Charlton takeover moves into farce territory.

News on Friday that Mark Spiegel's planned takeover of Charlton Athletic had hit "a road block" followed sight of his sales prospective for the club seeking additional funding and a desperate reassertion only the day before that he had all the money to acquire the club and run it for two years. The game was clearly up for Spiegel and he now looks like a busted flush despite Sandgaard claiming the respective negotiating teams were still hard at it trying to close a deal. 

Thomas Sandgaard may have insulated himself against the ongoing club losses during the last four or five months by passing some or all of that onto the prospective consortiums of 'Methven' and now Spiegel. He was also believed to have kept a chunky deposit from Methven's group, recovery of which they claimed they were pursuing through the courts in addition to the lost opportunity etc claiming Sandgaard had defaulted over their exclusivity arrangement. 

The 'Methven' consortium have wasted no time in putting word out through a few stooges that one of their reputed backers, Josh Friedman, is back at the table with an enhanced bid that looks very similar to the last one but now for 100% of the club and not 90% as before. Subtly, Friedman is being named now and Methven's name has disappeared. It could well be that Methven has been dropped for failing to complete the deal, but my money is on his continuing involvement but now behind the scenes given what a horlicks he made of the deal first time around and just how toxic he has become to Charlton fans.

Since Friday, most of the debate as usual has been around how much money Friedman is worth. Does he have more than Sandgaard and Spiegel? Is he a true billionaire etc? What we should be focusing on however, is the simple fact that Methven would have us believe he was one of three billionaires (then two) behind their original bid. A bid that stalled over finances at the end of their exclusivity window. A bid that a sales prospective was touting for $75k investors and one which tried to apply fan pressure on Sandgaard claiming he was leveraging them at the death for another 2% stake. When it all fell apart it was confirmed that Sandgaard's stake was only to be 10% (not 18% or 20% as rumoured) and that the snake-oil salesman, Methven, was himself in for a minor holding, just like he obtained when he wormed his way in at Sunderland.

Methven's claims of legal action were ignored by Sandgaard who asserted he was clear on grounds under their contract to terminate. Now we are lead to believe Friedman is back offering to match Spiegel's bid. A billionaire who still has no intention of acquiring the assets and one whose plan is still to run the club on a shoestring. It really doesn't add up does it? He's not a Charlton fan. He is a wealthy man but one who it would appear has no real appetite to invest to accumulate. Why would he be involved if the plan was a rapid and severe cost-cutting exercise, just to slash the operating losses and then sell the club on before the full consequences of the cost-cutting became evident? 

The fact that his due diligence was completed and that a management team had been appointed (and then dropped bar Holden) is being held up by some as a good sign, but surely not? Why would we want to revisit a team whose intentions were so short-term, didn't have the finances to complete the original deal and whose collective behaviour was so obviously around protecting their investment at the expense of the club when things went belly-up?

We really need better prospective owners but Sandgaard will be desperate to avoid being back on the hook for the losses so expect him to do whatever deal he can now in order to get out. 

In the meantime, once again, the club has become a laughing stock and the ongoing archetypal model of a poorly run football club at the mercy of short-term gain pirates and cut-throats. We need to keep our expectations low about the Summer squad rebuild and our prospects consequently for next season. 

On a brighter note, I was pleased to see Jes Rak-Sakyi get the Player of the Year award yesterday. I had been backing George Dobson all the way but Rak-Sakyi finished the season in barn-storming style and his 15 goals and 8 assists have made him a deserved winner. A more impressive loanee than even Conor Gallagher to my mind. His loss alone will be a massive gap for us to fill as things stand, let alone thoughts and ambitions of a major rebuild. It's all so sad.