Jaybako

As threadbare and rock bottom as we are, if we can get the new owner installed or at least ratified before the end of January, and get some embargo’s lifted to allow loans in, I’d ship Ugbo out on loan for the 2nd half of the season to league 1 or 2 as fast possible. Take him out the firing line and hopefully kickstart start him for next season.

Exactly this

It was mentioned sometime last week that one or more interested parties might be in attendance…… although, if we’re going to the lengths of NDA’s to protect anonymity there’s a good chance they might be hidden away in a box.

From memory, that “there is no current evidence that they are bidding”, (or words to that effect). I think that KW meant that the Waltons aren’t currently bidding. what are you thinking he meant?

Apologies, I didn’t realise you were asking a direct question

To suggest FH reporters can’t know for certain that the Waltons aren’t involved because they don’t categorically know who the 12 interested parties are is a bit of a logical fallacy. The admin team have openly stated the Walton’s aren’t involved. It’s perfectly plausible to know who isn’t involved without knowing who is actually involved. By the logic that you’re hinting at then Mr T, Ant & Dec and my old geography teacher could also all be involved because if they were they’d be covered by NDA.

And, daft as it sounds, the link to John Mclure might just be more telling than we’d think too. Other US parties had probably never heard of SWFC before being presented with the sale opportunity and so to them we’re an unknown project with lots of potential. But, for McEvoy to have spoken to JMc a d for him to have been assured first hand how massive we are and what a neglected opportunity we are, I’m not saying that’s his no.1 motivation but I bet it opened his eyes to the scale of what could be. Or maybe I’m just doing what I criticise others for and am putting 2+2 together and getting a wildly speculative 5

Agreed. Of the 2 I think that’d be McEvoy. Id expect Ashley’s plan would be to stay at Hillsboro and ‘update’ it to a better but minimal standard.

Because it had been done. It just later transpired that it was a rotten bid.

For what it’s worth, right from the start my gut has been saying it’ll either be Mike Ashley or John McEvoy. Not ITK and I’ve certainly got no info to back this up, but it just feels likely to be one of those 2. But the beauty and also the agony of this whole process is that we’ll have to wait and see.

KW literally said in an interview that there’s no evidence of the Waltons bidding. That’s not a hidden message or a clever secretive play on words on his behalf - it just means they aren’t one of the 12 bidders. Seems like there’s some confusion over the NDA status. NDA’s mean you can’t reveal the specifics of the deal and who IS involved. Everyone is at full liberty to discuss and even confirm who ISNT involved. KW could release a statement this afternoon saying ‘Neither the Waltons, Father Xmas, H from Steps or Col Gadafi are involved’ and no one would be breaking an NDA. The denial of any Walton involvement is most likely just to temper our expectations and avoid ‘disappointment’ when we finally do get bought by a billionaire, but not the billionaire we’ve all obsessed about.

I considered Mary Bad’un but i remember we had to get rid of her cos she was a trouble maker.

We definitely paid a fee for di canio mate. £3m plus Blinker if my old faded memory serves.

I always thought he was a free to be honest, that’s why I gave him as my answer. Then I read the other posts about the nominal fee. Transfermarket has him listed as a free for what that’s worth.

Ah. Reading upwards, maybe not

Barry Bannan. End of thread.

We’ve got a paper thin squad thats filled with literal kids and we’re poised to loose 2 players to the ANC for up to 5 weeks. The kids are getting injured at a rapid rate because they’re being asked to do too much too soon physically. Bringing in 2 experienced free agents is the tip of the iceberg. We could do with 6 tomorrow.

Pretty sure I remember reading he’d been strongly linked with Birmingham, Wrexham and Ipswich.

I’m guessing it’ll be cooper and fosu mensah

2 different nuanced conversations happening here. A few experienced free transfers in between now and the completion of the takeover will bolster a current skeleton squad that’s about to be depleted even more, take the pressure off the kids and through experience and guile might help grab an point or 2. If the takeover is completed in time, the general morale boost and 5 or 6 top level loans in January ‘may*’ just give us a dream 2nd half to the season (*its still 1000/1 we stay up even in that case).

Not that we ever needed final confirmation that DC was the only problem stopping us from being sold, but we’ve clearly now got it anyway. 10000 different buyers could’ve confirmed £50m to him ….. and all had the same reaction when he then told them his actual asking price of ‘£29 billion plus a diamond entrusted elephant’.

He absolutely needs to be given the rest of the season. He’s gone above and beyond for us and the players obviously love him. In terms of the future, if the new owners do decide to get more experienced names in, I’d love a CE, DOF and Head of Recruitment to come from the Red Bull tree to continue the foundations we’ve started to lay. In that case HP would deserve the senior coaching role.

I think this probably hits the nail on the head. There’s lots of people commenting who clearly have experience in business administration. I absolutely don’t. I was just repeating my understanding of what I thought the administrator had said as a direct quote. As I’ve said in previous posts I’m more than happy to stand corrected. At the end of the day we all just want the best possible outcome

KW confirmed it himself in his interview with Rob Staton on football heaven last week. That’s the way I understood it anyway. His wording sounded very clear to me. He said “insolvency law” says that the highest bidder wins, once all the checks and ratifications are done and proof of funds and sustainability are established. I’ll happily stand corrected though if I’m wrong.

Agreed. I’d have been happy to have him back.