CornwallRam

Wayne Rooney has gone down in my estimation over the last year.

It's impossible for us to ever get a better anthem that Steve Bloomer's Watching.

I'd rather Derby vs Forest games were played without a crowd - it was so much better in lockdown. 

That Curtis Davies is such an embarrassment to the club.

Our recruitment improved so much without Simon Clough.

I wonder if Quantuma have a Plan B?

Not suggesting that Kirchner won't complete, but things could get very awkward if he doesn't. If we don't pay the wages on, I believe, Friday, there's an instant 3 point penalty and another layer of transfer embargo.

Do they have another emergency loan lined up? Or maybe that'll be the trigger for Ashley swoop in. You would really hope that they have a contingency plan.

13 minutes ago, RipleyRich said:

The Buchanan situation is very different to Jagielka.

Jags contract expired ( or would have done)

The option on Buchanan forms part of his existing contract which I don't believe is affected by the embargo 

Rooney said a couple of months ago that we couldn't take up the option on Buchanan because of the embargo.

I think that the Buchanan extension is very significant. Our embargo was so rigid that we couldn't even extend Jagielka. Something had obviously changed dramatically. 

The best case is that the takeover is complete and they are just waiting to announce it. However, the worst case is that the EFL have relaxed the restrictions in order that we will be able to field a team, even if we're still in adminstration - presumably subject to Quantuma finding the cash. Not perfect, but at least we would still have a club next season. 

I also wonder if its something to do with dropping into League 1. Maybe because P&S no longer applies to us, some of the restrictions and punishments don't apply.

We will be the new Premier League champions. We will be the first winners after the 'big 8' joined the European Super League. 

It will have been a remarkable rise as we will have been through three administrations and relegation to the Conference. Chris Kirchner's regime ended in ignomony, when he ceased to fund the club in early 2023 as he failed to make enough profit. 

We will have played home games at Milton Keynes and Chesterfield before finally being taken over by the Shandong Luneng Group and achieving 4 back to back promotions.

Pride Park has been re-united with the club and refurbished. The East Stand now has a second tier and there are huge screens above the North and South stands. The Cabacity is 39,000, which we fill regularly.

Just reading a post from @Ambitiousin the Bielik thread. He mentions the player's book value. 

Does anyone know what actually happens to these values post-administration? Is it am opportunity to write all the values down?

1 minute ago, Wolfie said:

Surely whatever business plan we've had to agree with the EFL will trump any pre-existing spending rules.

That's a good point. The business plan is likely to be far more restrictive than SMCP.

4 hours ago, 24Charlie said:

We can't afford Lawrence. His wages are far too high for our budget. It doesn't matter whether CK is worth £5m or £5bn he can only put a finite amount of money into the club without breaking FFP. 

We will be operating on a similar or even smaller budget than many League 1 clubs due to us having to pay creditors 35% over three years which will have to come out of club income.

Tough road ahead still. 

That's not actually correct.

There's no FFP/P&S in League 1. It's SCMP. As a relegated club, we are restricted to spending 75% of our turnover on salaries. However, equity injections count as turnover. If Kirchner actually wanted to and could afford to, the rules would allow him to retain Lawrence. 

Having said that, we know a song about unaffordable wage bills.

I've regularly asked this question over the years; why would anyone other than a billionaire playboy or a super-wealthy fan buy a Championship club?

The question remains valid, although we're now a League 1 club at best. Why would you pour millions down the drain trying to build a team who might just get promotion to the Premier, but most likely will just hoover up your fortune?

I think the answer probably is that the only other realistic owner is a chancer taking a gamble. I suspect that's what Kirchner is. That's not to be too harsh on him - he's the best we can hope for and he's far better than oblivion. 

With stakes this high however, chancers won't be gambling with their own money. This will be a leveraged buy out. Kirchner will need the stadium as security. That's why he needs to buy it at a discount. Imo, he simply will not buy the club (including the stadium) for more than he can eventually borrow against it. He'll be aware that he'll need to stabilise things and make DCFC look like a big club again to fully leverage his asset. But as soon as he can, he'll look to recover all of his 'investment' and fund a promotion push by borrowing more. 

If it succeeds, he'll make a good profit. If it fails, we'll be back in administration in a couple of years. Hopefully though, the next time it won't have Mel's 'clever' structure acting as a lead weight. And the next chancer will be easier to attract. 

That's not to be too disparaging; in our current situation, we're not going to attract anyone better than Kirchner and sometimes gambles pay off. Better to be a chancer's roulette bet than to be the big club who died.

I can't believe how many pointless posts there are on this thread.?

Just now, Mihangel said:

Feeling very positive but slightly concerned that CK's jet is en route back to the US! Hopefully popping back to say hello, get his pants cleaned and then over here on Monday ?

Just gone to pick his check (sic) book up.

Put me down as Dave Langan. Competent conventional right-back with a bit of pace for the occasional overlap.

At least I was 25 years ago. I suspect Dave himself could outpace me now and he was on crutches last time I saw him.

2 hours ago, LeedsCityRam said:

 

Worst case scenario would be having to field players from our under 18s and under 23s. Exactly the same thing happened to Bolton in 2019/20 & they predictably finished second bottom of League One. No suggestion at that time that the EFL wouldn't allow it.

FWIW I dont believe for a second that will happen. We will exit administration over the next few weeks but I don't believe it will be with Kirchner as owner.

We don't have enough young players under contract to even do that. Our embargoes have been more savage than any other team has suffered. 

I suspect that we could agree a deal to sign players on very low wages to allow us to put a side out, if we could show we had enough funding. 

2 minutes ago, Bald Eagle's Barmy Army said:

If he’s in Bangkok he could sign from any hole. 

Language Timothy ?

27 minutes ago, Boycie said:

Can anyone remember when things were relatively normal?

I’d say post Keogh Wembley game for about 6months until the Bryson wages news struck.

Then the whole 3 ring circus went into full swing.

We all know the common denominator.

I miss GSE me.

11 points, Robbie Savage and sheep masks?

10 minutes ago, enachops said:

What’s the point of Ashley accepting a 15 point deduction and then pumping money in to fast track us? Surely you’d pay enough to avoid the 15 points. It’d be a lot quicker. All hypothetical as he probably won’t bid anyway. We just need to hope CK can pull summat together. A BIG 48 hours awaits. 

A possible reason is that the new owner has to follow an EFL business plan, which is likely to prevent any promotion push for two seasons.

It's quite possible that the plan is to acquire the club for as little as possible and just to keep things ticking over for two seasons and then starting to invest significantly in the second summer. 

Administration is such a rubbish option. I still can't believe that Mel would have done it unless he was really desperate. That's why I'm hesitant to criticise him too viscerally; I wonder if there's a story that we just don't know about.

On 09/05/2022 at 21:40, kevinhectoring said:

Spot on. 80m was never right but all MM has asked for is enough to pay off MSD. Many choose to ignore that inconvenient truth and talk about him making money from the stadium 

Maybe the stadium is worth £70m in League 1, but the club is worth -£45m?

Derby

Derby

Derby 

Leicester 

Derby

Derby

5 hours ago, Strider said:

Wish CC all the best, a well above average broadcaster at local radio level so was always destined to leave.

His replacement? Have to admit I am a fan of Colin Gibson, but don't think he'll fancy being the "main man" again. I like Dave Fletcher too but don't think he would have time alongside all the cricket stuff as well. So I'm assuming will be a new face.

I really hope that it's not @Owen87ITK. Not that Owen wouldn't be brilliant, it's just that it could mean that his present employer has ceased to exist. Not sure I could stand listening to superbly presented BBC RD sports programmes about Burton Albion.

25 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/derby-county-facing-fresh-points-deduction-threat-ahead-of-2022-23-season/

Minus thre-ee points, and don't give a f....

1 hour ago, kevinhectoring said:

Everyone in the media, Q and the EFL saying ‘it’s the stadium’. Why?  The problem is there is simply not enough money in the bid to avoid a points deduction. 

If MM had sold the stadium to a subsidiary of the club, the club would ‘own’ it. But wouldn’t we be in exactly the same position, faced with CK’s bid : Not enough money to avoid a points deduction. I think so (but it’s quite a hard question ). 

CK is a bit of an illusion artist in how he has presented his bid. And it will force MM to write one last cheque...
 

(This wasn’t really a response to your comment about the EFL PdP, it was just a more, general vent. Hope you don’t mind me piggybacking  )

 

 

I still don't get how the numbers stack up around the points deduction. We don't owe much (in this context) to unsecured creditors. So the difference between 10% and 25% is likely to be in the region of £1m - which CK wouldn't consider as worth -15 surely?

It only becomes a significant if HMRC are classed as an unsecured creditor, but then figure for a takeover becomes a lot lower than is reported.

5 hours ago, sunnyhill60 said:

MA and -15 points (and no Rooney) would mean league 2 to follow 23/24. No sane businessman would see this as "value"

I think Mike Ashley's plan is League 2 for next season with no imposed business plan. Sports Direct pay us £20m for advertising - which is a tax loss for them. We walk League 2 and by 23/24 we're a very competitive League 1 side.

6 minutes ago, Wolfie20 said:

Not imperative that you have to be bald to own PP

No, but it does help to have a side kick who you can blame when things go wrong.  In fact, has anyone  ever seen @Boycie and Stephen Pearce in the same room?

Just charge 10p to refresh this page - I'd already be in for about a quarter of the stadium loan.

35 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

Is this local businessman buying it outright or covering the shortfall of CK offer?

Say MM wants 25m, if CK is willing to pay 15m, this new guy pays the other 10m meaning CK owns 60% of the ground

I've heard it's a Derby fan from Grimsby. Apparently he's done brilliantly from a website he owns. 5 million hits on one thread alone.