Alan Hardy update 1 July

[PON_News]

From the official Notts County website:

Notts County owner and chairman Alan Hardy has provided a further update on his attempts to find a buyer for the club.

I am very pleased to say that, following hugely constructive talks today and over the weekend, I am extremely confident that a sale will be completed ahead of our upcoming court hearing on 10 July.

Conversations with a group who I am certain have Notts’ footballing fortunes at heart are now at an advanced stage and I am sure supporters will be delighted to hear their plans for the club.

Apologies, once again, that I am unable to reveal any identities. At the request of all parties, this remains private business until formalities are completed. I can, however, confirm that we have ceased talks with the group associated with Alex May.

Should our talks progress further as planned, I will be liaising with the prospective new owners to rectify the current situation regarding player and staff salaries at the earliest opportunity. I deeply regret being unable to fulfil this obligation to my employees and hope - and expect - there will be a speedy resolution.

I am also aware that a great deal of cynicism is likely to come my way in response to this update, which I can understand following an immensely frustrating and disappointing chapter in the club’s history.

However, I felt it was only right to bring supporters up to speed following the significant developments of the last few days.

Alan

[ARLukomski 𝕏 ARLukomski Instagram declanweliczko_arlki]

Please be true

[Truefootballfan 𝕏 OldNottsfan]

He’s taking it to the wire !

[Fozzy]

15 hours ago, ARLukomski said:

Please be true

Well, the penultimate paragraph is definitely true. Nobody believes a word he says anymore and the pure hatred for the man coming from social media has now reached epidemic proportions.

 

[Dripsey3]

I don't think mess even begins to describe Notts at this moment in time. One step at a time to resolve it. Club sold before the court date would be ideal. If we avoid administration, it will be like winning the league. 

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

2 hours ago, Fozzy said:

Well, the penultimate paragraph is definitely true. Nobody believes a word he says anymore and the pure hatred for the man coming from social media has now reached epidemic proportions.

 

Agreed. The man cannot be trusted. 7-10 days, offer accepted, #trust, all hogwash. The fact that radio silence was declared, nothing from the club, nothing from the owner, manager and players not allowed to speak to the media etc... is clearly an action that was decided on because they are covering something up.

If a consortium were days from the completion of the deal, all was but a formality, I don't believe they'd have a problem in their identities being revealed. However, they would prefer to remain anonymous in the case of what? Perhaps because if their bid goes belly up and Notts are liquidated, they don't want the bad press. This theory would mean they still believe that there is a distinct possibility of that happening, despite how 'extremely confident' the bath tweeter is.

I would be more inclined to believe that Alex May and his rumoured gang of scammers stopped talks with Hardy, rather than the other way round.

[Chris Website URL Visit Site 𝕏 fmcj10 Instagram fmcj10]

Pinch of salt.

What I don't get is why people are gullible to believe this, after the truth came out from Lilian Greenwood. I believe what she tweeted, I don't think the sale is in any advanced stages now. I firmly believe buyers are expecting the club to fall into the admin so that it can be picked up on the cheap. I also don't believe the Alex May group have been dismissed, unless the Nottingham Post are making up stories again (as they reported talks was still ongoing).

The danger for me is the fact that little else is known about the group being led by May, the people behind him might be those Alan Hardy is still talking with. Yet, he paints all flowery words and says how he's dismissed talks with that group.

How do we know this?

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if he sells to them and thinks the local media won't be able to unearth it.

[DangerousSausage]

The truth is we just don't know. We can only hope it's true.

What would be the point of lying about it? It's in AH's interests to find a buyer after all. If he doesn't, the money owed to Paragon will go up in smoke - and that'll leave Hardy, who sanctioned the loans, in a very tight spot indeed. If I were him, that would concentrate my mind far more than criticism on social media.

Judging by the sudden change of outlook over the weekend, my guess is that Hardy had privately written off the South African group, but that they have resurrected their interest over the weekend and are now close to an agreement. Or otherwise it's another of the groups who were already in talks. Time is too short for a new group to have arrived on the scene. I do believe that talks have finished with the "May" group though (which party ceased the talks is another question, but ultimately moot). Why mention it otherwise? No-one was expecting any statement from him.

Waiting for the club to fall into admin would be a very bad idea for any prospective owner. If the club is to be anything like self-sustaining, they need to get us to the land of TV money and sponsorship deals. A ten-point and relegation would potentially set their plan back years. I hope our prospective owners aren't that short-sighted.

[Chris Website URL Visit Site 𝕏 fmcj10 Instagram fmcj10]

@DangerousSausage: There's a lot of pressure on Alan Hardy right now, lying buys himself some more time and we don't actually have a lot of that.

Either the Nottingham Post is lying about the Alex May group or Alan Hardy is.

I'm inclined to believe that discussions with that group are still open, so why Hardy would come out with such flowery words is beyond me, but he has proven himself to state nonsense time and time again.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

15 hours ago, Chris said:

@DangerousSausage: There's a lot of pressure on Alan Hardy right now, lying buys himself some more time and we don't actually have a lot of that.

Either the Nottingham Post is lying about the Alex May group or Alan Hardy is.

I'm inclined to believe that discussions with that group are still open, so why Hardy would come out with such flowery words is beyond me, but he has proven himself to state nonsense time and time again.

I wouldn't say the NP, i.e Leigh Curtis, is lying. Misinformed maybe. Uniformed more likely given the silence behind this whole saga, and speculative journalism perhaps? You can criticise scoop all you like, but I don't take him as a liar or someone trying to hoodwink us all to get a few clicks. 

[Chris Website URL Visit Site 𝕏 fmcj10 Instagram fmcj10]

1 hour ago, Super_Danny_Allsopp said:

I wouldn't say the NP, i.e Leigh Curtis, is lying. Misinformed maybe. Uniformed more likely given the silence behind this whole saga, and speculative journalism perhaps? You can criticise scoop all you like, but I don't take him as a liar or someone trying to hoodwink us all to get a few clicks. 

I have no issue with Leigh Curtis, he does what he can and mostly what he's told - I understand that. However, The Nottingham Post does have the habit of lying, or glossing over the truth in order to bait people. This is standard journalism now, it's not just the Post but most major paper company.

And the Post has written a vast amount of stories which have been merely efforts to capture clicks, an example about the lifeline money.

Staff on Facebook and Twitter have made statements about how it was called off, and that the ground staff did it themselves without funds from the club. I believe the pitch has only been resurfaced this year.

[liampie]

On 02/07/2019 at 10:59, Super_Danny_Allsopp said:

I would be more inclined to believe that Alex May and his rumoured gang of scammers stopped talks with Hardy, rather than the other way round.

why?

i dont see how it makes sense, i bet its still in discussion as they seem the only genuine buyer at the moment.

[Truefootballfan 𝕏 OldNottsfan]

Well, here we are 5 days in and still nothing.... how on earth is there not a County wide media condemnation of the man ! Radio, TV all local press should be on his case shaming him into oblivion.

[Chris Website URL Visit Site 𝕏 fmcj10 Instagram fmcj10]

Issue with the media, is they've done a lot of stories and leaving people to become angry serves their purpose because it gets people reading. I genuinely feel annoyed by it, it's whipped fans into feeling like they have to do stuff to get answers.

As a fan site, I could write half of what the Post has done.

They have the contacts, the means to speak one on one and get the answers needed which would serve them well. However, that's much to difficult and costly.

[Countyman]

At this stage I am less inclined to believe any update provided by Alan Hardy, I have no faith that he's being honest and things might be different if some fans didn't harass him during his time.

[CliftonMagpie]

Why does some fans instantly decide to believe Alan Hardy despite his track record?

He's only released this statement after the club tried pressuring Lillian Greenwood who wrote on Twitter he should clarify things, I wished she had recorded the meeting because she could have then released what was actually said. I do not, will not believe anything that comes out of the club about the takeover.

I find reading the Nottingham Posts speculation and scoops to be more credible.

[cheeky~k8]

We will just have to see if anything comes of it.

[DangerousSausage]

The truth is that we as fans have very little influence in this right now. We can put AH under pressure to leave (although he has decided to do this already), but we can't force anyone to buy the club. And that's the only way this crisis can be resolved. Alan Hardy can quite easily ignore us fans - the real pressure he's under is from HMRC, who can force the club into administration, and that'll cause millions of pounds to go up in smoke. I have no doubt that he'll do everything he can to stop that happening, if only through self-interest, but whether he succeeds is a different manner.

[super_pie]

On 05/07/2019 at 21:53, cheeky~k8 said:

We will just have to see if anything comes of it.

I am thinking the same

[Who r ya?? You Pies!!]

Seems like the SA have officially withdrawn from takeover talks , being reported on Nottingham Live that the Danish group are the front runners now . 

[allardyces tash]

Alan Hardy has the dice but the power will ultimately fall into the buyers hands come the crunch time. I don't think there is anything that fans can do to change this, pressure could be applied but at the end of the day he has the ability to say enough is enough and put the club into liquidation or admin.

Even with a takeover, there is the chance that the debts could force admin to happen just to give a fresh account of the clubs finances.

I would feel better myself if solid news regarding the takeover came out in the media, I do not believe it will be done within the next few days. If there is another extension, I think we should consider it to be lucky.

[BigBill]

If Alan Hardy cannot sell Notts, he's truly ran the football club into the ground.

[menzinho]

Nothing. And now it's 10:30pm on the 9th of July...

[NottsTastic]

He’s full of it, I don’t want to get into trouble or upset people on here but I do not like him. He’s only in for what he can gain, he loves the attention and can’t do right by good people.

[upthepies]

I’m inclined to believe the postman more than Alan Hardy, he says it should be concluded by a certain date. He can’t be guessing right?