The Italian Job - The Takeover

Things moved pretty swift in the summer at the O's. We only finished at Wembley towards the end of May, by mid-June things surrounding a takeover were moving swiftly.. a new company had been set up, registered in Covent Garden owned by three Italians and Barry was giving it the big 'un in the press.

Franceso Becchetti, yes him of the shit-shifting empire, had been at Wembley to witness us take Rotherham to the cleaners and snatch our rightful place in the Championship after pissing the league all season capitulate in the second-half. And again in the penalty shoot-out.

Regardless of the outcome he must've been impressed with what he see. An upwardly moving club, Manager of the year, no debts, crowds growing and three previous matches where the atmosphere was amongst the best we've seen at Brisbane Road ever. Plus a little Barry sitting on his shoulder '..Go on Franny lad, dare ya.., you can make things happen here...bring yer shit-shovelling here and work yer magic..'

Credit where it's due, Becchetti bought us on the 7th July 2014 for £7m. He didn't get the ground though. That stays with Matchroom. No need to worry on that front hey?!?!?

Let me clarify that for you. Generally speaking he paid £7m for 20-odd people that kick a ball around for a living in the third division. There was a lot of goodwill included in that £7m though. Aside from West Ham fans, we're everybody's second favourite team.

When you're a billionaire I suppose you have these impulse buys.

What we know now but didn't at the time:

• Francesco Becchetti had the right hump that Moses was sold to Brentford for a £1m. Still not sure why he had the hump about it though. Maybe he thought he was worth more (i certainly did), or because we sold them to a rival (at the time, they're so much better than us now though).
• We were going to be part of an Italian / Albanian TV show about football.