Matt

Where did you hear this? Haven't heard that before. Not to bothered. Shame losing good players, but he didn't work out with Petrov. Gotta question the man though, complaining about CL etc. then ending up moving for more money. Like these fuckers don't earn enough. Bloody shame we didn't get more then £11-12 Mill tho Decent price with 1 year on his deal to run. At least you've got it done now and there's no need for a transfer soap opera dragging on over the summer.

Ok, Barcelona are one of the biggest clubs in the world, with worldwise support, a glittering hsitory who can attract the world's top players with their reputation. We're not. Ownership structure is some way down the list of differences here. Do all of their supporters agree on everything? Probably not. But they've got a system that has been in pace for decades. People have grown up with it. So there is no decision to be made about the club being fan-owned or not- it just is. Look at NUSC- the closest thing we've had in decades to a fan's group- and it's not been universally endoresed. Given the complete lack of existing fan bodies, none have any pre-eminence and as such are vulnerable to splits and factions. I do not see us as a group of supporters who could collectively agree on a framework to take the club forward.

Ok, Barcelona are one of the biggest clubs in the world, with worldwise support, a glittering hsitory who can attract the world's top players with their reputation. We're not. Ownership structure is some way down the list of differences here.

If all football fans had the same views on a club then it would be fine- but just thinking of the people who sit around you should be enough to prove that there isn't anything close to that kind of harmonious vision. It would only work with unanimous support, there clearly isn't that, so the discussion is dead. I think at a lower level, supporter owned clubs can work but in the mega-money sphere it's a total non-starter.

http://icelolly.com/ Friends of mine ended up in a scummy Costa resort but got flights, 4 nights accomodation and as much wine and beer as they could face for about £110 each.

so buy the club for £100m and you don't get the debt, you're saddled with the wage shackles and that Barclays Loan... but other than that, you're clean and clear? All sounds a bit 'too good to be true' to me... If I was a prospective purchaser, I'd be looking for the catch. Barclays will want their facility back and at the very lease will exercise the right to renegotiate (jack up the price). The catch is that you're going to need to find another £50m or so just for the club to stabilise and put in a half-decent effort in the second tier. Is that not enough?

First reports are that they wanted us to reduce our overdraft, which they are totally entitled to. Having this facility isn't debt- only if we use it. If we were fully using our overdraft and it is going to be reduced to £20m then we need to get it down quickly. I would add that this seems a huge amount of money for a club with our turnover. It is also unusual to have a mortgage in place (as Barclays have) just for an overdraft. I think what could be in place is a working capital facility with a clause that reduces in the event of relegation. Nothing unusual in that really. This is more likely to be secured and also makes sense in terms of its size. Edit- beaten to it by Jimbo!

What about teams from Kingston?

Maybe he's still got those bets on HBOS open

It would be nice to think that there are enough enterprising businessmen out there that we can look beyond recent incumbents. The running of the club under Hall and Shepherd have been done to death on here, but surely it's better for the club to have someone come in and start with a clean slate for everyone- no recriminations, no previous. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it Shepherd enjoyed mixed popularity. This club needs unity and anything that could threaten that should be avoided for the good of the club as a whole.

He'll put the club into administration before he accepts that. Gemmill is right. The price to an interested party is £200m but Ashley has structured the finances so that the price tag is only £100m. The 'club' effectively doesn't owe anything at the moment as he owns it. However as soon as he flogs it, he'll be owed an extra £100m and you can guarantee he'll be more of a cunt than any loan shark from your worst nightmare. We're fucked basically. £200m for a championship club? And not a very good one at that! Why would he put it into administration? That removes his control over the business. If he liquidated it tomorrow he'd get less than selling the whole club, so that is not going to happen. Other creditors might seek this route if things on the bank side did not improve. A lot rests on what the score is with this Barclays overdraft- are we using it? If it's maxed out then we are not in good shape. Any buyer will have to plug this on day 1. Buyers would not put themselves at the mercy of Ashley as a debtholder even if he did want that back. They'd either pay it off entirely or agree a 'discount' price to pay him back here and now. He wants the sale- that shifts negotiating power away from him.

Some comfort I guess that any buyer aren't just grabbing us to get a bit of PL glam and maybe have the good of the club more at heart.

(@ Parky) Na. One of my mates at work works in restructuring and he deals with some absolute horrorshows- businesses that make us look like Microsoft- so if there's hope for them them there's hope for us as well. I reckon Ashley's written this off now. Busted flush. He just wants to get back what he possibly can without putting any more money in. That means a sale at whatever he can get. I think it's a sensible approach from him. However a new board will need to have a significant amount of capital to tide us over the next couple of seasons. Puts us up for another transitional period though!

A distant last. I'm convinced he'd get more in a sale than in admin. FA rules about 'football creditors' being repaid in full as an obligation of league membership make things difficult for other creditors. I think football creditors would include players, not just other clubs so admin is no way for us to be rid of the wage obligation. A few lads at work deal with 'problem' business and their list of priorities is very different to how a bank would normally approach a business. A lot depends on where Barclays is. The external creditor element has made the situation very difficult. We don't want to end up at the hands of any bank-led restructuring mobs.

What's his alternative? You can't value the club on future profits, because it doesn't make any, or on cash flows, as they're all negative and will get worse. We don't have a Premier League place and would need considerable investment to get it back. He has poured money down a black hole and he's not getting it back. Further along the line he'd have to find more money or face admininstration pressure. I'd hazard a guess that his loan is junior to anything from the banks as well but if they weren't then I'm stuggling to see him getting all of his money back in that situation. If he left it to Barclays they would have us into and out of pre-pack administration in a fortnight. That's his worst case scenario. If an offer comes in a penny better, he should take it. Anyone valuing this business will see his shareholder loans as equity by any other name. Rather than looking at what gone into the business, bidders should be looking at looming obligations. That's what will force Ashley's hand.

No way on earth that he's writing off the £100m. It's £100m sale price and £100m to insta-pay him back the loan. Gerraway- on what basis can he justify £200m when we're going to need a further injection of anything of £50m to £100m in the next two years? Bids should equal roughly what he'd likely get if you liquidated the assets, plus a few quid on top. If he wants his £100m repaid as well then takeover talks will be very brief.

The £100m price tag is laughable. Writing off Ashley's additional injections of cash altogether and bearing in mind we're probably facing a £30-40m funding gap this season unless we want to play the U18s all season then consortia should be approaching Ashley with offers of half of that amount at best. The club doesn't just lose money- it absolutely haemorrages it. It would appear that Ashley's stackpile has dwindled through repeated poor investments and he simply isn't able to sustain the venture any longer. Ashley's options are simple- sell for what you can get or face completely running out of cash- probably within months. He paid way too much for the club and now has to face the consequences. If Pompey were bought for £30m, I'm not sure we're worth anything at all. Any bidder coming in will probably need around £150m to properly sustain the club through a full restructure.

If we end up with 17,000 in the ground then maybe. Othwerwise at some point the additional cash will come to the fore eventually.

Not sure what you base that on. West Ham went up 2nd time of asking having sold pretty much every senior player they had.

I'm glad I had no choice.

Less than what Barton and Smith pull in.

"I've got gay porn in ma hoose....not really"

Get him out on the lash and push him in the Tyne.

I have too, was the for the game against Bedlington Terriers? I've been to Peterborough as well in 92, when there was 8,000+ in an end fit for no more than 6000. Aye was a decent day out although the ground seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

I've been in the away end at Scunthorpe, it's all seated, pretty basic and it was looking a bit tired then (and that was 11 years ago!)