Alright, let's suspend disbelief for a second and think about what could come after Sisu:
- Magical billionaire owner takes us to the Prem (unlikely)
- Yet another dodgy foreign owner/former car salesman takes over and we meet back here in 5 years (very likely)
- We attempt fan ownership of some description, let's look at that.
Firstly, it wouldn't be 100% fan ownership. A system where no-one can own a majority share in the club seems sensible, with a certain percentage (maybe 30% pulling a figure from my arse) fan owned in some respect (by A trust maybe). That leaves 70% to find buyers for, who wants to invest in a football club?
I think for a good chunk of that, you've got to look at local business. JLR and the like are the obvious choices (maybe along with some form of sponsorship), but I can't see them putting in a massive amount (if any at all). So you're talking about local SMEs with some kind of personal love for the club, your Joe Elliotts and the like. How many of them are likely to be about? Then you look at your celebrity fans who might want a bit of publicity and feel good factor and might have 5 figures to throw at it. We can count them on maybe one hairy hand. Then you're looking at normal fans to stump up some cash, maybe a membership fee, maybe fancy seats for an extra few hundred quid.
In terms of running things, you're looking at the German model basically. Aim for strong connections with local business, mass fan involvement through low ticket prices and some kind of elected "president" on maybe a 2-4 year term. A lot would depend on debt being at least deferred if not written off, but the current model of bringing through youth first is the right one and with sensible finances and hopefully increased fan patiences thanks to better transparency we might be able to spend within our means.
So it'd take a lot of ground work putting together a consortium and even more building the club as a sustainable business afterwards, do we have the fan leadership to accomplish that? Nothing we've seen so far suggests so, we've been in continual crisis for as long as I remember pretty much and no one has stepped forward.
So IMO fan ownership is the only hope to win the moral high ground and maybe force a deal out in the open, I think it's doable, but I doubt we have the resources to do it. Otherwise you are waiting for someone stupid enough to pay over the odds, or Joy to get bored.