It’s almost 10pm BST on Friday 21st October 2011 and it looks like a deal between James Brent’s Akkeron Group and administrators will not happen this week over three parties not agreeing to a deal as it stands. The first party refusing the sign the agreement is sacked manager Peter Reid, as yet Peter has yet to speak to the media about his reasons stating that it’s a private matter, but I suspect it may be about severance pay on top of what he was owed by Plymouth Argyle.
The second party is former chief operating officer; Tony Campbell who is owed £6,000 for the remainder of his contract. Campbell claims that he will not be ‘bullied and intimidated’ into signing the document, all he wants is to be able to negotiate a financial deal after signing the document to allow Argyle to be saved. Brent is basically playing hard ball, either sign or he’ll pull out of the deal; the same tactic used to force the city council into purchasing the Home Park freehold.
The third party is the administrators themselves, Brendan Guilfoyle, lead administrator of P&A Partnership has said that they are willing to accept 50% of their fee, which currently stands at £1.2m. Again Brent is trying to play hard ball, tabling a payment £220,000 lower than what P&A Partnership is willing to accept. I still think that Guilfoyle and partners have been grossly incompetent in their management of the administration process, which has been well documented, but being willing to accept 50% of their fees has thrown a slightly more favourable light on them. It’s now Brent that is holding up proceedings over around about £500,000, £6,000 to Campbell, £250,000 to Reid and £220,000 to P&A Partnership, all guestimated figures of course.
Brent who is seen as the savour of the club by many Argyle fans is starting to exhibit all the traits of a ruthless businessman, is he really interested in saving the club or is there another agenda here? he certainly isn’t in it for the love of football or Plymouth Argyle Football Club. If this deal goes south because of Brent’s brinkmanship and the club gets liquidationed, let’s see how fast he goes from hero to zero? I really can’t say that I blame Reid and Campbell for holding out, why should they accept a deal with no recourse? Especially Reid who was sacked after giving everything to the club, including putting in his own money and selling personal property! I also believe that P&A are being reasonable as well; accepting a loss of £600,000 to make the deal happen!
I do hope that agreement can be found, a middle ground where all parties can be reasonably happy with the deal, but I can see the deal being scuppered as it seems that none of the four sides are willing to move on their position, stalemate and the club disappears, this is just another example of the shambles that has been the Plymouth Argyle administration process. I still say that Paul Buttivant should have been given a chance, his plans seemed like the best proposal for the football club but his consortium ‘apparently’ haven’t shown proof of funding according to the administrators but we’ve not seen any facts or figures to back that up, after all BIL/Heaney supposedly had proof of £6m in funding, which never materialised, infact, Heaney’s own club is now in financial trouble. Let’s just say that I believe nothing that comes out of Brendan Guilfoyle’s pie hole.