On the finance side and this is not a criticism of the Board but I think quite a tranche of the Premier league money went to those who had loaned money to the club and had that repayment been delayed then we may have been able to put out a better team in 2009-10 and stayed up. On the other hand despite delaying repayment had we not survived those loans may never have been repaid.
This was one way of looking at it and was being widely promoted at the time by somebody with an axe to grind- no names, no pack drill.
However, as Aggi says, the loan from Modus needed repaying and, speaking personally, as some of the loans were made from trusts, that required their trustees to seek repayment because of their fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries (and the sheer uncertainty of lending money to a then Championship football club in the first place....).
Some of the lenders in the period leading up to the 08-09 season went on to become bondholders in the "Turf Moor Buy Back" scheme which was an astounding success with the repayments being made ahead of schedule thanks to our success on the pitch.
I would just like people to understand the other side of the situation following promotion in the summer of 2009, so I hope that helps.
Also: I've found myself being in two minds about Coyle. I had a couple of encounters with him at the Club and he was excellent company, and on one occasion was personally very kind indeed to me at a time of great sadness, so I had a very high opinion of him. His subsequent behaviour when he left the club has left a niggling doubt as to whether he was being entirely sincere, or whether he was just "after something". I'm inclined to come down on the side of "good bloke who made a big mistake", but I'll never be more than about 80% sure.