Football dinosaur Ken Bates may be 82 later this year, but the fevered speculation doing the rounds among the top brass of the Football League is that Bates is interested in buying Championship club Charlton. Bates is still a board member at Leeds United but will resign as chairman on June 30 to begin a three-year term as president, having sold the club to Dubai-based finance house GFH Capital last December. The composition of Charltonâs ownership has never been entirely clear, with reports property development tycoon Ken Cash helps bankroll the regime headed by City financier Michael Slater. One Charlton shareholder is Tony Jiminez, who had a controversial spell running Newcastle player recruitment with Dennis Wise â a close ally of Bates. Source: The Daily Mail (so hopefully true to form, a load of BS)
One thing I don't understand about this. I understand buying a football club is a huge gamble. Nine times out of ten you will lose a lot of money. But since Charlton were bought surely the club has done everything its new owners could possibly have envisaged? No one could have expected more than to get promoted in their first full season, then come within three points of the play-offs in their second? Yet they still want to sell, having lost a lot of money in the meanwhile? So why buy in the first place?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22541130 anyone else notice that we got more fans than palace, and nearly double that of millwall?
I guess it depends how they forecasted it. They might have anticipated us getting a consistent 20-22k people through the turnstiles for every home game - which we didn't do. I'm still not sure whether TJ is willing to sell. I think he wants to bring a money man in with the intention of reaching the promise land. But I have no evidence to back that up, just typing out loud.
I guess it depends how they forecasted it. They might have anticipated us getting a consistent 20-22k people through the turnstiles for every home game - which we didn't do. I'm still not sure whether TJ is willing to sell. I think he wants to bring a money man in with the intention of reaching the promise land. But I have no evidence to back that up, just typing out loud.
I think it was sold to Cash as a project to get to the Premiership.Get rid of Parky,get new Manager in?Get rid of the chaff and turn the squad around,get promoted-check.Dont spend in the second year as we have supposedly bought a Championship squad and finish halfway-check and better than halfway.Third year spend some more money and get promoted to the Premiership?Sell out to a large bidder as a Premiership club and trouser a large profit.The trouble is we are losing 7 to 8 million pounds a year.If we don't get promoted to the promised land the owners are sitting on a tidy loss.That is where a new owner or investor comes in.My only wish is that it is not Captain Birds eye.
But these are all people with knowledge of English football, not naive billionaires from the Third World. Why on earth would they anticipate that? We would need to be battling for automatic promotion from the start of the season to have any chance of those gates, and that was always unlikely given we have spent very little money (nett). CP has said all along that consolidation (which really means "staying up") was his goal. While very sensible, that is not going to get thousands more pouring through the turnstiles.
I guess they might look at our attendences when previously in the Championship which were often in excess of 20k. A feel good factor season in League One and hope to attract more fans back than they did. We didn't really sell many more season tickets if memory serves me right. But again, this is just one theory, but I know things like this will have been forecasted.
Maybe they looked at the fact that for several years we managed to run at a healthy profit, and build a new stadium out of the aforementioned profit. By a strange coincidence when Curbs left us this happy state of affairs came to an end, and now it seems we just have to accept that it is impossible to run at a profit.
In those few years players salaries have gone through the roof. It is impossible for anyone outside the Premiership to run at a profit, and very few inside it. The bubble will burst eventually and the new regulations will help, but it won't happen immediately. Even Curbs couldn't manage it these days, which may be one reason he hasn't hurried back into management.
There are still lessons to be learned from this era. The change from profit to nose-dive happened suddenly after all.
I am in two minds about this and I am assuming the story is true. As with all takeovers it's important to get prospective. Ken bates is possibly senile, well he certainly was twenty years ago, and that could be a good thing, or bad. Ken bates can be called master, and that amuses me to have a chairman that follows my passion so vigorously. Ken won't take no rubbish from the militant wings of cafc and will have them beaten up by large men in leather jackets. That would be worth watching some of the dandelion warriors that want to run this club being given a hard but long overdue punch. Ken looks like that chap from birds eye and I like fish fingers.
Its been well reported about how old ken is. He has made millions out of chelsea and Leeds, maybe he wants to invest it in one last shot at the premier league before he pops his clogs? On a serious note isn't Richard Murrey still a director and a major creditor? I can't see him being happy with uncle ken showing up on the seen?
I have a soft spot for Ken. He speaks his mind, does not take rubbish from pansies and was a good friend to cafc when we needed cash quick.
I have always suspected you were Ken Bates. There cannot be two people like you in England's green and pleasant land, surely?
