Potential Takeover?

[fox_favourite]

3 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

Sounds like Daniel Levy is selling his 25% stake in ENIC/Spurs.  Would take his money in a heartbeat, knows how to get shit done.

And he'll know a lost cause as well, so likely run a mile from us. 

Edited yesterday at 06:00 by fox_favourite

[PaulW]

On 03/06/2026 at 10:25, foxfanazer said:

They live among us people 

 

Honestly think Top would have to piss on some people's kids on Christmas day before they admit he's an incompetent fraud. Seriously weird section of the fanbase 

'Seriously weird section of the fanbase'  Yup, so - called fans posting on here that they hope we lose matches,  booing players when their names are read out over the PA, or when they are about to come onto the pitch.

[PaulW]

On 03/06/2026 at 21:46, grth2004 said:

I saw 👀 the other day that the average wage of a league 1 player is expected to be between £1000 & £4000 a week. 
We’re still paying some players at the moment over £40,000 a week 🤦‍♂️😫

And some people think 🤔 everything will be ok 👍 🥴

That's way out.  Some players at full - time Clubs in the National League are on a grand a week.

[foxfanazer]

7 minutes ago, PaulW said:

'Seriously weird section of the fanbase'  Yup, so - called fans posting on here that they hope we lose matches,  booing players when their names are read out over the PA, or when they are about to come onto the pitch.

Yeah you're still weirder than them 

[LCFCJohn]

31 minutes ago, PaulW said:

'Seriously weird section of the fanbase'  Yup, so - called fans posting on here that they hope we lose matches,  booing players when their names are read out over the PA, or when they are about to come onto the pitch.

Open your eyes, get your head out of Aiyawatt’s rear end and you’ll see that the things you are describing, whether you like them or not, is how failing football clubs are held to account by their supporters. 
 

Defending them, constantly insisting they are doing a great job, attacking supporters who are willing to call it out and cheering the decline of our club both on and off the pitch is the odd behaviour!

 

I don’t agree with wanting your own team to lose by the way and not particularly a fan or booing onto the pitch. But you have cherry picked the really tiny minority of cases there. In reality, you are calling out anybody who even questions Aiyawatt and KP.

Edited 19 hours ago by LCFCJohn

[PaulW]

1 minute ago, LCFCJohn said:

Open your eyes, get your head out of Aiyawatt’s rear end and you’ll see that the things you are describing, whether you like them or not, is how failing football clubs are held to account by their supporters. 
 

Defending them, constantly insisting they are doing a great job, attacking supporters who are willing to call it out and cheering the decline of our club both on and off the pitch is the odd behaviour!

 

I don’t agree with wanting your own team to lose by the way and not particularly a fan or being onto the pitch. But you have cherry pitched the really tiny minority of cases there. In reality, you are calling out anybody who even questions Aiyawatt and KP.

Don't think you'll find that I've insisted that they're currently doing a great job, and I'm certainly not cheering the decline, putting words into other people's mouths is odd behaviour when trying to have a serious discussion.

[Scotch]

On 03/06/2026 at 21:46, grth2004 said:

I saw 👀 the other day that the average wage of a league 1 player is expected to be between £1000 & £4000 a week. 
We’re still paying some players at the moment over £40,000 a week 🤦‍♂️😫

And some people think 🤔 everything will be ok 👍 🥴

How much we spend in on wages compared to other teams in the league is irrelevant. What matters is how much we spend in comparison to how much we generate. THAT'S what matters. Obviously it is still too high but what other teams pay there players has no relevance to that or our finances. 

[LCFCJohn]

4 minutes ago, PaulW said:

Don't think you'll find that I've insisted that they're currently doing a great job, and I'm certainly not cheering the decline, putting words into other people's mouths is odd behaviour when trying to have a serious discussion.

Come on. Your posting history speaks for itself. I have never seen you once say a word against the running of the club. Granted I may have missed something but your posts always jump out as defending the club at every turn, even if by attacking anyone who has a negative word to say. You even condemned supporters protesting but refused to condemn the supporters who attacked other fans who were simply vocalising their dissatisfaction and continued not to when I challenged you on it. 
 

Sometimes what you don’t say or what you choose to focus on shows how you really feel about something.

[grth2004]

12 minutes ago, Scotch said:

How much we spend in on wages compared to other teams in the league is irrelevant. What matters is how much we spend in comparison to how much we generate. THAT'S what matters. Obviously it is still too high but what other teams pay there players has no relevance to that or our finances. 

It’s relevant because we all get the same revenue from the league so it’s a gauge to what we realistically need to expect. 

obviously we will get more from a higher crowd or sponsorship possibly but it does matter what we spend on wages whilst in League one as we are going to get nothing at all compared to being in the championship and are in massive debt. 
Point is we are going to generate nothing so it matters to see what others pay to survive or am I missing something. 

Edited 19 hours ago by grth2004

[PaulW]

1 minute ago, LCFCJohn said:

Come on. Your posting history speaks for itself. I have never seen you once say a word against the running of the club. Granted I may have missed something but your posts always jump out as defending the club at every turn, even if by attacking anyone who has a negative word to say. You even condemned supporters protesting but refused to condemn the supporters who attacked other fans who were simply vocalising their dissatisfaction and continued not to when I challenged you on it. 
 

Sometimes what you don’t say or what you choose to focus on shows how you really feel about something.

 

i am critical of people who post comments using playground language, such as players 'stinking the place out' and similar.  I condemned the protests because it was (and is) my belief that they affected the players performance, and possibly cost us points, and contributed to the relegation, and made the terraces a thoroughly unpleasent place to be.  I didn't comment about fans being attacked because I wasn't there, haven't seen footage of it, and all seemed a bit 'he said she said.  I don't challenge your last sentence at all, other than to say that I choose how I feel about things, and it doesn't include wishing the Club that I have supported for 65 years to loose matches, or go out of business just to get rid of an unpopular board.

[CosbehFox]

Well tbf the players have stunk the place out alongside disgraceful behaviour off the pitch. That’s not me being abusive either. They’ve been a disgrace to the term professional. We were relegated largely because the club had points deducted due to the owners irresponsible financial management. Pure fact 
 

Going to that O’Neill event this week and listening to him talk about the moment the fans were calling for his head and protesting. But basically agreeing that the performances and results were worthy of criticism. 
 

It makes you realise how bloody snowflakes this whole precious thing about protests and this squad is. No grit, no desire, no energy. Just down tools rather than prove people wrong. MON’s team settled down, he described how Steve Walsh won a game single handed and Garry Parker became a massive part in it. 
 

Remember of course when Pearson started the ascent, Drinkwater cupped his ears towards the Leicester support in defiance and they really did work together to create something special. 
 

Anyone that’s been a fan of 30 plus years would do well to remember the O’Neill protest/comeback and the Shipman out shouts to which the players still stayed up when all looked down. 
 

Trying to pin a relegation on a section of fans protesting is so off with history, while at the same the ‘majority’ did nothing to try and elevate the atmosphere 

Edited 18 hours ago by CosbehFox

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Stating how long you've been a fan for doesn't make your opinion more valid. If anything it makes it weirder that you're seemingly happy to see your lifelong interest go down the pan.

[CosbehFox]

5 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Stating how long you've been a fan for doesn't make your opinion more valid. If anything it makes it weirder that you're seemingly happy to see your lifelong interest go down the pan.

If anything they’d be well positioned to remember Shipman Out / O’Neill out and remember the eventual legacy of those moments 

[Scotch]

45 minutes ago, grth2004 said:

It’s relevant because we all get the same revenue from the league so it’s a gauge to what we realistically need to expect. 

obviously we will get more from a higher crowd or sponsorship possibly but it does matter what we spend on wages whilst in League one as we are going to get nothing at all compared to being in the championship and are in massive debt. 
Point is we are going to generate nothing so it matters to see what others pay to survive or am I missing something. 

Selling Monga for £15m, El Khannouss (if we've not already borrowed against it) and whoever else we sell will generate more revenue than any of these teams can dream of so yes, we WILL have to cut or cloth to a degree but we are still not going to be in the same financial bracket as the majority of these other teams that pay the wages you just quoted. 

[inckley fox]

5 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

If anything they’d be well positioned to remember Shipman Out / O’Neill out and remember the eventual legacy of those moments 

They were very similar protests in their execution but very different in their motives and outcomes.

 

O'Neill was a manager who'd been at the club for 12 weeks or so and experienced poor results during a transitional period. Shipman a chairman who'd been in charge for around 12 years and overseen decline at all levels. One protest came way too soon, the other felt overdue.

 

O'Neill stayed and brought us unprecedented success. Shipman quit when the board voted for Pleat's dismissal, and it was that change which played a key role in our resurgence.

 

But you're right about the big thing they have in common: after Shipman left, the fanbase reunited and we stayed up. After the O'Neill protest, we won promotion. In the latter case, the 'before' was a prolonged period of poor form and the 'after' was an immediate upturn.

 

I wouldn't want to claim that these protests did anything to improve our on-field performances, because I'm not sure there's any solid evidence that they were a decisive factor. You could argue that Shipman's exit paved the way for Gordon Lee to keep us up, but we were actually out of the drop zone at the time. You could also argue that the Sheffield United protest in March 1996 gave O'Neill the fire in his belly to take the team by the scruff of the neck and turn things around. But he'd probably disagree with you.

 

One thing is for sure, though, and that is that there is no clear evidence that fan protests - and certainly not the ones which took place this season - provoke downturns in results. If you're looking for reasons for the relegation then financial mismanagement, subsequent punishments, lack of funds to rebuild, poor managerial appointments and years of awful player recruitment under different managers (but the same board) would be the obvious causes. All of those were Top and Rudkin's responsibility.

 

The fact that some fans pointed this out and argued that things had to change has to be way down the list of decisive causes for our decline, and most likely had no impact one way or the other. The argument that they did smacks of someone not so much clutching as flailing hopelessly in a desperate bid for the last, elusive KP-branded straw.

[grth2004]

13 minutes ago, Scotch said:

Selling Monga for £15m, El Khannouss (if we've not already borrowed against it) and whoever else we sell will generate more revenue than any of these teams can dream of so yes, we WILL have to cut or cloth to a degree but we are still not going to be in the same financial bracket as the majority of these other teams that pay the wages you just quoted. 

I hope you’re right but I fear we’ve already borrowed against any money we will make on players. 
Add to that the massive costs of the training ground and huge staff that other teams don’t have I fear we will be in the same situation as other teams in League One if not worse. 
I like your positivity though and hope you are right. 

[Finnegan]

19 minutes ago, Scotch said:

Selling Monga for £15m, El Khannouss (if we've not already borrowed against it) and whoever else we sell will generate more revenue than any of these teams can dream of so yes, we WILL have to cut or cloth to a degree but we are still not going to be in the same financial bracket as the majority of these other teams that pay the wages you just quoted. 

 

It's be very naive to think that all of the money we make on sales will be available for new players. 

 

[Scotch]

4 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

It's be very naive to think that all of the money we make on sales will be available for new players. 

 

No, I'm not talking about signings. I'm talking about the current wage bill. The more we bring in from sales, the higher our wage bill is permitted to be and we will bring more in from sales than anyone else in the league by quite a bit so our wage bill can be quite a bit higher than everyone else. That was the point I was (badly) trying to make. 

 

Ofcourse, the question becomes, can we bring in enough from the sale of our high earners to cover the wages for whos left. That's what we need to be concerned about, not the average wage of the rest of the league like the poster I replied to suggested. 

[Scotch]

13 minutes ago, grth2004 said:

I hope you’re right but I fear we’ve already borrowed against any money we will make on players. 
Add to that the massive costs of the training ground and huge staff that other teams don’t have I fear we will be in the same situation as other teams in League One if not worse. 
I like your positivity though and hope you are right. 

Oh, please don't mistake me for a half glass full kind of guy. I'm in no way positive. We are in real trouble. I was just pointing out that the wage bill of other teams isn't really relevant to the mess we are in. 

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, PaulW said:

 

i am critical of people who post comments using playground language, such as players 'stinking the place out' and similar.  I condemned the protests because it was (and is) my belief that they affected the players performance, and possibly cost us points, and contributed to the relegation, and made the terraces a thoroughly unpleasent place to be.  I didn't comment about fans being attacked because I wasn't there, haven't seen footage of it, and all seemed a bit 'he said she said.  I don't challenge your last sentence at all, other than to say that I choose how I feel about things, and it doesn't include wishing the Club that I have supported for 65 years to loose matches, or go out of business just to get rid of an unpopular board.

I don’t think ‘stinking the place out’ is playground talk as you put it. It’s a genuine description of what we saw. I also disagree the players were affected by the protests as they happened outside the ground. To be affected, objectively, that would indicate the players would have to have cared which they didn’t. Look at games like Southampton, 3-0 up, crowd right behind and fell apart. Preston at home, a goal up going towards half time and playing well and again fell apart. The logic you have suggested doesn’t stand up against the evidence. 
 

I’m sure it did make the stand unpleasant for those who either aren’t unhappy with what they are seeing or just don’t care deeply enough. But what we saw was beyond comprehension. We won on what, 5th January and the last day, 2nd May and once between that in nearly 4 months! The worst season in our history. Sorry, what do you expect from people who put their hard earned money to follow the club? To just shrug and say it’s ok?

 

I also don’t want the club to go into administration or out of business. I think the latter is unlikely. The former very much on the horizon. I do though understand the resigned view that if it’s coming, why not just get it out the way so we can move forward. Don’t mistake people just being resigned to it as people actively wanting it.

[inckley fox]

31 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

I don’t think ‘stinking the place out’ is playground talk as you put it. It’s a genuine description of what we saw. I also disagree the players were affected by the protests as they happened outside the ground. To be affected, objectively, that would indicate the players would have to have cared which they didn’t. Look at games like Southampton, 3-0 up, crowd right behind and fell apart. Preston at home, a goal up going towards half time and playing well and again fell apart. The logic you have suggested doesn’t stand up against the evidence. 
 

I’m sure it did make the stand unpleasant for those who either aren’t unhappy with what they are seeing or just don’t care deeply enough. But what we saw was beyond comprehension. We won on what, 5th January and the last day, 2nd May and once between that in nearly 4 months! The worst season in our history. Sorry, what do you expect from people who put their hard earned money to follow the club? To just shrug and say it’s ok?

 

I also don’t want the club to go into administration or out of business. I think the latter is unlikely. The former very much on the horizon. I do though understand the resigned view that if it’s coming, why not just get it out the way so we can move forward. Don’t mistake people just being resigned to it as people actively wanting it.

Superb post.

[grth2004]

1 hour ago, Scotch said:

Oh, please don't mistake me for a half glass full kind of guy. I'm in no way positive. We are in real trouble. I was just pointing out that the wage bill of other teams isn't really relevant to the mess we are in. 

Yeah I’m not all doom and gloom the same but I was just showing the gulf in wages and where we are as an example one of our players wages would cover a whole teams wages of some teams in League one. 
The amount of clearing out is vast to have a chance of not failing PSR again in my opinion. 
As far as takeovers go nobody is going to touch us with the wages we have now even with the latest players leaving. 

[Samilktray]

2 hours ago, PaulW said:

 

i am critical of people who post comments using playground language, such as players 'stinking the place out' and similar.  I condemned the protests because it was (and is) my belief that they affected the players performance, and possibly cost us points, and contributed to the relegation, and made the terraces a thoroughly unpleasent place to be.  I didn't comment about fans being attacked because I wasn't there, haven't seen footage of it, and all seemed a bit 'he said she said.  I don't challenge your last sentence at all, other than to say that I choose how I feel about things, and it doesn't include wishing the Club that I have supported for 65 years to loose matches, or go out of business just to get rid of an unpopular board.

Being this blissfully unaware of reality must make life brilliant. I’m quite jealous

[nnfox]

2 hours ago, Scotch said:

Selling Monga for £15m, El Khannouss (if we've not already borrowed against it) and whoever else we sell will generate more revenue than any of these teams can dream of so yes, we WILL have to cut or cloth to a degree but we are still not going to be in the same financial bracket as the majority of these other teams that pay the wages you just quoted. 

We're not selling Monga for £15m! Nowhere near 

[Scotch]

17 minutes ago, nnfox said:

We're not selling Monga for £15m! Nowhere near 

The price being mentioned is 10/15 so I imagine it will be 10 with 5 of add-ons.