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Takeover News/Rumours

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I actually think people get a bit too hung up on the wealth side of things. I'm happy with it just being sartori and the new lad because, on their own, they must have approaching £3bn. At that point we don't really need loads of other billionaires with a share, all with their own ideas of how it should be run and all with different approaches. Let's say between the two of them they're happy to invest, for arguments sake, £150m. That should be more than enough to get us into the PL where clubs can start to turn a profit. The main thing we need is for football people to run the club day to day. It's the bit Short always fucked up. Get that right, good people with a large budget to spend sensibly, and we'll be on our way.
Agree 100%..........We have owners at the moment who cannot afford the basic upkeep of the club and will sell anything to avoid them putting their hands in their pocket and in truth we are close to oblivion ......literally anybody would be better than the clowns we have now.
 

I really wish we'd stop worrying about kids who have opted to leave league one to play for Manchester United and Arsenal. I really don't get it. I've supported this club my whole life, would I have stayed at Sunderland's academy if United or Arsenal wanted me? No chance!

People at this stage are just using this as a petty excuse to have a pop at the owners.
^
Says it all about the club and the personalities they were willing to have working for them.
 
I hate Stewart Donald and Methven for having destroyed any ambition this club had. However, I won’t begrudge them a nice little earner by holding onto their shares, because it means we have been successful
 
don't get me wrong,i bloody hope ya right,3 seasons in this fukn league is enuff for anyone,i only said what i said because after all,this is Sunderland we're talking about,the club where all goes as smooth as owt

I can't stand that saying, nothing personal it's just every clubs fans say it. Historically we are very rarely a club that isn't fighting for promotion if outside the top flight and quite often managing it as well.
The longest we've ever spent outside the top flight is six seasons (after our first ever relegation back in the 50's) and we are looking very likely to at the very least equal that. Stay down this season and we'll almost definitely beat it.
I stand by what I say though, continue getting 2 points a game and we will definitely go up. It's whether we can continue getting those points is the question. Hopefully our bigger squad depth compared to most clubs will see us through. We've got 4 centre halves missing today (we play 3) and yet we should still have a defence good enough to do ok
 
this is what I recon as well.

Donald and Methven retaining shares as an investment, in the event the 'club 'takes off' and they can make a lot of profit on their shares.

They will have no influence around the club, they know they are hated. I dont think we'll see them again around the club
Happy if this is true! are you speculating or do you know this as fact?...........Charlie only had 5% and are you saying his only influence was changing the music?
 
I actually think people get a bit too hung up on the wealth side of things. I'm happy with it just being sartori and the new lad because, on their own, they must have approaching £3bn. At that point we don't really need loads of other billionaires with a share, all with their own ideas of how it should be run and all with different approaches. Let's say between the two of them they're happy to invest, for arguments sake, £150m. That should be more than enough to get us into the PL where clubs can start to turn a profit. The main thing we need is for football people to run the club day to day. It's the bit Short always fucked up. Get that right, good people with a large budget to spend sensibly, and we'll be on our way.

Spot on. I think having wealth to dip into is great, a massive step forward from a club that is ran to be sustainable in L1.

If we'd been offered a single billionaire owner 2 days ago, we'd have bitten someone's arm off for that. Now people are still dreaming of a supergroup of billionaires, which comes with it's own pitfalls. We should be happy with the progress made, not underwhelmed if someone else isn't involved imo.
 
I hate Stewart Donald and Methven for having destroyed any ambition this club had. However, I won’t begrudge them a nice little earner by holding onto their shares, because it means we have been successful
Nah fuck em. Will take years for the club to repair the damage. Especially at youth level. The club had been investing in the academy and some of these young players for like 8 years depending on what age they were brought in. To see them sold just to cover operating costs is unforgivable.
 
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I think the implication is the due diligence is the main hurdle. The added detail (which we all know) about Donald's prior creative accounting is a suggestion that it is possible more things like that might turn up.

The other parties bit is secondary information, which suggests what it says: other people are interested. Whether William Story classifies as a person, not sure. In many ways.

I think the Times is off the mark here. You don't reach an agreement in principle until due diligence is done. Who's the author? - I can think of one or two there who'd like nothing better than to put a negative spin on this.
 
I hate Stewart Donald and Methven for having destroyed any ambition this club had. However, I won’t begrudge them a nice little earner by holding onto their shares, because it means we have been successful
Their ineptitude is being rewarded ... but even they must sense that the new guy(s) are a different class and therefore a long game large payday is possible

Gut feeling this coukd be the first strategic move
By the possibly the wider family... if we ever make it back to the PL they could be more shateholders, kyril could be the initial face of their eventually ownership ??
 
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The daft thing is that football fans are so fickle that should we become successful and they are still part of the club , all that has happened previous will be forgotten.

It won't, no way will I forget them lying through their back teeth and slagging us off. They really need to fuck off out of our club. Donald even said he would when he wasn't wanted anymore yet is clinging on (another f***ing lie).
 
Nah fuck em. Will take years for the club to repair the damage. Especially at youth level. The club had been investing in the academy and some of these young players
for like 8 years depending on what age they were brought in. To see them sold just to cover operating costs is unforgivable.
But we can’t force him to sell, so this is the best option
 
Also in the Times this morning, but with a bit more detail.

According to the Times (sorry if SEB):

"The potential sale of Sunderland appeared to move a step closer yesterday, with Stewart Donald, the owner, believed to have reached an agreement to sell 60 per cent of the club for £22 million to a consortium headed by Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Juan Sartori.

The Times understands that there is still some way before a deal is concluded, however, with due diligence not yet completed by the interested party and any deal needing the ratification of FPP (the company set up by the American investors Glenn Fuhrman, Robert Platek and John Phelan), which loaned the club £10 million 12 months ago.

Louis-Dreyfus, 22, is the son of the former Marseilles owner Robert, who died in 2009, and Sartori already owns a fifth of Sunderland. Sunderland officials cancelled a meeting with the Red and White Army supporters group on Thursday.

Under the suggested agreement with the preferred bidder Donald would retain a 15 per cent shareholding in the club, while Charlie Methven would also keep the 5 per cent that he currently owns. At present Sartori has a 20 per cent stake. That in part has led to a low-key reaction among supporters to the potential change in ownership. It is believed Donald has spent about £10 million of his own money since buying the club from Ellis Short in 2018.

It was thought Donald had agreed to buy the club for £39.6 million but it later emerged he had financed the purchase using broadcast income paid to clubs relegated from the Premier League. The club’s draft accounts showed that a debt of £20.5 million had in fact been written off as an “exceptional operating expense”. It was also revealed that Sartori had paid only £1 for his 20 per cent share in Madrox Ltd, the holding company that owns Sunderland Football Club. It had been reported at the time that he had paid £3 million.
The preferred consortium bidding for control now, with Louis-Dreyfus at its head, is believed to have offered its proposal to Donald at the end of October. The group is hoping to move towards completion by December, but there are major hurdles to be cleared before then with other parties still interested in buying the club."

ENDS
That sounds a lot more cautionary than the Guardian piece. Makes it sound like there's some way to go to reach an agreement.

Hopefully they're behind the news and yet to catch up with progress made since.
 
Spot on. I think having wealth to dip into is great, a massive step forward from a club that is ran to be sustainable in L1.

If we'd been offered a single billionaire owner 2 days ago, we'd have bitten someone's arm off for that. Now people are still dreaming of a supergroup of billionaires, which comes with it's own pitfalls. We should be happy with the progress made, not underwhelmed if someone else isn't involved imo.

Agreed. And of course its often overlooked that more billionaires doesn't necessarily mean more money to spend. Let's say (we wish) that we had £2bn each. You look to buy 80% of the club. Then you ask me to get involved. I might say yes (albeit I could just run a club myself without you taking half the proceeds!), but we'd both then have around 40%. You might have been prepared to plough £200m into it, but if you're only getting half the ownership you expected and thus will only get half the benefits, you'd likely only want to invest £100m. If I do the same then we're no better off. It's only really useful if one party suddenly can't spend anything and you've got a billionaire waiting in the wings, but I seriously doubt that will happen with this lad given his family. They're not likely to suddenly lose the lot!
 
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