Derek Adams wants Morecambe picture to become clearer

The club is now in its third year on the market, having been officially prepared for sale by the owner – Bond Group’s Jason Whittingham – in September 2022.

A deal is yet to be completed, much to the frustration of everyone associated with the club in that time; be it players, the board of directors, current and former managers as well as supporters.

Whittingham released a statement via the Shrimps Trust fans group on Wednesday in which he claimed that a sale process was ongoing.

He was quoted as saying: “The sale is still progressing, albeit slowly. Whilst I appreciate this is frustrating for everyone, myself included, we are still making every effort to bring the acquisition to completion.

“There were two meetings with the EFL last week and they clarified what was now required from the buyer in order to ensure we can move to completion.

“The buyer is in the process of finalising the requirements and working with the club and me as seller.”

It’s the third time the club has reportedly been on track towards a sale in the last two-and-a-bit years – during which time 15 Premier League and EFL clubs have successfully managed a change of ownership.

Some have done so in remarkably swift fashion with Wigan Athletic’s buyout in June 2023 completed only a week-and-a-half after it was confirmed the takeover process was underway.

Also linked with Wigan was Sarbjot Johal, the reported frontrunner to buy Morecambe earlier that year.

That deal seemingly fell dead when the EFL published a statement saying it was still to receive previously requested information.

Fast forward to June 2024 and, on the day Adams met the press after returning to be Morecambe manager for the third time, Whittingham told TalkSPORT he hoped to make a sale announcement within 10 to 14 days.

Having discussed the prospect of an increased budget for the new season if that was to be the case, Adams instead found himself with a reduced one.

That was despite the new Sky TV deal reportedly being worth £300,000 a year to each League Two club.

Nineteen players have come in but, approaching a third of the way through the season, Adams’ squad finds itself at the foot of League Two.

Asked if he’d heard anything new on a takeover, Adams said: “I can’t go into it too much but I can’t really affect anything either.

“I said that when I came back. I knew the situation I was coming into and we’ve done really well to negotiate it.

“We were under an embargo, the budget was reduced and what we have now is going to be the case until January.

“I get that, there’s no issue there. We’ve taken in players and we need to get moving.

“However, we need to know what money is available to take in extra recruitments.

“Players will leave in January – and that’s natural – so that we can do some deals.”