The club would be stupid not to give Rafa funds

thats the worry for me.
Ashley... leopard.... spots.

 

This and especially the highlighted part. The club hasn't been as sale-able as it is currently is since he took over. If he does want out now is the time but knowing Ashley he'll take the current positivity as a sign he should hold out and try and win something (qualify for the CL)

 

Fat Mikey ain't going nowhere.

 

If we're not sold before this Summer, I doubt we ever will be. With Ashley, I'd fear we'll use Barnes to further streamline the operation for sale. Asset stripping quite common in corporate-land, so investing not high on the agenda. The trouble with this is that the absolute opposite applies in football-land. Will Ashley have learned a lesson? Let me just go get some ice skates from Satan's Snow 'n' Ski, then I'll tell you

Then it'll probably be a slow and steady slide back to the Championship - we'll get one more year of Rafa, start to pull in investment on training facility, scouting and youth development, he'll then bugger off having kept us up again, Ashley will now be more panicked about asset stripping and start to pay his own loan off. Appoint Mark Hughes, then be playing at Roker Park by 2022.

 

I agree he'll do everything he can to do the best for himself and the club will benefit as a by product.

My only worry is we end up with chancers trying to low ball him and it dragging on over the window affecting our ability to trade. I'd love to think he would put restrictions in place to prevent that happening but business doesn't really work like that.

 

My main hope is that he doesn't spot the leopard

 

Someone’s having a bad day...

 

What’s the chances of a chancer negotiating with chancers.

Why should negotiating a sale mean he doesn’t run the business as normal. Contracts in sales of businesses usually stipulate that the seller promises to continue running the business as normal. Oh, hang on, he doesn’t trade unless he’s backed into a corner anyway so he would be running the business like normal by not buying players.

 

He’s a billionaire not a chancer.

Back in the real world everyone battens down the hatches when they’re selling.

 

I think we could get 10-15m for Gayle and around the same for Mitrovic. For a championship side looking to get promoted, both of these players are worth at least 10m, but we'll likely push for at least 12-15m. 20goals + in CC strikers.

We could get easily 25-30 mil for those strikers. I'd keep Perez as a useful squad player.

Sell Murphy and cut out losses, get at least 7-8m from a CC side. Also look to trade in Atsu because he's really not PL quality. 4-5m.

Get Dubravka, Kenedy in. We need 2 strikers. Perhaps take a chance of Slimani as a back up if he proves himself in the last 5 games, and then buy a good striker. If we can get these 4 players in I'd be happy with that.

We could do with another CB, maybe a covering fullback and also an upgrade on Atsu. But I'd be happy with 2 strikers (30m), Kenedy (15m) and Dubravka.(?)

That would be realistic IMO.

That's about 50-60m business. If we're not willing to spend that, despite selling players, then it's down to the CC we go.

 

I think we were offered £15m for Gayle last summer. Mitrovic isn't a Championship player and would go for more than Gayle IMHO. I'd keep Murphy as I think he's looked good at times when he's played. Definite potential there. Atsu I think is too hit and miss to take us forward but could do a job as reserve to Kenedy or another LW signing, at least for the coming season as we build season on season. For me, I think we need to upgrade first team and reserve options at RB, CM, LB, CF and ACM/#10. Those would be the areas for me assuming we sign Dubravka and Kenedy.

 

Thing is though cash in the bank is an asset, purchased players are an asset which increase the value of the club. The loans are a liability which decrease the value. Doesn’t matter how you play around with those numbers - they all go towards the calculation of the value of the club. However it makes sense for him to keep the cash in the bank rather than buy players as its less risky.
The worst case scenario is exactly what we have - him wanting out but wanting to extract maximum value. It leaves us in this twilight zone where he will carry on doing the minimum required to retain the club value.
He has absolutely no desire to take us to the next level and I suspect he couldnt give a toss whether the new buyer can. He just wants the most he can get and will be gone.

 

I don’t know why you think the best he can do for himself will be a benefit for the club.

To me the best investor in the club is one who wants to really improve training facilities, the academy etc and invest in the playing staff and so will try and get the club at a lower price to offset some of that expenditure What we dont want is a hedge fund that is willing to pay a bit more upfront because they dont have big investment plans.

 

Quite simple really. he gets what he wants which is out, and the looney fans get what they want, new owners. Many seem to believe they can do no worse than Ashley. They are sadly mistaken.

 

Most of us know that we can get far worse than Ashley. The present example on Wearside is clear as a bell.

But Ashley appears to be soley interested in a hard business model, which obviously has vital needs and objectives - profits. He's very good in business. And I thank him for it. I don't subscribe to the media rubbish that we were close to bankruptcy when he waddled into town. But we were making heavy losses for sure, and things needed to change.

Because he's not interested in achieving anything in the game for our club, besides being in the Premiership, most fans have a level of confidence in him which is probably destined never to get higher than the bottom rung.

I doubt there's a dream ticket of a wealthy buyer with truckloads of cash to compete with Man City, but most fans would like an owner whose interested in the game, isn't going to cream the profits, and who can intelligently assemble a team who can run the the club.

It might be a lot of boxes to tick there, but we need hope. Ashley doesn't give much of that.

 

I'd love to know the figures. It's ok to owe the fat one £129m, but heaven forbid if we want a £30m overdraft from Barclays to pay for a striker? Doesn't make any sense at all, would love the Mike Happy Clapper (not plural) to explain that one.

We only owe the money because the fat idiot contributed to our relegation through a model where sponsorship is free, borrowing (from reputable sources, it's apparently ok to owe Mike) is forbidden and ambition is null and void.

All we need from an owner is someone who will maximise the sponsorship and commercial opportunities, employ a credible executive team to support Benitez and reinvest some of the newly-generated commercial income into the back office. It really cannot be that hard. For me it just about comes down to the fact fatty won't pay his share nor seek growth anywhere. If we really put ourselves out there off the back of players like Dubravka into emerging markets, replaced SD logos with Adidas or any other high paying sponsor. we could very easily grow as a club year on year.

Under Ashley disaster is just around the corner, because in football terms he's a complete moron.

 

I find it odd you regard them as mutually exclusive categories

 

Depends on your definition of chancer.

Mike I see as a chancer in the essence of he is a guy who would exploit weakness in a situation for his own benefit. Those guys certainly are not exclusive from billionaires. Mike targets businesses in far weaker positions than we were in - though there were weaknesses. Either that or he targets businesses like ourselves who can help him achieve certain goals.

Staveley and co seemed like your chancer who simply don't appear to have the money they purport to, and lowball you with a poor offer which has little chance of success. Billionaires are probably fewer in circulation with that type. Though I concede every dog has its day.

All I hope is they don't waste our time again in the summer. I can't see how they come back to the table. With our value having now gone up and some of the weaknesses they were hoping to exploit gone, I can see a situation where they come back and try to meet his asking price from the winter rather than the new asking price. Unless of course they genuinely do have the money and were just pissing about in the winter.

 

1. Says who? Who is to say their offer wasn't right and Ashley has over valued the Club? Yes, he can dictate the price as Seller but you don't just pay what is being asked if you believe the price is OTT.

2. Says who? The only variations are:
a. We won't be relegated. Ashley hadn't reduced his price to reflect that anyway so no change there on price.
b. Sky TV contract has actually reduced slightly in value. This would reduce the sale price and not increase it.

We've been over these previously. You need to pay attention in class and sit at the front where you can hear what is being said.

 

Of course MA won't give Rafa funds - why would he be buying players for Arsenal?