Tim Sherwood has been quoted as saying that he thinks the takeover by a consortium that had been granted exclusivity, has failed.
We knew the period was six weeks and we knew it was up soon, but it seems it’s now passed without an outcome.
Why it’s failed, begs lots of questions, but I would guess that it’s probably because the consortium wouldn’t or couldn’t match certain assurances that I think Randy Lerner would have wanted.
While I’ve been quite critical about our owner, I totally believe that he does have the club’s interests at heart and he wouldn’t leave us in the hands of someone who might asset strip or fail to invest in the club.
So if I am on the right track with my thinking, I’m actually pretty pleased that we aren’t going to be taken over by a load of vultures who don’t give a flying proverbial about the club.
But then, we’re now in limbo again and that’s never good.
The obvious question is what’s Lerner’s thinking going to be with regards to our transfer budget?
If, as has been suggested, Gueye was bought on the assumption that Delph was leaving, meaning the spend was negligible, it would now mean that we’ve spent £9 million or so out of our budget.
And when you consider we’ve averaged a net spend of around £15 million a season (I think???) under Lerner, that doesn’t leave a lot left for this window.
Which, it would seem to me, leaves Lerner with a bit of a dilemma.
You would think Tim Sherwood was promised decent money to spend when he arrived, but I wonder if that promise might have been made on the assumption that the club was going to be sold?
So does Lerner risk upsetting the manager, by telling him the rug has practically been pulled from any further spending or does he temporarily go again?
After all, any investment now can easily be recovered by the extra Sky money that the club will receive at the end of this season.
But that would mean that Lerner is probably committed for yet another year, as I can’t see him laying out serious transfer money without increasing the supposed £150 million asking price for the club, which would only make us more difficult to sell.
The big fear now, is that Sherwood is only allowed to spend another £5 million or so and is expected to bring some of our kids through.
We all know that won’t be enough and we could be in for a torrid time again this season.
Of course, selling Benteke could be Lerner’s saving grace, in that he could probably spend a fair percentage of the fee on transfers and look good, even though he’ll have spent next to nothing in reality.
But this would be a retrograde step in my opinion, even though I know some don’t agree.
We should be looking to keep Benteke and buying better players and not using this situation as a reason for letting Benteke go.
No doubt the next few weeks will tell us all we need to know.
