According to press reports (so take with a pinch of salt) Harry McGuire is set to become the worlds most expensive defender this week with a £80m move to Man City, having rejected overtures from Man Utd. That'll put another £9.45m into the Allams coffers!
And to think Steve Bruce hardly played him. I would love to see him at Man City. He's miles better than John Stones !
Hopefully not, they did say player sales etc will help reduce the asking price of the club. It's why for me they'll still be here for another couple of seasons. It'll take a while to sell enough players to bring the cost right down to where it's an attractive deal.
No one really knows how this will affect the sale of Hull City other than Assem (I doubt even Ehab does). If he's true to his word, the sales of Maguire, Bowen, Grosicki and Henriksen will see the club up for sale at £20m or so this summer, which should be sellable. But the Allams have so infrequently been true to their word it's really not worth getting your hopes up. "They just don't know how to sell a football club," I was told by someone who's had dealings with them. I suspect it's because they don't really want to sell it. Great for Harry though. He's worth nowhere near that much, but he seems like a good guy and it's great that we played a part in his development.
please log in to view this image you can't say stuff like that with Chazz about - his head's so far up Brucies arse you can hardly see where Chazz ends and Brucie starts
& play a such a blinder in his development that he now commands a world record transfer fee, for a defender.
I don't know. That's the thing with the Allams. No one knows anything with regards to their intentions. While I wouldn't consider myself 'in the know' on current events at the club, I have over the past few years spoken to a number of former employees at the club and one or two who are still there. I've also spoken to various friends of the family. No one has a ****ing clue what their intentions are. I know that Ehab enjoys a lot of the trappings of being a football club owner. A handful of his friends have told me that. But the big decisions are still essentially made by Assem, from what I understand. I think there's an element of vindictiveness to it - but that's just my gut feeling based around the information given. No one has said that to me outright. There is no single event that can happen that will get me excited about them leaving other than me seeing our new owner in the chairman's office on the front page of the HDM. I look for signals regarding their exit as much as the next City fan, but I know that anything I cling on to is, essentially, utterly meaningless. That's my rather bleak assessment, I'm afraid.
That is a pretty fair assessment Richard, I have spoken to a few people who know the family quite well, and they also don't have any idea of what goes on in their heads. My personal feeling is that there is vindictiveness in their actions and that now, as long as it is not costing Allamhouse money they will just carry on. This in its self means that we are likely to be flirting with relegation, because of the lack of investment.
As I mentioned in another thread, I think they do notionally want to sell. But as Rich says, they simply don't know how to. They have no idea when to stop pushing, they have no real exit plan beyond putting a £50m figure in the YP and see whether the phone rings. I firmly believe that they have stumbled around for years, after their core plan of taking over the KC Stadium foundered. The name change was founded on nothing but anger, and it is anger and disdain that has motivated them ever since. It's not as though Ehab doesn't have some capability as a business administrator, I'm sure he does have a day to day grip on the running of the club. But when it comes to strategy and planning for the future, they are utterly hopeless.
I think they have an idea that they can run the club according to the income and just about balance the books and then turn up a jem every now and again like Robertson, Maguire, or Bowen, they'll be quids in.
In the absence of a buyer willing to give them stupid money for the club, I'm sure that is their thinking. It could mean we are stuck with them for years yet.
But in the mean time they absolutely destroy a club's fan base and are hated for the most part throughout the city? They can earn their money other ways, they do in fact. But for my own sanity i need to believe they'll **** off once they clear the debt and hopefully thats very soon.
For what he lacks in pace, he makes up for in brawn and ability to read the game. Not many get around him never mind passed.