Gringo

It does seem like a re-hash and a general "guess" piece of work, and more of a negotiating stance than anything. "Hi I'm a billionaire and want to pay you £64m" "Show me the money" "I'm a billionaire, I don't carry small change around with me, will you take a cheque?"

If cuddly agrees to sell his 33% (c£21m), then they are obliged to extend the same price to all other shareholders. So £64m is for all 100% of the club, cuddly will get £21m, his family £3m, JP £13m, and me thruppence happeny.

Sorry Ickle, mis understood. But the point stands that Villa have been on that list since November, this is not a new development and just signifies that the company is in a bid situation, it does not reflect the progress or the status of the bid.

Hmmm, the link points to a document dated "01 April 2004", I would call that old news. No bid has been made. Or should I say there is no new evidence to suggest a firm bid has been made.

Hmmm, are you sure. AVFC PLC isnt under the "additions" section, which looks to me that it has been there for a while. ie Virgin/NTL are on there and there deal was announced a few weeks back. Reg Vardy is on there and that takeover has been ongoing for a couple of months. So I think that this signifies "nothing new". It doesnt imply that an offer has been made, and I believe notification is only required once 1% have changed hands, not that an offer has been made for such.

I would think that the petchey purchase of the pubs is a bit of a red herring. "He needs money to do another deal" "He slows down this one which would net him money" Doesnt add up. And I'm sure the pub owners wanted a little mure surety of finance than "I'll pick up the cash when cuddly duddly sells up". Petchey has more cash floating around (maybe not as much assets) than the comers and so would not allow this deal to get in the way more lucrative deals. He could raise more by flogging his reg vardy shares (c£25m) on the open market straight away instead of waiting for this purchase to go through. But IF Petchey is holding the deal up, is it not because he is interested in the same land that the comers want to develop? Could JP be looking for a sweetener out of all this?

Thanks, there was me thinking you had lost the plot

Ian, apologies for appearing confused, but means the opposite of So thank you for clarifying, happy new year.

Uh? You saying a takeover would/could leave cudly duddly still in charge? Well I'm confused, please elaborate. Theres a difference between honorary president for life and exec chairman/CEO.

Ian, that could equally be interpreted as a party political broadcast for the incumbent party saying how lucky we are to have him. Whether takeover goes ahead or not, I doubt much could be gleaned from that interview. After all his favourite son, David Platt said straight after the interview "I stil don't think he'll go".

Hmm, you mean the one where he refused point blank to say anything at all about any potential takeover. How do you work this one out mystic Ian?

What he said. Looks good cos of real quotes from Neville. He's not Michael Knighton and wouldnt be saying it just to stir stuff. So it looks like he's serious. And if they are doing due diligence then it means that some sort of agreement has been reached, obviously conditional on the due diligence, but it does mean that they have been able to speak to the old duffer and he must have agreed in principle to sell, based on certain conditions no doubt. Just the final price to hammer out. Smashing news. The timing is interesting. I actually thought that today might see a quiet statement from AVFC PLC saying it was all off, ie using the holidays to bury it. But instead we have Neville offering xmas cheer. Smashing news, save me a slice of humble pie.

Ditto.

Whoevers not injured will play

It's midday, 35 degrees, hangover from hell, yes I'm pessimistic. Thanks for the offer of the tequila, but it would be sprayed all over the bathroom at the moment.

Winning is entertaining.

Very funny - with the £13m left over we could go and buy Ronaldhino to be playmaker! We won't buy Baros. Ellis wont spend £6m on anyone. If he agrees the fees it will fall apart over wages. If he agrees the wages he'll forget to fax the registration to the FA. But yes we do need a quality centre forward, and a creative playmaker, but we will have to make do with hendrie in the hole and gabby up front.