Hhtoon

"It's like raaaiiiinnnnn on your wedding day..."

If you're talking about the biscuit discussion then yes, and beyond. I don't think we'll ever reach an agreement and suspect that one day it'll be bigger than religious disputes, with wars fought over opposing views

Galaxy for the elite and dairy milk to keep the simple masses happy. Milka when fancy a change but not in the mood to slum it.

Roll on bedtime. Gonna wake up tomorrow and throw out some OTT insults to get myself banned. Some absolute tools in this thread ruining it for everyone else.

They made 3 offers iirc: £250m cash no clauses. £300m - £200m paid up front and 2 X £50m to be laid later, but not payable if relegated. £350m - various relegation and future success clauses. Can't remember split. So yes, though appears was skewed by the risk of relegation which was pretty real at the time.

How's your asking 5000 for a 500 pound car theory coming along? Get back to me when you understand the difference between a theory and a metaphor. If you seriously think Ashley has been an active and serious seller for years then be my quest but I think you find yourself pretty alone in that corner. Because nobody has matched his price, not rocket science but seems a bit hard for you to understand. Unbelievably naive. Last I will say on Ashley and him being a serious seller, but which group has met his price, please name them? If someone had and the deal had not went through then I would agree. As soon as one has met the price we will be sold and that looks like it's happening now. I'll call Ashley as much as anyone for his total lack of investment and running of the club, but it's his club and it doesn't matter what people think is a fair or unfair price it's his value that matters. If this deal goes through at his requested price then he would say he was right in waiting until someone paid that value. Time will tell or not if the deal goes through and who is right or wrong. It was supposedly £300m and then all of a sudden its £350 million. I'm assuming price increase was to do with the significant rise of TV package revenues. Whether or not £300m was fair to begin with is another story.....

I've always felt that him being a willing seller was utter BS though (stated purely to ease tensions with the fans)... even if he scooped 350M from the sale, that's nothing compared to the meagre funds he outlays on the club vs all the TV money, free SD advertising, player sales etc. over the long-term. We've never been anything more than a SD advertising vehicle and a steady stream of proven income in his eyes. I'm definitely not banking on anything until it's official like. This is what gets me also. He took £33 million out of the club less than 18 months ago, plus free advertising, some money from our merchandising and god knows what else. He hasn't reduced the price by £33 million though, notice that. Why would you sell? You'd gamble on staying up and taking more money out surely (if you are a selfish c*** that is). I've been as cynical as anyone about this whole thing I'll admit, however at least it would appear as if we have a willing buyer. Although we've been here before and it hasn't come to anything. I really want this to be different but I still can't believe until it's official either. Rafa and new owners who aren't a disaster is still a dream to me. It's way far more advanced than where we have been before. Staveley or Kenyon were not in this position as they either couldn't agree a fee/raise the necessary funds. Not a chance he would lower the price as he is a businessman. Still maintain he is a willing seller and looking to use the money to invest in his actual dedicated expertise. Time will tell though (but it's happening ) Err, I'm pretty sure Staveley's camp believed they had agreed a fee and were doing the deal 100% (we had well respected posters on here with good sources saying it's as good as done). I really hope he is finally a willing seller. She obviously didn't have the funds then to process it through if that was the case as I said. Ashley was shit hot fast to come out and call her a time waster. Not heard a peep so far! You're just taking Ashley's word at face value as the gospel truth now like? She made 3 bids iirc. The 2 above £300m were in instalments and had relegation clauses (which was a very real risk at the time), then one for £250m, no clauses but £100m under his evaluation.

Funny how you believe all of these as "facts" but don't believe the ones Justin put forward in his Sun article. How have you verified all of these as fact? :lol: so true

Are we expecting to hear this week anyway? Fit and proper tests take 2-4 weeks and we don't know when docs were submitted do we?

The previous 2 key takeover bids weren't up to scratch, as much as people wanted them to be. Staveley had various payment plan/options with relegation clauses etc included, none of which totalled £350m (iirc). She was banking on a reduced price due to relegation risk. Kenyon maybe agreed a price but didn't seemingly have the backing for it. This bid has nothing to do with them, and they failed for a reason. Nothing to say this won't fail for another reason, but shouldn't be tarred with the same brush. We shall see I guess but personally don't think there is a conspiracy at play.

Well of course we would. Guess its lucky there is sufficient evidence of a takeover then But assuming you're implying it's a massive conspiracy, will we be any less raging and sweaty if it collapses and Rafa hasn't signed?

BZG statements and NUFC/Ashley/Premier League no comments are the only things I'm paying attention to. Based on these I think it's looking positive. Obviously could breakdown on a Ashley whim. Anything else should be assigned to the braindead Twitter thread and several posters should be assigned to a crushing Thor-esque ban hammer.

Gallowgate Bell End

Are you living under a rock? Think he needs a cuddle to be honest. Preferably with the rock he's living under.

A lot of the local journos scepticism is based on prior failed takeovers. Which is fine, but based on nothing factual about this specific potential takeover. Yet they pad out a whole article out of it.

Plot twist... Takeover completed, they let Rafa's contract expire, bring back Pards and spends 250m on 5 world class left backs at his behest for onerous substitutions.

Only thing stopping me for a 3rd consecutive is that this guy was apparently a bit flakey on his Liverpool bid.

If they offered 2bn for Liverpool, I can only assume the difference over the 350m will be spent on bringing Messi in to spearhead our top 4 push.

FFS :lol:

Portsmouth and Charlton will be coming in to the playoffs on a high and in form. Sunderland blew their cup final and auto promotion in the last few weeks. Morale must be shot and Ross doesn't seem to be the man to boost them.

:lol:

They don't need reimbursing and no cash payments were made to the players, just accounting adjustments.

I don't have an issue with the £33m really, nor with him refusing to finance the club anymore. The key aspect is the lack of commercial revenue as it's frittered on Sports Direct. Any idea how our commercial revenue compares to other clubs?

We’re not in debt. He owns the club, it’s his debt not the clubs. A club can’t be in debt to it’s owner, that’s just bullshit Wrong. How so? Nobody owns the club other than Mike Ashley. On a balance sheet it can be shown as debt but when the debt is to the owner it’s just accounting bollocks. If I spend £10k putting a new kitchen in, my house isn’t in debt to me. Well of course not. What a ridiculous analogy. That would just be you buying something for your house out of your personal funds. If Ashley had done similar to that when NUFC had to pay off the existing loans then there would be no debt. He didn't and I don't think anyone would have expected him to do so. However, had he simply refinanced the debt with a bank we would have likely paid it all off by now. Right, so you buy a business, for example a coffee shop. You work out the coffee machine needs replacing for £4K so you buy one. Is the coffee shop then gonna be in debt to you, or just worth £4K more? Again, this is utterly stupid because this isn't what has happened here. That would be the case if Ashley had just given the money to club to pay off the bank debt as a gift. He didn't. If you loan the coffee shop £4k from either yourself or one of your other businesses and expect that money to be paid back, then yes it is a debt. If you gift the coffee shop the £4k then no it isn't a debt. But you own the coffee shop, so you own the debt? Dude, just Google the difference between a limited company and a sole trader.

Probably more to do with cashflow than anything. The kitty will be based on profits I assume but as the TV money (for example) is spread out through the year, the cash for a January transfer might not come in until later in the year.