Reply With QuoteThe deal to buy Sunderland has gone through.
The new owners holding a press conference on Monday afternoon to give the media and Sunderland fans more details on the takeover.
It has been revealed that the much maligned Ellis Short has actually taken care of the massive debts owed by the club, allowing the £40m purchase to go through.
Interestingly, the new owners have given details of how the actual paying for it will happen.
Sunderland fans have been keen to speculate that the non-league Eastleigh owner Stewart Donald was just a front for far bigger players in the background.
The Mackems wanting to believe that the shareholders would include very rich individuals who could quickly solve many of their problems.
However, at the press conference today, Stewart Donald has made clear that he is indeed the majority shareholder whatever happens.
As for paying for the deal, this is going to be painful for Sunderland fans.
As Stewart Donald and minority shareholder Charlie Methven have revealed that they couldn’t afford to pay the £40m up front for Sunderland.
Instead they have been given two years to pay the money.
On top of that, the new owners were forced to admit that the £40m takeover on credit isn’t secured against any of their own assets, instead it has been secured against the club’s parachute payments over the course of the next two years.
After receiving £41m this past (2017/18) season, Sunderland (Stewart Donald and his co-shareholders) will receive in excess of £40m in Premier League parachute payments over the course of the next two years.
The vision Sunderland fans had of mega-rich new owners taking over, is quickly falling apart.
If they continued to struggle, you would have to question the ability of the new owners to be able to fund Sunderland.
They may succeed in cutting the wage bill to an extent this summer but it will surely be still far in excess of anybody else in that division.
Plus, after gates plummeted to as low as fif**** thousand actually turning up at the Stadium of Light in the second half of last season, it remains to be seen what kind of support there will be in the third tier, especially if they start badly.
When asked about a transfer budget, Stewart Donald claimed it would be ‘pretty hefty by League One standards’ and ‘there will be transfer fees involved in the players we bring in.’
Bit awkward if true and if it is true, they are relying on going straight back up it would appear?
Originally Posted by Jammy89
