Fawaz: Midnight Twitter Rants and the Real Truth of what’s Happening Behind the Scenes at Nottingham Forest (UPDATED)

A lot of what I am going to write here is joining up dots. A bit of what someone said, a bit what someone else said and trying to draw a line in between and what’s really been happening at Forest in the past 3 months. It may not all be “true” but a lot of this is likely or versions of these events. I don’t ever claim to be  ‘#itk’ but this to me seems as likely version of events as any.






In late August all was well. Fawaz had in theory got his backers with the Marinakis 80% takeover. Marinakis understandably had huge input to the appointment of the director of football Pedro Perrieria and also the manager Philippe Montanier. Fawaz happy to have the backing and the chance to stay on in his token Chairman role was happy to take a back seat and get rid of some of the flack.

However, the takeover dragged on. In part due to Marinakis and his Greek court case, which led to the Football league digging its heals on ratifying anything whilst a potential owner and “fit and proper” person could be done for all sorts of offences would look awful for them, Its clear from the Vellios signing before we had a manager that something akin to this was occurring.

Marinakis
There was also an element of whilst the takeover was being dragged out allegedly of Fawaz, apparently not being happy about paying the bills before the Greeks were in. I.e. there was the wage payment for June. Supposedly Fawaz, as he was to be longer the owner, apparently didn’t want to pay the £400k or so that the monthly wages amounted to, believing the Greeks should pay the bill. The Greeks as they were not owners yet rightly believed they shouldn’t. After all you don’t start paying a mortgage off till you actually agree the house move. This led to a further hiccup with a 2% part of the deal being negotiated which amounted to the £400k.

This also meant he didn’t want to do the necessary work on the ground the council wanted, resulting in the reduce capacity, because apparently Fawaz didn’t want to pay for work he’d never see the benefit of.
Role on the August and things are already strained. Without the family support anymore for the club, funds are running low. We have made one real cash signing in Vellios, but the rest are the usual array of loans and freebies. In part to offset losses coming up in the next months, Fawaz sells Burke. Bear in mind at this stage the deal with the Greeks is still kind of on, but just on a back burner whilst all the legal issues hopefully ran their course. This angered the Greeks. Their main asset sold behind their back for a fee that was lower than could be achieved, but that was paid up front, so Fawaz could in theory,  fund the club for the next few months.

Now there is a slight element of feeling sorry there for Fawaz. He had to do something to get money to keep the club running without family money, but with the Greek takeover dragging on and not looking any closer, and no other real deals on the table; he had to act to get that money. As I say, it was all up front. Bigger deals were for longer term payments, so would not have gotten him the requisite cash to see through the months ahead. What the problem is here is that he lied. He covered up that essentially this all came about due to his ineptitude.

Here’s where the real drama comes in. Pedro Pereira as the Greeks man at the club, due to the Greeks anger is told to not just splash the cash on anyone. Not sure of the reasons really, surely you would want a proper replacement. So when in interviews Fawaz says the money was made available, some of it was, just not all of it. He needed some to keep the club afloat, as without we were in the shit.

Pereira therefore doesn’t spend the cash going ahead with the already planned Lica & Dumituru deals, and eventually Bendtner. The Greeks now want it back fire on Fawaz and make him look bad, which it of course does. He sold a man behind his potential new investor’s backs but he kind of had to. Hence previously he said he wouldn’t sell anyone. This is also why other clubs were hovering around Assombalonga, hoping to be able to pick him for cheap, knowing that all this was going on behind the scenes.

This annoys Fawaz, he knows he is going to get a lot of flak and fight fires for not signing a proper replacements. He wanted to and had apparently himself earmarked targets, but Pereira blocked them with his man Montanier. Hoping the Greek takeover goes through, that the lion-share of that Burke sale comes to them to spend of their targets, not the overpriced signings of someone who has consistently negotiated bad deals. (The Greeks are agog at some of the wages average players re on.) Hence also why Burke elt the club didn’t want to keep him, they needed the money.

So relations between Fawaz and Pereira are non-existent. We get to the point now, where we are looking at other deals, with the news that other parties have been interested but are not willing to engage in this ridiculous 80% sale as long as Fawaz stays on deal. Fawaz wants the club to get promoted to sell his 20% for a greatly inflated fee and get his money back, and end this horrible tenure at the club.

Periera
Things reach a head last night, where Pereira and Fawaz can no longer work together and the Director of Football is sacked. Fawaz never saw the point in the role and once it was apparent he’d have to pay for someone he thinks acted against him, he severed ties with him.

This led to the first cryptic tweet last night about Actions speaking louder than words, though its exact meaning and point I don’t know, which led to a torrent of abuse from fans and then Fawaz lashing back out, which led to even more abuse before Emad waded in with the most idiotic badly directed tweets ever about how fans don’t put their money into their pockets to fund the club. Which is precisely what all of have been doing for years.




Now relations are so strained that Montanier may well follow. Fawaz wants to clear the decks of the Greek legacy. This isn’t helped of course by the poor form seeing us fall down the table. He also thinks that this is to do with lower crowds, not the fact that we have had 4 years of decline under the Kuwaiti.

Pereira has been let go. Montanier hangs in the balance, the next few results deciding that. Further player sales may well have to come to keep the club afloat, but all the while there are buyers there, none of them will entertain this 20% notion which Fawaz clings too. Hence he wants his £100m he kept tweeting about last night in ridiculous tirades at tired fans. Also the fact some fans were claiming we are going to be in the shit is because last night he wanted to walk away from Forest. Fawas has had enough. However he knows he can;t just leave this thing he owns, and needs it to be successful to maximise value to sell it.

If it all feels a bit Jackanory, I agree, but that’s where the clubs at. It’s a soap opera. It’s a plot even Eastenders wouldn’t touch. But maybe, just maybe, it’s what’s happening. We have been lied to. Fawaz cannot and will not admit the well is dry. The family have said no more cash, hence he is looking for investors. But would you pay for 80% for something for someone else to run it and try and reap the benefits of? Of course not. This all boils down to him not wanting to sell up and try and keep his cult of personality afloat.


***EDIT*** Pereira has now "resigned." So there we go, the next piece in this puzzle. Now from what I have read in two or three places it has to do with leaking information to the Greek Journalist
Antonis Oikonomidis about what has been happening. It was that journalist of course who mentioned about Red Bull offering for the club. Fawaz has been angered by him leaking this news that was meant to be secret, especially considering his recent tirades about who's offering for the club now. 

More as it happens

Comments

  1. Lot of guesses & supposition in there & some of it completely wrong.

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