Neil Lennon at a loss to explain lack of transfer funds

Wanderers’ dire situation has taken another sinister turn after manager Neil Lennon insisted he was unaware of the reasons behind severe spending limitations placed on him in the transfer market.

Frustration at the Macron Stadium has hit unprecedented levels after Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat against Ipswich Town, which leaves the club four points from safety heading into a home game against their nearest rivals Bristol City.

Calls for chairman Phil Gartside to address key issues about the club’s future have reached fever pitch – and The Bolton News has requested a meeting with the club’s hierarchy to try and put some information into the public domain.

All the while, impatience is also growing in the dressing room where Lennon has been unsuccessful in adding enough quality to his squad in the last few months, and says he is in the dark as to why.

A series of transfers have broken down in the final stages – with the indication being a lack of money has led to the manager missing out on top targets.

Lennon claims he is in the dark over exactly why he has had no cash to spend, or whether club owner Eddie Davies will look to make any further investment between now and January to safeguard Wanderers’ future in the Championship as he looks to sell.

“I’ve never been told why,” the Northern Irishman said. “It’s just a lack of revenue. There’s not a lot I can control.

“But we need a little bit of help. I think that’s apparent after what we saw (at Ipswich).”

Lennon has previously revealed a lack of dialogue with Davies over transfer policy – and his latest admission serves to increase the uncertainty surrounding the day-to-day running of the club, and what its short-term future may hold.

On the field, Lennon’s management is coming under increased criticism after Wanderers’ poor form stretched to one win in 15 attempts in the league.

The manager confronted his players at Portman Road on Tuesday night with some home truths after many fell way below the standard he demands.

“Players need to look at their own level of performance and ask themselves: ‘am I earning my corn here?’ On the basis of that, the answer is no,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to them quite coldly and told them the truth.

“Whether some of them are good enough at this level is a question mark.

“Can I change it? No. I have to work with these players.

“But I expect more than I am getting at the moment. They are capable of better.

“I find it unacceptable to see my players get out-muscled and out-worked. It is not a reflection of me as a person, as a player or as a manager.

“It’s not what I want from my players.”

Source

Predictable. He's laying the foundations for his resignation.

"Gartside Lied To Me!" the Bolton News will scream within a couple of weeks.

And, for once at least, they'd be right.

Breadman wrote:And, for once at least, they'd be right.

No one really knows except Gartside and Lennon. Lennon would have to be a fool to have thought there was cash available though.

Would you buy a second hand car from Gartside?

Breadman wrote:Would you buy a second hand car from Gartside?

I get that you don't like the guy. Personally, I've never had dealings with him so couldn't make that call. 

From the article above it looks like Marc Iles is shit-stirring again because Lennon's actual words don't reflect the insinuation of the article which employs words like "sinister" to imply some sort of plot.

The key thing for me is that despite having the opportunity, Lennon makes no attempt to say that he didn't know there wasn't any money available.

He just says he doesn't know why it isn't available. 

So Lennon knew full well what the financial score was and is and nothing underhand has taken place.

I mean why would he attempt to clarify his understanding of the reasons behind the absence of money if he wasn't already aware of it in the first place?

It is possible to form an accurate opinion of someone without having had personal dealings with them, you know.

I could now launch into an "LPP" style explanation of how I've come to the conclusion that Gartside is an untrustworthy snake but you'd probably just get bored reading it and skim through most of it because it would be half a page long.

(And I wouldn't blame you, by the way.)

And we'll probably never get to know the truth regarding what was or wasn't said about money when Lennon joined us, so it's all moot anyway.

I just can't see Lennon having agreed to work under the extreme levels of financial constraint that he is currently experiencing.

Getting the big earners off the wage bill is one thing but only being allowed to bring in players if there's basically no financial outlay (pay as you play deals, no loan fees, hardly any contribution towards wages for any loan players brought in, etc) surely can't be what he signed up for.

Why is anybody surprised by this.  We were told that moving out Chungy and others would provide Lennon with at least a little bit of money.....that has gone to Phil's new swimming pool in his backyard. All monies that have been saved with the last round of cuts has magically disappeared. The owner and Chairman will not even do an interview with the BEN to explain anything to the fans.  What does it add up to?  they are collecting every last penny until receivership or a sale.

There really is a lot of nonsense talked  here. No-one (and that means no-one) on any of these forums has a clue about the financial discussions that took place between Gartside and Lennon. It's even bigger nonsense to imagine that Gartside 'lied' to Lennon about funds being available. Lennon is no fool (and neither are his agents)and he will have understood that money was in short supply when he signed on the dotted line.
 Stuff like the proceeds of sale of Chungy went into Gartside's back pocket, or to build his swimming pool are just the fantasies of disillusioned fans. They're infantile ideas.
The fact is that Lennon has brought in 12 players, some good, some not so good and his problem is managing them.
Some, through their own lack of discipline, get sent off, others get injured. He's not had a settled team and players are playing out of position.. It's time that he got HIS act together  and started managing the situation. He's brought in 4  so-called 'strikers'(Heskey,Madine,Dobbie and Ameobi) 2 of whom (Heskey and Madine) are incompetent and should be shown the door. Dobbie doesn't get a look in and Ameobi hasn't yet had a chance to see if he can perform. Clayton, an earlier acquisition, shows little real ability in leading the line.
Lennon should button it, and get on with what he's paid to do and that's get this lot working and winning. I'm no fan of Gartside and no longer a fan of Lennon either.
People are now blaming Eddie Davies because he won't put any more of his money in. Why  the hell should he? He's already put over £150 million in- he'd be a clown to waste any more on BWFC.
He bought the good times for us under Allardyce -why should he spend more as that would be money wasted.
The reality is that we've found our true level-  a northern mill town club (like Blackburn, Preston, Wigan) who given the size of the fan base punched above our weight like others have done(Leeds, Forest , Coventry Derby) for a while and are now in the rightful place in the pecking order.

Blame economic reality for where we are now

But he's not put £150 million in, has he?

He's (well, Mooshift technically) have put some in but nobody really knows how much but it's nowhere near £150 million.

He forced through an acquisition of the club at a knock down price then set his pet accountant to work muddying the waters, so that nobody outside the world of forensic accountancy would be able to fathom it all out.

This £180 million "debt" figure is a massive tax dodge which means cock all in relation to the actual valuation of the club.

It's all a big con.

this is the first of many comments to come from Lennon that will ultimately lead to him leaving the club in one way or another, it's definitely coming sooner rather than later

rammywhite wrote:There really is a lot of nonsense talked  here. No-one (and that means no-one) on any of these forums has a clue about the financial discussions that took place between Gartside and Lennon. It's even bigger nonsense to imagine that Gartside 'lied' to Lennon about funds being available. Lennon is no fool (and neither are his agents)and he will have understood that money was in short supply when he signed on the dotted line.
 Stuff like the proceeds of sale of Chungy went into Gartside's back pocket, or to build his swimming pool are just the fantasies of disillusioned fans. They're infantile ideas.
The fact is that Lennon has brought in 12 players, some good, some not so good and his problem is managing them.
Some, through their own lack of discipline, get sent off, others get injured. He's not had a settled team and players are playing out of position.. It's time that he got HIS act together  and started managing the situation. He's brought in 4  so-called 'strikers'(Heskey,Madine,Dobbie and Ameobi) 2 of whom (Heskey and Madine) are incompetent and should be shown the door. Dobbie doesn't get a look in and Ameobi hasn't yet had a chance to see if he can perform. Clayton, an earlier acquisition, shows little real ability in leading the line.
Lennon should button it, and get on with what he's paid to do and that's get this lot working and winning. I'm no fan of Gartside and no longer a fan of Lennon either.
People are now blaming Eddie Davies because he won't put any more of his money in. Why  the hell should he? He's already put over £150 million in- he'd be a clown to waste any more on BWFC.
He bought the good times for us under Allardyce -why should he spend more as that would be money wasted.
The reality is that we've found our true level-  a northern mill town club (like Blackburn, Preston, Wigan) who given the size of the fan base punched above our weight like others have done(Leeds, Forest , Coventry Derby) for a while and are now in the rightful place in the pecking order.

Blame economic reality for where we are now

We know that Lennon said multiple times that he was told has to shift out players to make room for others. However when such players were moved then were did the money go? ...Neil had to then bring in freebies and pensioners. Something doesn't add up. If big Eddie is no longer interested in this club then get rid of it. By default most of the board will be gone with new owners. (Perhaps that's why it's dragging on?)
The correct pecking order should be .... lower Prem...top half Champs based on club size etc. with some decent cup runs tossed in.  Current leaders in the Champs are Hull, Burnley & Brighton ....none of whom a bigger than us ...at least on paper.

it's time Gartside showed his face and explained what exactly is going on, the fans will turn on Gartside before Lennon and i fully expect to hear some Gartside out chants on Saturday.

Burying his head in the sand is not going to work, all the financial concerns need answering properly instead of the usual its Eddie's debt don't worry.

Receivership isn't an option but there won't be anymore investment imo until the club is sold. The club is less attractive in League  1 but I'm not sure how big the financial hit is dropping out of the Championship, it certainly isn't as drastic as relegation from the Premier League. Does anyone have a handle on those numbers? As attendance will surely be down 25 - 30%

People on here keep suggesting selling the club as if its like putting your house on the market and hoping it'll move quickly.
The club is virtually unsaleable at the minute. it's loaded with debt- not just to Eddie Davies ,but to the commercial banks as well. They will have first charge on the assets  such as they are- mainly the stadium. And who wants a sports stadium in the event of the club folding. Its only the land under it which has any real value. So for a buyer there's virtually nothing to be gained in terms of a business as a going concern..
The best that can happen is that Eddie writes off the debts ,or converts them to equity(as Jack Walker did at Blackburn). Then there's an outside chance that someone might just find sufficient value in the club to buy it.
Before anyone starts on about great advantages from a tax angle and tax dodges and cons- go and learn something about the tax system , and you'll find that there aren't any.

I don't know anything about finance but maybe you can explain, if Davies has put the club on the market for £30 million is that the price + taking on the debt owed to him or would that be to buy his debt out and the club are just left owing to the banks?

bwfc1874 wrote:I don't know anything about finance but maybe you can explain, if Davies has put the club on the market for £30 million is that the price + taking on the debt owed to him or would that be to buy his debt out and the club are just left owing to the banks?

That's what he would want for his debt- obviously a massive write down on what he's lent the club. He also has control of the equity( the shares in the company) and they would be part of the deal, although they are virtually worthless- so he'd want £30 mill for all his investment in the club. The outstanding debt to the other financial institutions - mainly the banks would remain in place. That would still exist, so anyone buying the club would give Eddie £30 million and Eddies debt would disappear- but we would still be heavily in debt to commercial banks.
 Would the bank write off its debt? The answer's no as its secured on the assets of the club-the stadium, the land ,perhaps the training ground and De Veres, so any new investor would have no assets backing up the investment.
Banks have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to maximise their wealth and not put their money at risk ,so there's no way they would write off any debt unless the club was in liquidation
The real problem might be HMRC should there be any liability for unpaid PAYE,VAT or NICs- they won't hesitate to put the boot in and wind the club up as they are pre-preferential creditors who have first dibs on any assets. They also have a fiduciary duty to recover any unpaid taxes. And they will and do.
Sorry-this is so long but I don't have time to make it shorter.

Like most of us (I presume) I have always really struggled to understand the whole BWFC are currently £172.9 million quid "in debt" thing.

Gartside says most of it is owed to Eddie Davies after his "truly humbling" support of the club over the last few years.

I seem to remember Gartside saying we owed the bank (Barclays) "about £5 million".

Ok then, so using my admittedly rudimentary understanding of sums and stuff, I calculate that 172,900,000 - 5,000,000 = 167,900,000.

So why do we owe ED £167.9 million?

How much has he personally (under the Moonshift banner) handed over to the club?

Where did all the Sky TV money go?

Have we really spent that much on paying transfer fees for the likes of Gavin McCann and Gerald Cid and if so, did we really pay them all £50k a week?

Really.....?

Can someone please explain it?

(And I don't mean just post a link to another site which has a copy of the accounts on it, I need an explanation in layman's terms because I've spent years wondering about all this and I'm none the wiser now.)

Cheers.

Cheers Rammy, think I'll need to read it a couple more times to understand but interesting to read some insight into it!

rammywhite wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:I don't know anything about finance but maybe you can explain, if Davies has put the club on the market for £30 million is that the price + taking on the debt owed to him or would that be to buy his debt out and the club are just left owing to the banks?

That's what he would want for his debt- obviously a massive write down on what he's lent the club. He also has control of the equity( the shares in the company) and they would be part of the deal, although they are virtually worthless- so he'd want £30 mill for all his investment in the club. The outstanding debt to the other financial institutions - mainly the banks would remain in place. That would still exist, so anyone buying the club would give Eddie £30 million and Eddies debt would disappear- but we would still be heavily in debt to commercial banks.
 Would the bank write off its debt? The answer's no as its secured on the assets of the club-the stadium, the land ,perhaps the training ground and De Veres, so any new investor would have no assets backing up the investment.
Banks have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to maximise their wealth and not put their money at risk ,so there's no way they would write off any debt unless the club was in liquidation
The real problem might be HMRC should there be any liability for unpaid PAYE,VAT or NICs- they won't hesitate to put the boot in and wind the club up as they are pre-preferential creditors who have first dibs on any assets. They also have a fiduciary duty to recover any unpaid taxes. And they will and do.
Sorry-this is so long but I don't have time to make it shorter.

That's about right Rammy. An investor would have to pay £30 million just for ED to walk away, but the club would still owe any outstanding bank loans, other creditors and tax liabilities etc. That's before any investment in the team. Also assumes that Moonshift would no longer be a creditor when the dust settles.
So the question is what is the residual value of the assets? Are they worth say £60 million if that's what an investor would have to put in? That depends on what BWFC actually owns.