Go for three weeks without an update, and two come along in the same day…
Well, if you read the update this morning, there was a particularly nasty rumour going about Dr Omar Mir pulling out.
Unfortunately, that rumour has been confirmed by the club.
It’s in an email at the moment, so if you haven’t seen it here’s the text below:
Update on the proposed investment and the Dons Trust member vote
We have been informed that Sloane Street Capital (SSC) has withdrawn from the proposed investment in AFC Wimbledon on the basis its investment priorities have changed.
As a result, the board has withdrawn the resolution that members were asked to vote on and cancelled the vote.
Under our rules, an EGM can only be held on a single item of business. The EGM called for 10 November has therefore been cancelled.
Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far: the thousands of you who had already voted, and the hundreds who came to meetings, watched videos or asked questions.
What about the investor group?
The original investor group, Ryan Bertrand, Stuart Fiertz, Oliver Ward and Hugh Rosen, will continue as Sloane Street Football (SSF).
SSF has told us it intends to seek fresh investment and to return with a proposal on the same terms.
What happens next
The club continues to operate as normal. The Dons Trust and club boards will keep working on the club’s short-term finances and on future investment.
The board will give members a further update shortly, and will answer questions in person at our AGM on 14 December at The Cherry Red Records Stadium, Plough Lane.
Any future investment proposal from SSF will go through full due diligence and come to a vote of members, as before.
Any decision on investment in this club is yours. That has not changed.
We thank SSC for their time and interest in Wimbledon and our community.
AFC Grimbledon, indeed.
I think the way the rumour was never shot down straight away was an ominous sign, especially as those who have some idea about what’s going on were saying it was off.
Obviously, you hoped they were wrong, but as it turned out they weren’t.
Lots of thoughts going through our collective heads right now, so this may be a little bit disjointed.
Firstly, yes – it’s a massive kick in the teeth. And the bollocks, too.
As said earlier today, the one bright spot at the moment has for now been extinguished. And it sucks.
It’s painful, and you do have to wonder what happens next.
Well, in truth, we’ll continue as we are now, for better or worse. The finances are tight, the on-field play is the worst for some time, and we’ve got Blackpool on Saturday.
Christ, we can’t even get games called off for international duty.
The comment of “its investment priorities have changed” about SSC is intriguing – did Dr Omar really get cold feet at the scrutiny?
I’m still more inclined to believe stocks in AI have played a part in this. Those of a certain age will remember the Dot.Com bubble, and I expect it’s very similar.
He might not have been happy with more people prying into his finances, but anyone with that sort of money tends to ignore that side of things.
I’ll be honest here – I was a bit unsure about Dr Omar, and there was a part of me that thought something was a bit “off”. But I wanted him funding this new venture, and didn’t care if he was a close personal friend of Russell Brand (joke).
Maybe we really have dodged a bullet? That if – when – there’s another investor it will be a more robust one, and we end up better off after all?
For now though, there’s only one question – is there anything positive to say right now?
Well, actually, there’s three things, believe it or not.
The first is that this has happened at a time where it doesn’t quite matter if it happens or not. No official contracts have been signed, no Fit And Proper Person tests have been made, we’ve got a clean break.
It’s not a great situation as it is, but at least we don’t have the messy aftermath of confirming it in a vote and then going pearshaped.
Secondly, and perhaps the most important bit of that email, is that the Bertrand Boys are sticking around, and looking for fresh investment.
If nothing else, at least it shows they’re committed to the project – at least at the time of writing – and it would be very easy for them to bail now.
Maybe they still will? I don’t think they’ll just have Dr Omar as the investor, you don’t know who such people know who will know somebody who will know somebody else.
Or something.
I wonder what they’re thinking right now? I’m thinking of Hugh Rosen at Crewe yesterday, presumably he must have known Dr Omar was pulling out at the time, so he’s obviously still keen.
I don’t know how long fresh investment takes to get, I guess at best it will be after Xmas now.
If they can’t, then their particular proposal is dead. Right now, though, it isn’t…
Thirdly, investors pulling out happens all the time. That’s a good thing because it means those who do this sort of thing are aware of the pitfalls and – more importantly – how to remedy them.
I don’t doubt SSF are right now phoning around, planning meetings, saying what’s happened etc etc.
This is a setback, probably the biggest one since there were funding issues over Plough Lane (and wasn’t that around this time of year too? If so, November really is shit).
But it doesn’t feel like the end of this particular story, and that’s a good thing.
The biggest problem right now is time, because I think the shit-finally-hitting-the-fan-in-six-months isn’t the bluff some want to believe it is.
I can see one of three things happening – either SSF come back with new investors, it gets passed about 2/3 months later than it should have been, and we start afresh next season.
Or they pull out, and we very, very quickly have to get a commercial loan and start negotiations with some of the other proposals.
Or it’s admin. And you can read this morning’s update to see what I think about that.
Right now, emotions are running high and moods are ever blackening. Once the dust settles, I think we’ll have some idea of where we’re going and how to deal with it.
As said above, in the grand scheme of things nothing has changed from yesterday, or even just the time before SSF was announced to the Womble world.
I will say this though – there will be some very happy with this lunchtime’s proceedings.
There’s a faction of support who, maybe for ideological reasons, are anti investment. That going down this route is too “capitalist”, that AFCW is either owned by the fans or it is nothing.
If I was them – I wouldn’t be celebrating too much right now.
Why? Because you can’t ignore financial reality. Today is a setback, but it doesn’t change the fundamental issue that we’re skint.
Should SSF find another investor (or investors), they might not be so keen to hide away from the bullshit.
If they don’t, then any other investor isn’t going to be nearly so “on message” – the Bertand Boys have put themselves out at PL for meetings, have been seen at games etc.
Somebody else may well come in, hold the proverbial gun to their head and say “last chance, sunshine”. And there’s nothing they can do when it gets to that stage.
The club is likely going to have new investors by this time next year, either through a vote or administration.
Don’t like that? You may not get much of a choice in the matter. And you shouldn’t have acted up when you had.
Anyway, it’s a bit of a shit weekend that has just got shitter. The only thing is, it can’t get that much worse right now.
Well, it can – we might look at the OS tomorrow and see that Jayden Stockley is injured for the rest of the season…