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Takeover News/Rumours

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It's Monday and I have woken up in an optimistic mood, so cop this....
I am very encouraged by mention of a Sporting Director working above Rodwell. This means, I reckon, young Kyril has somebody in mind for the job, and with his lifetime's exposure to top level football in France, I think it might actually be somebody who knows what they are doing. Rather than sack everybody in sight, the new person will no doubt cast an eye over what we already have and decide who is doing OK, who is for the chop, and who needs to have their brief changed. Then we might see some strategic acquisitions by the club, on and off the field, but it might take time. Personally I would swallow writing this season off if it was the price to pay for laying the foundations of a new, vibrant, successful team playing attacking football.
We will be hamstrung by the salary cap now, but the new owner's connections might wangle the loan of a solid goalie and a genuine striker, both at salary cap wages with the rest paid for by their clubs, maybe with a clause to buy later or a promotion bonus. That and a change to attacking football, played on the grass, should get us automatic promotion this year. Then the real project can begin.
A change in coaching is inevitable, and this might require structural change all through the club, but especially in the relationship between the Academy, the under-23s and the first team and the way up that ladder. A 'small' club like Leicester play the same style all through the club, and it has done them no harm! Recruitment and retention of promising players is key to progress, but there is a need for an upgrade at all levels in the club. Players, coaches and fitness staff need sorting, as do competent PR and marketing personnel and a clear and truthful channel to communicate with fans. Maybe integrating the lasses team into the heart of the club, too.
It is some way off, but someone needs to revolutionise the matchday experience at the SoL because endless queues for pissy lager and being chucked out of the ground minutes after the final whistle is just not on. My experience of French Ligue 1 games, and NFL games is that a home game is an excuse for a mini-carnival! Maybe 'fanzone' could be more than a couple of hours of lager and music?
It's quite a lot to ask, but from seeing Sr. Sartori engaging with fans in the away end a few times, and given how football crazy our new owner is cracked up to be, I live in hope.
 
Is there anything to block an owner putting money into the club for transfer fees and Sunderland hoovering up a load of exciting u21 players? There's no FFP in League One, so not sure if we can just over spend? (not like we would)

There is a version of FFP in league one, called SCMP. Same principle, albeit likely superceded by the wage cap.

There will be issues with throwing cash at us with that in place, but it depends what the penalties are. The only concern I have is that the EFL punish us with a points deduction if we clearly stick 2 fingers up at their wage cap, and/or stop us getting promoted off the back of it.
 
Is there anything to block an owner putting money into the club for transfer fees and Sunderland hoovering up a load of exciting u21 players? There's no FFP in League One, so not sure if we can just over spend? (not like we would)

Not so far as I can see, though it could become as issue in the Championship, and definitely an issue if promotion wasn't achieved.
There is a version of FFP in league one, called SCMP. Same principle, albeit likely superceded by the wage cap.

There will be issues with throwing cash at us with that in place, but it depends what the penalties are. The only concern I have is that the EFL punish us with a points deduction if we clearly stick 2 fingers up at their wage cap, and/or stop us getting promoted off the back of it.

It has been superseded. The salary cap is there in the latest EFL regulations. The primary sanction is actually a transfer embargo.
 
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It's Monday and I have woken up in an optimistic mood, so cop this....
I am very encouraged by mention of a Sporting Director working above Rodwell. This means, I reckon, young Kyril has somebody in mind for the job, and with his lifetime's exposure to top level football in France, I think it might actually be somebody who knows what they are doing. Rather than sack everybody in sight, the new person will no doubt cast an eye over what we already have and decide who is doing OK, who is for the chop, and who needs to have their brief changed. Then we might see some strategic acquisitions by the club, on and off the field, but it might take time. Personally I would swallow writing this season off if it was the price to pay for laying the foundations of a new, vibrant, successful team playing attacking football.
We will be hamstrung by the salary cap now, but the new owner's connections might wangle the loan of a solid goalie and a genuine striker, both at salary cap wages with the rest paid for by their clubs, maybe with a clause to buy later or a promotion bonus. That and a change to attacking football, played on the grass, should get us automatic promotion this year. Then the real project can begin.
A change in coaching is inevitable, and this might require structural change all through the club, but especially in the relationship between the Academy, the under-23s and the first team and the way up that ladder. A 'small' club like Leicester play the same style all through the club, and it has done them no harm! Recruitment and retention of promising players is key to progress, but there is a need for an upgrade at all levels in the club. Players, coaches and fitness staff need sorting, as do competent PR and marketing personnel and a clear and truthful channel to communicate with fans. Maybe integrating the lasses team into the heart of the club, too.
It is some way off, but someone needs to revolutionise the matchday experience at the SoL because endless queues for pissy lager and being chucked out of the ground minutes after the final whistle is just not on. My experience of French Ligue 1 games, and NFL games is that a home game is an excuse for a mini-carnival! Maybe 'fanzone' could be more than a couple of hours of lager and music?
It's quite a lot to ask, but from seeing Sr. Sartori engaging with fans in the away end a few times, and given how football crazy our new owner is cracked up to be, I live in hope.
I agree it seems encouraging although not sure they have anyone in mind, the article said they had enlisted the help of external recruiters to identify potential candidates and shortlist was down to 4.
There is hardly anyone to be sacked, no recruitment team, no chairman, no MD, DOF/Sporting director. no academy director. There is really only Rodwell and Parkinson.

We might have an issue with bringing European players in post Brexit, so not sure how that will impact the people/roles.
 
1. £9m is already back in the club via the FPP loan. Any residual amounts are down to any new board of Madrox
2, The loan will sit there until repaid. Clearly repayment is very possible
3. Who knows, and why does it matter? It's a private transaction between him and Donald. Donald has outstanding loans to Madrox of around £12m (plus anything put in since July 2019); that suggests around £10m for the part he's selling off.
So you say they have taken all of the £9m loan from FPP loan to payback the money they wrote off, you are certain that’s what happened, so they basically robbed Peter to pay Paul and took securities against the money on our FC.
 
It has been superseded. The salary cap is there in the latest EFL regulations. The primary sanction is actually a transfer embargo.

So the worst that can happen is that we spend a ton in L1, get punished by the EFL and can't spend anything in the Championship?

That sounds just as bad tbh.

I really don't know how we could circumvent the wage cap at this stage. People have this false idea that billionaires can grease the wheels in other ways, but I'm not really sure if that's going to cut it with us being right at the limit.

We can't sign a great player, pay him a pittance in wages and keep up the plausible deniability. The only realistic option for someone extremely wealthy would seem to be getting rid of the highest earners and eating their contracts so that we can buy a couple of new players in January.
 
The only realistic option for someone extremely wealthy would seem to be getting rid of the highest earners and eating their contracts so that we can buy a couple of new players in January.
But even then, these salaries are only being counted as £1,750 a week this season so we’d need to get rid of 6 or 7 top earners just to bring in a couple of players on £5k a week.
 
So you say they have taken all of the £9m loan from FPP loan to payback the money they wrote off, you are certain that’s what happened, so they basically robbed Peter to pay Paul and took securities against the money on our FC.

Yeah I've mentioned a few times over the months, but how the FPP loan is resolved still matters. If it comes from Madrox, good, if it comes from the club or new owners, add that money on to what Donald already 'owes' us.
 
So the worst that can happen is that we spend a ton in L1, get punished by the EFL and can't spend anything in the Championship?

That sounds just as bad tbh.

I really don't know how we could circumvent the wage cap at this stage. People have this false idea that billionaires can grease the wheels in other ways, but I'm not really sure if that's going to cut it with us being right at the limit.

We can't sign a great player, pay him a pittance in wages and keep up the plausible deniability. The only realistic option for someone extremely wealthy would seem to be getting rid of the highest earners and eating their contracts so that we can buy a couple of new players in January.
Sell the high earners to a Uruguayan club!
 

Agree with a lot of that, other than that he's basing his numbers on a valuation of Sunderland, but it's Madrox shares that will be changing hands. Donald's price for those will be determined by the amount he's put into Madrox. At July 2019, that was £11.7m, though he could well have put more in since - we won't know that till we see the 19/20 accounts. At the moment, he's probably asking for around £10m for the Madrox shares he's selling. The FPP loan would remain responsibility of Madrox, with funding provided by one or more of its shareholders.
 
So you say they have taken all of the £9m loan from FPP loan to payback the money they wrote off, you are certain that’s what happened, so they basically robbed Peter to pay Paul and took securities against the money on our FC.

Yes. Madrox bought £9m worth of new Sunderland shares at the time the got the loan. This could only be the loan money being used. And, as this represented cash invested by Madrox in Sunderland, it has to be partial restitution of the parachute payments.
 
Lots of guesswork based on rumours in that ALS article so not really much better than us on here, but I largely agree with him on Sartori, like we said on Friday, KLD doesn't have the feel of the driver in this, I'd expect the final cap table to be at least even between Sartori and him, if not more weighted towards JS.
 
So the worst that can happen is that we spend a ton in L1, get punished by the EFL and can't spend anything in the Championship?

That sounds just as bad tbh.

I really don't know how we could circumvent the wage cap at this stage. People have this false idea that billionaires can grease the wheels in other ways, but I'm not really sure if that's going to cut it with us being right at the limit.

We can't sign a great player, pay him a pittance in wages and keep up the plausible deniability. The only realistic option for someone extremely wealthy would seem to be getting rid of the highest earners and eating their contracts so that we can buy a couple of new players in January.
I would love investment in the playing staff but in all honesty a decent coaching setup should have no difficulty getting this group of players promoted. Granted they wouldn’t be much use at the next level up.
 
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