In laymans terms is a tricky ask, but Ill try:

The owner, or some other benefactor, needs to keep pumping 20-30 million a year into the club to keep it going as it stands. Whether its by loans or equity is basically irrelevant but rather a dressing up for FFP I guess. Ultimately he who puts the money in can reasonably hope to get it back, when it is at these levels. He cant afford to play games.

We have seen the success of 20-30 million a year injection. We hover around the playoffs but cannot get over the line. Once, when we did, it nearly ruined us. To get the magic ticket of promotion we need:

1. luck
2. more luck
3. to keep strengthening the squad with investment
4. to develop home grown players for first team or to sell to cover 3 above

If 20-30 million a year wont get us there, what figure will? 40m? 50m? You tell me. But that can only come from the owner and commercial activities, the latter of which is unlikely to grow unless promoted - chicken and egg.

So we are let us say £ 150m in debt to the owner who appears to want out. I guess he bit off something more than he could chew, as well as some questionable decision making, possibly more informed by a passion for the club than logic.

In searching for new deep pockets to fund the next phase of development of the club, the existence of this debt is an almighty millstone round our neck as whatever goes (back) to the departing owner either comes out of the pockets of the new one, and thus dilutes what he will put into the club, or effectively would mortgage the future income from promotion - if any. The new investor would also be hamstrung by the inherited FFP position for at least 3 years.

So its very much like being between a rock and a hard place. That said there are still people around who have more money than sense and want to invest in a football club. The trouble is that unless you have vast resources (and clearly £ 500m of wealth isn't vast enough) it seems like you are just spaffing away what money you do have.

How long will the current ownership tolerate consistently putting 5% of his net worth into the club every year? Not long it seems. Q:What happens if he stops. A:Ask Bolton fans, ask Coventry fans, the list goes on. The future is fairly bleak in my view, if MM is intent on heading into the sunset. - can he find a mug both willing and very deep pocketted, to assume his mantle? Good luck on that, there may be people out there willing, but not that many able.

the model can work, but you cant hang around 5 years or more trying to get to the money tree. Trouble is that you are limited as to how much you can throw at it, unless you are QPR etc.

In short, you cannot buy success unless you spend huge amounts - the cost of a Neymar could totally wipe out our massive debt, so how can we aspire to get to that level? I dont think we can unless we are bought by Microsoft or a small middle eastern country

The good news is, its not just us in this mire. Football outside the top half dozen teams is living on borrowed credit, borrowed time. All over its being financed not by what it can generate (even including Sky money) but by sources of external wealth who cover losses in order to buy their way to supremacy. Maybe 20, even 10, years ago it may have been possible to succeed by the "buy your way" model, but now? I'm not sure it can be. The fun will start when the TV broadcasters decide that they hold the whip hand in negotiation, and start renewing TV contracts at 50% of expiring: then the whole bloated farce will melt down.