Bolton are in a bit of a situation at the moment. When I say ' a bit of a situation' though, I actually mean the future of the club is well and truly in the balance.
Eddie Davies, the owner, wants to sell up, and there are currently 3 parties in negotiations to buy the club. One is fronted by Dean Holdsworth, but also including other former players are everyone's favourite Amir Khan. The second is fronted by Stelios Giannakopoulos, whilst the third, which I personally think he made up, is 'from the middle east with links to the area.' The first two have been confirmed by the men themselves, and Holdsworth watched the game against Cardiff at the weekend.
On the surface this seems like a pretty good situation for the club. It is evident and well-known that we are shit, and have been in decline for a good number of years. The extent of our debt has been well publicised, and currently lies well over 100 million, with the club losing around 1 million a month. This debt was all owed to Eddie Davies himself though, so the situation wasn't as perilous as it could have been - the monthly losses are a bigger issue. Now, in order to try and get a deal for the club struck, Davies has had to promise to wipe off all debt, essentially meaning that should a takeover be completed we will be debt free, and will hopefully have new investment in order to actually buy and pay some players.
During the whole process a few changes have happened in the board room, to facilitate a takeover, making everything run as smooth as possible. The biggest move in this was chairman, and campaigner of the 'two tiered Premiership,' Phil Gartside, who every Bolton fan thinks is a massive cunt. What we have just learnt today though is that he is 'gravely ill.' To me that suggests he is going to die, which obviously would be terrible, but he might just have a cold.
As this has run on during the past month, shit has started to get serious for the club. Staff haven't been paid for 2 months. This includes players and all staff working for the club, which is a dramatic escalation I wasn't expecting - I did believe having Ameobi and Heskey as strikers was actually the limit. We are being threatened with a winding up order from HMRC over an unpaid 2 million, and administration is looming.
There are basically 3 scenarios which could play out from this point onwards. Firstly, we get bought, everyone gets to keep their jobs, we continue to struggle in the league but at least we exist. Secondly, we fall into administration, face definite relegation to League 1 as a result of the points penalty, are subsequently bought out and struggle in League 1 for however long. Lastly, a takeover doesn't happen, we can't pay our bills, we fall into administration, the club is stripped bare of it's stadium, training ground, hotels and properties, and we are left with absolutely nothing.
I have no idea what will happen, but the way things seem today, and the lack of progress in talks suggests that the most likely next stage is administration and then who knows what.
I'm sure you will all join me in feeling very upset about this.
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Originally Posted by Manc
