Shrewsbury Town CEO Liam Dooley provides takeover update
Chief executive Liam Dooley says there has been further takeover interest in Shrewsbury Town, but the club is not close to entering an exclusivity period.
Town saw two prospective takeover deals collapse within the space of six months last year.
Dooley revealed in August that the club was set to move into a period of exclusivity with a potential buyer, but that deal later broke down, following the collapse of an earlier takeover attempt in March.
Speaking to the media after the appointment of Gavin Cowan as head coach, the Salop CEO provided an update on the situation.
He said: “We’ve had people since our last update. We referenced at the time that we had somebody who had closely agreed a price to buy the football club.
“Unfortunately it didn’t move forward despite spending a lot of time on it.
“We are in a place that we can move quickly, should the right person come to pass. But we are not at a stage where we are moving into an exclusivity agreement.”
In an open letter to supporters in September, chairman Roland Wycherley said that finding buyers willing to provide all the necessary documentation to purchase the club had “proved a real challenge”.
He added that not all parties had been able or willing to “provide it in a timely or transparent manner”.
Wycherley also stressed the need for the club to “remain thorough in our due diligence” and to find the right buyer, “however challenging or frustrating the process may be”.
“I get a fair bit of stick for saying that we are always in conversations, but that is the situation right now,” Dooley said.
“We don’t have any concrete or new updates to inform you of. The interest in football clubs right now is from all over the world.
“There is interest, there always is, but it is turning that interest from someone ringing you up and saying ‘I’ve got you somebody’ to making that realistic and bringing something forward.
“Currently we have still got people making those conversations right now, but there is no new news.”
With Cowan now in place as head coach, Dooley insisted that the club’s immediate focus remains on results on the pitch, with Salop sitting 21st in League Two, two points clear of the relegation zone.
Dooley added on any potential takeover: “That conversation has been something that I've said every single time I've been asked, at every supporters' parliament or every time that I've been asked anything by the press, it's something that we continue to work on.
“It's something that we will always try and update people as much as we can. But right now, it's all about what we can do on the pitch.
“And we believe we've got the right man at the helm to try and help us the rest of where we are at the moment.”
