RoyalBlue If he doesn' t want to join in that type of competition, then he should stop trying to still reap the glory of playing in the big boys play ground (maybe Reading Town would be more comfortable for him), walk the walk and deliver on his talk of selling. In order to do that, he needs to offer the club at a price that others believe is reasonable and not at a price that he dreams of getting. Also, he needs to remove his branding from the product that is up for sale.
As for the final paragraph, he clearly isn't quite the business superstar that some would have us believe. Had he been, he would have made sure he backed other horses in addition to publishing (how many people would want to invest in paper publishing in the 21st century) and property. In fact he reminds me of that ad about putting your money on the wrong colour etc!
That having been said, I think there is a lot to be said for Sandman's interpretation.
Do you own a house ?
If so, and if a person came along and offered a price that was below your valuation because you liked living there, woud you sell anyway ?
No ..... I thought not.
SJM is by no means perfect and I'm not suggesting that any old investor would have us on the scrap heap in days, but the risk with a new owner is that there appear to be a significant number of potential investors that turn out to be anything but good for the club. Birmingham are now finding out, Cardiff, Plymouth, West Ham, and numerous others have found the same. Where these used to be the exception, they are by no means the rule, but they are a significant minority.
Are we willing to gamble on that basis ? Maybe, but I've yet to see any evidence that the current format is not working.
No, we are not in the PL, but that seems to be a place where you have to gamble even more to stay in the division. Again, for the few that manage to make it, there is the aspiration of surviving because breaking into the second tier of the PL is seriously unlikely for any team with which we can be compared.
SOHF
