That sounds both good and bad. A Stelling/Kindberg consortium sounds like a dream team but does anyone know what the "outstanding litigation" is all about????

The dream scenario. A Pools fan, a local businessman and a proven successful football owner.

Ronnie Moore ? no thanks. Would of thought the litigation, was outstanding debts etc, people owed money taking club to court etc

Seems to be a lot riding on the litigation. Can't see anyone taking over until this is resolved.

As for Moore, I'd happily take him for the rest of this season, but I wouldn't want him as a long term option.

Agreed - I think we saw in his second season his limitations, but I think we also saw in his time that he has a more than decent eye for a player.

Wouldn't be at all unhappy to see him as - dare I say it - Head of Recruitment.

Or Head of Performance...

Think he had a decent eye for a loan signing, but there is no money left in the tin for players, loan or otherwise, so it would be down to organisation, fitness and motivation only.

I can't quite see why anyone would want to takeover the club with long term legacy debt, sage debt, litigation presumably over unpaid bills or debt and a rake of useless feckers under contract for another year.
I can't quite see what Pammy is getting at with a threat of administration, surely that serves no-one well least of all Sage & Pammy. It would alleviate them of further debt responsibility but possibly open to a charge of financial mis management. The debts and liabilities would still be there and be equally unappealing to a new owner as they are now.
I suppose the administrator could try and re-structure the debt if there were no bidders, something like a cva maybe, but who does that serve? Saga & Pammy get less than they were hoping for, any prospective buyer pays less than they were expecting but some debt remains and so do the useless feckers under contract.
Any buyer is probably better off doing nothing until the administrator decides there are no buyers at the "hoped for " price there is a re-think after a period of time and the terms are re-structured with the debt liability stays with Sage, most of it there fuck up anyway. The owner would still have the useless feckers on the downside.

It that doesn't work out it looks like liquidation. The club as we know it would cease to exist, the debt would be gone, Sage & Pammy would be gone, I'm also assuming the useless feckers would be gone too.
On the plus side the ground would exist, the way would be clear for a benefactor to finance the club, a team would undoubtedly form some leagues down the pyramid and could be built up again based on sound financial management.

Some would say it is not Pools, technically of course it wouldn't be but in the spirit of professional football being played in Hartlepool it would be, I think in a season or two we would forget it was a phoenix team.

Sensible and realistic

My worry is , even if a takeover happened, would we not be up against it? and find ourselves in the same situation a couple of years down the line?. In the timeline of events, could this takeover not be our Raj Singh moment? and we all know that didn't end well at Darlo.

A root and branch approach is needed in order to sort the clubs problems out , starting from scratch seems to me the best way of doing this now, not that we have any choice in the matter, it looks like that's the way it will end up anyway.

Not sure this well thought out and realist post will make Facebook

I think the fact that the Trust has come down on the side of reaching a deal with a consortium that avoids Administration if at all possible says a lot.

If a phoenix club is the only way forward so be it. But Poolies of all people should be wary of the idea that a phoenix Pools would go "flying up the leagues" (to quote Mr. I on another thread). Success on the pitch is never a given and the likes of South Shields and Whitley Bay aren't short of a few bob. We've already seen enough times this season that a good part-time footballer is at least a match for a journeyman pro.

I don't think we would go flying up the leagues, certainly not in the short term anyway. To do this the first thing we would have to achieve is unity amongst the fans and everyone pulling together in same direction. Without this it would be futile exercise.

It won't be any deal though will it? A significant amount of debt, liabilities and the litigation will need to disappear first or the deal won't be manageable. This applies surely to any prospective buyer whether the Trust is involved or not, just good business sense. This is a business with most saleable assets stripped, it currently is loss making and until managed properly has limited prospects.

It is I suspect about who blinks first, Pammy, embarrassing herself again, warning of administration, could well be the warm up to that first blink.

I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst

I would be prepared to dig deep into my pockets to help a phoenix club, a club were I would have a say and maybe a role within it, but I won't be giving too much away to a consortium run club that included The Trust I'm afraid. Its all or nothing for me. If a consortium of businessmen want to run the club then let them do it, not with our money and a 30% stake and allowed to make little contribution to the running of things. I reckon they would fook up though. Unless business practices change in regards to how the club is run both on and off the field, It would be like pouring water into a bath that was riddled with holes.

Don't disagree, but the reality is that we're all on the outside looking in and will just have to wait and see how it pans out. Everyone (Jeff Stelling too) says it's the endgame, but that's when the posturing stops (hopefully from Sage) and a deal gets done. Or doesn't.

Meantime the latest JustGiving effort has died on its arse, as it was inevitably going to do.

Having read the Mail article, its a none story. If, if, if, not keen on the litigation etc.

There's a lot of money about in the South too.
Too many clubs in the National leagues are the playthings of Hobby owners.
The football league have a financial fair play rule that the National leagues should be forced to adopt to ensure that clubs live within their means. Clubs who attract crowds of 1000 or less can then only spend what they earn.
These owners rack up debts in the form of loans which could ultimately sink a club like your own.
For every Pilley (Fleetwood) or Vince(FGR) there are Oystons, Coxalls etc - Sadly the former are in short supply.

Thread hits nail on the head. Too many factions and divisions within the fans base all of them got their own opinions and agendas. Some will never support Trust ownership even if only 30 pecent. Others want a Phoenix Club and don't want any money going to Sage. Trust seemed to be suggesting 2 weeks ago Admin wouldn't be the worst possible outcome but now seem to be saying its a Consortium or nothing. We seem to have 3 lots of fundraising going on at any given point and the Friends Group that said after the Wrexham game would sit back and leave it to the Trust to fund raise have gone back on the promise and are saying anyone who doesn't agree with them are non supporters. Imagine the majority of fans are now completed baffled as to who to believe or listen to or what the best option is which this thread proves but we all are all supporters of the same club !

Essentially this all comes down to one thing: Is Blackledge prepared to do a deal? He holds all the threads, and he really seems to be giving them a big tug at the moment.... For all the talk of the asset (ie the club) not being worth what he's sunk into it, it really does sound that he's quite happy to keep playing chicken with everyone: he wants his money back, or else seems to be the vibe we're getting - even the Trust currently seem to be prepared to play ball if they're prepared to be part of a consortium at this point. It might be a negotiating strategy (albeit a high risk one) to get a higher price for the club, as what we're being told seems to be that either a deal is agreed for him to sell the club, or effectively we're either a phoenix club several divisions down, a continuation but at best in the NPL, or one crippled with legacy debt and most likely in NL North at best. Meanwhile the club is staggering on without costing him money, there still seems to be interest in buying the club, and he can remain the absentee landlord leaving an increasingly beleagured Duxbury to field for him. I actually feel quite a bit of sympathy for Pam at the moment - yes she's not really done a good job for us, yes she's part of the problem, but at the end of the day it's Blackledge that's calling the shots. I think she's way in over her head, has made bad decisions, but she isn't the one who has withdrawn further support... The calculus for Blackledge is, how much of a hit is he willing to take in terms of both finances and reputation - and that's not an easy one. Rich men don't often get rich without a core of steel - it could be that he's thinking that there's more damage to his reputation as a hard nosed businessman by agreeing to take say a half million loss than by forcing the club out of business - which might be a consideration should any other business he chooses to lend to think they can negotiate away some of the debt. Put it this way, if I was Coxhall at this point I'd be checking to see who Blackledge knows and whether I needed to go on a long, faraway holiday!

The new Monkey Business is now out and given the latest news on the club's financial plight and the options we face, the first article, by someone who has been there and done that in similar circumstances with Glasgow Rangers should prove highly appropriate. He gives 10 suggestions for how to handle things and it really is all very sensible.

We also have a bit of nostalgia among the moans and suggestions, the spoof ads and cartoons etc. http://www.monkeybizz.net

The richer people get, the greedier they get. Wouldnt surprise me if Blackledge does a Singh and refuse to accept anything less than he expects, even if it means he gets less than he expects if you get what I mean! Hard nosed businessmen think nothing of closing down loss making businesses out of principle just to spite the people that cost them money.

Even though it was his very poor judgement that led him to take over the club.

And he signed off on a budget for 29 players that was going to kill us whatever happned. Harrison had just got Manager of the month and we were edging towards the play off spots when he pulled the plug !

As Loan Star says sometimes they just don't care, Singh was more than happy to force Admin and not accept the CVA for Darlo. He lost either way so wasn't bothered in the end, maybe Blackledge will be the same.

I am not an accountant but when I invest in a company on the stock exchange the value is made up of assets, yearly profits and less tangible things such as goodwill. Now I reckon the only assets are a goalie and one or two others worth a maximum of say £20k. The eBay gear is peanuts. The club loses money so no profits/dividends. So Sage value the goodwill etc at £1.8million. As they say i Dragon's Den, the valuation is ludicrous and I wouldn't be investing!

The advice from the Rangers fan and the 3 Billboards skit hit the spot for me.

Apart from that, I think I'm suffering from crisis fatigue. Anything more than a short paragraph about how bad we are on the pitch/how it's all going to hell in a handcart off it and my brain shuts down. .

Me too.

We've done it to death.

1. Club in debt = no future
2. Gullible buyer/consortium = club still in debt = no future
3. Liquidation then Phoenix = future

Let's get it over with.

Exactly. It’s the only sensible way forwardz

In a ideal situation, Talk is oh so cheap.

No txt spk plz.

A great read as usual Elmo but....
WTF is the Janice and Jon stories all about????
They are just really bad sexual innuendo stories and nothing to do with Pools....or am I missing something????

I'm happy to play top trumps with you on actions over words over the years. Roll the dice when you're ready.

Is the light from the on rushing train!

Exactly