bozman

I think the Newcastle potential Chinese investors are in a different league to our potential Chinese investors. Ashley is looking for more than £400 million apparently.

I've been quite impressed the couple of times I've seen him play. Creative player, makes chanes for others. The sort of player we were missing in midfield last season.

Can't blame him really. It must be incredibly frustrating to come in and train every day knowing that you're never going to play unless the other guy gets injured. Sounds like Shez made it clear that he'd be back up again next season, so having played only 1 game all last season, I think, if I was him, I'd prefer to drop down a couple of divisions and play every week.

The Chron is reporting that there is also an 'issue' between the club and Bolton over a late loan payment for Taylor. I guess we are probably withholding that payment to offset against the debt they owe to us. Might be a wise move, given their winding up petition is due to be heard next week.

Thanks - I'll watch that now.

Is there a longer version of the interview somewhere? He doesn't mention Shez or discussions with players in the one above. I wonder what this Legends lounge is about? It may be the same thing as the Ambassadors suite they are advertiing on the website in what was the Boardroom last season. Sounds like the Directors will be back in the Main stand again next year.

I would say "Summer Update" is stretching it a bit. There was one quetion along the lines of , Is it difficult running a club over the summer months without much income ? Moissley says it's always difficult managing cash flow, especially over summer, talks about the pressure being on the commercial department to bring money in, and then goes on to explain that one club (assumed to be Bolton, but not named) still owes us for away ticket money from a large attendance towards the end of the season. No other questions asked and no other topics covered. I'd suggest the purpose of this was more about getting it out in the public domain that Bolton still owe us money rather than providing an update to fans about what's going on at the club over the summer months.

Fair point. His gamble then only works if he decides to uses some of the extra revenue to pay the debts off and the club start to live within their means again. He doesn't seem like the sort of bloke who'd do that though. More likely to try to borrow even more for tilt at promotion to the Premier League.

I know. The 'source' claims he is surplus to requirements and they will let him go this summer.

Just read on Twitter that Leeds are happy to get rid of Erwin and Oxford are interested in signing him permanently. However .... it didn't look like a reliable Twitter account.

I don't think the biggest issue here is the loans that Bury FC have been taking out. If those were getting out of hand they'd be in breach of FFP and the football league wouldn't allow them to continue on this spending spree. The main issue is the loans their owner is taking out in the names of his network of companies, which are secured against the ground and gifted to the football club. By doing it this way he avoids the FFP restrictions. I don't think anyone would argue that the football club alone could afford to pay the wages it pays from it's income. The issue is that he can't currently afford this. If he could he wouldn't have to borrow the money at extortionate rates of interest. So he's gambling that either Bury get promoted quickly or his businesses make a lot of money pretty quickly. One or both might happen, but if they don't he's in trouble and the ground will get repossessed.

According to today's Chron we are after Stephen Dawson from Scunthorpe. He has turned down their contract offer and several clubs are interested in him.

Taylor has a year left on his Bolton contract.

I think the problems with the pitch date all the way back to when we ripped the plastic up. I saw the Premier League posted highlights of our 4-3 great escape win over Southampton in 1993 on twitter the other day. The pitch looked worse in that game than it has been at any point this season. Yes, it certainly did improve for a good few years after it was last relayed but I don't think we are ever going to be one of these clubs that is fortunate enough to have a surface like a bowling green for the entire season. Soil conditions and the local climate don't favour us in that respect. The main problem with the Rugby coming back for me would be the fact that we would lose the window for summer maintenance that every pitch needs. Maybe them playing a few matches outside that maintenance window wouldn't be a bad idea but I doubt that the Rugby would agree to Latics taking the gate receipts and then passing them on after taking a cut. Recent form would suggest that Corney would take that opportunity to collect his debts from the last time they played at BP.

Apparently he used to work for 'super agent' Jorge Mendes placing Portuguese players with clubs over here but they fell out and he then got in to scouting/recruitment.

Me too. I heard a whisper that some of the offers made represent a wage decrease compared to their current contracts. If that's the case they will undoubtedly at least look around for other options before commiting to us.

They would prefer Maddison to sign a new contract but if he doesn't they want to cash in. Apparently they reckon they can get a seven figure fee for him. That certainly rules us out!

He's been injured for a few months - torn hamstring, I think.

Peterborough have an interesting approach to their retained list. Every player who is entering the final year of their contract is automatically transfer listed, even if they actively negotiating an extenion.

It looks like the Blumarble loan is secured on the ground and surrounding land, so effectively it's a mortgage. I actually got speaking to a Bolton fan in the pub last night who reckons it's promotion or bust for Anderson. He thinks there is a buyer lined up IF they get promotion who will clear all the debts. If they don't go up they're in big trouble because, loan aside, Anderson just can't afford to subsidise the losses going forward.

That's the strange thing isn't it ? The WUP has been issued against Bolton, yet they are saying it's nothing to do with them and Houldsworth's company needs to sort it out. I doubt Bluemarble would have issed a WUP against Bolton without a solid legal case to do so.

And great to see several national media outlets featuring the club for positive reasons for a change. Credit where it's due, scoreboard fiasco aside, there has been a marked improvement in the club's PR in recent months, which seems to coincide with the recruitment of the new guy in the media department.

I asked the same question on another thread earlier today. Crusoe explained that it's because the FA cup final has been scheduled for the same weekend as the play off finals this year so one final had to move. They chose to move the league 1 final a week earlier meaning the season ends a week earlier too.

I don't think they are about to dissapear. From what I can gather, rather than a winding up petition, this is Companies House applying to have them struck off the register of active companies because they haven't filed their annual return. That's easily fixed.

It was reported in one of the National papers yesterday ( can't remember which as I read several whilst waiting for a flight) that Bolton are soon to be issued with a winding up petition over a debt of £5 million owed to a company called Bluemarble Capital.