ascender

He's one of those players who just hasn't done anything in his entire career to justify the wages, fees and expectations he gets wherever he goes. IMHO he's never realised the potential he clearly had and I can't believe he's in demand by anyone tbh. I can see why he was signed, but he's not the sort of long-term signing we should be looking at if the squad is about to be rebuilt. TBH I wouldn't be gutted if EHD and Lafferty were moved on next season as I think both are liabilities.

Must have been an incredible feeling for him today to have finally had it all signed, sealed and then to take his seat in the main stand.

It would appear to.....

Can we change the title of the thread please

I'm just waiting for the updated thread title to be changed to "AJ expects deal to be done in 24 Hours / 48 Hours / Imminent".

Why's it gone so quiet all of a sudden? You can see the tumbleweeds rolling past in the breeze.....

Has anyone seen the latest rumour from Tom English in the Scotsman?

la la la la la la not listening! until its on the official site and announcement has been made to the market i'm not biting.

So is today the day? I don't think I've seen us at a point before where so many different media sources have been saying the same thing about the state of the bid, they seem to be unanimously suggesting it will go through today. And if that happens I'll welcome Craig Whyte as our new owner and see what he has to say for himself

If we can win the title this year in the face of everything that's happened to us, been written about us, the role of the bank and the attempts of other parties to derail things and influence officials then I think its as satisfying an achievement as 9IAR personally. Especially when you consider the amount of money Celtic have spent this season in an attempt to rebuild (again).

But surely to make money out of us we're going to have to prosper? If there was any sort of quick fix available to get us out of the hole we're in, or even to make SDM a quick buck, do you not think he'd have done it himself by now? Just playing devil's advocate btw

"technical issues" apparently. Has the printer run oot of paper or something?

No-one knows about the debt, but people have been making assumptions, that's all.

Some very encouraging and nice words from Johnston there.

How viable is that sort of thing though given we have limited assets & are playing in the SPL? I thought the only reason the Glazers were able to load man yoo up with debt was because of their massive annual income and subsequent value of their assets? It's all speculation at the moment, but at least the guy is a Bear so surely he deserves the benefit of the doubt as things stand?

With a name like that, who could possibly doubt it's authenticity.... I vowed not to get caught up in the excitement of another takeover thread some time ago but here I am.... Must still be optimistic after the Caley result.

I forgot about that bit too

Is AJ doing the hokey cokey or something? I thought he gave his approval of it a while back. Then he didn't, then he did, then....

What's the best bit of all of this is that for the last three or four years celtic fans have been waiting for us to go in to administration and at the start of each season proclaim that we as a club are on our knees, have a shite squad etc. Yet even after spending significantly more money than us on players and wages there's nothing between us and as the season goes on, they forget all the pre-seson gloating about how crap we are. You couldn't make it up really.

Incredible. I didn't dare look at the text commentary as I always seem to jinx them when that lot are playing. Superb stuff, at least it's back in our own hands now. Walter needs to get them fired up for the weekend now.

I always assumed he was just re-financing. I agree in principle that staying with LBG would have its benefits, but we can't have it all ways. We've been told on one hand that LBG are happy with the repayment schedule, but on the other we have various senior people in Rangers basically saying LBG want their money back quicker and are demanding further, potentially fatal cuts in the budget. How much influence do they actually have? I think pretty early on I made up my mind to treat stuff from both sides as hearsay as there's too many people with a vested interest here for us to be told the whole truth until something major happens regarding the ownership of the club or its financial future. All these sources, insiders, newspaper exclusives, forum posters simply can't all be right.

I thought...... SDM is majority shareholder so he's the main man so to speak. I'm guessing LBG have a say as they want their money back although it seems to be unclear just how much of a say they have in this and the day to day running. Johnston's job was to find a buyer for the club. A sub-committee was formed to vet any potential buyers/bids and make recommendations to the board/SDM. Was this so Murray could say he'd done all reasonable actions to make sure he'd only sell to someone who had the best interests of the club at heart - a kind of due diligence on the buyer? I'm assuming the current board get to have a say but if SDM and LBG want to sell to Whyte, then there's nothing they can do about it. Not sure why a hostile takeover is being mentioned if they can agree a deal with SDM?

Ultimately its the pressure from the fans to win the title and ensure we don't finish behind Celtic which heaps even more problems on the new manager. If it wasn't for that, it could be quite an exciting time for a manager like McCoist to work with a bunch of young Scottish players and mould them in to a team playing the game how he wants it to be played. Add in a few experienced heads on the pitch and off it and give him a few years to see how things go.

Did we not think this was the case all along? I'm sure the wording I read from "sources" was that the debt to Lloyds would be cleared therefore taking the immediate pressure off, but I assumed the debt was just being refinanced on more agreeable terms somewhere else.

Is there not always some option available to people if the club has indeed faced administration and is being effectively run by the bank as we've been lead to believe for a while now? Not to mention the fact that SDM has been keen to sell for a while. I know there's a really fractured support, but I just think if someone was determined enough to do something about it they'd have found a way to unite the support and force the issue a bit. I guess its also a shame if there have been people with the financial means and/or contacts to do something constructive to save our club but have let egos get in the way of doing it.