News today from the London Standard that Roland Duchatelet has been made a new offer of £30m for the club, lock, stock and barrel. The Standard describes the offer as coming from a former banker who has experience of top level football.
Whilst we await to find out who is behind this (Keith Harris fronting again?), the good news is that this is out in the open and Duchatelet and De Turck will find it harder not to be more transparent on this bid. It also puts a price out there which will begin to determine just how serious Duchatelet is about moving on.
It was widely rumoured that a £35m bid was made in the last couple of months but that prior to a key meeting to progress discussions, De Turck suddenly announced that Roland wanted £72m for the club! Just how that figure came up when presumably £35m was in the ballpark is hard to comprehend but who knows with Duchatelet. It could be that the offer was conditional on leasing the ground and Sparrows Lane which didn't suit Duchatelet but it's not been explained to date and De Turck has actually denied there was any bid. I understand that the party involved simply walked away and are now engaged in buying another club. Duchatelet has said he will sell the loss-making football club for a pound but that he wants a tidy sum for the land and assets. On that basis, £30m begins to look like a serious offer, so we need to see where this gets to. There is also the question of the repayable £7m of Directors loans and it's unclear at this time whether they are in or out - I assume out and that this would be Duchatelet's debt to cover.
I can't help feeling Duchatelet will have another hissy fit in the coming days when he again realises that selling the club at a market price will crystallise his operating losses on the club and he will be reminded what a whopping debt he will be left to settle after he moves on.
I'm not expecting this deal to go through as is, but finally we have a public offer which Duchatelet is going to struggle not to explain and account for in more detail when the time comes. This begins to feel like the beginning of the end, although we have said that many times before.
Whilst we await to find out who is behind this (Keith Harris fronting again?), the good news is that this is out in the open and Duchatelet and De Turck will find it harder not to be more transparent on this bid. It also puts a price out there which will begin to determine just how serious Duchatelet is about moving on.
It was widely rumoured that a £35m bid was made in the last couple of months but that prior to a key meeting to progress discussions, De Turck suddenly announced that Roland wanted £72m for the club! Just how that figure came up when presumably £35m was in the ballpark is hard to comprehend but who knows with Duchatelet. It could be that the offer was conditional on leasing the ground and Sparrows Lane which didn't suit Duchatelet but it's not been explained to date and De Turck has actually denied there was any bid. I understand that the party involved simply walked away and are now engaged in buying another club. Duchatelet has said he will sell the loss-making football club for a pound but that he wants a tidy sum for the land and assets. On that basis, £30m begins to look like a serious offer, so we need to see where this gets to. There is also the question of the repayable £7m of Directors loans and it's unclear at this time whether they are in or out - I assume out and that this would be Duchatelet's debt to cover.
I can't help feeling Duchatelet will have another hissy fit in the coming days when he again realises that selling the club at a market price will crystallise his operating losses on the club and he will be reminded what a whopping debt he will be left to settle after he moves on.
I'm not expecting this deal to go through as is, but finally we have a public offer which Duchatelet is going to struggle not to explain and account for in more detail when the time comes. This begins to feel like the beginning of the end, although we have said that many times before.
Still dont understand why anybody would want to pay 30m for something currently losing a reported 10m a year.
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