window, and if we can sign Loven and Campbell, we won't be any weaker for this league. Whoever else comes in adds a bit depth, and we've just got to hope that this will put us in a good position coming up to January. If we're riding high in January and we've got anyone but Ashley in charge, I'd like to think we'll add some real Premiership Quality younger players to the team, in order to make sure promotion is more certain. Well I can dream!!!

Don't worry I'm sure Monday's announcement regarding the future of the club will rid you of any positivity when is introduced as the new manager and Ashley says he's stopping

Yup. This is dangerous. It gives Ashley the hope that we will walk this elague without having to spend money and by waiting, he may even recoup his money He might think promotion is possible, but I think he will be told in no uncertain terms we need players as cover

Be careful what you wish for Rather stick with Hughton than go with that raggy haired cunt again

2-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just bought the Journal, they've got Jason Roberts as number 9 for us on the team sheet!?!!! wtf

Would people be happy with that. Same here, it's a win win situation. We should get the leadership and funds to move on, whilst Ashley can recup more of his losses at a later date. If he sells half at £50M, invests half of that back into the club, he should be able to sell the other half for £100M once we're re-established in the Premiership If it meant Shearer in and funds being made available then i would.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8214686.stm Really hope efforts are made to beam this back to SJP, it would be full

Of course it could mean Shearer is gonna be manager and the takeover is on :celb:

Hear Hear,if he's shit, why are we third Because we've only played 3 games against pretty average opposition and have managed somehow to stay injury free, something which is unlikely to be sustained with the present small squad. The squad is up for it against adversity and some are playing well to engineer moves away. Let's see where we are come September 1st

Hope they leave the cunt in charge all season and get relegated

Probably more to do with lack of transfer funds if the papers are to be believed

In all fairness, wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this lot had the money. What they're proposing basically is similar to the way Real Madrid etc vote in a president every so many years. Yes, supporters will be allowed to vote on this, but rest assured you will have to pay for this. They'll charge membership annually, there will be no perks apart from being allowed to vote on club related matters. If, for instance 50,000 people a year sign up for this at £100 per year, that's £5 Million a year. I would imagine there would be no limit to how many you could buy, so that figure could be quite conservative. This is how they will probably recoup a chunk of their investment as the vehicle for the voting options would no doubt be a seperate entity to the club. I could be completely barking up the wrong tree, but I'd expect that it would be popular with a lot of fans as they'd be able to have a "say" in some club related matters. The worrying thing is though this works at Barcelona and Real because they are hugely successful generating far more money than we ever could in the present climate. Even back in the Premiership we'd still need a hugely wealthy benefactor to play catch up with even the likes of Spurs Aston Villa and the like. Just can't see it working. The time to have done this was when we were riding high in the Premiership, playing Champions League football. We were generating good amounts of money, and had that been sustained this model would have almost certainly have worked. The fan bases are pretty similar in terms of passion, but Real and Barcelona have far bigger worldwide appeal, which helps them in terms of being self sufficient.

Looks like a young Graham Taylor anyone know who he is?

From Skunkers re Graham Roberts bid: can't say much as have signed confidentiality agreements its a hybrid real madrid model as i see it (not same as barca but similar) will reduce debt to nil IF it works as far as i know the funding model is in place and the intellectual rights to the model secured I don't pretend to understand how the model works BUT fan representation is at the centre of it hence the involvement of the trust - there will be a list of members similar to barca/madrid I understood they were speaking to harris last week thurs/fri BUT perhaps harris is trying to push the moat deal through - this might just spur things along that's about all i can really say i think and that's probably too much!

Mike Ashley asked him to?

Great gesture. He was their best ever manager so it makes sense. Aye but its what we should have done before now. Thing is there are other people in our history who should equally be recognised. I reckon naming the academy after him would be a much better tribute.