Why we can't afford to pay someone four grand a week.

As I've said before on here, I'm no financial expert by any stretch but this news appears to confirm our worst fears: The money's long gone and we are royally screwed.

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If I've understood it correctly, our day to day finances are now so parlous that we've had to take out the business equivalent of a pay day loan (a debenture), because Barclays have cut off our credit and won't give us an extension on our overdraft.

I'd be interested to know what this debenture's secured against.

The Training Ground?

The Macron?

Gartside's ego?

And where does it leave us when the parachute payments finally run out next year and we can't pay it back?

Is this the beginning of the end?

I think that everyone knew this was coming, the debt keeps getting bigger and bigger, sooner or later something has got to give.

Rumour has it " its only twatter" that Gartside has resigned .

I wonder what Lennon thinks of this circus.

All sounds extremely ominous, going back to last season when the Warburtons bailed us out with a 2m loan, and now this, as Breaders says only one way this will end up...........set your sat-navs for places like Stevenage and Carlisle.

I believe the parachute payments have already run out which is why the overdraft wasn't approved however if Nucleus are taking the ground and future TV rights etc as security it begs the question as to why Barclays can't do the same. Repayments on an overdraft are likely to be much less than a debenture so working capital is going to cost more which can only serve to compound the financial mess we're in.
Looks like Lennon is going to have to start grinding out results with the current squad and our strikers will have to find their shooting boots if we're going to stay in this division for the next few years.
Gawd knows what will happen when the loanees go back and we can't replace them - hopefully the youngsters will all have come through by then.

Marc Iles also suggested that Gartside has gone. Any truth in this?

No, heard that yesterday but turned out to be bollocks.

it also sound very bleak to me, the club have to come out and explain exactly what is happening and what the long term plans are. Keeping everyone in the dark does nobody any favours.

And we can guess from this news that the Ream money has disappeared into the black hole already and will not be used to strengthen the squad.

I think they'll eventually have to prise Gartside out of there with a crowbar.

While ED's still drawing breath, Gartside's got tenure.

As and when Ed does pop his clogs, they'll probably find Gartside hiding behind a potted plant in his office, refusing to believe the news like one of those Japanese soldiers they found on remote Pacific Islands years after the war had ended.

"Come on, Phil. Time to go."

"What....? Where's Eddie? What have you done with him?"

"He's dead, Phil. He died months ago. The club's been up for sale ever since and Halliwell Taxis have just bought it, so you've got to go. Get your stuff."

"He can't be dead! No!!! Eddie will live forever and I shall sit at his right hand and administer His will!"

"He's dead, Phil. Come on now........"

"No!!! It can't be true! Aaaaaargh!!"

(Jumps out of window and waddles off towards Blackrod carrying a big bag of cash.)

Even if Darkside goes today the damage is done.  Nobody can fix this mess. The only solution is for the club to be sold to some outfit with deep pockets.  And if we go out of business...oh well it's been good run and we become part of history.  I have predicted most lower league clubs will be gone in the next 50 years anyhow.

oh well i suppose i can stay on the train a bit longer and go and join Nat at Chorley when the inevitable happens 

Hypothetical scenario:

We all know that ED's never had the level of personal wealth to be able to operate Burnden Leisure as a one man band, so there must have been other people involved all along.

Other people with a vested interest in seeing Burnden Leisure / Moonshift develop its portfolio but with cock all interest in Bolton Wanderers Football Club as an on-going "football" organisation.

Let's speculate that ED got in bed with some wealthy people to get Moonshift off the ground and made certain assurances to them about making a healthy return on any investment they could make.

Let's not forget that we were in the Prem for a long time, so they probably couldn't see beyond Sky's TV money and thought it might just be a decent investment opportunity.

They're not "football people", they're venture capitalists and all they care about is making one dollar into five.

So all's well while we're riding the Premier League Gravy Express, but then Coyle goes and does the unthinkable and gets us relegated.

"That wasn't in the plan!" scream the faceless investors "Sort it!"

So ED then has to protect his and their investment, so what does he do?

He gambles a bit by giving first Coyle and then Freedman a few million to buy players to get us back up but this clearly doesn't look like it's working and it appears we've been consigned to the financial wasteland of The Championship for an extended stretch and Eddie isn't daft and sees this, so what does he do?

He starts to build stuff on the land owned by Moonshift and offset any losses on the pitch with tangible "bricks and mortar" assets that look good on Moonshift's balance sheet.

He then goes back to his friends and says: "Look.....We're earning sod all from the actual football ( in fact we're losing money on that) but at least now we've got a portfolio of viable, non-football assets which we can flog off piecemeal should the need ever arise. Please don't shoot me and feed my body to the sharks." 

But then Eddie gets ill and starts to lose what marbles he still had left.

So word comes from the rest of The Cabal that enough's enough.

Their last remaining link to BWFC - The Football Team is no longer a functioning member of the group and has relinquished his decision making privileges and they now want to liquidate what they can before they disappear.

Gartside is told to put the club up for sale and hope that a buyer can be found because they're pulling out and they've given him a deadline.

Deadline comes and goes because no-one with half a brain is interested in buying BWFC for obvious reasons, so Gartside is left with no money and no options.

The Cabal have all but pulled out and Barclays' computer has just said a big fat "No!" to extending the overdraft. He tapped Warbies up for a few quid to pay the gas bill but even Jonathan's now distancing himself from the whole mess, so that option's no longer available.

So he's no choice other than to get a pay day loan.

And that's where we are now.

I honestly think we're in the brink.

As I say, all pure speculation and I hope I'm wrong but you never know......

I thought resurrecting old threads was banned on here?

How's this resurrecting an old thread?

And anyway, going by your methods, I've still got credit for four more on the subject in the bank.

We're skint, we get it. There are about 200 threads saying the same thing.

It's not even as relevant as fat depressed people either.

Ah, you see.....no.

Today's BN article proves that we've moved on from "a bit skint", through "totally broke" and we are now in "borrowing money from Provident at 1875% APR and paying it back at a fiver a week for the rest of our natural lives" territory.

A new development, surely?

Old threads should be banned, like Nat said.