Shrimps talks are making progress

Morecambe chairman Peter McGuigan says talks are progressing well over the sale of the club.
Kevin Ellison pictured during the FA Cup defeat to Dagenham in NovemberKevin Ellison pictured during the FA Cup defeat to Dagenham in November
Kevin Ellison pictured during the FA Cup defeat to Dagenham in November

The long-serving Globe Arena chief officially put the Shrimps on the market in March and is hopeful a deal can be done by the end of May.

McGuigan told the club’s official YouTube channel Shrimps Player: “We’ve had good interest in the club from international and UK-based consortiums but it does take time.

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“We’re in a process and we’re hopeful by the end of May there should be a 
positive outcome.

“It may go into the middle of June but we’ll see and we’re making every effort to try and get it in to the end of May.”

The chairman of 15 years has also moved to defend boss Jim Bentley, the Shrimps’ Wembley winning captain being under the most pressure of his near five years in charge.

Two wins in 18 have seen Morecambe slide alarmingly down the League 2 table in 2016.

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McGuigan said: “The last six months have been tough. You can overreact but I’ve always supported Jim when it’s been tough.

“Everybody has their own opinion.

“I said to Jim last week at Accrington that if we played like that every week I think we’d be in the top seven.

“Then we went to Cambridge and, if you play like that, you’ll be in the Rymans somewhere.

“But that’s following the football club.

“We’re spending time with Jim looking for next year, assuming the sale doesn’t go ahead, to see what we can do.”

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The former Umbro chief, 21 years a Shrimps director, went as far as to say the last few months have been the hardest of his time at the club, feeling the FA Cup exit at the hands of Dagenham back in November was a real turning point.

He said: “Up to the end of December we were a few points away from the play-offs, playing some great football and getting some great results.

“I do think the Dagenham result in the cup had a huge effect – from 2-0 up we lost 4-2.

“I think that was a massive blow for the club, probably to the extent that it maybe affected some of the players more than we thought.

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“To get through to the second round and then a third round with Everton was a big, big chance for us to move forward. That was a real body blow.

“Then the matches that were postponed due to the weather cost us a huge amount of money.

“We’d love to have said to Jim ‘go out and get one or two players in January’ but we couldn’t.”