Will hear a lot this weekend from casual observers that if we go into admin the debts are cleared and we can have a fresh start. Like a local plumbing supplies business that keeps going bust then re-appearing with a slightly different name, a trail of broken suppliers left in its wake.
Administrators can’t just say to creditors “soz lads, this business is going to carry on as a going concern in its £1bill stadium with its £80m centre back, but you can’t have your £xx million for Beto.” They have to satisfy the debt as best they can, and why would any creditor (particularly in the current climate, and especially a football club) magically agree to taking a 90% hit on what they are owed.
We are loaded with debt, but flushed with saleable assets, and they would be sold. The administrator wants to leave a functioning business. We will still be a functioning, liquid business if we have to play the Under 18s squad and are relegated by January. They don’t care. They aren’t the club, and they aren’t the fans.
Even a basic and simple issue would be if creditors do agree to reduced recovery, that line of credit is gone for a decade at best. We’d need a massive massive squad (and staff) rebuild, and every player we sought to buy, the selling club would demand up front payment, which we wouldn’t have.
It’s obviously not something that can be ruled out as a possible scenario. It does happen. But it doesn’t “clear the debts” so we can just crack on and MSP buy us for a quid.
