Wanderers continue to delay manager appointment

Wanderers look set to leave their long-suffering fans waiting a little longer for official confirmation of the next manager.

Though the club claims to have selected Neil Lennon’s replacement, a number of factors could now delay his unveiling until the start of next week.

At first the postponement of the announcement – first planned for Monday – was pinned on the incoming assistant manager being unavailable.

After that, it emerged the manager himself had taken a short break and would not be available until later this week. Friday was pencilled in as a provisional date.

But to cap off a hugely confusing week, Wanderers are now considering putting the announcement off until Monday so that both owners, Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth, can be present at the press conference.

No comment is being made officially by the club and the identity of the new manager has been kept a closely-guarded secret but all signs point to Steve Cotterill and Nigel Adkins being the only two men who fulfil the criteria set down by both co-owners.

Both men have had official interviews and boast the necessary record of taking a club from League One back into the Championship with Bristol City and Scunthorpe United/Southampton, respectively.

Cotterill’s long-time assistant Wade Elliott is now available after leaving his role as Under-21 manager at Bristol City in a restructure of the club’s youth department.

There has been no suggestion, however, that Wanderers have approached the former Burnley midfielder to work in the new coaching set-up.

Elsewhere at the club, plans to re-acquire offices sold at the start of the year during the club’s well-documented financial problems are now at an advanced stage.

The offices, which adjoin the stadium and have been used by both Reebok and Keoghs Legal Services in recent times, have a buy-back option which expires in December.

But we have learned the deal to buy them back from Prescot Business Park Ltd will be completed much sooner.

Plans were revealed last month which will involve the refinancing of a loan taken out with Blumarble Capital Ltd by Sports Shield when they agreed to buy the club in February from Eddie Davies.

It is claimed the new terms could save up to £1.5million a year.

Work has also begun at Lostock to improve some of the grass pitches which will be used by the first team and academy this season.

Source

refinancing loans already? Sounds good.

Obviously if we're borrowing more money this has to be our priority area to spend it on. After all, we don't really need to get the embargo lifted or transfer players or make provision for future wages. What we really need is office space.

It isn't being done because we need office space, it is being done because that offers an investment opportunity moving forward with a high return potential.

wanderlust wrote:Obviously if we're borrowing more money this has to be our priority area to spend it on. After all, we don't really need to get the embargo lifted or transfer players or make provision for future wages. What we really need is office space.

if we can rent that space out (likely given its location and closeness to Manchester via rail and motorway) it could return a healthy profit to be used for investment into the football club. However I fear that if there is a profit from such a move it could only be used to service other debts rather than in squad strengthening or embargo removal.

My guess is it's part of a bigger picture including the planned development around the stadium, he also mentioned buying the carpark back at preferential rates which opens up the whole master plan from a year or so ago.

whatsgoingon wrote:My guess is it's part of a bigger picture including the planned development around the stadium, he also mentioned buying the carpark back at preferential rates which opens up the whole master plan from a year or so ago.

Could well be. Not sure how/if he's going to find the money though. For what it's worth I'm hoping they don't go through with the idea of downgrading the academy again.