That Methven Interview

Whilst the wait goes on for final confirmation that the club now belongs to SE7 Partners, PragueAddick on Charlton Life has published the transcript of his conversation with Charlie Methven back in May.

Key snippets have been reported or paraphrased previously but there are still some interesting pointers to take from the conversation.

First, Methven will own a 7% 'investment' in the club and he confirms that Simon Lenaghan, a long-term friend and fellow Oxford United fan, will hold a similar stake. Methven also tells us that SE7 Partners was primarily an investment vehicle for "friends and family" that includes the likes of Rodwell, Warrick and other minor investors. He has subsequently revised this to include main investors Friedman and Brener, as they needed to be included to meet EFL requirements.

Importantly, we were told previously no-one would have overall control and that their combined share-holding would be less than 50%. Clarity here that with additional, smaller, family percentages, the two American Hedge Fund bosses will have a majority holding.

The expected return of Andy Scott as Technical supremo to stand alongside Jim Rodwell's 'business' role is also confirmed although, when pushed, Methven says they will not report to him but to the main board. Confusingly, he also describes his role as "sort of over-seeing" and that "on a day-to-day business," the main investors on the board will likely ask him when they want answers.

When asked about the ambitions of the main investors and their exit strategy, he is pretty vague. He says they aren't in it to make money but also that don't want to lose any. He has no view of a likely timeline in terms of their ownership as they haven't discussed that with him but he thinks it's "on the far horizon.' For the avoidance of doubt, he is clear that they have no intention of "flipping the club for £10m or £15m."

He denies any knowledge of the 'Texan Prospectus' and confirms there are no Texan investors in the consortium. I certainly saw one and associated paperwork from W11 Capital Management. Perhaps they couldn't interest anyone in the 5% share allocation they claimed to have been offered. That or it really was a fake, although it was the first time to my knowledge that anyone had heard mention of Simon Lenaghan as a potential investor.

Methven has since confirmed that Gavin Carter, identified recently as a fan who has invested, will sit on the "CAFC Board," presumably as our chosen representative. 

I really hope the reality of SE7 Partners ownership is on the positive side of the assessments because we were facing almost certain continuing gradual decline under disinterested Thomas Sandgaard. I look forward to the CAFC announcement on the takeover when we should understand more about who all is involved and, presumably, get more clarity from the Americans on their ambitions and strategy for achieving them.