What a fantastic interview from Wilder!

[Carpe_diem]

The short answer, Blair, is that he's not as smart as he'd have you believe.

[FatherKnowsBest]

The short answer, Blair, is that he's not as smart as he'd have you believe.

People do things in all good faith, with the very best of intentions. Then things change, people get different ideas, or stop sharing the same dream, and it bites them in the ass, and sometimes makes them look really stupid for believing it would all work in the first place.

That's why there are divorce lawyers

[tomytony]

People do things in all good faith, with the very best of intentions. Then things change, people get different ideas, or stop sharing the same dream, and it bites them in the ass, and sometimes makes them look really stupid for believing it would all work in the first place.

That's why there are divorce lawyers

And arranged marriages- and they go wrong too no matter what was promised, & by who, in the dowry.

[Carpe_diem]

People do things in all good faith, with the very best of intentions. Then things change, people get different ideas, or stop sharing the same dream, and it bites them in the ass, and sometimes makes them look really stupid for believing it would all work in the first place.

That's why there are divorce lawyers

Two words: due diligence. Most marriages aren't based around millions of pounds in assets and liabilities, and if they are you can be damn sure that the paperwork is watertight before they walk down the aisle.

[FatherKnowsBest]

Two words: due diligence. Most marriages aren't based around millions of pounds in assets and liabilities, and if they are you can be damn sure that the paperwork is watertight before they walk down the aisle.

You can due diligence the hell out of it. It wont stop anyone from changing their mind and wanting to do something different at some point in the future. That's what we're talking about here isn't it. Two partners who have decided they want to do something different?

[GrayBlade]

I’m waiting for the day Kev has one too many and gets on the Karaoke.

[Carpe_diem]

You can due diligence the hell out of it. It wont stop anyone from changing their mind and wanting to do something different at some point in the future. That's what we're talking about here isn't it. Two partners who have decided they want to do something different?

Don't be naive. If McCabe expected the Prince to put a certain amount of money in, he should have made it a contractual obligation. If the Prince didn't do so, McCabe should have been able to break the arrangement. Doing anything with a business partner based on trust - especially when there are millions of pounds involved - is misguided at best.

If he'd suggested it and the Prince had said no, he could have taken that as evidence of the latter's lack of serious interest and told him to jog on.

[FatherKnowsBest]

Don't be naive. If McCabe expected the Prince to put a certain amount of money in, he should have made it a contractual obligation. If the Prince didn't do so, McCabe should have been able to break the arrangement. Doing anything with a business partner based on trust - especially when there are millions of pounds involved - is misguided at best.

If he'd suggested it and the Prince had said no, he could have taken that as evidence of the latter's lack of serious interest and told him to jog on.

I'm not suggesting anything is done entirely on trust (although if you have to keep going back to the contract, its not a great relationship...) I'm guessing, in my naivity, that the contract clause might have said that the two of them must equally fund the club (cover the losses), and that additional speculative investment must be on a matched basis. You surely wouldn't put any nunbers on that, neither would you have a clause that one partner automatically has to match the higher offer investment with the other partner. I'm guessing it has to be by agreement and negotiation.

However, heres a scenario. HRH is sitting in his office in Saudi, he can see were doing well, January is coming. He has a top Belgian football guy in his set-up, maybe they talk, maybe some players are suggested, HRH thinks 'I know we'll pass these on for evaluation'. So word comes back, thanks but no thanks, we don't want them, and we don't want Rip van Winckley sticking his oar in either thanks. We know what we want and its not that. Oh by the way, I know we just slapped you down, and cold shouldered your boy, but we want to spend £5m on some L1 British players, so if you could pop a cheque for £2.5m in the post...

[GrayBlade]

Not much about McCabe bringing the Prince on board filled me with confidence once it had sunk in. It wasn’t something that had been planned, he hadn’t been selected out of a group of potential buyers or partners as the best man for the job, it was a chance meeting in an airport lounge.

Let’s not forget that at the time McCabe had pulled the shutters down was pleading poverty, I think all he wanted was for somebody to share the financial load, not necessarily take the the club forward. The Prince himself in an early interview told us that his fortune was ‘only’ measured in $millions rather than $billions which would probably put him in the same financial bracket as McCabe, and Baki stressed time and again that the Prince would not be like other foreign owners and throw money at it to buy promotion out of L1. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I never ever thought that there was any master plan to take us forward, we just seemed to be strolling along to the tune of Phipps’s ‘right on, high five!’ drum until they fell lucky and Wilder arrived.

We knew pretty early on that the ‘think Liverpool’ comment (whoever said it) was basically way off the mark, but I personally drew a bit of hope when the Prince said that he would bring serious investors onboard once we were in the Championship. Maybe this what he wanted to do and McCabe vetoed it and that started the fall out?

Either way, I can’t say that I trust the Prince to do right by the club or us fans because let’s be right, he’s hardly been around in the near 5 years he’s been involved with the club and has had very little to say of interest. The problem is that I do not trust McCabe or his family either, and I never will now. Others can buy into the ‘no bigger Blade’ and ‘where would we be without Kev?’ guff as is their right, but I’ll go with my own gut feeling which is that I don’t think McCabe has ever really tried or even wanted to find new owners for the club for his own personal reasons, not because it’s the right thing to do for SUFC.

It needs to be sorted and quickly and I’d be relaxed enough if both our current owners get on their bikes and disappear into history. We can’t keep living in fear of change and what-ifs. This club needs to move on and McCabe’s best legacy (apart from the ground) would be that he helped the club find new and worthy owners, not some guy he bumped into while having a Costa.

[FatherKnowsBest]

We knew pretty early on that the ‘think Liverpool’ comment (whoever said it) was basically way off the mark,

It was an off the cuff remark from Big Jim to stop us getting giddy about Man City levels of investment. It was never an indication of how much money would be put into the club. It has now been accepted by the Guiness Book Of Records as the 'Most misinterpretted quote'.

However, I get what you're saying about investment. Kev has made it clear all along that hes looking for investors, not a sale. In the end that means that the pool of interested parties is going to be small. What he's basically had to say is 'look, be my mate, I'll give you a chunk of football club and all you've got to do is pony up half the losses ad infinitum'. Its a cracking offer, isn't it?

I think the club could have easily have been sold during the last 15 years if it were just a straight cash sale, but who's wallet is it coming out of? Venkeys, Tan, Tunaman, Allam, Cellino? You're going to have to give me a tighter definition of 'new and worthy'. In the end, apart from the big money machines like Man Utd, Real Madrid, all football clubs are vanity projects that rely on the owner being happy to lose money so he can show us all what big balls he has. I've no doubt that Kev feels the weight of 'handing it on' to the right guys, but he's not getting younger and the time to let the club move on is approaching fast.