Takeover update

Thanks Cerny. I too will back this up. A friend of my Dad's went down to Loftus road last week and tried to get in to take some pictures or something. Apparently the place was full of Limo's and Rolls Royces etc. He asked what what happening and one of the staff said something along the lines of "I shouldnt say, but the Arabs are in town. They are meeting upstairs so you cant come in today".

Does anyone who lives near the ground got any other info? The above could be wrong but not sure why my Dad would lie and it backs up Cerny's claim something is definitely going on.

 

Great to hear from an old 606er again, i pray this rumour becomes fact very soon especially as i tell everyone and would probably be put in the stocks with rotten fruit hurled at me if it doesnt

 

I see my name cropping up again!!!!

Anyhoo....I have a friend who says that he KNOWS CernyBerny, and that what he says is true....

However, this is the same friend that done me last summer! Welcome CB....Fingers crossed, eh???

 

I am however surprised that the press havent got wind of this yet!

 

Interesting, QPRSAM. And encouraging - so long as your Dad isn't Mango's mate who did him last summer...!

 

Maybe the club have a super-injuction about the takeover that they borrowed from giggs so we will all be sued for talking about it

 

are you including eamon in WE ARE ALL

 

Not sure I believe this, there would be tweets or whatever theyre called or some news reports over the weekend, and I can't see any.

I think this is just us all collectively hoping that a deal will go through.

Its still early doors but I reckon the Board have told NW that the current core of the squad is good enough and that to buy we need to sell first or cut the wage bill. TBF I can see why they would think the likes of Kenny / Hill / One Size / Derry / Connolly / Faurlin / Buz / Adel / Hulse / Hell-gusson etc etc shouldn't (ON PAPER) be more than enough to hold their own in the Prem.

Don't underestimate NW turning this around into a siege mentality situation.

 

All Eamon bascially said was, what's to say our next set of owners are going to be any different from the previous set? A fair comment - considering we all sang about how great Bernie and Flavio were a few years ago.

Well, all of us except number8buser bless him - but thats another story...

 

Yes I include everyone every qpr fan wants them out including eamon.

 

Did he say the arabs were in town to meet the 2 cowboys Briatore & Ecclestone.

 

Thanks for some positive news Cerny. I have alway thought that the Mittal clan would not give up hope after only one bid, it's not in their blood, so I hope it develops as you suggest. IF it does, that would be as big an achievement as reaching the Premiership.

 

It is so nice to be included!

 

Your welcome lol

 

Did we all sing about Bernie and Falvio? Come on! Most of us recognise that they saved our club from potential oblivion and were ( and ARE) grateful for that. However, both of them had well-established form for being both dictatorial and greedy. For me, they were always out to line their own pockets and their public statements on the "QPR project" were clear on that score.

However, to me, the Mittals have demonstrated a genuine affection for the club and are genuinely sympathetic to the average supporter (Bhatia watching from the stands, resigning in protest). Sure, the Mittals have said they won't throw money at the club and have been as good as their word but I appreciate their sensible, business-like approach. This has attempted to establish a sustainable business model and a club which achieves sustainable success. To paint the Mittals with the same brush as the goons is beyond cynical, it is perverse.

 

Very well put Rod. Excellent summary imho.

 

well' eamon...do you want the goons out

 

I would much rather someone else was in charge. However ... I have strong reservations about Mittal (especially as I think that Bhatia "played" the fans and then they started playing games by making a low offer that they knew would not be accepted - but that's another story.)

So why are the Arabs involved? It looks more likely that both Ecclestone AND Mittal will sell out, and that maybe the reason for the speculation about Warnock not being around at the beginning of the season. I think Ecclestone and his personal glove puppet, Briatore, would give NW a start at least (although I could see him being sacked after a short run of defeats.) It could be that NW is ready to walk if Ecclestone stays and don't provide what Neil thinks is adequate for survival (at least).

Surely Mittal can afford to buy the club without help from the Middle East. How big a stake might our Arab friends have and who would control the club? That is why I think that Mittal might be on his bike as well.

We have seen too many other clubs come a cropper when some of these people get involved. Man City are one of the few exceptions and QPR are not a big enough club (size of stadium, worldwide reputation, etc) to generate a large revenue stream compared with quite a few other clubs. (YET!) So millions extra would have to be put in just to keep the club afloat.

Much as I hate to say it, whoever takes control really needs to look at a new stadium with a capacity of at least 30-35,000. That itself is a risk as without success on the pitch and a prolonged period in the premiership then we could easily see a drop out of the top flight and a complete loss of atmosphere with 12,000 kicking around the stadium and lots of empty seats.

Whoever is in charge has to make the decision. "Invest" the bare minimum (which in effect means bankrolling the club, covering the club's losses, money down the drain) or gambling and building the club up with an enormous injection of cash for players and facilities (which if things don't go right would mean far greater losses for the owners).

Ecclestone doesn't like option 2. He is too old, doesn't want to tie his money up. (Hence buying homes for his daughters to make sure that the taxman gets as little as possible when he drops off his perch.) He openly says that he is a Chelsea supporter, but I have no problem with that. Most of the players probably "support" other clubs and some might even prefer to play for those teams, but you don't need to be a diehard fan to own or play for a club. In some ways it is better not to be as emotional as a diehard fan. Ashley at Newcastle has shown what a pigs ear a fan can make of things.

Ecclestone wants to get out to minimise his losses. Sure, he might make a profit selling now, but the club are in a far better position than when he bought in and the longer he stays the more money he puts in and that profit can soon turn into a loss. Someone else needs to come in to develop the potential. Ecclestone doesn't want to do that, it's too long term.

Mittal falls between the two options. I don't think that he has the desire to go for the big money push, just some of the more cosmetic things like providing NW with a larger transfer kitty, but this too is dangerous and could lose him a lot of money. He certainly won't want to do that.

So the answer to your question is YES, I want to see a change of ownership, but I am concerned that Mittal is not the right person - with or without the Arabs. It also concerns me that too many people are jumping on the "Mittal is our savior" and the "poison dwarf" type bandwagons and not looking at the bigger picture. At the moment it seems there are some who will pick up on any stupid, made-up story in the press just so they can throw abuse at the current board. I know that it is a national pastime, shouting "sack the board", but when that is all one concentrates on one can get tunnel vision and not see the dangers that any replacement might bring.

 

^^^^^^^^

A very well written post from Eamon...

Have some rep for that

 

Eamon - I like your piece and agree with your points , so to suimmarise who do you want to run the club? I know ideally we want a young wealthy QPR supporter but that does'nt seem to be an option at present.