No its on. There's a few of them chucking money in. Floyd M, Joe Louis, Joe Frazier, Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson. All have confirmed they are bang up for it.
Steve Wraith did it for a laugh. Literally was "fancy buying the Toon, Floyd" and - as he was IN Newcastle doing an appearance - of course said he would. I mean, the context was right there for all the journalists yet everyone from Sky to Talksport ran it as news. The Chronicle reached another level of incompetence by citing ****ing TMZ as a source!!!! What next? Perez Hilton interviews Mike Ashley? All it does is scream that journalists aren't journalists anymore. They don't do any journalism, of any description. They are glorified bloggers, getting airtime for their banal opinions and press conference soundbytes. There's no investigative work going on. I asked a question of one to say "how come there's zero real information relating to this, or any of the previous, "takeovers"?". Surely given all the issues Ashley's had over the years, the people he's burned (Jimenez, Llambias), there are those willing to spill the dirt if you had the desire to look hard enough? Surely there's someone in this PIF who can confirm or deny the rumour and print it. I then questioned whether it was a) not worth it, b) beyond their capability or c) they were scared of people like Ashley and their lawyers. No answer tells me it's b and c.
Worse still he was asked the same thing last time he was here and gave the same answer then! It was probably the same journos reporting last time.
There was a decent bit in the Chron from Douglas today, but before we go congratulating the journalistic skills it was basically a transcription of Bob Radcliffe's comments during an open talk at Finance in Football. A Google app could have done the same job. None-the-less it was pretty honest and sobering, basically saying that the PL and football in general has commercially flatlined (+1 rep to me for saying this exact thing the other day). To buy a big 6 club is around £2bn on average, the rest are anywhere from £150m-£350m (no surprise which greedy fecker is after top dollar). But you need to be writing off personal cheques at around £50m a year to progress. By maximising commercial income and spending in line with everyone else you're just standing still. Besides which Nice, which Ineos bought, cost £80m and had a brand new stadium, training facility and is on the Med. Why wouldn't they? Newcastle were directly mentioned, and his words were "it's still a schlep from London, plus it's bloody cold." Just not attractive. The only ones who see the potential are the fans, nobody else is bothered about titles or trophies. So, ultimately, what's the point? The last commercial growth is from the 3pm kick-offs streaming live via Amazon, but that's not going to be wildly more money than the current deals. Amazon didn't pay over the odds for their games last year. So it's plateau-ing in terms of income, yet salaries, fees and agents cost more and more and more. That is only going to end one, ugly way, so the only people interested in buying clubs now are those who can use it for other gains.
As I've maintained, someone who was dealing with PIF claimed they were going to do it. Saudi's make sense, for sportwashing reasons. But it's Saudi, why not just buy Chelsea? Or Spurs? I also think if we're not sold now, this season, then we never will be. We have everything lined up and potentially a very pricey asset - ASM - in hand. Squad value is at its highest, Amazon haven't yet tapped into it and the playing field is kind of levelling in the top half. Sheff Utd aren't where they are because they're amazing. They're just consistent.
doubt it.... 1 year ive heard maybe forever... its here to stay like the flu... it will fight for its right to live.
As per the Corona thread, ol' Mike's going to be considerably worse off shortly. Owning a football club might be all he has left.
Oh, the corona virus will never go away. It will just go out of fashion. The Spanish flu killed more people than World War 1. Now, most people can't be arsed to get flu jabs.
Daughter seems to have it, consistent symptoms, so been at home all week. Can't get a test, though - seems the authorities are well aware it's the old/sick who are vulnerable, young aren't getting tested and for reasons unknown aren't saying the truth about it. Can't for the life of me work out what two weeks is supposed to do. Seems like a very random number. If 5,000 had it yesterday, 10,000 today then what a two week break is going to do is beyond me. Weirdly, it was the two week break that absolutely smashed Italy, as they all buggered off on holiday with their Nonna's, who then died.
Hope she gets well soon and that the rest of your family avoids any further sickness. I think they are only testing the hospitalised now......well.....apart from politicians, footballers, actors.... There must be 1000's more actually infected than the ones who have had confirmed tests.