ALK Capital or Farnell/Elkashashy takeover

[Burnleyareback2]

Are you really asking why we are currently a more attractive club than a League Two team?

No, I wasn’t.

[arise_sir_charge]

How boring are some folk. Naturally negative and suspicious of everything. It would drain me living like those people must.

Arguably the most interesting thing to happen to the club since Flood appeared and you’ve got folk with no knowledge of any of it pulling it apart and longing for the return of good old steady Eddie, Mike Garlick who’s not even left the building yet. People cite Bolton, Bastards and Wigan like that is the only possible outcome.

Who knows what’s going to happen, there hasn’t even been an announcement yet, we don’t even know exactly who is behind it or what their specific ideas or motives are.

The unknown has an element of excitement about it. In all my time watching. football I can think of four clubs that have ultimately gone to the wall.

Aldershot
Maidstone
Bury
Macc

There might be more.

Now they are small clubs with little to no history at all. Not saying it’s not sad that they’ve gone before I get jumped on.

The biggest clubs that have fallen on hard times that have history, Bolton, Bastards, Leeds, Portsmouth etc find a way to survive.....there is sufficient interest locally, nationally and internationally for them to survive. There are far more clubs that have plumbed the depths and survived than there are that have gone to the wall.

Let’s face facts, at the moment, we will 5 years into a Premier League stint, the land of milk and honey, but what do we honestly have to show for it.......a steady balance sheet and a £10m training complex, that is literally it. We have to scrape everything we can to compete.

If we went down we’d be going down with a ground that is to be quite frank a dump and no prospect of that changing in the immediate future etc. We’d have an academy to service etc and we’d be back to a small turnover that simply cannot service what we need it to.

Now I’m not saying investment means we won’t go down, but I’d hope that with investment we’d go down with a far more sustainable model than the current one. A club that generates income away from match days because it has the facilities to do so

Let’s see what comes next and go with it. Who knows, the increment may secure Sean Dyche for the longer term......it could actually be fun.

[levraiclaret]

How much has been yearly in bonuses to the board ?

The same as the increase in ST prices.

[Burnleyareback2]

More likely, they sell Tarks, Pope, McNeil, Taylor and keep the ground. Then they spend a small amount of the money received to plug the gaps. If we stay up we stay up, but if we go down the players wages are reduced and they could siphon off some of the parachute payments - leaving enough in the bank to pay the running costs and bring in some cheap signings.

Football club owned, cost to buy it repaid in full, profit made and platform to establish Skynet scouting secured.

The only thing a buyer would need are backers looking to make a quick profit. Amanda Stavely doesn't seem to struggle finding them, so why should any American deal brokers.

The idea that selling a club will lead to additional investment is a nice one, but it is by no means guaranteed.

Then why buy Burnley? Why not buy a championship club for a much lower price, invest the savings into new players and prove to the world how amazing Skynet is?

Also love how nobody had heard of the word Skynet this time yesterday, now it’s being quoted as the future!!

[fatboy47]

If I looked dispassionately at what was on offer to Blackburn Rovers at the time of the Venky approach, and this nebulous package of maybes and ifs, I'd plump for the Venky package all day long.

And that's worked out well hasn't it.

Our house is built on solid rock atm.... Why shift it into the swamp to become another plaything?

[Burnley1989]

How boring are some folk. Naturally negative and suspicious of everything. It would drain me living like those people must.

Arguably the most interesting thing to happen to the club since Flood appeared and you’ve got folk with no knowledge of any of it pulling it apart and longing for the return of good old steady Eddie, Mike Garlick who’s not even left the building yet. People cite Bolton, Bastards and Wigan like that is the only possible outcome.

Who knows what’s going to happen, there hasn’t even been an announcement yet, we don’t even know exactly who is behind it or what their specific ideas or motives are.

The unknown has an element of excitement about it. In all my time watching. football I can think of four clubs that have ultimately gone to the wall.

Aldershot
Maidstone
Bury
Macc

There might be more.

Now they are small clubs with little to no history at all. Not saying it’s not sad that they’ve gone before I get jumped on.

The biggest clubs that have fallen on hard times that have history, Bolton, Bastards, Leeds, Portsmouth etc find a way to survive.....there is sufficient interest locally, nationally and internationally for them to survive. There are far more clubs that have plumbed the depths and survived than there are that have gone to the wall.

Let’s face facts, at the moment, we will 5 years into a Premier League stint, the land of milk and honey, but what do we honestly have to show for it.......a steady balance sheet and a £10m training complex, that is literally it. We have to scrape everything we can to compete.

If we went down we’d be going down with a ground that is to be quite frank a dump and no prospect of that changing in the immediate future etc. We’d have an academy to service etc and we’d be back to a small turnover that simply cannot service what we need it to.

Now I’m not saying investment means we won’t go down, but I’d hope that with investment we’d go down with a far more sustainable model than the current one. A club that generates income away from match days because it has the facilities to do so

Let’s see what comes next and go with it. Who knows, the increment may secure Sean Dyche for the longer term......it could actually be fun.

With you on most of that, to seek the most negative outcome from everything must be a bloody depressing way to live your life.

[williamjblazkowicz]

Hasn't Tony previously said that Garlick is more of businessman than a supporter, unlike Barry Kilby who had allowed his sentiment as a fan to influence decisions. If so, then the opportunity of seeing a significant return on his investment could hold sway over his attachment to the club.

I can't comment on that really as I haven't seen such comments from Tony. Either way, that's all very speculative. I suppose we can only really go off Garlick's actions to date. He has certainly done right by this club so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt!

[Chester Perry]

How boring are some folk. Naturally negative and suspicious of everything. It would drain me living like those people must.

Arguably the most interesting thing to happen to the club since Flood appeared and you’ve got folk with no knowledge of any of it pulling it apart and longing for the return of good old steady Eddie, Mike Garlick who’s not even left the building yet. People cite Bolton, Bastards and Wigan like that is the only possible outcome.

Who knows what’s going to happen, there hasn’t even been an announcement yet, we don’t even know exactly who is behind it or what their specific ideas or motives are.

The unknown has an element of excitement about it. In all my time watching. football I can think of four clubs that have ultimately gone to the wall.

Aldershot
Maidstone
Bury
Macc

There might be more.

Now they are small clubs with little to no history at all. Not saying it’s not sad that they’ve gone before I get jumped on.

The biggest clubs that have fallen on hard times that have history, Bolton, Bastards, Leeds, Portsmouth etc find a way to survive.....there is sufficient interest locally, nationally and internationally for them to survive. There are far more clubs that have plumbed the depths and survived than there are that have gone to the wall.

Let’s face facts, at the moment, we will 5 years into a Premier League stint, the land of milk and honey, but what do we honestly have to show for it.......a steady balance sheet and a £10m training complex, that is literally it. We have to scrape everything we can to compete.

If we went down we’d be going down with a ground that is to be quite frank a dump and no prospect of that changing in the immediate future etc. We’d have an academy to service etc and we’d be back to a small turnover that simply cannot service what we need it to.

Now I’m not saying investment means we won’t go down, but I’d hope that with investment we’d go down with a far more sustainable model than the current one. A club that generates income away from match days because it has the facilities to do so

Let’s see what comes next and go with it. Who knows, the increment may secure Sean Dyche for the longer term......it could actually be fun.

If the ALK guys are like Flood then it would be a definite NO from me - there is little difference between his approach and Stewart Day at Bury

[Inchy]

Without investment we will go down and within a few years seriously struggle financially.


Our current board are very good. Have the club at heart but simply don’t have the resources (or are not willing to spend their personal wealth which is fair enough).

I trust our board to make the right decision

This is not the Walker sons who were desperate to get rid of the dead weight they inherited so flogged it to the chicken farmers

[Zlatan]

On BBC 5 Live this morning - lots of mention of Ryan Reynolds buying into Wrexham, but nothing about Burnley’s possible takeover.

**** the BBC.

They didn't even mention our result from last night, all other games were mentioned.

I'm convinced its an in house wind up joke for Tony Livesey

[martin_p]

Let’s face facts, at the moment, we will 5 years into a Premier League stint, the land of milk and honey, but what do we honestly have to show for it.......a steady balance sheet and a £10m training complex, that is literally it. We have to scrape everything we can to compete.

You can’t accuse others of being negative and then write something like this!

What have we had out of the last five years? Well all you can ever have as supporters is memories, and what memories! Finishing 7th, European football, beating Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and having those teams have to treat us as equals rather than something they just stepped on. The feeling of having your team as one of the best dozen or so in the land after decades of being nothing.

Can I ask what you were expecting?

[DCWat]

With you on most of that, to seek the most negative outcome from everything must be a bloody depressing way to live your life.

I’m not sure it’s negative to be cautious. Particularly when it may affect the long term future of our club. You wouldn’t buy a house without a survey.

A point I must pick up on is ASC’s assertion of the clubs listed having little or no history. Try telling that to those that have followed those teams for the hundreds of years that they’ve been in existence, between them.

If football was solely about silverware, there’d be far fewer teams than there are.

[Conroysleftfoot]

I wondered that if this takeover was going ahead at what stage would ALK sit down to talk to Sean. If Mike Garlick wanted to ensure the club was moving to save hands wouldn't he want Sean's opinion on them and wether he could work with them. I know Sean doesn't have a stake in the club but because we wouldn't want another breakdown in the relationship between Manager and owner surely Sean needs to have input.

[mikeS]

I’d ask the AKL people what they can bring to BUrnley what we don’t already have. And second, what are their ambitions and expectations for the club.

[BurnleyFC]

They didn't even mention our result from last night, all other games were mentioned.

I'm convinced its an in house wind up joke for Tony Livesey

Yep, I noticed that as well.

[arise_sir_charge]

You can’t accuse others of being negative and then write something like this!

What have we had out of the last five years? Well all you can ever have as supporters is memories, and what memories! Finishing 7th, European football, beating Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and having those teams have to treat us as equals rather than something they just stepped on. The feeling of having your team as one of the best dozen or so in the land after decades of being nothing.

Can I ask what you were expecting?

Slightly twisting my point. I clearly mean, bearing in mind the things I’ve cited, what do we have infrastructure wise that will sustain us in the long term. We have an academy but as we have seen elsewhere, that also needs a certain level of upkeep.

On the football side, as a fan of the team I have enjoyed all those things you mention. I also enjoyed the road there and some of my happiest times as a Claret were in the lower leagues and the promotions from them.

My comment about the ground could be considered negative but it’s also realistic.

In respect of DCWat and the clubs that have gone to the wall, I fully accept the fan aspect of it. I work with a Bury fan who has been devastated at what has happened. However, my point remains the bigger clubs with a more successful ‘history’ find a way to survive.

Finally I didn’t suggest I’d want the new people to be like Flood, I merely said that as a fan, at the time, his emergence was exciting, a promotion followed etc and we have been better off as a result ever since.

[arise_sir_charge]

I’d ask the AKL people what they can bring to BUrnley what we don’t already have. And second, what are their ambitions and expectations for the club.

I bet nobody in the discussions had thought of that. Quick ring the ticket office and ask them to pass the message on.

[martin_p]

Slightly twisting my point. I clearly mean, bearing in mind the things I’ve cited, what do we have infrastructure wise that will sustain us in the long term. We have an academy but as we have seen elsewhere, that also needs a certain level of upkeep.

On the football side, as a fan of the team I have enjoyed all those things you mention. I also enjoyed the road there and some of my happiest times as a Claret were in the lower leagues and the promotions from them.

My comment about the ground could be considered negative but it’s also realistic.

In respect of DCWat and the clubs that have gone to the wall, I fully accept the fan aspect of it. I work with a Bury fan who has been devastated at what has happened. However, my point remains the bigger clubs with a more successful ‘history’ find a way to survive.

Finally I didn’t suggest I’d want the new people to be like Flood, I merely said that as a fan, at the time, his emergence was exciting, a promotion followed etc and we have been better off as a result ever since.

But again I ask, what were you expecting? If it’s the ground you’re talking about while I accept it looks tired in parts I’m not sure a bigger and better ground will put us on a sounder footing, especially if we go down. I’m also not sure there’s much scope to do a lot on the current site which would mean moving away from Turf Moor to expand.

[AfloatinClaret]

I'm amused, but not surprised to find that even most of the dyed in the wool 'Garlick Out/We Need Outside Investors' brigade are now asking the 'what if?' questions; Yes lads, in the real world reward comes with risk, Doh.

Should the club be sold then I very much doubt that the current Board will be able to exert much if any control on how the new owners subsequently run the club, there certainly won't be a clause saying 'to suit the whims of the UTC forum. The new owners may invest sensibly and eventually lead us to the unicorn inhabited golden fields of the top-six and Champions League, but the hard evidence of those clubs who've taken this route ahead of us suggests that being asset-stripped and dumped is a much more likely outcome.

I've made no secret of my over-riding opinion: Keep the club solvent and alive, preferably in the EPL with Sean Dyche at the helm, but if that's not possible, then the Championship, D1 or even D2 without SD will suffice, so I'm against this or indeed any deal that takes control of the club away from a Board of 'supporters' to outsiders.

I know and accept that my opinion won't effect the ultimate decision, but I'll stay for the ride - up or down - and enjoy watching and supporting 'my' club for as long as possible. A small silver-lining if it does ultimately go to rat-**** will be the entertainment value of listening to the 'Garlick Out/We Need Outside Investors' brigade on here bitching about how the current Board let them down by selling to the wrong sort of investor and perhaps how if like themselves the Board had been 'real fans' they'd not have sold the club to begin with and that they hadn't thought the Board should sell anyway, they'd just wanted them to find someone to pour money into the club for free.

[BobSykes]

Exciting news. Slightly scary news. As others have said, we're at a real crossroads and what do we see as the future for our club? We can't carry on as we are, and with the current climate and the ever mounting costs of staying in the game, and in the absence of billionaire home town supporters prepared to put their cash in, I am not sure those in control at the club can really avoid this course.

The speculation seems to be around ALK securing a majority stake, so if that's right then presumably Garlick and JB remain as fairly large shareholders albeit no longer controlling in their own right. Let's hope the deal is structured in such a way, and recorded in the shareholders agreement, as to give a pretty clear direction as to where we're heading, what the majority can and cannot do etc, such as to give us all some degree of security and comfort that we're not handing the entire future direction and decision making over to a bunch of asset strippers or fast buck merchants. Securing VC funding as the bridge to take the club to the next level, which is what I hope this is, isn't the same as offloading the club lock stock and barrel to a bunch of chicken farmers.

Fingers crossed. Buckle up...

[Dark Cloud]

I’d ask the AKL people what they can bring to BUrnley what we don’t already have. And second, what are their ambitions and expectations for the club.

Pretty much what I put higher up the thread. We have shown we can finish top 10 by doing exactly what we're doing and if they believe we can do better than that I.E. crack the top 6 then they really have got more money than sense because we won't. So what will they get out of it? I really don't know, but I suspect they'll lose an awful lot of money finding out.

[Boss Hogg]

How boring are some folk. Naturally negative and suspicious of everything. It would drain me living like those people must.

Arguably the most interesting thing to happen to the club since Flood appeared and you’ve got folk with no knowledge of any of it pulling it apart and longing for the return of good old steady Eddie, Mike Garlick who’s not even left the building yet. People cite Bolton, Bastards and Wigan like that is the only possible outcome.

Who knows what’s going to happen, there hasn’t even been an announcement yet, we don’t even know exactly who is behind it or what their specific ideas or motives are.

The unknown has an element of excitement about it. In all my time watching. football I can think of four clubs that have ultimately gone to the wall.

Aldershot
Maidstone
Bury
Macc

There might be more.

Now they are small clubs with little to no history at all. Not saying it’s not sad that they’ve gone before I get jumped on.

The biggest clubs that have fallen on hard times that have history, Bolton, Bastards, Leeds, Portsmouth etc find a way to survive.....there is sufficient interest locally, nationally and internationally for them to survive. There are far more clubs that have plumbed the depths and survived than there are that have gone to the wall.

Let’s face facts, at the moment, we will 5 years into a Premier League stint, the land of milk and honey, but what do we honestly have to show for it.......a steady balance sheet and a £10m training complex, that is literally it. We have to scrape everything we can to compete.

If we went down we’d be going down with a ground that is to be quite frank a dump and no prospect of that changing in the immediate future etc. We’d have an academy to service etc and we’d be back to a small turnover that simply cannot service what we need it to.

Now I’m not saying investment means we won’t go down, but I’d hope that with investment we’d go down with a far more sustainable model than the current one. A club that generates income away from match days because it has the facilities to do so

Let’s see what comes next and go with it. Who knows, the increment may secure Sean Dyche for the longer term......it could actually be fun.

Some good points but I wouldn’t agree that Flood arriving was exciting. Not a fan of his at all. Don’t agree the ground is a ‘dump’. It had loads of character and the Cricketfield Stand needs a bit of maintenance. Agree that being suspicious of anything new is a bit of a corner shop mentality.

[Jakubs Tash]

I’d ask the AKL people what they can bring to BUrnley what we don’t already have. And second, what are their ambitions and expectations for the club.

I'm fairly confident that the Chairman and Board have asked those questions and probably near the very beginning of the process. I can't believe that ANY Burnley fan would think MG would just sell up to anybody and not safe-guard the club.

[Cubanclaret]

I wondered that if this takeover was going ahead at what stage would ALK sit down to talk to Sean. If Mike Garlick wanted to ensure the club was moving to save hands wouldn't he want Sean's opinion on them and wether he could work with them. I know Sean doesn't have a stake in the club but because we wouldn't want another breakdown in the relationship between Manager and owner surely Sean needs to have input.

I'm sure most of us would agree that Sean Dyche is the key asset of Burnley FC. You would think that any knowledgable football investors who recognise that Burnley FC are a well-positioned club to take forward, will equally recognise the contribution that the manager and his staff have made in establishing the club at the top table. Somehow though I'm not sure the preliminaries would involve Sean's input. I think Garlick and his team have been looking for new investment for a while and their job is to do due diligence on ALK and make sure they are robust enough to find a pathway that is good for the club, over and above the future of the manager (after all he is nearing the end of his contract and we can't be over reliant of him committing his future to us).

The first insights we can glean is that this consortium is big on sports science, developing tech and data to optimise performance levels - developments that you might think would be interesting to Dyche's style of management and detail in performance enhancement. All he's really asked for is that the club can 'stretch things a bit' in the transfer market (which surely means slightly higher wages as well as transfer fees). I'm interested on whether new owners can deliver on Dyche's wish. Say that takes our net spend to £30m per season instead of £9m - with the strategy of more astute player trading, wider community work, steady infrastructure improvements and a refreshed marketing drive to freshen up the club's appeal.

You would hope that any new owners will want continuity - both in team management and retaining experienced knowledge on the Board - but they must also be robust enough to deal with changes if needs must. Dyche's contract is soon up and he could get snapped up in the very near future, but surely he is more likely to staying if the club has a more optimistic path forward than the vision set out by the current Board, who appear to have accepted the 'market has outgrown them' (to coin a Dycheism)

[levraiclaret]

Extract from an article in the Athletic from a couple of days ago. "

And then you have the States, where sports franchises have been through this period of exponential growth. Between 2015 and 2020, the enterprise values of NBA teams have risen by an average of $300 million. So you have a saturated market, with a high price of entry, driven by scarcity value.

“But in Europe, you have thousands of clubs, with a much lower entry point, and you can also make money on player trading, something which appeals to US sports investors, as they have all been using data for their recruitment for years and think they can do it better than Europeans.

“My concern, though, is that too often all these private equity firms, whilst very clever at investing, do not know how to manage sports teams, particularly European ones. They repeatedly underestimate the risks and fail to understand the culture. We have probably been offered 90 different teams to look at in the last two months but we’re very careful to say we’re an international fund, not an American one.”

Finlay’s observations raise some interesting questions.

Having pinned its hopes on Chinese money for so long, why is European football now so convinced US-based private equity is the way to go? Isn’t a blend of all human experiences usually best?

And having been buffeted by one wind for so long, why are our clubs so keen to be blown the other way? Aren’t we better off enjoying a period of calm?

Questions for another day, perhaps.

In the meantime, the new American owners at Parma, Roma and Toulouse have lessons to learn, while the Americans circling Bournemouth, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Southampton and a dozen other English clubs have decisions to make.

China had its turn. It’s time to make American-owned football clubs great again."

[arise_sir_charge]

But again I ask, what were you expecting? If it’s the ground you’re talking about while I accept it looks tired in parts I’m not sure a bigger and better ground will put us on a sounder footing, especially if we go down. I’m also not sure there’s much scope to do a lot on the current site which would mean moving away from Turf Moor to expand.

There is plenty of scope to build and develop in and around Turf Moor. There is a lot more space around the ground than you think.

Our ground needs to be something that can be utilised 365 days per year and generate ongoing income and maximising every other opportunity that comes our way around football.

Boss Hogg refers to the Cricket Field needing maintenance, it needs more than that and I am lead to believe that Burnley CC have been approached as the work required would potentially mean them losing ground space for a lengthy period.

[Paul Waine]

I'm sure most of us would agree that Sean Dyche is the key asset of Burnley FC. You would think that any knowledgable football investors who recognise that Burnley FC are a well-positioned club to take forward, will equally recognise the contribution that the manager and his staff have made in establishing the club at the top table. Somehow though I'm not sure the preliminaries would involve Sean's input. I think Garlick and his team have been looking for new investment for a while and their job is to do due diligence on ALK and make sure they are robust enough to find a pathway that is good for the club, over and above the future of the manager (after all he is nearing the end of his contract and we can't be over reliant of him committing his future to us).

The first insights we can glean is that this consortium is big on sports science, developing tech and data to optimise performance levels - developments that you might think would be interesting to Dyche's style of management and detail in performance enhancement. All he's really asked for is that the club can 'stretch things a bit' in the transfer market (which surely means slightly higher wages as well as transfer fees). I'm interested on whether new owners can deliver on Dyche's wish. Say that takes our net spend to £30m per season instead of £9m - with the strategy of more astute player trading, wider community work, steady infrastructure improvements and a refreshed marketing drive to freshen up the club's appeal.

You would hope that any new owners will want continuity - both in team management and retaining experienced knowledge on the Board - but they must also be robust enough to deal with changes if needs must. Dyche's contract is soon up and he could get snapped up in the very near future, but surely he is more likely to staying if the club has a more optimistic path forward than the vision set out by the current Board, who appear to have accepted the 'market has outgrown them' (to coin a Dycheism)

Hi Cuban, good post. Thought went through my mind while I read it that perhaps ALK have already run the stats on Sean Dyche. That their AI scouting system doesn't just look at players, but has also taken a look at what makes a great coach and manager, team selection, tactics, man management and all the off-field stuff that helps prepare a team for success on match day.

I'd imagine that Sean Dyche will be very excited by the prospect of ALK buying the club - even though he lost his first job when new owners very quickly told him he wasn't needed going forward. Dyche has got 8 years of managing Burnley and he's achieved a great deal of success within the context of Burnley FC. He's got the security of his achievements to make his claim to continue as Burnley's manager under new owners. He's also a thoughtful manager and has always shown he's keen to learn more. His interest in coaching methods in other sports illustrates this point. I'd feel he should be a great fit with ALK's AI "player identification" software.

I don't know if it is just coincidence that the team last night included Thomas and Benson in addition to Dunne, plus Driscoll-Glennon as a sub, as well as BPF in goals. Is Sean already showing that he's developed a Burnley player development model? and the "beautiful game" can follow as these young players build their experience alongside their more experienced colleagues?

UTC

[KRBFC]

That's like saying 'profit is essential for my business to operate'. Nice ideal, but making it happen in another thing entirely. Every person who has ever bought a football club in the history of football clubs being a thing you can buy, has aspired to success. I argued at the beginning of the pandemic that coronavirus will be a point in history at which one will be able to delineate a clear 'before' and 'after', and that significantly, technology firms will use the chaos caused by the virus as an opportunity to muscle in and demonstrate their worth...and here we are, a few months later, with an American essentially talking about 'opportunity' in the context of coronavirus. Never actually thought my club would be used as the guinea pig, though!

What on earth are you waffling about? They haven’t even bought the club yet or given us their vision and you’re moaning about your own guess work

[arise_sir_charge]

Cuban get's it.

As someone said to me earlier, say ALK had been here a while, this summer may have meant that we sold Tarks for £35m but we already have his younger £15-20m replacement in the building and work begins or has already begun on making him the next player we can sell.

That wouldn't be too different to the model we have employed throughout time including the Mike Garlick years. The problem we have at the moment, is that we don't have the funds to invest in the next sellable asset as those assets are bigger ticket items these days.

[Gordaleman]

I’d ask the AKL people what they can bring to BUrnley what we don’t already have. And second, what are their ambitions and expectations for the club.

Do you not think that those questions will have been asked, along with a lot more? Mike Garlick has the interests of the club at heart and I don't think he'd flog it to the likes of the chicken farmers down the road.

[Conroysleftfoot]

Cuban get's it.

As someone said to me earlier, say ALK had been here a while, this summer may have meant that we sold Tarks for £35m but we already have his younger £15-20m replacement in the building and work begins or has already begun on making him the next player we can sell.

That wouldn't be too different to the model we have employed throughout time including the Mike Garlick years. The problem we have at the moment, is that we don't have the funds to invest in the next sellable asset as those assets are bigger ticket items these days.

I suppose it's a bit like Leicester. Buying Maguire, Kante, Drinkwater (yep him) and sell on for a large profit then with the money buying the next one like Maddison.

[Fretters]

How boring are some folk. Naturally negative and suspicious of everything. It would drain me living like those people must.

Arguably the most interesting thing to happen to the club since Flood appeared and you’ve got folk with no knowledge of any of it pulling it apart and longing for the return of good old steady Eddie, Mike Garlick who’s not even left the building yet. People cite Bolton, Bastards and Wigan like that is the only possible outcome.

Who knows what’s going to happen, there hasn’t even been an announcement yet, we don’t even know exactly who is behind it or what their specific ideas or motives are.

The unknown has an element of excitement about it. In all my time watching. football I can think of four clubs that have ultimately gone to the wall.

Aldershot
Maidstone
Bury
Macc

There might be more.

Now they are small clubs with little to no history at all. Not saying it’s not sad that they’ve gone before I get jumped on.

The biggest clubs that have fallen on hard times that have history, Bolton, Bastards, Leeds, Portsmouth etc find a way to survive.....there is sufficient interest locally, nationally and internationally for them to survive. There are far more clubs that have plumbed the depths and survived than there are that have gone to the wall.

Let’s face facts, at the moment, we will 5 years into a Premier League stint, the land of milk and honey, but what do we honestly have to show for it.......a steady balance sheet and a £10m training complex, that is literally it. We have to scrape everything we can to compete.

If we went down we’d be going down with a ground that is to be quite frank a dump and no prospect of that changing in the immediate future etc. We’d have an academy to service etc and we’d be back to a small turnover that simply cannot service what we need it to.

Now I’m not saying investment means we won’t go down, but I’d hope that with investment we’d go down with a far more sustainable model than the current one. A club that generates income away from match days because it has the facilities to do so

Let’s see what comes next and go with it. Who knows, the increment may secure Sean Dyche for the longer term......it could actually be fun.

Great post but we also have a category 1 academy to show for it too.

[Gordaleman]

There is plenty of scope to build and develop in and around Turf Moor. There is a lot more space around the ground than you think.

Our ground needs to be something that can be utilised 365 days per year and generate ongoing income and maximising every other opportunity that comes our way around football.

Boss Hogg refers to the Cricket Field needing maintenance, it needs more than that and I am lead to believe that Burnley CC have been approached as the work required would potentially mean them losing ground space for a lengthy period.

"Boss Hogg refers to the Cricket Field needing maintenance, it needs more than that and I am lead to believe that Burnley CC have been approached as the work required would potentially mean them losing ground space for a lengthy period."

Burnley have wanted to buy the cricket ground for years, so as to develop the football ground and maybe build hotel and conference facilities there. If this American company can make them a big offer, an offer they can't refuse, it might happen quicker than people think.

[Cubanclaret]

I'd imagine that Sean Dyche will be very excited by the prospect of ALK buying the club - even though he lost his first job when new owners very quickly told him he wasn't needed going forward. Dyche has got 8 years of managing Burnley and he's achieved a great deal of success within the context of Burnley FC.
UTC

The Pozzo family. Came in with their own ideas and contacts with fellow countrymen Gianfranco Zola. As you say, you would hope this lot will be much more appreciative of Dyche.

[blake's wand]

I think this is all incredibly exciting - we need money, we can't compete without it.

At least these guys seem to be heavily involved in sport science/technology etc. It could be a lot lot worse

[Local cricketer]

Simon Jordan seems to think they will be very good so I will take his view over the views of the negative bunch on here

[Mala591]

What would be a good offer for the club and all of it's facilities

£50 million, £100 million, £150 million, £200 million

????

[Gordaleman]

What would be a good offer for the club and all of it's facilities

£50 million, £100 million, £150 million, £200 million

????

The price doesn't really matter to us as fans. (It will to the board of course.) It's what they are prepared to spend, once they buy the club.

[Local cricketer]

What would be a good offer for the club and all of it's facilities

£50 million, £100 million, £150 million, £200 million

????

Simon Jordan thinks 150

[ŽižkovClaret]

You would think circa 150 to 200 million surely?

Tarks Pope and Mcneil is arguably 100m on their own

[FactualFrank]

I'm still half expecting someone to say this is all a wind-up, like a poster did a while back.

But if it allows SD to spend say £50+ million a season, that would be a start.

[whentheballmoves]

What will I get for my shares?

[snapcrackleandpop]

Simon Jordan seems to think they will be very good so I will take his view over the views of the negative bunch on here

I quite like listening to Simon Jordan, where did he say this.

[williamjblazkowicz]

Is there any link between the potential takeover and these rumours regarding signing Harry Wilson for a fee said to match our club record fee? I was surprised when I saw the reports as I couldn't see us spending close to that much on one player considering Garlick's reluctance to loosen the purse strings.

[Local cricketer]

I quite like listening to Simon Jordan, where did he say this.

Earlier on Talksport with Jim White

[pureclaret]

What will i get for my shares? Nothing if you dont sell them except shareholder dividend.

[BospalomasClaret]

One thought about all of this is what value for Turf Moor?
Perhaps the talks with County and local councils could be looking at suitable brownfield sites to build a modern 30K seater stadium, close to the M65 which could host football and other events.
This could give fairly quick return on investment and also help community if the new stadium was open to more community use. Just a thought

[Chester Perry]

I'm still half expecting someone to say this is all a wind-up, like a poster did a while back.

But if it allows SD to spend say £50+ million a season, that would be a start.

There is little chance that a sensible investor would sanction that level of spend - we would have to seriously ramp up our income to generate such funds - at current cost levels that would require an income of around £190m a year - only 6 clubs manage that currently. Then there is the fact that those spending levels would add significantly to the wage bill, and from a financial results perspective that would send amortisation soaring.

[Dyched]

I hope my fellow Claret and Blue brothers and sisters are getting their Stetsons ready!!

[FactualFrank]

There is little chance that a sensible investor would sanction that level of spend - we would have to seriously ramp up our income to generate such funds - at current cost levels that would require an income of around £190m a year - only 6 clubs manage that currently. Then there is the fact that those spending levels would add significantly to the wage bill, and from a financial results perspective that would send amortisation soaring.

So from a fan's POV, there may be little difference on the outside?