Mikki Disco
Central Defender
Its seems that the "surprise" for fans that Gray predicted would emerge within a couple of weeks was an ownership bid for SAFC by people he knew. It is not likely to have been Donald's bid which Gray seems to have been unaware of. Gray is therefore understandably upset that the bid he favoured was not successful and has been surprised by the fact that there was a very advanced bid in competition with the one he knew of.
Over the past weeks Bain has indicated quite clear over that there were a number of parties interested in buying SAFC including as he said some "time wasters". Bain never disclosed at what particular stage any of the bids that had interested Short were at. I can understand that because you don't want limit your own options by discouraging anyone who is keen on buying so you keep your cards close to our chest.
I should imagine that Donalds group started their buying process some time before Gray's and simply won the race. Given the very well publicised financial woes of SAFC I can't imagine that anyone would consider buying the club without going through the books in great detail. Gray's people may have got through some of them before Sunday and Gray might be assuming that Donalds group skipped that process entirely . I really don't think that anyone could be so desperate to buy SAFC that they would not under take due diligence. SAFC is special to us but not so special that we would risk all we had just to buy it.
Gray must have been deflated and disappointed when his group- who right up to the last minute was probably encouraged to keep going by Short and Bain found out that another outfit had beaten them to it. That's just business. Despite Gray's "warnings" I don't see anyone having a change of mind a this stage . Mickey it best to just move on.
That's the way I see it. I wonder if Bain was actually by-passed by Donald's group or he's just kept Gray's group hanging on.