rubberman

As long as they are still £15m away in their valuation I remain hopeful.

Design wise it's OK. Nothing you can do about the unibet logo, but at least it's black. However there really is absolutely no way to reconcile the 2 lions. Either Luke goes on the back, or should have used a different logo (though obv having the name Luke on every shirt would also look ridiculous). That will look crap however much glitter you roll it in.

One of the reasons those who have enough to buy football clubs have that much is that they don't overpay by any amount, let alone double. See Warren Buffet and coupons etc... Having an eye for a bargain and negotiating the best price don't preclude having good intentions.

Maybe it's a precursor to a new owner coming in with a management team already in place. Maybe.

Do I not like that....

I think the most likely explanation is that we are (hopefully deep) in negotiations for takeover / significant investment and while that is ongoing we can't impact the club assets. Hence a freeze on incoming and outgoing. The last reported offer suggested hanging onto Jack unless a £40m bid came in was part of it. Again hopefully we have enough short term cash to function through the selling process and after that will have an idea of what we can /can't do in the remainder of the window (if there's any of it left!)

I wonder what he's holding out for... Presumably as he has turned down £40m for 51%, it's either £80+ for everything or £40m for 49% and keeping control. Getting back what he paid would save face I guess. If there are serious talks, there's no way Jack would be cashed in on at this point. Wait and see...

This for me. Until we hear something concrete otherwise. ie Pretty bad, but not Villamageddon. Yet.

Last 3 looking pretty tough right now.

Liverpool now on the sniff as well (though original source is the Sun so likely bollocks). If they are going to get closer than Levy's pathetic offer then it's worrying, though I can't help thinking that 99% of transfer rumours for the PL are nonsense while the World Cup is on as all attention will be there. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/jack-grealish-liverpool-tottenham-spurs-14806764

There are going to be plenty of slots for youngsters - you need to have a bit of experience round the place as well to balance things.

I think that's extremely unlikely!

I see merits in both views. If there was an obvious choice to replace Bruce, I'd be happy to roll the dice. Equally with the current chaos, having some level of stability in the club is badly needed. Mind you, the thought of another 1000 pages of this thread might tip me over the edge...

Dear Mr Levy, Thank you for your kind offer of £15m for the services of Jack Grealish. We have duly considered your offer and would like to inform you that our answer is that you can shove your £15m up your jacksie. Yours, AVFC

I really wish we were in a position to not have gambling company sponsors.

No, but someone on Twitter did.

Spurs are pretty keen for English players for the first team squad so that should bump the price a bit.

If he has to go, Spurs would be best for him and I could just about live with it. Many worse clubs sniffing about. Still clinging to the vain hope he wont go.

Hedging my bets!

Until we hear anything more concrete this is pretty much my take. Cash access is probably tight but I think the exporting restrictions are being oversold. Due to lack of cash Tony was banking on promotion and being able to call down against PL cash to pay the bills. Now that hasn't happened he's had to workaround the lack of cash with loans through the tangled web of businesses. Not great, but not completely disastrous. I'm sure we'll see as the summer progresses.

Though we were robbed on that sale as well.

He could just be lining up another bid for Millennium films with that £50m...

Not sure I have much of an opinion either way at the mo - see where things fall. On the one hand, who on earth is going to come in with the current situation - knowing they have to sell everyone with a glimmer of talent or experience and won't have a penny to spend for the foreseeable? Whoever it is will be high risk. Bruce got us to the brink and has got a real team spirit in the side that was so broken. On the other hand, he did fail. We were set up too conservatively in too many games and the plan B - play all the strikers - was a massive failure every time. He has already not shown much confidence in the kids (Davis apart) so they are unlikely to be as into him as all the players that leave.

It seems we haven't had a June Optimism gauge thread yet...