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I was there. Probably wouldn't have gone as I was living in Bristol at the time and it was a feezing cold day with snow forecast, but a guy I was working with at the time had been at university with one of the Warburton family (the bakers - who owned Bolton at the time) and he'd been told we...

In most private equity style deals, "investment" is pimarily done by way of loans rather than share capital. This is partly because loans are so much more flexible for the investor, but also largely because of the preferential tax treatment that the interest payments on the loans attract. As...

"The loans cannot be defaulted" - as long as the club/company exists. If we assume no takeover then SISU will have to continue to fund any losses. Ken D told us that the club was moving towards break-even "by the summer", but that relegation would be "a disaster". So that suggests that SISU...

"ALL publicity is good publicity" - Discuss

Wingy - I'm assuming that any payment for the shares would be a nominal sum (Hoffman's famous £1), so any "real" money would be in settlement of SISU's loans.

I agree that the key issue is the loans, but don't believe that any sane businessman would pay the loans in full or "a large chunk of them". Putting any issues of blame to one side, the situation is that SISU's investment in the club (whatever the true figure is) has gone badly wrong. SISU's...

Agreed - many thanks to Jan et al

The lost decade :(:(

Is this a new use of the verb "to load"?

Don't know Joe, but I used to be a member of the Premier Club at the much lamented Highfield Road - Joe used to spend the pre-match time, meeting and greeting the customers and generally playing the good host. Now, if I'd been him, I'd have much preferred to spend that time sipping champagne...

Ever heard of Bernie Madoff????

There's hope for you yet then!!

That's true, no more original thinking than always being negative! :):)

Genuine question: Would you be pleased if a takeover happened or would you prefer to stay with SISU. I know you don't know all the details of any potential deal (at least, I presume you don't), so I'm asking for your gut feel - as your posts seem to suggest you'd prefer the latter.

So can we agree that "Hoffman will lose credibility if he doesn't step forward in the next few days" in your opinion. Some will agree with you, others won't. Personally I won't because my experience of deals like this is that rarely work to any neat timetable. Personally I'm glad that...

I was resonably happy with SISU when they came in. I didn't expect them to take a "fairy godmother" approach, but I did expect them to introduce more professionalism to the club. As is now clear, the original business plan failed (whether the blame is down to RR's decisions, SISU's cash...

From what I recall, I think that Dowie wanted to run the whole footballing side of the club (i.e, including the academy etc) wheras Ranson wanted a manager/coach who would concentrate on the first team.

Have to admit that, at the time, I thought that CC was a good appointment - young manager who'd done OK in the Premier, had experience of managing abroad. On the other hand, my heart sank when I heard we'd got AB.

All the home games except Reading when I was taking #2 son to start university. As some have said, it's more out of habit than excitement now. You do wonder how a new generation of City fans will ever "get the bug".

Could be a long thread if it includes sales!!!