Arabs waiting for Liverpool and Newcastle to go bankrupt
I'll wait...
Technically, they’re waiting for the owners of both clubs (Hicks & Gillett at Liverpool and Ashley at Newcastle) to be forced by the financial credit crunch to reduce their asking price and get out or risk defaulting on the debts the clubs have accrued.
Today DIC came out with a statement saying that:
“DIC is not involved in any negotiations to buy Liverpool and is not planning a fresh bid for LFC or any other club.”
DIC’s past with Liverpool is well-documented - they wanted to buy the club and were close to finalising the deal (in fact the DIC execs were about to book their flights for a press conference announcing the deal) before Moores did an about-face and sold to Hicks and Gillett on a deal that netted him more money from selling his shares.
Sameer Al Ansari is on record as saying that they (DIC) didn’t want something like this to tarnish their reputation, and after dealing with Hicks and Gillett once in the past I’m 100% certain they won’t come back to the negotiating table unless the owners agree to the offer made by DIC in the first place.
Liverpool cannot currently finance the new stadium - the loans were too risky - and if the credit crunch worsens then serious questions will be asked about Liverpool’s ability to pay off current debts, let alone build a brand new stadium. And when that happens, and when/if Hicks and Gillett are unable to take out more loans to pay off the interest for previous loans, they will more likely than not bail out.
But not before they push it to the brink in an attempt to get things right and get the stadium built.
So Liverpool is out - where does that leave Newcastle?
As Ashley has pointed out, he’s ploughed 200m+ in the club and there are still payments to be paid for players bought before he purchased the club. The fans have ridiculously high expectations, yes, but they would have lived with Keegan even if he didn’t win them trophies for a few years. Keegan’s gone now, and since Shearer isn’t ready for management there’s no one left who holds authority over the Geordie faithful, and this means intense pressure on whoever comes in next.
Financially and politically Newcastle are much better off than before but perhaps not in a state where a backer like DIC would be interested in coming in and sorting things out. There’s too much work to be done to take Newcastle to Liverpool’s level (Champions League regulars) - possibly another 200m to be spent on players - and DIC would wait for a bigger opportunity to come along before thinking of Newcastle. Then again, with the reaction of the fans to Ashley (who has been reticent about sharing his view for the club until it was too late), DIC might just keep away to avoid the ridiculous expectations.
That is, unless Newcastle is put up for sale at a cut-price deal that allows DIC to come in and rebuild without putting too much capital up front.
Newcastle and Liverpool fans will need to look elsewhere - with Liverpool needing an investor who is willing to pay Hicks & Gillett an inflated price and Newcastle looking for an investor who can put up with the fans long enough to guide the club towards the promised land of success.
You point out the fans at Newcastle have rediculous expectations! Which tabloid newspaper have you picked this opinion from? Most Newcastle fans would like to see steady progress on and off the pitch with a squad able to challenge for a UEFA cup place. Do you really think that this is as you put it ” a rediculously high expectation ” I think not.Mike Ashley’s team have assembled a squad which is paper thin and devoid of quality and numbers and will do well not to be involved in a relegation fight this season. Ashleys net outlay in the transfer window has been 2 million. The requirement for the addition of another left back and a creative midfield player has been plain for all to see for some time now and has not been addressed by Mr Wise and the recruitment team.Although Mike Ashley has done some great things for NUFC i.e the paying off of debts and a strong focus on the recruitment of young players our bread and butter is still to be competitive in the toughest league in the world.
actually I picked up the vibe from reading through the hundreds of comments left at Ed’s nufcblog every day for the last year and half…
Ahmed,
From this “vibe” you have picked up from ED’s blog which I also read daily. What do you deduce are the expectations of the NUFC fans? Do you think that my expectations are “rediculously high expectations”. Of course I do not proclaim to be a spokesman for the fans as we all have our opinions as do you.
Robbo
Robbo, having Newcastle in UEFA cup place is “a ridiculously high expectation”. Newcastle must beat folks like Hull, Stoke and West Brom to survive relegation before thinking about folks like Sunderland, West Ham and Wigan. Then they have to face competition (if any) from Aston Villa, Man City and Everton for the UEFA spot.
If the situation worsen, we may see Newcastle getting relegated and the last game we’ve seen is a relegation performance…poor.
As overpaid players, they are responsible on the pitch although things outside can get to their heads. But hey, they are paid millions and are expected to turn in results week in week out.
LFC had that problem but it was their players who bail the yanks our of fans trouble. Imagine LFC on in CL and doing relegation battle.
King Kong,
I agree with you 100%. I do not think that what our squad is capable of is anywhere near what my expectations are. My point is that a club like NUFC should be battling it out with Portsmouth, Spurs, Everton, Man City and Villa for a UEFA cup place and quite clearly we are not capable of doing so at the moment. I still believe that at the end of last season with a decent recruitment campaign over the summer my “ridiculously high expectations” would not have looked as crazy as they clearly do now.
Robbo
Quote
“The fans have ridiculously high expectations, yes, but they would have lived with Keegan even if he didn’t win them trophies for a few years”
This statement basically contradicts itself.
If we had high expectations,then we wouldn’t be happy if KK won nothing,would we.
The simple fact,that no-one seems to realise outside the NE,is that we don’t DEMAND success.We would like it,sure but we all we really want is a stable club,an owner that backs the manager a bit,a manager who knows what he is doing,players that try ALL the time and can play some nice football.
Well said Phil! Sums it up perfectly. I for one get sick of how we are portrayed by the press. I think that anyone outside of the North East has built an opinion of the Newcastle fans expectations because of what they read in the Newspapers!And this can be a mile away from reality.
Robbo
The fans have rediculously high expectations…. straight out of the Sun/News of the World, you haven’t got a clue, what blogs have you been reading… I do not know one toon fan that expected us to even get into Europe in the near future,let alone win anything…. get a real job you muppet.
all we really want is a stable club,an owner that backs the manager a bit,a manager who knows what he is doing,players that try ALL the time and can play some nice football.
Robbo and Phil - agreed that this is what most Newcastle fans want.
However how often do you get that in football? Sticking to the Premier League, how many clubs out of the 19 other teams do you see fulfilling all the conditions laid out above?
I’ll say that around 50 percent of clubs in the Premier League fulfull most of these conditions.
Now how long has it been since Newcastle had these conditions?
Not since a Bobby Robson-led Newcastle pipped Manchester to second place in the league.
It’s been several years, and things have gone south on and off the pitch. They will take time to heal, and you can’t do this by firing a manager when you don’t like him or forcing the owner to sell if you don’t like him.
You talk about opinions built on what’s in the newspapers. I can only assume that your first source of information about Newcastle and Ashley is the same newspapers and not personal insight into Ashley’s and Keegan’s dealings. As such, if the newspapers are sensationalist and have blown fans’ expectations out of proportion, they are just as likely to have vilified Ashley in an attempt to sell more copies.
We can debate Ashley’s mistakes all day, but the fact is that most people look at Chelsea’s resounding success in 04/05 and 05/06 and consider that the benchmark of billionaire investment.
You must remember a few things about Chelsea’s dominance:
1) They had qualified for the Champions League the season before Abramovich took over, so they had quality in the squad.
2) There was a vacuum at the top with United tapering off and no other team with the financial backing to make a run for the title.
3) Today the competition is a lot tougher and just building an expensive team without the promise of Champions League football is NOT enough.
If you have someone like Abu Dhabi United come in who can bankroll a team of young stars willing to take the risk of playing outside the Champions League for an year or two, that’s great. Most other investors won’t come in if that’s not the case.
And without that investment, the only other option left is patient rebuilding.
Ashley may have done the wrong thing in not investing in the squad (as I understand it, getting rid of Owen would have freed up the wage bill to bring in 2-3 new players and wages were the main issue) or by refusing to give Keegan full control or he might have thought about the club’s long-term future and tried to do the right thing.
Time will tell - Chelsea work with a sporting director and Arsenal worked with one until David Dein left, so it’s not as if success is impossible with this approach.
IMO, Keegan should have stayed. He’s let the club down by bailing out on them when he could have bitten the bullet and worked on improving things on the pitch. He may not like Wise, but the process is still solid and should be given time to work before you throw it out.
So yes. Newcastle fans are impatient and they have high expectations - especially when they’re not considering all the facts.
I suppose you could say that for all football fans though…
@Mac - this one pays well, thank you very much. My point on high expectations is explained in detail in the previous comment, feel free to dissect, etc.
Ahmed,
My original post was pointing out that your assumption’s of NUFC’s fans expectations were taken from reading the tabloid press. You have now made further assumptions in your words quote” I can only assume that your first source of information about Newcastle and Ashley is the same newspapers and not personal insight into Ashley’s and Keegan’s dealings. I and presume Phil live and work in the North East and are far better placed to give informed opinions about NUFC fans expectations than you are as we are fans and live and work amongest fellow supporters 24/7 I wonder why Mike Ashley left it so late to share his vision for the club with the fans?. We do not guage the fans feelings by reading newspapers.
Robbo
Joe Hasham is Australian…why you posing him as Arab?? haha
Sheikh Mohammed has left DIC (reportedly) and is going for Liverpool out of his own pocket ($18billion, not quite as much but i wont be complaining) so I don’t know why DIC have choose to comment on Liverpool
Robbo. Fair enough.
But could you answer this question:
What is your first source of information for all things Newcastle and Mike Ashley?
Liverpool_Fan: Doubt that will happen mate, but it will be interesting to see if it does since he’d be paying essentially paying Hicks and Gillett way over market value.
@Robbo - followup question for you, if you don’t mind answering: Do you think that being too emotionally invested in the success and failure of anything impairs rational judgment?
Jason - the photo was funny, that’s why
Ahmed,
I live in London, have been a supporter for 46 years and a season ticket holder at NUFC for 36 years and travel homeand away. My only request of any team over the years, win loose or draw has been that I walk away after a game and say “they did the best they could”. Many of the players we have signed over the last few years have not done that, and in a working class area, where people have worked hard themselves in order to allow themselves the cash to follow their team. Less than trying won’t be tolerated. We have NEVER had high expectations of our club. Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and now Man City will all have high expectations of their clubs, but NUFC! Have a word. We haven’t seen domestic silverware in 53 years for goodness sake. Do we have high expectations because we have a large following. This is something I have picked up having lived in London for so long. “Why is it you lot get huge crowds, you never win anything, you don’t have particularly good players you are all out of work and skint, and your staple diet is chipsand beer, and you all have whippets.”
If ths is what the people of London are thinking, and those people are writing daily news articles, they are the blinkered ones, ignorant of just what NUFC means to its supporters. Its a love affair. If your father was a supporter, Whether you like it or not, “You will be a supporter of NUFC” Dragged, kicking and screaming to SJP, and you will learn to love it, and you will love it. Being a Newcastle suppoter is a birthright. We are fortunate, and as the last week has shown, we are unique. Why? Because we ALL love and care what happens to our club. But, overexpectant. Do your research before writing about something you know very little about, and will never fully understand. The fact NUFC and its supporters are so unique is why there is so much interest from the media. Nothing more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
why the picture of joe hasham lmao ????
and we all know kevin keegan is a quiter, thats why he bailed out on newcastle..just liked hes bailed out in the past…the man isnt cut out for managment if u ask me..great player…but shite manager
Sign a couple of Israeli players and have a rabbi in to bless the pitch. We’ll see if the Dubai group still want to go for it then.
- A crude but salient test of their good intentions.
Sav - don’t City already have Tal Ben Haim? I agree that he’s going to be ditched at the first opportunity, but that’s more because of his playing abilities (or lack thereof) than the Israeli connection.
And this reminds me, isn’t Avram Grant still looking for a job?
Ahmed,
In answer to your question do i think that being too emotionally invested in the success and failure of anything impairs rational judgment? I would say yes you are correct and this is where the problem lies with Keegan. One of my issues with the Newcastle board is that they have left our squad devoid of numbers and quality to compete at the right end of the premier league by not providing the manager with the players to do the job. The recruitment team had all summer to address the requirements of the squad but failed miserably to do this. The sale of James Milner at 12million is only good business if that money is reinvested in the squad not sitting in some bank account.Mike Ashley’s dream to create an Arsenal business model sounds great but takes a long time which is no issue as long as you are able to compete in the premier league at the present. I think that Randy Lerner at Aston Villa has got it right hire a good manager and let him manage and back his judgement in the transfer market. Martin O’neill has made steady progress each season he has been at villa and has a real chance of breaking into the top 4. He has also done this with a predomantely English squad some achievement!
Robbo
I know its hard to imagine Liverpool only having one owner who knows about football, has lots of money and wants to keep Rafa but im really hoping. The asking price is £750million apparently which will be an outrageous profit for the yanks (********!!) i dont think Sheikh will pay that much sadly
great article man
LOL @ the australian poker dude pic in all truth i would rather have Bin Laden as owner of liverpool than tom & jerry