It would appear that the sudden and surprising sale of of Ezri Konsa to Brentford was a consequence of Roland Duchatelet's frustration with the ongoing negotiations for the sale of the club.
Duchatelet took a week off from swanning around his empire in St. Truiden to be at the Valley this week in order to run the rule over the club's running costs and put a red line through what he could. Konsa was sold, Magennis is up for sale and more staff will be losing their jobs. All this when the club has been operating with a skeleton management structure since Meire did a runner at Christmas.
I actually saw the miserable looking billionaire as he wheeled out of the ground onto Harvey Gardens one evening this week. I was taken by surprise and could only manage a venomous stare as he flounced past talking to a colleague.
A weirdly worded comms message on the Official Site spoke of the "club's owners" being in town, deliberately failing to mention him by name. It also made the point that the club needs to prepare for the new season and news followed that Bowyer will stay on in temporary charge of the first team. No doubt we do need to get ready for the new season but the actions look more like a statement of intent designed to up the ante rather than any real concern about the impact of not being ready in August. All this from a man who all but abandoned the running of the football club last season.
Richard Murray has also been forced to comment again and has told the Supporters' Trust that negotiations with two parties (Aussie and British) continue. He either knows no more or is not saying beyond that but it looks like frustration may be the driver for Duchatelet's actions this week and the sale of Konsa will be a deliberate show of strength to the Aussies of Duchatelet's ability at this point to press terms. The Aussies will already have invested heavily in their bid and will be very keen not to be left with nothing.
Rick Everitt has also said that the number of the stakeholders in the Aussie party is hampering negotiations, presumably because there are more opinions, more questions and more approvals to obtain throughout this farcical process. Could that also have been the cause of the EFL's 'fit n proper person' delay?
We have to hope that the deal will get done but there remains the chance that the Aussies will be prepared to draw the line and walk away if Duchatelet tries to push things much further. The sale of Konsa would, presumably, result in a corresponding adjustment to the purchase price but you can be sure that Duchatelet will pocket something from the exchange.
Duchatelet took a week off from swanning around his empire in St. Truiden to be at the Valley this week in order to run the rule over the club's running costs and put a red line through what he could. Konsa was sold, Magennis is up for sale and more staff will be losing their jobs. All this when the club has been operating with a skeleton management structure since Meire did a runner at Christmas.
I actually saw the miserable looking billionaire as he wheeled out of the ground onto Harvey Gardens one evening this week. I was taken by surprise and could only manage a venomous stare as he flounced past talking to a colleague.
A weirdly worded comms message on the Official Site spoke of the "club's owners" being in town, deliberately failing to mention him by name. It also made the point that the club needs to prepare for the new season and news followed that Bowyer will stay on in temporary charge of the first team. No doubt we do need to get ready for the new season but the actions look more like a statement of intent designed to up the ante rather than any real concern about the impact of not being ready in August. All this from a man who all but abandoned the running of the football club last season.
Richard Murray has also been forced to comment again and has told the Supporters' Trust that negotiations with two parties (Aussie and British) continue. He either knows no more or is not saying beyond that but it looks like frustration may be the driver for Duchatelet's actions this week and the sale of Konsa will be a deliberate show of strength to the Aussies of Duchatelet's ability at this point to press terms. The Aussies will already have invested heavily in their bid and will be very keen not to be left with nothing.
Rick Everitt has also said that the number of the stakeholders in the Aussie party is hampering negotiations, presumably because there are more opinions, more questions and more approvals to obtain throughout this farcical process. Could that also have been the cause of the EFL's 'fit n proper person' delay?
We have to hope that the deal will get done but there remains the chance that the Aussies will be prepared to draw the line and walk away if Duchatelet tries to push things much further. The sale of Konsa would, presumably, result in a corresponding adjustment to the purchase price but you can be sure that Duchatelet will pocket something from the exchange.
You said it Dave...what a farce !
ReplyDeleteThe stain of this clowns tenure is going to hamstring us for at least another season , half the teams in the league have strengthened as we continue to weaken, there are no words left for my thoughts towards this man.
ReplyDelete