I know I know its more rumours. But these seem to be very strong. But word is that the takeover is pretty much complete and it will be announced either today or Monday. Think everyone knows by now it's Middle Eastern. Hope we can get it announced today and crack on with 4/5 quality signings,contacts sorted and look forward to next season feeling confident
Are you just trying to tease me, I now am starting to get quite excited for the first REAL time about this
I'm trying to keep contained until an official announcement but it's hard to not be happy when thinking of a Leeds United with Neil Warnock and money to spend on good players
Any Leeds fan who missed the last two months through being on the moon or spending time in a jungle, would be astonished to arrive back next week and switch on his pc to all this news. Mind boggling
Rumours mean nothing... Wait until the July and see what is announced. It might be good news or it could end up another ploy by Bates.
said like a true leeds fan I'm getting excited but I'm having to keep it in check until it's all official
I'll say it again... In which ****ing world could this possibly be a Bates ploy? I like a bit of healthy caution but this is a bit extreme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/13274550 Don't forget we got a new owner like this last year as well.....
Except that was absolutely completely different. I'm sorry but Bates could not fool everyone involved with Leeds United into thinking he is a Middle Eastern consortium. What did he turn up in a fake sheik outfit and negotiate with himself?
I hate to tell you all chaps, but our new owners are a firm of solicitors, which in part explains the delay & issues over DD. Company name is Grabbit, Didabunk & Run!!!
Really hope it's not from the Middle East. Tedious comparisons with Man City. Lack of understanding of English fans. Possible overspending and indulgence in mercenary players. Leeds fans dressing up in 'hilarious' Arab outfits all the time, and constant **** camel jokes. Tendency towards foreign players and staff. Possible short-termism. Rather just have a local businessman or a shrewd Yank myself, as long as they have the means to reinvest our profits into transfers and support Elland Road/Thorp Arch/The Academy with some of their own money.
But what about the way Man City have invested in their own youth development? Yanks are only really interested in getting out what they can from the club, ring any bells?
Your want a shrewd Yank Jerel. Way too much information!!! Just thinking if we did get a Middle Eastern gentleman as our new owner, would all the Beeston babes have to parade round in Bhurkas????
The Yanks at Liverpool, scum and Villa look to have put more into those clubs than they've taken out, although there has been some naivety/ignorance on their part, and you'd want us to have a far more sensible wage structure. Fair point about Man City's owners investing in youth, although even in the rich Arab stakes, they are phenomenally minted mofos. I would dearly like to see us build/extend facilities to rival theirs though, a real hate of mine is seeing kids on pitches all over Leeds wearing their ****y blue training tops as they get drilled by talent-thieving Manc slapheads. I'd rather see a Leeds fan/sympathizer pulling the strings though. If it is indeed Duncan Revie fronting the Arab money, that's not all bad. I dunno, maybe it's just me being a cockend, but I hate fans at other clubs doing the sycophantic Malaysia flag-waving (Cardiff), teatowel fancy-dress (Man City), and well, Leicester's OTT exuberance last season doesn't even need clarifying!
Would improve how many of them look to be fair. is better than Another point re Arab owners: they tend to have a lingering odour of self-importance and using the club as their personal toy. We're already used to being used as a vehicle for owners/Chairmen with Ridsdale and Bates using us as an ego platform, and under Arabs things off the pitch would be similar. Plenty of navel-gazing, links with 'back home', stadium sponsorship, marketing of Arab companies, Batesesque 'savior' status. Something more low-key suits me. An encouraging sign is how well-kept the secrets of the negotiations have been - at least half of these football club bidders are made public before the papers are signed and sealed, and it rarely seems to undermine things. So I'm glad to see they're not in it for the attention so far.
Is Leeds United Ken Bates to sell....? He gets confused you know..... Remember: For six years, between 2005 and 2011, with Ken Bates the chairman throughout, nobody in football knew who owned Leeds United, one of football's biggest and most famed clubs {BBC October 2011}. The Astor Riddle: The mystery over Leeds United's owners raises a question, over the most controversial aspect of the club's 2007 insolvency. Bates, as the chairman, and Forward Sports Fund were supported in buying the club back from the administrators by another offshore company, Astor Investment Holdings. Astor was prepared to write off £18m it was owed, as long as Bates and Forward remained in charge, an offer not made to any other bidders, and so crucial to Bates retaining control. The administrators said then they were satisfied there was no connection between Astor and Forward, or Bates, which would have required a separate vote, without Astor, to be taken. Mark Taylor clarified then that there had previously been an ownership connection, but it had been severed when Astor sold Forward to Bates and Patrick Murrin. Now it has been revealed that Forward never was sold to Bates nor Murrin. Asked how, in fact, the connection between Astor and Forward was severed, Taylor did not respond. {Guardian September 2009} Ken Bates Claims To Own FSF (The Holding Company) 2009 in January Ken Bates told the Royal Court of Jersey that he himself jointly owned the club's holding company, the Cayman Islands-registered Forward Sports Fund, with his long-term financial advisor, the Guernsey accountant Patrick Murrin. Wait a minute - Ken remembered he did not own it: Although Ken Bates claimed to the Royal Court of Jersey that he jointly owned Forward Sports Fund, the company that owned Leeds. However, it later emerged that the two “management shares” did not entail ownership of Forward, and Bates had not held either of them anyway (Murrin had one, and Peter Boatman, a Geneva-based administrator, had the other). Forward was actually owned by the holders of 10,000 shares in it. But no one knew who owned these 10,000 shares?? Bates corrected this statement later in the year, calling it an “error.” It is unclear how Bates, an experienced businessman, came to believe he was the part-owner of a business worth several million pounds, when he apparently has no interest in it. [GUARDIAN, 2009] 2011 - Ken buys 72% of Leeds from ??? for £??? As my earlier link shows. Football Governance - Culture, Media and Sport Committee Report 188. We were also concerned as to why, until very recently, the Football League appeared content to allow a club—Leeds United—to play in its competition without the Football League or the FA or Leeds United fans knowing who owned the club. We invited Ken Bates, Chairman of Leeds United, to give evidence but he said he was unable to attend through illness. His Chief Executive, Shaun Harvey, told us that Leeds United was owned by discretionary trusts, but that neither he nor, to his knowledge, Ken Bates, knew who they were. Leeds United subsequently announced that Ken Bates had bought the club from the discretionary trusts for an undisclosed fee. This announcement, however, raised further governance concerns, as it was not at all clear why the trusts should sell a financially-sound, upwardly-mobile club without at least seeking alternative bids to find the best price. The manner of the sale raises concerns, which cannot be substantiated or disproven given the lack of transparency, that Ken Bates, who took the club into administration, was a participant in the discretionary trusts who took the club out of administration. 189. Despite the lack of transparency with regard to Leeds United, the Football League affirmed that they had some quite good rules in place http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmcumeds/792/79208.htm Summary: I know its old news but you have to remember that we have had more owners than managers since Ken Bates became the Chairman, lets not get too carried away until Bates & Harvey have actually gone and its not more smoke & mirrors..
