Ian Buxton's Bat

9 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

I agree that Quantuma felt Kirchner was basically it, especially if they had had no other viable bids made at that stage (6 months+ into the process).  And it absolutely made sense to give him as much chance as possible to complete the deal.   But I still don't see how it makes sense for Kirchner to be a proper chancer.  I just don't get what's in it for him.  The only thing that makes any sense for me, is that he did intend to buy the club, but either he genuinely had problems transferring the money over or got cold feet at the last minute.  He's convinced so many people that he was genuine (Quantuma, the EFL, Cook, Rooney, Stretford, Preston and so on), burned through a load of his own cash and trashed his reputation over here, for seemingly no gain at all.

Sorry if it's been posted previously - some interesting stuff on Linked In re Kirchner and non payment of Slync staff.

Basically gone through loads of dogs eating homework style excuses and has finally admitted that late payment was because of "inability to liquidate funds" i.e. he may be rich on paper but can't get his hands on cash to pay his employees in the USA......let alone buy a football club in England.

1 hour ago, Anag Ram said:

I’d like us to gamble on one or two non league players who are on their way up. 

There must be plenty out there and I’d rather have a young guy who’s full of confidence having scored a hatful of goals than a journeyman on the way down who might spend a lot of time on the treatment table.

Kabongo Tshimanga - scored for fun in National League for Chesterfield last year. Scored v Chelsea in the FA cup I think.

2 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

Has anyone been down Allestree Park?

(or maybe Kedleston Rd, didn't we do fitness checking down there one season?)

Arthur used to run them around near the golf course at Allestree before GPS and sports science was invented

4 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

No one person is bigger than the club.

Timing seems totally inappropriate but I guess the reasons behind it will come out at some later juncture. 

Timing might be reasonably well judged if he's wanted out for a while - waited until the club was 'saved' (albeit the fat lady hasn't quite sung yet) rather than jumping off a sinking ship.

5 minutes ago, TomG said:

Now I don't want to sound like a 'Killjoy', but with DC being a wealthy, local businessman who is also a life-long Derby County fan, have we not all heard something not too dissimilar to this before from a certain Mel Morris?  Just sayin'!

Take your point but, from what I can gather, Mel made his money from speculating on new internet thingies at a time when, if you had a great idea, worked hard and got lucky, you could make shed loads. Nothing wrong with that.

But he used the same logic of speculating and hoping to be lucky with our club.

David Clowes, runs a solid, profitable business in a mature industry. I hope he does the same for us.

4 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

At times it feels like the recruitment team acts like fans. They scour the leading scorers table, football league team of the week and expiring contracts section then start making enquiries. I never get the feeling we have scouts at non-league games or watch a player for a protracted period.

When was our last really inspirational signing of an unknown?

Igor. Unknown to me at least. I remember leaving Prenton Park after that 5-1 drubbing feeling on top of the world as it was crystal clear we'd go places with him running the show.

For the minute........or once we're given the green light to recruit / re-sign........ I'd put my trust in whoever cobbled together Freebie Utd last year. Whether it was WR or someone else, they did a cracking job in the circumstances.

19 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

Rooney was trumpeting in November that we would stay up, attracting a lot of attention. Pouring fuel on Gibson’s fire. Where were you when @RoyMac5(and several of my other admirers) peppered me with laughing emojis for saying he should sell the trumpet and buy a boxwood flute ?

I can't remember the exact date of my post but I think I was talking with the benefit of hindsight and a certain degree of irony - I wasn't suggesting that we chuck the towel in at any stage.

I'm no fan of the EFL but in my opinion they NEEDED us to be relegated as a showpiece to deter other clubs from gambling, going bust and then going into admin to wipe the slate clean.

I think I posted this (on page 25 or thereabouts) but our problem was being too good in Nov and Dec which meant further impediments and barriers to weaken the squad (Jags, Shinnie)  and prevent a takeover (Steve Stevie Stephen and Couhig's claims 'having to be resolved').

It's plausible that if we'd been 30 points adrift by Dec and effectively down, then a takeover may have magically happened - we'll never know.

Now that our relegation has been accomplished I'm not sure they want to saddle us with further points deductions - but even if we're in league 2 the season after next I'll be there, season ticket in hand and happy to watch.

12 minutes ago, Woodypecker said:

So sick of our club being the click-fodder subject of these creepy media sub-sleuths with motley EFL connections, posting enigmatic and provocative claptrap, month-on-month.

It will be a relief when these slugs move on to the next crisis club.

Maybe they should trawl the debts and dodges of such as Everton, Man Citeh and the European Super-League contenders, who attract no financial penalties for the their serial transgressions.

Agreed, but unfortunately it's the best we've got a lot of the time.

Rick Parry should be making Q give honest updates to us in terms of timescales as part of allowing us to continue to exist by our fingernails in the EFL....even if it is telling us stuff is not going to happen.

I think if we knew nothing will be announced this week we could get on with some work rather than living on here, refreshing Nixon's twitter and moaning at his cryptic tweets.....when we know there's likely to be a cryptic tweet every time we refresh the bloody thing.

Just a note of caution for those who think a new owner can come in with a dollop of cash and buy the club like an item off ebay and run it from the get go.

It was reported that MA had 'bought Misguided' out of administration last week and I think most of us thought that this was a done deal and he was in charge - but BBC are reporting that the administrators are still running Misguided and that Frasers Group (MA's company) will take over the running of the company in August......minimum of 7 weeks after the deal. No idea why, obviously.

In the meantime misguided are running as per administration (the report is about punters getting no refunds).

We might have Quantuma and admin restrictions around for a little while longer even if we get a buyer this week - as I hope / expect.

8 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

hang on, who said he'd failed the anti laundering checks? For all you know, his money is still held up and he just gave up to allow the club to move on.

Tying to access ~£50k of my own legit money for mortgage purposes. Just made the third call to a 'reputable' financial institution.......first call was 3 weeks ago. Forms are 'in the post' but a back up will be emailed and with me in 2-3 days.

No transatlantic transfers. No laundering checks. Just good old fashioned incompetence. Maybe CK has encountered a bit of the same.

But we move on.........

4 minutes ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

 

You’d hope so.  I can’t remember Quantuma’s phrase in their statement last night but they basically said full and final bid with no caveats.  That should cut both ways.  Bids come in this week, short period of clarification, announced towards the end of next week.

What I don't understand in this 'final bid' is whether the administrators will find themselves conflicted between what's best for the creditors and what's best for the club.

MA could possibly turn up with a briefcase full of cash like you see in the films and another bidder could offer 1p more but it's made up of perfectly legit money they've borrowed from their mates, who've promised to cash their ISA and transfer the money.

I know which I'd go for but not sure it would be legal. 

3 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

No, that's not what I have said, read my posts again. My point is that Ashley is looking to pay the creditors a lot less than CK has said he will.......

I think we're reaching one in the hand or two in the bush decision territory........ 1 real, tangible, available MA pound is better than 2 unavailable CK ones.

Presume RIck Parry will be spelling that out to Q today and letting them know THE deadline.

Nixon tweeting 'big few days ahead' in reply to a query about WR.............doesn't sound like CK money is going to land before tea break this morning, does it?

Bloody hell - don't they know I've got work to do and would like to stop scrolling through this forum and twitter all day long?

if 5 pm rolls round with no CK money, will they actually name a preferred bidder or is it just a mad scramble with first to show enough money closing the deal?

Nipped out for a couple of hours last night and came back to this latest shemozzle.

But.......It looks like Ed Dawes was largely correct and not stirring, it looks like Nixon was semi-correct and that everything was in place/in the pipeline for the CK bid (but not moving fast enough)

.....and, thankfully, it looks like we will be saved - by someone.

Also, thankfully, most of the interested parties are hard-nosed business people who should not be put off by lies, threats, insinuations and insults by a few numpties in our fan base.

That said, it would be nice if we could all rein in abuse so that no potential saviour walks away because of it.

I think we've passed the point of being too choosy.

Is it official that they've ended his period of exclusivity?

5 minutes ago, Cam the Ram said:

I'm probably in the minority here but I appreciate Ed Dawes' efforts today. Seems like most journalists had just accepted that it would be done soon despite it dragging on and CK's and Quantuma's expected completion dates being missed. He might very well be wrong with the information he got this morning (hopefully), but it's got national media attention again and has seemed to give everyone a little nudge to reach a conclusion. 

Agree - I don't think he's a bad bloke and has probably reported in good faith what he's been told.

Generally I'm very much in favour of bringing things to a head - which this may do - but, if bringing it to a head means binning the sale to CK because of genuine red tape in a banking system, then I'd rather sit tight for 'a bit' to see if the money comes through. Not sure what I mean by 'a bit' though!

Re golf......... 5 hours for pros. If CK knows there's TV cameras in the car park he may well be deliberately knocking a few into lakes and deep rough to drag it out a bit more.

Coin toss.

Radio Derby don't usually report anything unless it's pretty certain.

Nixon, thus far, has clearly had decent sources.

32 minutes ago, RAM1966 said:

How do you know its not Morris footing the bill?  It depends whats on the current lease says.  Whats in the EFL rules about standard of pitches?  It maybe  requirement of the EFL to have a certain standard of pitch...

I'm not trying to be the merchant of doom as some are accusing me of, but, if it was all done and dusted why is there a condition on PPS unless the ground is sold?

Contrary to popular belief, I like CK, O just have reservations as to his funding model, surely purchasing the ground would have been a long term aspiration, if he is in it for the long haul?

Looking at L1 highlights on Quest, it seems a mud:sand:grass ratio of around 45:45:10 is OK for some.

I think the fact that they're doing the pitch is a positive sign. Remember, at one point last season, they had to turn those mobile lamps / grass-growing thingies off to save a few quid.......and at that stage Mel owned the ground.

Anyone actually know if Mike Ashley has made a bid or not?

I could go around town saying I was going to bid for a particular house on a particular street and even put my spokesperson on telly to say how interested I was but, unless I picked up the phone to the estate agent, it'd just be noise.

7 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Alan Nixon reporting that we’re looking at renting Bet 365 stadium or King Power. If this is true Mel needs burning at the stake.

Hopefully this is non-news or brinksmanship but I hope he understands the issue of club roots vs mobile franchises. They'd lose our 3 ST's with a move to either of those and, quite frankly I'd rather watch a phoenix club locally.

34 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

So then, the theory is that he was genuine all along. He tried to get it done ASAP but the deal he offered wasn't as good as the administrators thought they could get elsewhere. 

He walks away and considers Preston where he feels he could get better value. The administrators have realised they can't get a better offer and Mel/council have been pushed to sweeten the deal to no avail. Kirchner comes back to the table and they snatch his hand off now?

It does kinda make sense...but I'm still confused. Who were they referring to about time wasting? Is it him and this is all fantasy...or is it Ashley who has kept hinting at an offer but actually now they realise he is just waiting for a deal that saves him every last penny and in the meantime they seem inept as the deadline keeps being missed and the offer is worse than the Kirchner one they could have accepted in December? 

 

We didn't know it at the time but no bids were actual bids back then (i.e. couldn't be put forward to the EFL) because of the Boro and Wycombe situation. I suspect if the EFL had told Boro and Wycome to do one pre-Xmas then he may well have closed the deal. Whether that would have meant -15 points and nailed on relegation I don't know. All hypothetical - but fingers crossed it goes through now.

17 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

This is a huge point.

The points deduction alone is not the end of the "punishment". It is far more than just that.

The EFL - being the governing body - should be there to protect its members, not obliterate them.

I dunno if this has been said ? but the EFL are just not fit for purpose.

In my opinion the major problem we've had is that Wayne and his threadbare squad were just too bloody good in the first half of the season. If we'd been rubbish, the -21 would have almost guaranteed relegation by Xmas and EFL/Boro may have taken their knee off our necks in time for a PB in January which would have enabled us to possibly sign players and renew contracts.

From a PB perspective, if they'd bought/got moving in Jan they would have probably been looking at a championship club.......and if we'd been rubbish they'd have been pretty much buying a L1 club but with the prospect of a decent squad.

As it is, we've still got a sniff of staying up and they can't let that happen - minus 12 has always guaranteed relegation in the past so minus 21 MUST guarantee relegation.

Once that's confirmed I think they'll leave us alone but in a terrible state.

Paradoxically, totally over-achieving this season may lead to several seasons of pain and even liquidation.

23 minutes ago, LazloW said:

RE: Barnsley, it must’ve been blindingly obvious to anybody (other than the EFL) that by not telling Boro and Wycombe to ‘do  one’ they we’re going to open a floodgate of similar claims.
Having said that, Barnsley don’t really have a legitimate claim. Could be quite funny though if it gets dragged out like the Boro issue did.

Don't forget we're in admin and we had/have a knee on our neck, the EFL ignoring insolvency law and a clock ticking - therefore very limited scope to see the parasites claims laughed at in a court of law. I would presume that if Reading stay solvent they would either point Barnsley to the EFL or say 'take us to court then'. 

I agree EFL have opened floodgates to all sorts of legal nonsense but don't see any club getting shafted from all directions like we have unless they go into admin.

Ultimately it could cause some clubs to go into admin if costs of, say, upwards of £40m are awarded to the aggrieved party.