We've seen their... versions of events already. Remember when they came here and boasted of the events at OGC Nice. Investing in their academy. The huge ground. Champions league football. When you started to dig, and noted the timelines, you saw that much of what was in place had nothing to do with them. I've no doubt they'll be putting words out already about how successful they've been. Finishing 5th, record wages (we're hearing that already despite going hand in hand with record losses), youngest team in the league, built on data, blah blah. Relegations will be glossed over as a cruel curse of fate from a 20% owner not playing ball, and brexit, and the collapse of the transfer market and covid. And just like with our government, sometimes there is an element of or an illusion of truth. But when you truly dig, it's a mixture of nonsense and something much worse. In terms of clubs they may want to buy, if a club is struggling and is cheap, or if the SPAC is used so its not ConLee's money, the selling club will just want to get rid. Unless the selling owners are passionate fans, I'm not sure why they would care what happens after they've sold.
For now. Think the attention the AS Nancy protests are getting is of some concern because Chien Lee couldn't get over there to meet them quick enough!
Does the difficulty of bringing young players from europe in after brexit also give them an excuse? Maybe even an incentive to get out.
2 years under the current MO and we’ll be there. I totally agree with you - I thought we’d move on from destroying goodwill & momentum (Ritchie after getting promoted, Hecky after getting promoted) and then be able to finally build a Championship level base and progress. It’s now just chaos. No cohesive plan, no direction, absence of leadership at all levels. We’ll be in Lge 1 quite a while, because I don’t think this lot have the will or knowledge to turn things around.
They'll certainly use it as an excuse, but given they bought the club in December 2017 and the EU referendum was in June 2016 they should have considered that in their due diligence. And even though we hadn't left the EU when they bought us, it was known we wanted to leave the customs union and single market and the path for signing European based players and coaches at our level was likely to be much more difficult.
I do if they dont see a way to get it back better to lose a few million and leave reputation intact and chalk it off to a bad choice - win some (eg Nice allegedly) lose some but no point throwing good money after bad. I think a lot depends on this summer though, if we can sell several higher earners for decent cash and reduce the wage bill have a year of consolodation in L1 and see where we are next year I expect they would stay. If no one wants our players I think they will be looking for the least expensive way out
Without some coherent plan I dont think we will be in L1 for all that long to be honest, bigger sides than us have been in L2 and I remember Burnley only staying in the league on the last day of the season not so many years ago
At this stage i think i'd take league one for a while as the only way i can see us getting out of that league any time soon is via relegation.
You only really lose money when you actually sell (in their world). If they don't feel the need to sell, and believe in their model and strategy, then they'll expect to see success at some point - either commercially or on the pitch. If they realised that the latter drove the former then we might not be where we are today.
They don't throw any money though do they? Good or bad, they don't throw any at all. So the only risk is that initial outlay of around £6m. Signing a new lease on Oakwell for 100 years might add a small amount of value to the club? Who knows what else they might have planned (I'm not suggesting anything by the way). A promising season or two in League One playing attacking, pressing football might also increase the value of our players. Basically, everything we didn't do this season.
Big question will be how much they would want a crack at owning a different English club. If they do, then they will hold out and try and limit the damage until a buyer is found. If they don’t, they won’t hesitate to call in the administrators.
I disagree actually. I suspect there would be more wriggle room if they had a target British club. Losing £1m or so is pocket change if it means they can get what they perceive to be a higher calibre of club with more scope to do whatever it is they think they are capable of doing.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. They’ll try to sell the club rather than put it into admin if they want another crack in the EFL. But that period between them deciding they want to get rid and actually getting rid won’t be pretty.
I've genuinely got no idea. I'll take @Archerfield views every day of the week. I assume he's some kind of finance/accounts person. certainly seems to come across like he knows what he's talking about. i see three scenarios they sell for a profit on their investment they cut their losses, bail out and concentrate on Europe they hang around until they recoup the money they're after genuinely can't see #1. I just can't, for reasons I've banged on enough about #2 is wishful thinking, but again personally I just can't see them going that way. yet. that haven't with any other Club that leaves #3 for me. probably more use of Club coffers to repay their debts. possibly eventually lands us back at #2, but with us in L2 personally have the sinking feeling that things will get worse before they get better. hope I'm wrong.
