There is a real desire to sell. Papa wants out. I think your second sentence is the most correct. Yes, their blowing of the big pay day is well known. But this time, they really do want out. Or rather Papa does, and Ehab will probably have little say in the matter.
.. The Allams have supposedly been wanting to sell for more than 7 years now. They did a lot of work to make the books as clean / neat as possible in order to help facilitate a sale. Acun has been looking at the club now since summer and negotiating for several months. And it's claimed the parties have been in regular contact with the EFL for some time now. Yet, it keeps dragging on, and Acun recently came out and said they were tough business men. I'd guess the Allams as usual have been, and continue to be, acting purely in their own interests ("doing what's morally right for me") rather than trying to strike a balance between getting a fair deal for themselves whilst looking out for the best interests of the club. Listening to McCann's pre-match interview today, you realise what a mess we're currently in with this limbo state; fair play to him, he was very diplomatic and as positive as he could be (although I'd prefer if he just called it out for what it is, but unfortunately that rarely happens with managers). Yet again fighting with both hands tied behind his back. Ehab saying to him 'business as usual'!! Yeah, rite. It's on the verge of getting very silly, and risky, now. Main point being, rather than incompetence as suggested, I suspect the Allam's are not helping the cause one bit, and are only interested in themselves. But who knows. It really needs completing in the next few days.
Sky are probably pissed off too, must have been banking on Acun being here along with 20,000 on Sunday, instead it'll be half that and nobody in the directors box.
They did have them in nationals. Around 1,700 and less for some games. One stuck in the mind as according to James Shields, who made Stonehouse look like a contender for a Pulitzer prize, there was such a deafening roar when Rovers scored that it would have been no surprise if it had turned back the tide on the Humber.
This desire to sell and an earlier post about Papa being the driving force. They are not so poor that they need every penny they can get for the club, so if the price is say 30 million would they drag the sale out for months haggling over details or just knock a bit off and say take it away.
I don't think any hard-nosed businessman would ever entertain not getting the best deal possible, it's in their DNA!
I'd guess the Allams as usual have been, and continue to be, acting purely in their own interests ("doing what's morally right for me") rather than trying to strike a balance between getting a fair deal for themselves whilst looking out for the best interests of the club.
Maybe his tough stance has softened after trying to sell the club for over 7 years and missing out on some earlier chances which has left him where he is today.
I always find your Norwich comparisons interesting. I actually quite like Norwich (the city and the way the football club appear to be run). Similar sized club? Maybe. Similar league status since 2008? Well, yes but Norwich enjoyed success in seasons before haven't they? Several more seasons in top flight including finishing 3rd in PL, winning League Cup (twice?) and some success in Europe even beating Bayern Munich! Their owners may 'only' be worth £30 million but let's face it they are the absolute opposite to our owners (much admired v much despised). Fans are made to feel welcome and valued rather than just a necessary evil (at best). No surprise (to me at least) that Norwich owners have invested in state of the art training facilities. No surprise either that they are well supported. Historical success helps build generations of fans for the future and when you combine that with owners who care about their fans you have a good recipe for continued support. Being a generally more affluent city no doubt helps their support too. The potential for similar (or better) support for Hull City is still there though. We have had some decent crowds including the odd 'sell out' in the 4th tier. Any success we have enjoyed has not been prolonged and rarely combined with having decent owners. It will obviously take considerable rebuilding after the Allams have gone - but here's hoping!
The Norwich thing started as a joke by me. Due to a Norwich fan I worked with throwing stuff at me because back innthe nineties I said how crap their crowds were in the PL, they were getting 16,000 to 18,000, and how we would need a massive ground, 40-50,000 if we ever got to the PL. That turned out wrong. He did say when Delia Smith got involved things were going to change. And they did. Since she took over in around 2005 they have sold all their season tickets every season and not had a league crowd under 23,000. When they got relegated to League One their crowds were upon the season before and went up again in League One. Why he thought that would happen and why it did I don't know. Ticket prices weren't that low. His season ticket behind the goal when they were in League One was £499. Though they do show a better appreciation of fans. When the got promoted last season it meant the £30 max you could charge away fans meant some fans were paying more in the same stand which houses them and dropped prices.
Don't get me wrong I've got a soft spot for them Budgies. They punch well above their weight, like Burnley. And there fans get out week after week. But lets wait until they go through a struggling patch. Then see how many turn out. Potentially, we'll always be a bigger club than them. Bigger fan base. It's not Billy Big Bollocks talk, it's reality. We'll never ever be as big as a lot of other clubs. That's the natural order of things.
As I said in another post the season they got relegated to League 1 their crowds were up on the season before. They then went up again. Can't see many clubs, us included, where that will happen. When I have said in the best they get bigger crowds than us despite Norwich being a smaller city people have said they have more people near them than us which explains it. Can't have it both ways.
Probably wanted to brag about making Mike White chuckle on Radio Humberside with his **** joke about rugby fans being too thick to know what aggregate meant. He’s quite insecure.
