hasthagotanycheese

None of the bidders will be buying Wednesday with a view to bumbling around between L1 and the Chanp. The Prem is where the money is and with the right sort of investment and the right people in charge a return to the top flight within 3 - 5 years is not an unreasonable expectation. Serious people will be wanting a serious return on their money and we are in for an exciting few years in my opinion.

If we can't compete with other ambitious clubs in League 1 next year with new owners and 25K crowds then we might as well pack up and merge with United.

Maybe, maybe not. If we don't try to re-sign them then they definitely won't stay. Who knows if we make them an offer for 1 crack at L1 at decent money some may accept ( unbongos allowing of course ). Quite a few stayed last time we dropped down. Remember, we'll be minted and it will be the start of an upturn under the new owners, some players will want to be in on that.

Keep on 1 year deal.

This is a bit like your mate getting a new girlfriend, but then almost immediately she suggests a threesome with you. Weird analogy I know, but hints that deep down they might be seeing the limitations in their current arrangements.

If we can persuade Svante, Charles, M Lowe, Valery, Bernard to stay next season as well as the promising youngsters such as Cads, Brown, Weaver etc then that gives us a core to build on. We are probs looking at 15 ish new players to put together a competitive squad for next term.

Megson managed to build a team capable of promotion from L1 in a very short space of time. We were awful at first with Irvine's players but as soon as he brought his own team in we were up there challenging. There is no reason why with the right plan & funding in place ( umbongos allowing ) this can't be repeated.We effectively have a 7 month preseason to get ready for the next campaign.

Me too

In pure business terms a merger would make perfect sense, you would retain your fanbase and halve the costs. The businessman Stephen Hinchcliffe mooted the very same thing many years ago and got pelters for it. A merger isn't entirely without precedent as Sampdoria are the result of 2 Genoa teams coming together. Unfortunately speculation of this type completely rides roughshod over such important factors as tradition, history, rivalry, demographics and any group suggesting such a plan clearly wouldn't have done any local market research as the reaction would have been entirely negative. In short it's entirely blue sky thinking by people with no understanding of how English Football works and we have just had somebody like that in charge for the last 10 years and that ended badly for them. Infact if a merger ever did happen, you would get a "plastic" Sheffield team which nobody locally would follow and two "phoenix" clubs with massive followings working their way back up through the football pyramid, so it would actually make Sheffield a 3 club city so the problem would get worse.

You are not going to be the new owner, and neither am I. You think Bannan should be retained, and I think its time to move on. Both are perfectly logical reasoned views to hold. At the end of the day somebody is going buy the club and with that purchase gets the right to decide the way forward. And it's either going to be my way or your way. It won't be any skin off my nose of they decide to keep BB as a player, it's their decision at the end of the day.

I don't disagree with you. But we are talking about building a new SWFC, not relying on players that just by the march of time are not going to be able to be part of that. Tough decisions but if we make them on sentiment we won't progress.

We can't keep hanging on to blokes in their mid 30's. It's time to let go

New broom sweeps clean and all that. Let's keep the ones who have potential. Weaver, Cads, Brown, Charles etc Try to hold on to players that will be too good for L1. Svante, Bernard, Valery, M Lowe on the basis that it's 1 season only. Bin rest off and that includes manager, Baz, Palmer too. Use the next 6-7 months to build a new SWFC that's fit for purpose of bouncing straight back and build momentum for the top flight in 2-3 years.

Kris has said points deduction is incoming. But what's the reason for the fresh sanction?

Depends what new owners can negotiate with EFL. Whose to say that embargoes cannot be discussed if our financial situation alters dramatically?