Takeover | Page 21 | Vital Football

Takeover

I’ve written this here because I feel the takeover does influence my point, but, looking at signings (or lack of them so far,maybe influenced by the takeover process taking ages to complete) ,realistically,have we got enough in our squad to make a decent go of it next season or are we going to struggle again?
 
think it will be a struggle at the start first month will be very tricky hopefully things will improve as the season goes on what the new owners (if it happens)do in january window could well decide where we will end up
 
Realistically I think we could have enough to be ok, but we don't know for sure until the season kicks off. We've not finished recruiting yet so i imagine there will still be squad improvements to come and we all know the right player can make the world of difference. Also while the playing squad isn't vastly different it is a completely different team this time under Cook.

I've got a lot more faith in Cook and this current squad than i ever had in the squad and the 3 managers we had on our last visist to the Championship. It's going to be tough but we've got the best possible man in charge to get the most out of the resources we have - so I think no point fretting and lets be positive.
 
Gut feeling is that we’ll struggle especially when it comes to scoring goals. No Championship defence will be losing sleep over facing Grigg, Vaughan, Jacobs and Massey. We are once again like with Yanic two years ago, going in heavily reliant in one player (Powell) unless we make a McManaman/Yanic signing. But as said by bicky the takeover should have us competitive in the January window. Sticking with our gaffer should help as well but if you don’t give a handyman the right tools then he will struggle. I think Cook will just about keep us up and then fingers crossed with more funds available from the owners he’ll stick with us and we can push on.
 
I think Grigg is a better player than he was 2 years ago and he will have had a full break and preseason which will help. I'm not expecting him to hit 20 goals but i think he will have a better chance of hitting a few more than the 7 or so he got last time. He'll also be playing in a side that plays in a way that should generate more chances than he had last time. But there's no doubt we need a Yanic / McMannaman to come in and add some extra pace and penetration.

But i feel Devante Cole could suprise a few next season. I think from the cameos we've seen the lad has a lot to offer.
 
Two seasons back we had two awful managers, the football was beyond dire, the squad was severely imbalanced and we compounded the problem by flogging our only attacking asset in January. This time we have a manager that knows what he's doing and despite some uninspiring signings I feel we'll stay up. The rider on that is that we recruit before the window shuts in the areas we need to such as left back. This takeover needs to happen soon though as we have players running down contracts who need to be offered new ones.
 
On a side note ... Wigan Athletic have been attempting to get their shockingly high business rates bill reduced (compared to other Football clubs).
Both Horwich FC and Wigan Athletic have been shafted by previous Business Rates and got increases in the last review.
(Posted something back in October 2016 about the business rates).
Article behind the Times paywall at present.
 
I've copied the text from the article in case anyone interested.

Relegation is a fate feared by all football clubs but soon it may come with a silver lining — a tax rebate.
Wigan Athletic, who have been relegated three times in the past six years, have gone to court to challenge their business rates. Seeking a ruling that could affect other clubs, Wigan are arguing that they should pay less because the taxman has failed to account for the catastrophic loss of value sustained when dropping down a division.
Business rate evaluations were conducted last year for the first time since 2010, and are not due to be done again until 2021.
As part of an appeal to the lands chamber division of the upper tribunal, the court that hears rates appeals, Wigan argue that after their relegation to League One in 2015, they were paying more than six times the average business rates bill of other clubs in that division.
Wigan’s legal team argues that the average League One club paid about £88,000 a year in 2015-16, but Wigan’s bill was nearly £600,000.

Wigan officials maintain that if income is to be a significant factor in rates calculations, valuations should be done more regularly to counter any material change after promotion or relegation.

A ruling on Wigan’s application is expected early next month.
 
So I had the opportunity to talk to an expert on business acquisitions yesterday as part of my job and I decided to ask him about takeovers in general. Obviously he couldn't comment on the specific circumstances but he said that in general international takeovers of uk organisations take between 6 and 18 months to complete depending on the business complexity.

We're still well within what would be considered a 'normal' timeframe for a takeover. The complications of transfer windows aside nothing from what I discussed with this guy rang any alarm bells. It's quite normal for takeovers to go completely silent for months as lawyers and accountants pore over the fine details in his opinion.

Obviously it'd be great to have some cash prior to the window ending but it's not the end of the world. We've got a strong core to the team and, with the exception of left back and cover at centre back, enough bodies to make a go of it this season. Provided we fill those gaps with loans or frees if money is not forthcoming then we should be ok for a solid mid table finish based purely on the strengths of last season.
 
i am not concerned by how long it takes to finalise the takeover im more concerned by who it is that is buying us
 
annoying that this is impacting negatively on Cook's ability to do business in the window.
 
Not the slightest evidence it’s had any impact. The club has said all along they’ll operate as normally. And we’ve known for over 3 months the expected completion date.

It seems everything rumour related comes through Nixon. Trouble is, of the recent signings, including one for a major fee, he had no heads up.
 
Studds40 said:
Not the slightest evidence it’s had any impact. The club has said all along they’ll operate as normally. And we’ve known for over 3 months the expected completion date.

It seems everything rumour related comes through Nixon. Trouble is, of the recent signings, including one for a major fee, he had no heads up.
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Of course it’s had an effect. We’ve not got any money to spend on transfers, new contracts and wages to afford anyone other than 30 year old plus free agents that no one else wants. Are you genuinely mad enough to think we’d purposely drain our budget with weeks of the transfer window left? We’ve gone from being linked with good players for six figure fees to over the hill free agents. That’s no coincidence. Pull your head out of the sand for christ sake.
 
C_Latic said:
Of course it’s had an effect. We’ve not got any money to spend on transfers, new contracts and wages to afford anyone other than 30 year old plus free agents that no one else wants. Are you genuinely mad enough to think we’d purposely drain our budget with weeks of the transfer window left? We’ve gone from being linked with good players for six figure fees to over the hill free agents. That’s no coincidence. Pull your head out of the sand for christ sake.
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I aggree
 
C_Latic said:
Of course it’s had an effect. We’ve not got any money to spend on transfers, new contracts and wages to afford anyone other than 30 year old plus free agents that no one else wants. Are you genuinely mad enough to think we’d purposely drain our budget with weeks of the transfer window left? We’ve gone from being linked with good players for six figure fees to over the hill free agents. That’s no coincidence. Pull your head out of the sand for christ sake.
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I’ll be needing some sources.

We’ve no idea about contract situations as that’s a private matter. It was the same with Jacobs, Grigg and Cook. People fretting on social media for the club to “do something” - until the day they where announced.

I must have missed us being linked with “good players for six figure fees”. We’ve been linked with God knows how many random players from baseless rumours. The first time a large fee was mentioned we signed Lopes. Even then people where bent out of shape with the rumoured figure.

The “no one else wants them” line is disrespectful and inaccurate. Any club worth their salt scours the Free Agent market. We’ve seen one trialist sign for Blackpool. If Cook feels a trialist is worth a permanent deal, that save us a transfer fee, and gives us the option to raise further funds with potential sales.

Cook has never aluded to any change in his transfer plans all summer. We now know he enquired about Lopes last January. He continues to state he’s in the market for “exciting players” and to fill a handful of key positions.
 
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craig214 said:
Didnt the new people lend latics 6million a few months ago as a gesture of goodwill?
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There was a working capital loan mentioned by IEC in one of the documents but covering our existing wage bill and new pitch likely eat through that immediately. I believe the money for being in the Championship is about 6m, but our wage bill last year wa supposedly in the region of 10m. Add in something like 1m for the new pitch and Lopes fee and we've already accounted for the loan and tv money.

As for the change in transfer policy the takeover date hasn't moved, we heard Aug / Sept from the start of the agreement being confirmed and the working capital loan was agreed then to give us a set budget. So I'm not sure we suddenly cut our budget it was prob this size from the start. But maybe we are finding the cost of players wage demands to be drastically higher than we expected.

Who were we linked with for 6 figures? I'm struggling to recall anyone for that price. Only 500k for Potts.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
There was a working capital loan mentioned by IEC in one of the documents but covering our existing wage bill and new pitch likely eat through that immediateldylno I JKO

OK I only pointed out they lent latics and in reality they put in 6 million to the club they will own shortly.

My point was not how is was going to be spent, it was to suggest the new owners commitment to the club, before they own it.

I little like before you exchange on a house you are buying you give the current owners some money with certian strings attatchd I have no doubt.

But you still give them a chunk of money. Its a demonstration of good will
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