Godders

Pretty sure it was blocked by the UK Visas and Immigration department.

Honestly I think this is the least likely case. Look at it from RDM's POV: to hit the ground running at the start of the season, you'd want to be in post ASAP so you have as much time as possible before the championship kicks off. If you're worried about the ownership situation, you get a clause in your contract so the club pays you off if the takeover fails. The club should have no issues with this since the clause would void when Dr X passes both fit and proper persons tests. In my opinion, the most likely case is that there's some kinks to iron out around some mundane, generic BS that will be sorted in a few days, at which point he'll sign. Completely unrelated to the fit and proper persons test IMO which could carry on for a few weeks more possibly since I don't believe we're officially a Football League club yet.

In order for your argument here to hold true for the reasons you've given, we need to assume his personality is really weak, which would imply he was carried as a player and takes the glory for others' hard work as a manager. I don't think you enjoy the amount of success he has had as a player and a manager without having a steely, determined, winning, f*ing strong personality. He's achieved more success in his short career than our entire squad has combined. I think he'll be fine.

Forgetting the fact it's RDM for the moment, if It was rumoured we were going to get a young manager who got a team to league 1 playoffs, a team automatically promoted from the Championship, won the FA Cup and the Champions League, would we really be thinking they weren't good enough for us?! I can't understand the naysayers here. RDM is the most decorated manager we've had for a while. I find it amazing we could well be looking at two Champions League winning managers managing in the Championship! From where I'm sat, the future looks bright.

Lad

F*** me. He literally cannot win can he?! Not one person in this forum I would suspect thinks that player recruitment last season was anything short of shambolic. Our new owner says he wants to make changes in that area and it's "embarassing"?!! Would you rather he gave no interviews at all, or interviews that gloss over any changes he wants to make to problem areas?

Nip and tuck between us and the Geordies all year. They're at our place last game of the season and two points ahead in the league. We destroy them 7-0 to take the title. Noses are relegated as well

You mean the same Mr. King who likely knew that Dr Xia was the preferred bidder, and left the club saying the takeover would be great news for AVFC??

Here's one reason: Rather than pay £50 million, the agreement is £40 million and a further £10 million in 3 years. Dr X pays £40million now, and sticks the £10million in an investment for three years returning 2% per year (I'm ignoring compounding for the purposes of this). After 3 years, when the £10million is due, Dr X sells his investment, which is now worth £10.6million, gives Lerner the £10million and pockets the interest. If he's a self-made billionaire, it's because he's shrewd with money. Not an idiot who'd piss away millions on a whim.

Just had a look at oddscheker. Number of bookies offering the market seems to have dropped off this afternoon. Are some bookies now not taking anymore bets on our next manager?!!

We can all see the obvious flaws in the squad, and none of us are on the training pitch with the players day in, day out. The new manager will have a pretty good idea of where the changes will need to be made already. Yes, some of the more borderline decisions will have to be sorted once he's seen the players in action, but he should have enough to start moving on things straight away I would have thought.

Top half. She's not much of a looker.

Perpetrating a fraud like that would require a significant amount of intelligence, planning and forethought. Still a massive improvement on our previous owner then.

I didn't say fans don't deserve that information did I. I said they have no right to that information. They don't. Just like Dr X or AVFC has absolutely no right to see, or even ask to see, your personal bank statements. It would be a completely different situation if you were a shareholder, but since the club is privately owned, I'm afraid you don't have any right to any information about how the deal is financed, or how the club is to be run. By all means though contact the club and ask the question - you may find that Dr X is fully willing to divulge all that info to you. I would doubt it though.

But they're not loan sharks though are they. Their business model from what little looking into I've done is to give cash advances against future TV money, or in Reading's case, a future balloon payment. Samuelson, as a director, would not have had sole sign off on the loan from Vibrac, so that Reading couldn't afford to repay it is not Samuelson's fault or engineering. Vibrac were investigated by the football league because Medjeski handed control of the club over to them as Reading couldn't afford to repay the loan with interest (again, the terms of which would not have been signed off on by Samuelson in isolation), so they effectively took control without going through the fit and proper persons test. Yes Samuelson then made an attempt to buy the club from Vibrac fronting Phoenix, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Surely if there was any wrongdoing here, Vibrac would have sold the club to Phoenix for significantly less than the market value of the club? Also, what link does Samuelson have with them, other than presumably putting Reading (a club in need of cash) in touch with Vibrac (a niche company specialising in loans to high profile football clubs), and then at a later time, trying to buy Reading from them?? Outsourcing and sale and leaseback are both fully above board business activities that may be undertaken for any number of reasons, so nothing there to suggest any issues with any loan at Everton IMO.

Why, because you support Aston Villa? Dream on. You have no right to that information, and you're not getting that information.

Who this loan shark he introduced to Reading??

I've got better things to be doing than sitting through 26 minutes worth of a Reading press conference from 2 years ago. What are you trying to show us here?

I don't really get this issue with the whole "misinformation" thing. What would Xia/Recon be looking to achieve by lying about owning 5 listed companies when actually they're only in the process of buying 5 listed companies??

So I've googled this, and I see nothing wrong, so please tell me what I'm missing... Samuelson and the Russian chap join the Reading board bringing money with them (much needed to fund the Jan 2014 window from what I can see). They leave, shortly before (?) Vibrac gives a cash advance against a future parachute payment. Reading can't afford to repay the Vibrac loan. Madjeski effectively hands control of the club to Vibrac. Samuelson approaches Vibrac with Pheonix to buy the club but doesn't. Football league investigates Vibrac due to becoming de facto owner of Reading without going through fit and proper persons test. Nothing there sets my alarm bells ringing. To me, it looks like Reading were in trouble before Samuelson came along, took a loan and couldn't repay. Samuelson chanced his arm at owning the club on the cheap. Doesn't make him a criminal. Anyway, probably wrong topic to discuss on the Dr Xia thread, so apologies mods.

So @Avfc96 and @Dr_Pangloss, what is Samuelson trying to do here exactly?

Thanks for taking the time here Deisler

Think we should all calm down for a while. Until the facts come out, it's all just Chinese whispers.

Didn't Bernstein and King and Bevington all say that the future looks good for AVFC in departing the club? And didn't Lerner, in his closing monologue, say he's spent a lot of time with Dr. Tony recently? It seems then, that Bernstein, King and Bevington all knew it was Recon and Dr Xia, and all approve of him. I'm still optimistic.

Why is he an idiot for implying he's going to incentivise success? We've all been moaning how players aren't trying, don't give a rats arse about the club or the fans etc. Our new owner says he wants to reserve the right to sack his manager if he thinks he/she is underperforming. Thats all he's saying here. Setting the expectation that he expects the club to be top 6 means everyone can work towards that. I'm incentivised for succeeding in my job and hitting my objectives, and it's clear to me that missing those objectives means my job is on the line. Why should football operate any differently?