"The club is not for sale." Meire's latest pronouncement when questioned about the ongoing rumour and tell-tale signs that the club is in the process of being sold. Karl Robinson also told us this a month or two back after he demanded to know if there was any truth in what he was hearing which might suggest he was taken for a mug when appointed several months before. He too was reassured that the club wasn't being sold. It's looking decidedly like 'the club is not for sale" is the final Meire lie, akin to a managerial 'vote of confidence.'
Of course, when you are attempting to get the best deal you can in a negotiation, denying a sale is ongoing is an understandable strategy. You don't want prospective buyers to see that you may be under pressure from your supporters as that could give them potential leverage in negotiations. You also don't want to disrupt the normal running of the club and it's revenue streams. News of change can also scare the horses and players might decide they don't need to try quite so hard or even decide that that their future lies elsewhere, both of which can be disastrous for results.
In our case, of course, any sale is hardly likely to register on our commercial operation, given there is practically nothing happening on that front. Those blindly renewing their season tickets will continue to do so and match day sales are already at a realistic low-point. You could also argue, given performances under Robinson, that the players won't be affected either, certainly not detrimentally, or that we are safe enough now not to worry. However, Meire will maintain her line until it's hopeless denying it and then exit stage left.
The latest news from the Daily Mail that an Australian Football Consortium (that's their name too) is lining up a sale in order to take us into the Premier League and to aid development of soccer in Australia is the newest rumour. Personally, I am not convinced AFC will become our new owners but rather that news of their interest may have been leaked deliberately to push other candidates to firm-up better offers.
There has been immediate concern that the Australians are a newly established body still looking for funds to acquire an English club and that they wouldn't have the backing to fulfil their ambitions or that we would become a club focused solely on developing Aussie talent. Both of these may be true but for me, anything is better than an absent owner who has no footballing ambition and who has inflicted a disastrous Chief Exec on us and who has been too stubborn to remove her, allowing the problem to fester and the club to plunge into decline on all fronts.
The hope, of course, is that we are eventually acquired by serious football owners with ambition and backing. Given the loss Duchatelet faces on his investment, we also have to pray that whoever buys the club does not commit the cardinal sin of somehow failing to own the key assets of the Valley and Sparrows Lane. Left in the hands of Duchatelet you could see how he could eye a way to eventually recovering his losses at the expense of the football club and it's supporters he has so little consideration for.
Of course, when you are attempting to get the best deal you can in a negotiation, denying a sale is ongoing is an understandable strategy. You don't want prospective buyers to see that you may be under pressure from your supporters as that could give them potential leverage in negotiations. You also don't want to disrupt the normal running of the club and it's revenue streams. News of change can also scare the horses and players might decide they don't need to try quite so hard or even decide that that their future lies elsewhere, both of which can be disastrous for results.
In our case, of course, any sale is hardly likely to register on our commercial operation, given there is practically nothing happening on that front. Those blindly renewing their season tickets will continue to do so and match day sales are already at a realistic low-point. You could also argue, given performances under Robinson, that the players won't be affected either, certainly not detrimentally, or that we are safe enough now not to worry. However, Meire will maintain her line until it's hopeless denying it and then exit stage left.
The latest news from the Daily Mail that an Australian Football Consortium (that's their name too) is lining up a sale in order to take us into the Premier League and to aid development of soccer in Australia is the newest rumour. Personally, I am not convinced AFC will become our new owners but rather that news of their interest may have been leaked deliberately to push other candidates to firm-up better offers.
There has been immediate concern that the Australians are a newly established body still looking for funds to acquire an English club and that they wouldn't have the backing to fulfil their ambitions or that we would become a club focused solely on developing Aussie talent. Both of these may be true but for me, anything is better than an absent owner who has no footballing ambition and who has inflicted a disastrous Chief Exec on us and who has been too stubborn to remove her, allowing the problem to fester and the club to plunge into decline on all fronts.
The hope, of course, is that we are eventually acquired by serious football owners with ambition and backing. Given the loss Duchatelet faces on his investment, we also have to pray that whoever buys the club does not commit the cardinal sin of somehow failing to own the key assets of the Valley and Sparrows Lane. Left in the hands of Duchatelet you could see how he could eye a way to eventually recovering his losses at the expense of the football club and it's supporters he has so little consideration for.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire!
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