Hendrie_7

Just reading up about Wigan on another forum, it's sounds like a right bloody mess http://www.footballforums.net/threads/wigan-go-into-admin.276486/ There's some long posts from a Wigan fan on there with a bit more detail, I don't know how to put them behind a spoiler so sorry if the length of this post annoys anyone. "I don't think they had any idea. I don't think our CEO or directors had any idea. We were sold from a consortium who one of the attendees of some matches and widely considered a main investor has a £20b fortune, to a poker player who had no money. That is deadly serious too. We haven't defaulted on any payments, we have one of the smallest debts in the league. As recently as November 2018 we were completely debt free. Sounds like the poker player has randomly just called in administrators last Wednesday with no one knowing anything about it. Seems like the EFL didn't do any fit and proper checks with the country being on lockdown. Press conference at 1pm said they had no information, nothing on the club website as no one at the club knows a thing. It does say there are force majeure circumstances such as loss of revenue by an unforeseen event occuring then if an appeal is made then points deductions are unlikely to occur. We have a young squad with so many sellable assets as well. Robinson linked with a 10m move away, Williams a great young midfielder destined for the top flight, Kipre an excellent young defender and a big reason behind our defensive record and the England U18 captain, being scouted by every top club in Europe, will all go for absolute peanuts. We could have recovered any debt with sales this Summer and still had a number of promising young players left on the book, to sell in future seasons to maintain a self sufficient set up." "Really is astonishing how this can happen. Directors, CEO etc all completely unaware and not been consulted. Day to day financial running of the club very good and no serious financial issues, the plan to sell 1 player per Summer to ensure break even was the plan and a sensible one, with Robinson set to go for around 10m this Summer all but agreed. No immediate concerns with the finances and administration not needed at all. Has been suggested that funds were transferred to an account so the EFL saw money without doing any thorough checks. Then transferred out after. Administrators or any director etc unable to get in contact with the owner who has done a vanishing act. Council have said they will not give planning permission to sell the land on for redevelopment. Bought the club for around 15m and got 50m+ worth of assets. Surely 1 bloke can't just decide 1 day he's going to put a club with one of the smallest debts in the league and no immediate financial concern in administration without any consultation? The level of incompetence within the EFL is staggering. We owe money for players to teams like Barnsley, Portsmouth etc from the summer, if we don't pay that, then that could potentially put them close to administration if things continue to struggle with the COVID situation." "Sounds like a major criminal investigation is underway. Looking like all sort of dodgy dealings have allegedly occurred involving offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands and other places. The poker player as apparently cleared by the EFL a year ago, he was a member of IEC who sold it to the poker players personal company. Apparently the money all came from a loan from the selling company, showing he didn't actually have any funds as it was all a loan and should have been picked up. Now it appears the other guy who joined with the poker player as a minority shareholder, all of a sudden was allowed to become majority owner with 75% on June 24th, with apparently no checks!!! He immediately contacted administrators in what seems like a pre coordinated planned move, with the date 1st July deliberately selected for some reason, have no idea why, some people have referenced some changes in HK from this date. Which is where all of the investors come from, even though the money is coming through several different countries in offshore tax havens. I get the feeling this is going to develop into a massive story, hopefully there will be a few jail sentences! Fingers crossed as EFL has massively messed up that they will be brought down with them." "It's hard to take for sure. From being one of the best run football league sides to this in a short space, I mean even just 4 weeks ago, we were making minor losses but nothing to suggest administration was anywhere near being an option. For the majority of years since joining the Premier League in 2005, we actually made a profit! Debt free as of November 2018! Many clubs in the past have struggled on for months and regularly failed to pay wages before succumbing to administration. We have paid all our outstanding bills as of 30th June, the season ends in 3 weeks, no money is due until the season ends. The administrators themselves have said they were surprised how well run we were with vastly experienced people in director roles running the club very well day to day. There is absolutely no need whatsoever for the club to be in administration. As has been shown with other clubs we could have struggled on for a few months with no money after with no punishment at first. However as soon as the season ends, we sell Robinson and break even for the season, sell another player and we make a healthy profit and we can last out next season without external investment. There was a specific reason why the owners deliberately placed in administration specifically on July 1st, completely behind the backs of all the directors and CEO who had no idea and would have 100% voted against entering administration. Quite concerning for other clubs that one man can just say, nah can't be bothered, do a runner and put a club in administration without consulting anyone, terrifying. Also no financial background checks being carried out by the EFL, just a basic check and it shows up as the money in the bank being a loan and oh that's an issue, but nah lets not check that! This could literally happen to any club overnight and they will be powerless to stop it."

Don't worry, I've put 50p on a Hull win and 50p on a draw thereby guaranteeing a Boro win

"Middlesbrough have offered new contracts to Jonny Howson, George Friend and Leeds United target Daniel Ayala, Football Insider can reveal." "A Boro source has told Football Insider that deals of between two and three years have been offered to centre-back Ayala, left-back Friend and midfielder Howson." x

Would we be able to play Sam Stubbs, Ste Walker, Ben Liddle and Isaiah Jones? I'm sure FIFA or UEFA said that loan players wouldn't be allowed to be re-registered at their parent clubs if their loan clubs seasons had been cancelled. Although it was at the start of all this, so they might have changed their stance by now. And has anybody heard anything about Pears' new contract? I thought that was supposed to be close to getting signed around the same time as Spence's but it's all gone quiet now.

Physicality in this league is very important, it's one of the big reasons why we've struggled. We get bullied very easily, I'm surprised there hasn't been more made of it from the Gazette or BBC Tees journos. They mention needing to improve in game management with things like time wasting but no mention of our physical (plus possibly mental) weakness.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/01/29/do-report-middlesbrough-and-cardiff-want-to-sign-fa-cup-hero-ava/ "Four Championship clubs, Boro, Cardiff City, Stoke and Reading, reportedly want Shrewsbury Town hero Josh Laurent after his stunning Liverpool display."

https://www.offtheball.com/soccer/mindless-idiots-mcclean-abusive-fans-958096 "We played Middlesbrough away and we had a corner. My job on attacking corners was to stand at the keeper. “I’m standing there and Darren Randolph was the keeper. Middlesbrough fans behind the goal were shouting, ‘You f**king Fenian c**t. You Irish c**t.’ “And I’m going, ‘Your goalkeeper’s Irish. You’re cheering for him.’ There’s just a complete lack of education. It’s that mob mentality. They’re just absolute mindless idiots. That’s all they are really,” McClean said."

https://www.teamtalk.com/news/exclusive-middlesbrough-target-scottish-pair-dykes-and-jones "TEAMtalk understands Middlesbrough are considering raiding Scotland for a couple of players before the deadline closes on Friday, with Jordan Jones and Lyndon Dykes in their sights."

Not a Boro link but the Northern Echo are saying Sunderland want Jordan Jones "Rangers winger Jordan Jones is believed to be one of those on the radar, with Steven Gerrard happy to let him leave Ibrox this month amid interest from the Championship too." https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/18193088.mcgeadys-wait-sunderland-look-rangers-man-jones/

Well they're not bothered by it then. If it was one of our players doing it then can you imagine the replies that any tweet linking him to another team would get? There's none of that from their fans.

They probably don't know, I don't think it's been mentioned anyway except on boro forums or on boro fans twitter accounts and unless they're searching for his name it's not something they're likely to just come across.

That'd rule us out then, surely

Didn't one of the ITKers say that the deal was all agreed and the only hold up was that Burnley were wanting to sign a replacement? And that was the major problem because the only player they wanted to replace Gibson was Fry and we weren't interested in selling him?

This is the stuff online - from the Sun transfer blog "HORNETS STING Exclusive by Alan Nixon: Watford Boss Nigel Pearson is making a shock move for Burnley’s out of favour centre half Ben Gibson. Pearson wants the former Middlesbrough defender who has had a miserable time at Turf Moor since signing for £13 million. The Hornets chief is keen to take Gibson on loan and give him a better chance of first team action at Vicarage Road. Burnley want Gibson’s wages paid in full and Watford are willing to fork out around £40,000-a-week for the rest of the season. Gibson had other loan moves abroad and interest from Boro, but none of them managed to find the funds for a deal. "

Alan Nixon @reluctantnicko Watford. Taking a big interest in Ben Gibson at Burnley. More online later.