The fixtures for our forthcoming season are due out on Thursday. Never before can there have been less collective interest in or more apprehension about them.
We are still reluctantly-owned by the disinterested and clearly rankled Roland Duchatelet. Seemingly piqued by his failure to get the Aussie Football Consortium to meet his financial demands, he continues to look to slash spending. Following last week's surprise sale of Ezri Konsa and news that Josh Magennis is available for the right price, rumours this week suggested Patrick Bauer was on his way, possibly to Blackburn Rovers and that Harry Lennon, another Academy talent, was also going. These high-handed changes to the squad can't be helping negotiations on a price with assets moving out.
Lennon now looks set for a move to Southend and Charlton appear to have responded by offering Aribo and Fosu improved terms. Reports also suggest that Bauer has had a £2m price tag put on him in an attempt to prevent him leaving. I had to laugh at that one. If you don't want him to leave you make him a proper offer to stay or put a silly fee on him. £2m is simply positioning your bait for a bigger fish. You could also argue that dangling bigger contracts in front of Aribo and Fosu will help your negotiating position on them.
Then we hear this week that Roland won't pay for a pre-season tour, so we look like being the least prepared for a season in our history including the recent years under Duchatelet where it's been patently clear on the opening day that we have had limited and/or unbalanced squads incapable of maintaining a serious push for promotion.
So, with Roland's running costs meter hammering at around £800,000 per month on top of what's approaching a £60m debt mountain you can see why the Aussies might be prepared to wait and see if they can get the club for the right price and not be legged over by the avaricious billionaire. Christmas would be a good time to let Duchatelet sober-up to the realties of end-of-season debts approaching £70m if he doesn't get real and move aside. If we are struggling by then there should also be little chance of him thinking he can squeeze a bit more from the price and he may just have to cut his losses and slunk off.
It does also raise the serious prospect of no deal as we kick the season off. As things stand the mood in the camp must be pretty demoralising finding out who's being sold, who's up for sale and who else is leaving the club. I am sure the players will have had very good holidays with friends and families but news of no tour due to funds and the prospect of little or no spending on new players will hardly leave caretaker manager Lee Bowyer with a full deck of cards. In that scenario, it is entirely plausible that we will struggle once again in this God-forsaken division.
What must all those who renewed their season tickets early be thinking? All that promise of new owners and at this moment the prospect of another chaotic season of more failure. I would be complaining I had been sold my season ticket on false pretences and asking for my money back, although I'm not sure to who you might ask as there are no credible senior managers employed by Duchatelet any longer.
We are still reluctantly-owned by the disinterested and clearly rankled Roland Duchatelet. Seemingly piqued by his failure to get the Aussie Football Consortium to meet his financial demands, he continues to look to slash spending. Following last week's surprise sale of Ezri Konsa and news that Josh Magennis is available for the right price, rumours this week suggested Patrick Bauer was on his way, possibly to Blackburn Rovers and that Harry Lennon, another Academy talent, was also going. These high-handed changes to the squad can't be helping negotiations on a price with assets moving out.
Lennon now looks set for a move to Southend and Charlton appear to have responded by offering Aribo and Fosu improved terms. Reports also suggest that Bauer has had a £2m price tag put on him in an attempt to prevent him leaving. I had to laugh at that one. If you don't want him to leave you make him a proper offer to stay or put a silly fee on him. £2m is simply positioning your bait for a bigger fish. You could also argue that dangling bigger contracts in front of Aribo and Fosu will help your negotiating position on them.
Then we hear this week that Roland won't pay for a pre-season tour, so we look like being the least prepared for a season in our history including the recent years under Duchatelet where it's been patently clear on the opening day that we have had limited and/or unbalanced squads incapable of maintaining a serious push for promotion.
So, with Roland's running costs meter hammering at around £800,000 per month on top of what's approaching a £60m debt mountain you can see why the Aussies might be prepared to wait and see if they can get the club for the right price and not be legged over by the avaricious billionaire. Christmas would be a good time to let Duchatelet sober-up to the realties of end-of-season debts approaching £70m if he doesn't get real and move aside. If we are struggling by then there should also be little chance of him thinking he can squeeze a bit more from the price and he may just have to cut his losses and slunk off.
It does also raise the serious prospect of no deal as we kick the season off. As things stand the mood in the camp must be pretty demoralising finding out who's being sold, who's up for sale and who else is leaving the club. I am sure the players will have had very good holidays with friends and families but news of no tour due to funds and the prospect of little or no spending on new players will hardly leave caretaker manager Lee Bowyer with a full deck of cards. In that scenario, it is entirely plausible that we will struggle once again in this God-forsaken division.
What must all those who renewed their season tickets early be thinking? All that promise of new owners and at this moment the prospect of another chaotic season of more failure. I would be complaining I had been sold my season ticket on false pretences and asking for my money back, although I'm not sure to who you might ask as there are no credible senior managers employed by Duchatelet any longer.
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