A lesson in how to say very little

The joint statement on the takeover is a master class in how to say very little whilst purporting to offer reassurance: Takeover update

It says, 'Understandably, negotiations of this scale take time due to the enormous amount of due diligence that goes on behind the scenes, the need to satisfy the regulatory complexities of a football takeover and the challenges of assembling an ownership group.' If that was generally true, all football takeovers would take over a year when most of them are completed in a month or two. Roland took two weeks to complete due diligence, admittedly cutting corners. The BBC says that a price was agreed in February, so that cannot be the issue.

The reference to the 'challenges of assembling an ownership group' does confirm speculation that the size of the Australian consortium is an issue.

VOTV editor Rick Everitt tweeted about the statement, 'sets new standard for content-free official announcements - no doubt because they couldn’t agree anything meaningful. But even the fact of a joint statement is progress.'

Valley Floyd Road commented, 'Not sure what fans were expecting from statement, a date ? A planned organisation structure when the Aussies takeover? The financial worth and tax contributions? Come on be realistic. This was the best we could expect, confirmation RD is expecting to sell to the Aussies.'

At least the takeover is not off, as was feared last week.