PhilK66
Vital 1st Team Regular
Anyone who reveres Sir Keith and the great football he created for us doesn't deserve any bad names mate!
What would happen if Scally DID walk away?
- Thread starter GillsBluenose
- Start date
Vambogills
Vital Football Hero
A lot easier to walk away if you are selling a multi million pound development around a bigger stadium and the old ground can be sold for housing.
OneSirKeefy
Vital Football Hero
I can see it now. We storm to promotion with Steve at the helm and with plans for the 30k capacity “Scally Evans Stadium” to be completed by aug 2020 and the first home game of our much awaited return to the 2nd tier.
Finally, there is a team in the championship hated more than “Dirty” Leeds.
GRSGimmer
Vital Squad Member
If he decided to walk then we would have to live with the consequences. None of us know exactly what would happen. There will come a point when obviously he gets fed up with the club and all it entails, and he could decide to quit on ill health grounds. What would happen if he died - and no I am not wishing death upon him - there are many unanswered questions. If he sold up we could be in a worse or better situation. All we can realistically do as supporters is roll with the situation and hope Evans is the key to better times ahead unless anyone has several millions in the bank to buy him out. Fasten your seatbelts come August.
GillsBluenose
Vital Football Hero
No. Evans won't start doing that until late September.
Thanks for the responses. The bottom line is that I can not recall any club with a (supposed) healthy balance sheet being voluntarily placed in to administration, receivership or liquidation by it's owner.
I think Smurthwaite at Port Vale made similar threats but has hung on in there.
You think it would be easy to get £2000 from 4000 regulars? I doubt it.
And secondly, you’d probably need some songs for cash flow especially if you transacted at the end of the season.
LSB2
Vital Football Hero
It's easier than anything else that has been suggested :-)
The fact is - this club has never been well supported even in the championship years from your previous responses. Paul Scally trues to bring in new players each year and within the budget of the club. He keeps and has kept the club solvent. He is entitled to draw his dividends he takes all the pressure, walks the floor boards at night, makes the decisions and has ended up in coronary surgery as a result of it all. How many of the moaners and haters could have done what he has. How many of the moaners went to see him when he arranged a number of meetings with fans? How many of you will go to Steve Evans meeting ?.
Gills isn’t perfect but overall it does a good job . Yes we all want highly skilled players but they cost the earth and would bankrupt the club. He gave Steve love all the new players he wanted in the window and what a load of toss most of those were. There were two good loanees out of five which is a poor return.
If scally let every manager spend money like it was going out of fashion we wouldn’t have a club. So come on then club together and buy me scally our and let’s see if you can do a better job.?
You have to get real, Gills have only a very average fan base whatever league they are in. For me if me scally walked it would be a disaster because I can’t see a reason why I would spend my money on Gills where hardly any locals are interested
Gills isn’t perfect but overall it does a good job . Yes we all want highly skilled players but they cost the earth and would bankrupt the club. He gave Steve love all the new players he wanted in the window and what a load of toss most of those were. There were two good loanees out of five which is a poor return.
If scally let every manager spend money like it was going out of fashion we wouldn’t have a club. So come on then club together and buy me scally our and let’s see if you can do a better job.?
You have to get real, Gills have only a very average fan base whatever league they are in. For me if me scally walked it would be a disaster because I can’t see a reason why I would spend my money on Gills where hardly any locals are interested
I imagine one of his sons would take over ownership of the club if he passed away.
We also have Chief Executive Tom Lawrence who is already responsible for the day to day running of the club.
alphabet_king
Vital 1st Team Regular
Theres no way he'd just walk away like that. When he talks of walking away he no doubt means putting the club 'on the market' and selling the club to the highest bidder asap.
GillsBluenose
Vital Football Hero
His statement indicates that none of the rich people in the area are willing to invest. I have always suspected that is because he has just wanted someone to put money in but not interfere, i.e be a silent partner which is not realistic. Who would logically want to do that?
In some ways, it might be interesting if he did put the whole club and assets, with or without GFC Holdings Limited, on the market, to see whether there is any interest in a complete takeover.
Maybe in the fullness of time we will find out.
alphabet_king
Vital 1st Team Regular
Plenty of people do that. Lots of people invest significant sums in businesses and take only part of the shareholdings, leaving the lions share with the original owner, and the original owner to run it.
In fact I think there's a programme on BBC about it.
But Scally's recent outburst seems to be that he'd be tempted to sell the club completely, rather than look for 'investment', or step back into a silent owner role (no way would that be possible for someone like Scally).
In fact I think there's a programme on BBC about it.
But Scally's recent outburst seems to be that he'd be tempted to sell the club completely, rather than look for 'investment', or step back into a silent owner role (no way would that be possible for someone like Scally).
GillsBluenose
Vital Football Hero
If we are thinking of the same programme I can not see any of the seated assembly investing in a football club that does not pay dividends and then just leaving someone else to it.
I have heard of "get rich quick" schemes but not "get poor quick" ones and they would not seem to be the types that invest in the latter.
Wayne.Kerr
Vital Champions League
Can you imagine Scally as a silent owner when he has a veto on anything the Board may propose?
Wayne.Kerr
Vital Champions League
The balance sheet may appear to be healthy but, until the forgiving of the £9m loan is explained, we have no idea if it's simply been moved off balance sheet and somehow Scally's still on the hook. Put that one to bed then we can all sleep a bit
Around 10 years ago the debt was around £9 million - and at a Shareholders Meeting, Scally told everyone that the debt had gone away (I forget the exact words, but IIRC he avoided saying "written off" ).
Most of the Accounting / Banking types on here were dubious ... and rightly so.
A couple of years ago the debt was spotted again in one of the other Companies in the Scally portfolio.
Presumably some sort of inter-company Guarantee.
But it isn't necessary to "clear the debt" to buy out an owner.
If the assets are worth £ 9,000,001 and the debt £ 9,000,000, then the main things that would make GFC worth more than £ 1 are:
a) future (positive) cash flow
b) goodwill
So a valuation of £8 million seems a stretch.
But if 1000 regulars would invest £1,000 each to take control .... would Scally accept £ 1,000,000 to retire to Dubai ?
Wayne.Kerr
Vital Champions League
You'd think so but I'm not sure that whoever forgave the debt doesn't have some hold still
LSB2
Vital Football Hero
That wasn't a valuation, it was just a way of showing how to raise £8M. I've no idea what Scally would accept. If he did accept £1M, that's £7M for players, and Evan's pie bill :-)
Baghdad_Rob
Vital 1st Team Regular
And yet that is what everyone did around 20 years ago when they bought shares in the club and left Scally as the majority shareholder.
Anyone buying a football club as a money making investment does so not to get regular annual dividends. What they are hoping for is for the club to have success to the point some bigger investor will want to buy your shares off you for a profit. If you invested £150 back in the day and had things gone good and we somehow got into the Premier League then maybe some rich arab or malaysian investor will offer you £300 for your holdings.
