Good riddance to Southall and Nimer

Desperate Matt Southall has been trying everything he can to wring some final value from Charlton Athletic and his notional 35% of holding company ESI. Barred from the Valley and with no access to the control mechanisms at the football club any longer, he has been forced to the periphery of social media where he has been reduced, pathetically, to pleading with Nimer to do a deal and to exchanging insults with supporters. He even went as far as a feeble attempt to threaten the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust with defamation for having printed a Q and A with CAFC Director Marian Mihail. His Twitter account has also been closed or suspended so sad Matt must be feeling the weight of it all.

Despite his taunting about owning the business premises at the Valley and grandiose notions of a return to his former role as Chairman, he must now simply be left looking to get a final pay-off for his 35% share in ESI. Logically that should be worth considerably less than the £1 they paid for it. Since taking control they have emptied the club's bank account, lead us into the relegation places and COVID-19 has ended the club's realistic revenue stream going forward. In short, the football club is a massive financial liability as things stand and no-one in their right mind would consider paying anything for it. However, the opportunity in the short-term is for control. Regardless of the ex-Directors claims over first-option on debt repayment and the fact that the club is worthless, someone might be prepared to pay something to take it on from ESI and therein lies the current danger.

You have to believe that Nimer is never going to put any money into the club and that his moment of truth and ultimate embarrassment is rapidly approaching. Indeed, you would have to assume he never anticipated putting money into CAFC in the first place having been cavalier enough to offer Southall a 35% stake for nothing. The plan must have been to bring other investors on board and use their money to get the club, moving and generating more cash. In the circumstances then, both Nimer and Southall are left looking for a return on their £1 and Nimer can effectively sell to whomever he wants. It would be some kind of Desperado who would be prepared to take on the current risks of the ex-Directors, potential ongoing liabilities to Roland Duchatelet as well as to finance the club in the short-term until revenue streams return. That's not to say there might be no shortage of such chancers and Nimer/Southall are hardly likely to give a toss about who they pass it onto if they can get a pay-off. 

So we face a worrying last couple of weeks of May when the club's ownership might possibly become even more complicated. Ordinary fans will be hoping that the next step is Administration in the absence of Nimer actually putting any money in to pay the bills this month. That would at least bring some due legal process and transparency to proceedings and may finally clear a few things up and remove a lot of the current uncertainties about the future running of the club. 

What I think we can all agree on is that any last ditch change of ownership with anyone willing to pay Nimer and Southall off would be a seriously troubling development and should be opposed with everything we have because no serious businessman with honest intentions would cut a deal with ESI that they don't have to.