It's happening. 

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/17405193.bolton-wanderers-close-to-takeover-from-uk-based-consortium/

Thank fuck

Alternative interested parties & the admins wanting to entertain them are 2 completely separate points 

it’s apparent that the admins are tunnel visioned on FV as they are so far down the road 

it does ask the question, if the FV deal collapses would they look at alternatives at the 11th hour? The noise they’re making suggests not 

they obviously think if this deal doesn’t happen no other ever will so it’s time to pull the shutters down and move on  

1 minute ago, Burndens Bogs said:

Imo FV fully deserve the club +hotel, if they can get the deal over the line.

The last thing we need is a late bidder complicating things - time is of the essence for us.

If they get it done and the reports about MJ are true then he deserves backing regardless. Gone from changing debt to equity to be involved with the club to being the main backer for them. 

I know Paul Appleton has stated no one else has bid for the club other than FV but has Quantuma actually stated anything for the Hotel. 

Just now, SilentBob said:

Not true. It's been known there are 2 interested for hotel. Nixon's claim is that club admins rejected the other bidder because FV are preferred and they want them to complete, so they're trying to get the hotel deal done first. 

Whether it's true or not is for you to decide, but he's not said they're in for the club yet, but they want it if they can get hotel. 

The thing is Nixon claims they've not even seen club books yet. We've seen enough "interested parties" here and elsewhere suddenly not so interested when they do. Imagine how long due diligence would take? And unless someone puts money in - can't see how they can realistically complete in time. 

2 minutes ago, SilentBob said:

Not true. It's been known there are 2 interested for hotel. Nixon's claim is that club admins rejected the other bidder because FV are preferred and they want them to complete, so they're trying to get the hotel deal done first. 

Whether it's true or not is for you to decide, but he's not said they're in for the club yet, but they want it if they can get hotel. 

We aren't a Hotel. we are a Football Club. Whilst the two are intrinsically linked, the other bid was for just the Hotel. aside from the fact they are joined together, no one here gives a fuck about the Hotel. The Administrator (of the Club) said there was only one bid "for the Club".

Just now, bwfcfan5 said:

The thing is Nixon claims they've not even seen club books yet. We've seen enough "interested parties" here and elsewhere suddenly not so interested when they do. Imagine how long due diligence would take? And unless someone puts money in - can't see how they can realistically complete in time. 

They don't need to see the books if they know FV offer of £24m was the highest by far and is enough to get the job done. If his report is even close to being true that they've showed hotel admins £33m and the hotel is about £7.5m then they can clearly afford it. 

Again, not for me to say whether it's true or not, but if they know the price and have the cash, they don't need to go through it all. He also says it takes Ken out of it if they get the hotel. Not sure how that works though. 

3 minutes ago, SilentBob said:

Not true. It's been known there are 2 interested for hotel. Nixon's claim is that club admins rejected the other bidder because FV are preferred and they want them to complete, so they're trying to get the hotel deal done first. 

Whether it's true or not is for you to decide, but he's not said they're in for the club yet, but they want it if they can get hotel. 

To me, there was a well publicised bidding process, everyone had a chance to pay up  and see the books. FV did so and subsequently put the money in to keep the club going. They are thus in the driving seat. Anyone seeking to come in at the last minute would have to deal with FV and get them to stand aside. 

Instead you have undeclared people from mysterious groups who do their business through a Sun journalists twitter account. I don't think that's the way to build trust.

1 minute ago, Nordkurve said:

We aren't a Hotel. we are a Football Club. Whilst the two are intrinsically linked, the other bid was for just the Hotel. aside from the fact they are joined together, no one here gives a fuck about the Hotel. The Administrator (of the Club) said there was only one bid "for the Club".

Hotel matters quite a bit. If FV lose out on the hotel that kills their bid. If the hotel goes to the wrong people who don't give a shit about the club we're fucked and they'll enjoy the land once we've gone bust. 

Getting the hotel first makes them the only bidders left for the club if they want it, unless FV are suddenly fine with not having the hotel. 

Just now, SilentBob said:

They don't need to see the books if they know FV offer of £24m was the highest by far and is enough to get the job done. If his report is even close to being true that they've showed hotel admins £33m and the hotel is about £7.5m then they can clearly afford it. 

Again, not for me to say whether it's true or not, but if they know the price and have the cash, they don't need to go through it all. He also says it takes Ken out of it if they get the hotel. Not sure how that works though. 

Its not that simple - you only need look at Bury. They had a CVA agreed so in theory was a fixed amount. The complexities are huge here - you don't buy BWFC without due diligence. And they need a 2 year plan approved by the EFL with funding in place for it. That requires due diligence. No way will they do that in "24 hours". Nixon is talking nonsense about the process. You don't just rock up with a bag of cash. There are lots and lots of things to negotiate. Things that FV have spent weeks and weeks doing. The reason that group pulled out of Bury. 

 

 

Just now, ProfessorWoland said:

To me, there was a well publicised bidding process, everyone had a chance to pay up  and see the books. FV did so and subsequently put the money in to keep the club going. They are thus in the driving seat. Anyone seeking to come in at the last minute would have to deal with FV and get them to stand aside. 

Instead you have undeclared people from mysterious groups who do their business through a Sun journalists twitter account. I don't think that's the way to build trust.

Agreed, 100%. I do have a bit of a problem with the admins being so tunnel visioned on FV, but again, we don't know what other bidders have come and gone. Or how many are completely fictional. 

I suppose my main issue is that they haven't seemingly put any public pressure on and don't care when it's done. They only put out a statement about liquidation after EFL gave us an ultimatum. 

FV deserve a lot of credit for sticking around for so long, but also can't help but feel dragging it on for over 2 months isn't the way you want to go about taking over. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence. 

Just now, SilentBob said:

Agreed, 100%. I do have a bit of a problem with the admins being so tunnel visioned on FV, but again, we don't know what other bidders have come and gone. Or how many are completely fictional. 

I suppose my main issue is that they haven't seemingly put any public pressure on and don't care when it's done. They only put out a statement about liquidation after EFL gave us an ultimatum. 

FV deserve a lot of credit for sticking around for so long, but also can't help but feel dragging it on for over 2 months isn't the way you want to go about taking over. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence. 

Can I ask why do you think the EFL gave us an ultimatum?

1 minute ago, SilentBob said:

Agreed, 100%. I do have a bit of a problem with the admins being so tunnel visioned on FV, but again, we don't know what other bidders have come and gone. Or how many are completely fictional. 

I suppose my main issue is that they haven't seemingly put any public pressure on and don't care when it's done. They only put out a statement about liquidation after EFL gave us an ultimatum. 

FV deserve a lot of credit for sticking around for so long, but also can't help but feel dragging it on for over 2 months isn't the way you want to go about taking over. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence. 

I don't think the admin necessarily had a choice? They instigated the process, they publicised it, they solicited the bids and they announced FV as the only show in town. From that point, I think they may well have been legally bound to see the process through, otherwise FV would be in court joining Bassini, Uncle Tom Cobley and all...

1 minute ago, bwfcfan5 said:

Can I ask why do you think the EFL gave us an ultimatum?

Get it done or you're being kicked out of the league doesn't seem like an ultimatum to you? 

Just now, SilentBob said:

Get it done or you're being kicked out of the league doesn't seem like an ultimatum to you? 

No I mean - why do you think they decided to do it? At that point....

Just now, ProfessorWoland said:

I don't think the admin necessarily had a choice? They instigated the process, they publicised it, they solicited the bids and they announced FV as the only show in town. From that point, I think they may well have been legally bound to see the process through, otherwise FV would be in court joining Bassini, Uncle Tom Cobley and all...

I suppose the main issue is funding.They clearly knew FV were having issues and unable to pay what they wanted. PFA loans, paying in instalments (reportedly, again could be bullshit), etc. 

They deserve massive credit for sticking it through and trying to get it done, but being a preferred bidder with HoT agreed for over 2 months seems to be more than long enough to get it done. Surely there's a reasonable timescale involved with it somewhere? 

19 minutes ago, Nordkurve said:

Wasn't Bassini in charge of Watford when they were in the Premier League ? If so, that kind of ruins that debate. I'm sure several other Premier League clubs have also been under the microscope regarding the club owners actions over the last few years.

They were in the championship 

Season or two later after he had gone they got beat in the play off final and he sent gloating texts to the local paper 

1 minute ago, bwfcfan5 said:

No I mean - why do you think they decided to do it? At that point....

Oh, my bad, misunderstood. Honestly, there's probably a few reasons why they did it at that specific time. Mainly because we probably can't fulfil fixtures and they don't want to be seen treating us with preference over the likes of Bury. 

Admins could have mentioned liquidation themselves anytime in the last month if that's their attempt at putting on some public pressure. Instead they waited until EFL has done it for them and then released it right after. I said earlier on today that I think he's bluffing about starting liquidation, because it makes no sense to do it while being so close to a deal - but, I also know there isn't the money to keep running, so how long the delay before the liquidation starts, who knows. 

4 minutes ago, SilentBob said:

I suppose the main issue is funding.They clearly knew FV were having issues and unable to pay what they wanted. PFA loans, paying in instalments (reportedly, again could be bullshit), etc. 

They deserve massive credit for sticking it through and trying to get it done, but being a preferred bidder with HoT agreed for over 2 months seems to be more than long enough to get it done. Surely there's a reasonable timescale involved with it somewhere? 

I don't know enough of what's gone on behind the scenes to offer an opinion, I have no idea if the delay are down to FV or due to the manoeverings and machinations of other parties.

I know where my money would be though if I had a bet on it...

4 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

They were in the championship 

Season or two later after he had gone they got beat in the play off final and he sent gloating texts to the local paper 

Fair enough, then it could well be the EFL are not using the standards in the Prem etc. I wonder if he was telling Watford Fans he loves the Club etc before taking the piss after the Play off Final ?

Just now, ProfessorWoland said:

I don't know enough of what's gone on behind the scenes to offer an opinion, I have no idea if the delay are down to FV or due to the manoeverings and machinations of other parties.

I know where my money would be though if I had a bet on it...

Can't disagree, there's definitely been some dodgy happenings. I just don't know how you go from signing a HoT with a quick time frame for the deal to be completed, to needing PFA loans to even pay players. 

Not sure what happens to the money FV have already put in if they get gazumped at this point though.

2 hours ago, MickyD said:

Would that donation of £20 be as well as the entrance fee? Let's face it, no way, even when things are as perilous as they currently are for the club, we're getting 25k on. People don't seem to realise that it's partly the fault of the stay-away thousands who helped to create this situation.

It really isn’t. You can’t even buy a season ticket. Ken and co as well as previous owners have made the club nigh on impossible to sell.

5 minutes ago, Nordkurve said:

Fair enough, then it could well be the EFL are not using the standards in the Prem etc. I wonder if he was telling Watford Fans he loves the Club etc before taking the piss after the Play off Final ?

You only have to look at the owners Leeds have had in the past few years to know the EFL's process isn't fit for purpose 

It would take someone really special I.e. Bassini to fail that test 

24 minutes ago, Nordkurve said:

Fair enough, then it could well be the EFL are not using the standards in the Prem etc. I wonder if he was telling Watford Fans he loves the Club etc before taking the piss after the Play off Final ?

That's a great point. Imagine being gullible enough to back that cunt because he shouts "I love this club" through a megaphone, then a couple of years later he's dancing on your grave. No wonder Watford fans hate him so much. 

Sorry if someone’s posted can’t be arsed going back 

BEN says gillingham & Bradford not effected so there must be funds to keep going? 

1 minute ago, radcliffewhite1 said:

Sorry if someone’s posted can’t be arsed going back 

BEN says gillingham & Bradford not effected so there must be funds to keep going? 

I think they're merely saying that the games haven't automatically been postponed because of the suspension.

Whether we have the cash to fulfil the fixtures is something we'll inevitably find out when the team coach is due to leave on Friday.