You might not like Lai but you have to pray that Mark Campbell and any associated chancers get nowhere near the club.
My one hope is that there are two other parties also interested neither of whom are named in the Mail article and as a rule of thumb serious people with serious intent generally keep a low profile in these matters until a deal has been struck. Chancers on the other hand like to see their name in the newspaper as it makes them feel important.
I am really nervous about this. Lai plainly wants to sell and there isn't any scenario where he can get his initial investment back and the price should be something in the region of £100m and probably a lot less in the Championship.
Nobody is going to buy the club and run it in a manner which fans are going to be happy with it really is that simple.
Agree with most of what you have said, as this will be another roll of the dice and the lack of names makes you feel really concerned about who we could end up with, especially after the developing situation with the Burnley take over and the mess at Derby, but I have to disagree with the last line.
There are clubs out there who I would love us to emulate. The obvious example is Leicester City, where the King Power group have been excellent (not so much for their fortuitous league title, but more what has followed since). Matthew Benham at Brentford has adopted his analytics models to take a small team to the edge of premier league without any real investment.
Moneyball’s Billy Beane has linked up with Chinese investors at Barnsley and predictably they have gone from league 1 to the edge of the championship play offs with some under the radar, smart low cost decisions.
Tony Bloom has taken Brighton from the lower leagues to an established Prem side, Maxim Demin has had similar success at Bournemouth while Villa’s new owners have expertise already in American sport and the early signs there are very good. The first few years were poor, but Fosun at Wolves have been smart (if slightly immoral) with their Mendes link up which you feel insures them for the next 10 years at least and maybe after that.
Even Southampton with Gisheng (who is rarely seen) at least have an owner who seems to have a bit of common sense and has put the right people in charge of the day to day running of the club.
I agree that we will almost certainly not get an owner who will have the ability to plow their own millions into the club, but it isn’t impossible to get a shrewd operator in who can run the club like a smart business, making decisions that will see us maximise the resources we have.
The danger lies in the 50% of owners who are toxic and sometimes quite dangerous.
