No, you are being a daft sod bringing up the fact our owner is friends with a democratically elected leader. You are the one having a mare. Whatever Acun does right or wrong is nothing to do with who he is pally with. I don’t think Erdogan is advising him on how to run our club so why do you keep mentioning it?
It's a good point. People have been claiming that Acun has lot interest pretty much since he got here. Whenever we're on a bad run or there's a lack of information, that void is always filled by ITK claims that he's about to sell up and he's got bored of us. Then when he speaks he always emphatically denies that and it goes away for a few more months. To some extent it feels like he's been profiled a certain way from day one. Maybe because he's Turkish and because he's got a bit of a goofy reputation in Turkey which he seems to enjoy and play on, he's sort of pigeonholed as "crazy foreign owner" without much thought, particularly outside of Hull. He doesn't help himself with his football decisions, but I think that comes from being too much of a football fanatic if anything, and not accepting that that doesn't make him an expert, rather than being absent, aloof and not understanding football or its fans, like the other football club owners he's pigeon holed alongside. The talk of us spending crazy amounts last season still persists even though the accounts for that season came out months ago and showed in black and white that our wage bill and player amortisation costs were upper mid table and no more. So there is at times a very real gap between the provable facts and the narrative around his running of the club. Obviously he is going to leave the club one day and when that happens people can claim they were right all along. But I think it's clear that they've actually been wrong every time so far.
I mention it because it speaks to the kind of man he is. He’s not some benevolent guy who has made a few naive mistakes. He’s a media mogul in a country that has severely-limited freedom of expression under an authoritarian leader that he happens to be friends with.
A democratically elected leader. More freedom of expression allowed than in the countries of some other clubs owners. There are less restriction on people than other Muslim countries.Turks will know about authoritarian leaders if some of those opposing get in. Lambo doesn’t seem to find dealing with Turkey a problem. Presumably you wouldn’t have liked that mate of Putin’s, an authoritarian leader, Abramovich doing for us what he did for Chelsea? I could have lived with it.
He'd of gone last summer if he had found a buyer. When that didn't happen he was hardly going to come out and say " sorry guys my gamble didn't pay off, I've lost interest as my focus has shifted and I now want to put my time elsewhere" he's a PR man and he knows how quickly the fan base would turn it he did that and also how it would look full stop on his ownership and the club. You don't have to believe it, you can think it's made up and just doom mongering etc, it really doesn't effect me in anyway shape or form, as I've said before, I just post what I see/hear/get told as I'm a fan and I'd want to know. It may be the same this summer, he may not get the buyer ( it'll be a damn sight harder if we go down ). But from everything I've seen and heard the want and desire to sell is even bigger then last summer. So what will be will be.
I don't know how friendly he actually is with Erdogan so I can't really comment. If he's best mates then no, I wouldn't be happy with that at all. From what I've seen Acun is friendly toward him, but I couldn't tell you how well they know each other. And it does sound counterintuitive to a football club, but I'd rather we were poor and had a good owner than be rich with an unethical one.
Is going to be interesting to see what transpires. Either way some people be left with egg on their face. I am genuinely worried about the immediate future. I can see some of the younger fans experiencing what us oldies did in the 1970s and 1980s, all the local media dominated by the rugby league clubs, they will be delighted, as City in the lower divisions in front of dwindling crowds and the only mention in the local media of City negative and condescending ones. They will understand why some of us oldies have the attitudes we have.
