Dean Holdsworth on verge of takeover

It would seem to me from trying to put all the snippets of information I can find that the club as been bought for just £1 down plus £7.5 million to be spent by the new owners until the end of the season.

After that they are committed to invest a further £12.5 million for the next 5 years.

Now I would guess this £7.5 million is an amount of £3 million to pay the tax bill and £4.5 million to pay the difference between income and expenditure until the end of the season - in other words to allow the club to trade at breakeven until the end of July.

I suspect the further £12.5 million will at least for 2016/17 season again be used to meet the shortfall of the running costs whilst we still have big player wages to be met.

Davies still apparently retains a debt of £15 million in the club.

Maybe this is because if Holdsworth trys to sell the club he would have to find £15 million from the sale to pay back Davies and so maybe there is no incentive to sell the club on.

If this is the case and there is no point selling the club in the short term the best plan would therefore be to make the club as successful and profitable as it can for at least the next few years and either hopefully get back to the Premier riches (£99 million just for finishing bottom without the need to even win a single point next season - madness) or make someone else want to buy it and make a handsome profit on the deal.

If so this is good for the club as the mind set is to go forward and not sell off the crown jewels.

I can't see on the surface much if any transfer budget to spend unless additional investment is made, so I guess the business will have to reduce its costs and maximise its income the best it can to give some flexibility.

Whoever is investing into the club will obviously want a healthy return for doing so, so maybe they will be more willing to take a risk and provide additional investment - maybe like how Davies personally bought players (Anelka) and pocketed the money when they were sold.


It would be interesting to see Rammy and Manda's views as they are better place to judge the situation but if I'm right in my assumptions then I think Bolton are in a good place for the next few years financially and we just need to turn things around on the pitch and start winning again in order to at long last to start heading upwards again.

Sluffy - I'll give my view when and if a bit more information emerges, but the amounts involved seem trivial to me. There should be enough cash to see us through until the end of the season- but an additional £12.5 million over the next 5 years is tantamount to petty cash. It gives no scope for expansion of the squad and is grossly insufficient for paying ongoing operational expenditure  on wages etc. Presumably other income streams are being relied on as the gate money is insufficient for covering expenditure.
If there are outstanding loans to pay off as well then we're not that much better off than we were 12 months ago.
But lets see what transpires, but I guess we're going to see a lot more cost cutting in terms of some of the players on high wages (or overpaid ponces as Nat calls them).
It's interesting that the whole club has been sold for a  down cash payment which approximates to half of Wayne Rooneys annual salary.
With relegated Premiership clubs joining us with a payment for failure of almost £100 million we can get the sale price into perspective. Essentially, unless   a miracle happens  it would seem that we will maintain our Championship status for quite a long time,provided that we can stay in this division this year.
Yesterday I was buoyant, today I'm a bit more gloomy.

Could it be as simple as: Gambling (what is to these mystery high net worth types) a fairly modest sum, in the hope that our solid infrastructure will act as a platform from which to propel the club back to the Promised Land and thus recoup their initial outlay + quite a bit more?

We all know about the untold riches on offer in the Prem thanks to Sky, so maybe they think they can gamble £60 or £70 million in the short term to make £1.5 Billion over the next 10 years?

That appeared to be the plan under Davies but they cocked it up by having a massive squad who were all on £30 k a week, so the operating costs became too high to sustain and that's what (very nearly) killed us.

If the SS lot do it right, they can offload what's left of the high earning shit (or pay them off if necessary to free up space in the squad in the highly likely eventuality that nobody wants them) and bring in experienced Champo players like West Ham did under Allardyce and play them with the youngsters.

Could it really be that simple?

Breadman wrote:Could it be as simple as: Gambling (what is to these mystery high net worth types) a fairly modest sum, in the hope that our solid infrastructure will act as a platform from which to propel the club back to the Promised Land and thus recoup their initial outlay + quite a bit more?

We all know about the untold riches on offer in the Prem thanks to Sky, so maybe they think they can gamble £60 or £70 million in the short term to make £1.5 Billion over the next 10 years?

Could it really be that simple?

It could be,Bredders, but I doubt it. Shelling out £20 million on what I presume will be borrowed money is quite a risk to take in a game that is essentially random in its impact.None of the investors can do anything apart from buy and sell players,and so what happens on the pitch is to some extent outside their control.
For most it's too big a risk unless you are Abramovitch,a Glazer, Kroenke, Sheik Whatsisname, where you can afford to lose a few million.
I wish I had an effective crystal ball, but I don't think we're out of the fire yet.

I've still got some serious doubts about all this but I'm honestly tired of being all negative about the Wanderers and I genuinely hope this works out well.

So I'm not going to waste any more time theorising, speculating and trying to work out what's going on.

We'll never really know and all it does is wind you up, so I'm done with it for a bit.

I'm going to disengage my scepticism for a bit and just get back to cheering the team on and hoping we can survive and prosper.

It feels good already and I've only been at it ten minutes......

Breadman wrote:

I'm going to disengage my scepticism for a bit and just get back to cheering the team on and hoping we can survive and prosper.

It feels good already and I've only been at it ten minutes......

You can have access to my box against Burnley if you like, now that you're back cheering the team on.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Breadman wrote:

I'm going to disengage my scepticism for a bit and just get back to cheering the team on and hoping we can survive and prosper.

It feels good already and I've only been at it ten minutes......

You can have access to my box against Burnley if you like, now that you're back cheering the team on.

Bredders- don't rise to it!!

Breadman wrote:I've still got some serious doubts about all this but I'm honestly tired of being all negative about the Wanderers and I genuinely hope this works out well.

So I'm not going to waste any more time theorising, speculating and trying to work out what's going on.

We'll never really know and all it does is wind you up, so I'm done with it for a bit.

I'm going to disengage my scepticism for a bit and just get back to cheering the team on and hoping we can survive and prosper.

It feels good already and I've only been at it ten minutes......

 I'm with you on that. Just enjoy/suffer the football on offer. Next home game should be lively enough.
The Clown Coyle used to turn up in  a football kit like he still fancied a game- and he looked like an apprentice idiot.
Lets hope that Deano turns up properly dressed

access to your box? Now there's an offer to make you run for the hills 

Can i clarify is that during the game or before and after? May be a bit hard concentrating on the match if its during

Norpig wrote:access to your box? Now there's an offer to make you run for the hills 

Can i clarify is that during the game or before and after? May be a bit hard concentrating on the match if its during

Your reply was full of salacious innuendo- and should only have been made after the 9pm watershed

rammywhite wrote:

Norpig wrote:access to your box? Now there's an offer to make you run for the hills 

Can i clarify is that during the game or before and after? May be a bit hard concentrating on the match if its during

Your reply was full of salacious innuendo- and should only have been made after the 9pm watershed

Sorry Rammy, i didn't realise Mary Whitehouse was your Mum 

Norpig wrote:

rammywhite wrote:

Norpig wrote:access to your box? Now there's an offer to make you run for the hills 

Can i clarify is that during the game or before and after? May be a bit hard concentrating on the match if its during

Your reply was full of salacious innuendo- and should only have been made after the 9pm watershed

Sorry Rammy, i didn't realise Mary Whitehouse was your Mum 

You've found me out. The bitch with her prudery has scarred me for life!

Good luck Deano, but have you really got the cash? Will you be pulling out after a couple of years? We certainly need players now, but is it too late? Is the season a total write of? and exactly how much are we in debt now?

Thousand questions to answer, but at least, for now we will hope the future is better than the recent past

Birch looked harassed and tired which isn't much of a surprise given what's been going on. What does surprise and worry me a little was there was no sign of relief in either his body language or expression. If the deal is all it's cracked up to be by Dean Holdsworth then I would have expected Birch to be smiling at least a little because if the club really is saved under his watch it's a huge feather in his professional cap. 

I'm truly hopeful that this is a real deal and the club will avoid admin but I can't say I'm completely comfortable with it just yet. That said I'm going to follow Breadman's lead and stop worrying about it for a little while and just concentrate on the football. COYWM.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Birch looked harassed and tired which isn't much of a surprise given what's been going on. What does surprise and worry me a little was there was no sign of relief in either his body language or expression. If the deal is all it's cracked up to be by Dean Holdsworth then I would have expected Birch to be smiling at least a little because if the club really is saved under his watch it's a huge feather in his professional cap. 

I'm truly hopeful that this is a real deal and the club will avoid admin but I can't say I'm completely comfortable with it just yet. That said I'm going to follow Breadman's lead and stop worrying about it for a little while and just concentrate on the football. COYWM.

Rumours are emerging that Football league are going to reject the deal. One of the investors is himself filing for insolvency (Michael Collins?).



Also Ken Anderson is another of the investors (a football agent), who was banned from being a company director until 2013 and known for high risk financial strategies.


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Here we fucking go......

If Birch knew this, it explains his demeanour on leaving the court.

Please please can someone post again what a great job ED has done rejecting 50 offers in 4 years to go with SS! I want to hear that rendition of "For he's a jolly good fellow" from Sluffy and Rammy (ps. I'm not being horrible lads. We don't have the same view of ED but that doesn't stop me taking the Michael!) Play nice!

I definitely didn't think anyone involved would have anything dodgy in their past. Very surprised.

FullofSprite wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Birch looked harassed and tired which isn't much of a surprise given what's been going on. What does surprise and worry me a little was there was no sign of relief in either his body language or expression. If the deal is all it's cracked up to be by Dean Holdsworth then I would have expected Birch to be smiling at least a little because if the club really is saved under his watch it's a huge feather in his professional cap. 

I'm truly hopeful that this is a real deal and the club will avoid admin but I can't say I'm completely comfortable with it just yet. That said I'm going to follow Breadman's lead and stop worrying about it for a little while and just concentrate on the football. COYWM.

Rumours are emerging that Football league are going to reject the deal. One of the investors is himself filing for insolvency (Michael Collins?).



Also Ken Anderson is another of the investors (a football agent), who was banned from being a company director until 2013 and known for high risk financial strategies.


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Nowt in that, deal will be confirmed on friday

You've not been wrong on this takeover much so im calm now.