I've been saying it for months. Reed has been allowed to turn this club into a place for mates to earn a few k a week and know **** all about what they are doing. Cortese was too over the top. We need some one that doesn't destroy moral of every staff member apart from the footballers. We need someone that doesn't load debt on the club
Why would it? They still sold him the next window. If a player is wanted by a top club and we say no they are going to kick off. If they have release clauses in there then they know where they stand and are presumably happy with the figure when they sign the deal, so that makes it less likely they kick off in my view. Not every buying club is Liverpool and not every player is VVD. Us holding out for such an astronomical fee would put off a lot of people I feel, rather than going to a club who would've sold him for 2/3rds of the price we held out for.
Maybe we are getting some new coaches - MP alluded to recruiting people on and off the field in his post match conference
Seriously, some of the reactions on this thread are way over the top. And that surprises me not in the slightest, naturally. Are we in trouble? Well it’s not looking good at the moment. Can we blame the board. Well, yes, but really only at the end of the season will we know how much. Do I think that Les and Ralph have become utterly useless? Absolutely not, and if we think that we can help our situation by firing people due to a “dip in form”, who have previously managed difficult situations well, then be careful what you wish for. Anyone remember the last time we had the leadership of the club being squabbled about? That didn’t end so well, did it? The board have my support at present. If we go down, that will have far-reaching consequences for everyone at the club. Let’s hope that we make some good signings and with the league as it is, a couple of wins could make a huge difference.
I agree that it isn't everything to do with where we are now, but as I suggested earlier I think we would be in a better league position if we had sold VVD and invested the money in the summer. If we go down this year then not selling VVD in the summer would be one of the major factors in it for me.
I know people who work & worked at the club and they never had a problem with Cortese, there was a vocal minority that didn't like working under him because he was so demanding. He didn't "load debt" on the club, debt isn't a bad thing and it wasn't anything that would have troubled us even in relegation due to huge parachute payments. Yeah, the training ground went over budget but most construction jobs do, that's the nature of the business.
Why wouldn't they kick off with a buy out clause? They know where they stand far less with a buy out clause than what the club have done which makes the rest of your logic not follow. Clubs sell for under a buy out clause. We didn't sell for under our asking price. Which means they know where they stand more under this strategy. And for your last point. I don't think selling Fonte to west ham makes us more attractive than Virgil to Liverpool imo.
My point being that if our asking price was the same as the buyout clause then the player would have a legal guarantee that we would sell at that price, which would presumably make them happier. Of course if the player doesn't work out we could sell for less, but this is assuming the player is a success. The downside to this is we are tied in to a set price, but if you are saying that we would let them know the asking price (and would honour that price) when they signed a long term deal then I don't see how it is any different. I don't see how that follows? My point was that we were very stubborn over the VVD transfer, which proved a correct strategy in that instance, but it may put off other players who think that if they moved to, for example, Stoke that they would've sold at £50m making the transfer to a bigger club easier for the player as it was cheaper.
What have Les & Ralph done to earn your support? We've been on a downward curve since those two started running the show. The signs were there 2 years ago in Koemans slump when it was clear we lacked quality in depth, nothing was done that summer to address the issue. Last season was another dip, and this season we're dipping even further and Ralph has come out with the most idiotic/uninspiring interviews I think I've seen from anyone at the club.
There was far more then the vocal minority. Women were treated like **** under Cortese, but I guess that doesn't matter? Taking out big loans the owner didn't want isn't a good thing.
We've heard different things in that case. Here's a question; who do you think was more knowledgeable about Markus plan for the club in terms of finance - his best friend, and long term financial adviser who he appointed to run the club, or his daughter who has no interest in football? The loan in question was about £15m iirc to cover cash flow issues after promotion, so it wasn't a big loan.
As I have said Cortese was good at keeping the players happy at any cost which helped us as a team. But anyone else was treated like ****. Kat has never pumped money into the club, hence why we needed a loan to cover us when we were buying players and not selling. If Cortese had staid so many people would have thought differently of him.
I worry that in his own way, Gao has loaded the club with a different type of debt. His silence is deafening too.
It's not really any different which is why I found it strange you criticised the board for it. As for your second paragraph. Liverpool were very stubborn over courtinho yet Virgil still wanted to join them. I'm more worried about our performances atm relating to whether players think we will get them to a big club rather than our price tag. We actually sold him 1 year after he said he wanted to leave (January to January) so pretty much the same as we normally do as far as the player is concerned.
We don't know all the facts about the size of the loan, but what we do know is that Katharina loaned us more money and then rearranged the loan so presumably she got a better deal than Nicola did. I believe the issue was with the company he borrowed from.
I'm not talking about players. Two people I've spoken to in different areas both had no problems with Cortese or his leadership. Kat should have sold the club to Cortese investors who actually wanted to take the club forward. Instead she's pocketed a load of cash, and sold us to a dodgy Chinese guy.
Regardless of the loan, Cortese was the visionary behind the deal and Markus was happy to trust him with running the club, it's no coincidence that Pochettino & Mitchell left when he did. The purse strings were reined in, and thats why we couldn't keep Koeman. Kat came in wanted to consolidate and sell up for a profit. She only restructured the loan to benefit herself and make the club easier to sell.
