I think it will be two or three seasons of mediocrity in League One. After all of his managerial changes (and there will be more over the next couple of years), umpteen player loans and back room shuffles he might just think "why am I bothering?".
He wont have a Lookman every season to help cover his losses. In fact if we go a season or two without a big youth player sale the impact of the money hes losing might finally register.
I dont think we are capable of being promoted under RD, he will never give the manager the support he needs to do it. Small squads never win leagues and thats the thing that could lead to a prolonged spell in L1.
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The constant bad press will grind him down but for now we will have to put up with a period of him digging his heels in.
I really think that he believes the stories fed to him about a few disgruntled ex-employees.
Ramp up the protests.
I think it's the protests that'll get rid of him, particularly the ones on his own doorstep. He clearly doesn't like being harassed in his home town, or embarrassed in front of his neighbours. It's great news for us that St Truiden have now formed a protest group. At some point, he'll decide that football is more hassle to him than it's worth. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Need to keep the pressure on.
My educated guess is no-one really knows, and we are just going to have to put up with him until he decides its time to go, however by then we could be in the PL but more likely in the Vanarama!!
If it just comes down to money then I guess we will find out just how keen the, potential, buyers are. Some of them will not have enough and some of them might want to get the club on the 'cheap'.
One thing's for certain, it will flush out those that were publicly saying they wanted a meeting to discuss a take over. Ultimately it will become apparent if their requests were realistic or just speculative on the basis that they were hoping for a fire sale as the fans were unhappy.
Protests in his own backyard will upset him, he doesn't like it and the fact he only ever reacts to news in Belgium proves this point.
I actually think the most telling point is the fact that Meire has effectively been silenced in the public domain. The PR people have sussed her and they know for as long as she is opening her mouth in public the clubs reputation and value will continue to plummet.
He is a deluded arrogant old fool who thinks he knows better than everyone else - surprised he wasn't more successful in politics given his personality.
*good luck with getting him to London though.
What will happen is that meetings will take place (I presume) and the outcome of those meetings will confirm which of those interested parties are able to meet the asking price (irrespective as to if it is the same as quoted at the start of the discussion) and which are not. Then any potential buyers that can afford the 'minimum' asking price will have to decide if they are still interested in proceeding with acquiring the club.
I know some things are never dead (like the Andy Delort thread) but if it is established that none of the interested parties can agree terms then I suspect that they will stop asking for meetings to discuss buying the club.
I am aware of the fact that the club refused to meet with Peter Varney but this just confirms that neither the club, nor Varney's clients, know if the offer that was available was close to the asking price.
Just because RD and/or KM want to sell the club doesn't mean that their valuation of it (as unrealistic as it might seem to us) is going to tempt anyone to proceed with a purchase. It's not for us to decide what the club is worth. Clearly most (if not all) football clubs have no real value as so few of them, actually, make any money. Without knowing why someone (anyone) would buy a business that losses many millions of pounds a year it is difficult to calculate it's value and at the end of the day the only number that matters is the minimum sale price, as RD clearly can afford to bankroll the club for decades.
I know this is a little off topic but I have said before that it would be controversial if the protests, and those behind them, were motivated to force the club to be sold for less than it is worth, especially if the buyer is known to those organising the protests. I know that the value is debatable but I still think that the owner of a business is entitled to decide how much someone has to pay to purchase his property.
That is something he will not contemplate as it would be seen as admitting his plan had failed.
He will then come to the conclusion that it isn't worth all the hassle and sell.
Sooner the better