True Bucks. Oddly enough that pic was taken about five years ago, long before the Leeds arabs arrived. Little did I know then what significance that bloody camel might have
McCormack himself confirms in an interview in today's Daily Mail it was the Italians blocking transfers out. They said McCormack was not for sale at any price.
Cellino close to selling Cagliari: http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/02/06/report-cellino-announces-cagliari-sale-by-late-night-sms/
Billy, has Haigh offered you his publicity machine to post that rah-rah speech? Booting out Bates & cronies - was always going to happen as part of the TO deal, apart from Bates' Presidency, which they curtailed at first opportunity. Why praise him for doing something that anyone would have done - oh, & btw, it saved money too! Yorkshire Radio - Again, anyone in their right mind would close down a loss-making Bates propoganda unit. Not rocket science. £3.5m loan - Oh come on - he's making a fortune on this loan. 7% !! I can only get 1.6% on the High street. He's making money out of Leeds. 0% loan & your point would have been valid. McCormack's contract - Can you imagine the furore if he DIDN'T give Rossco the new contract? Was he going to let our biggest asset run down his contract? He did no more than I would expect for a man in his position. Doing the job he's supposed to do is hardly worth trumpeting about. Rejecting McCormack bids - If you're talking about the early season bids, they were miserly and were always going to be turned down. The most recent one was stopped due to the TO. End of. No Haigh glory in any of this either. Leeds Ladies - Personally, I would have preferred his money to go into the 1st team. How many of us would claim to support LL? Why did he do this? I have no earthly ide, but would not rule out self benefit. He's not that rich that he can give £1m away. If he was indeed that rich, he could buy the club himself! The remaining items in your glowing appraisal of Haigh - sorry, mate, but it would be dereliction of duty if he didn't do these things. It's his job. He's no Bates. My biggest complaint about him & GFH has always been his (and GFH's) poor communications skills. We all know about him toying with our emotions on Twitter & generally letting us down all the time due to adolescently 'playful' tweet. He's got an important job to do & fcuking up our minds is not in the job description. There's also the small matter of the Fans Forum that was heralded almost a year ago, where he was going to take questions from the floor, but had to cancel at short notice for a funeral in South America. Well, after a year, I would imagine that he should have got over the funeral. I've still got my ticket & am desperate to use it. So are all the other ticket holders. Sadly, Tory Boy doesn't seem to be as keen to attend as we all do. Bite your tongue Billy. You can't defend the indefensible. No matter what his intentions might have been, the bloody results speak for themselves.
Whilst every negative comment is cause for concern, and I agree with probably most of what has been written, and thus if we actually had alternative viable options (which I don't believe we have), then I'd be wanting that alternative option in, I would say that Cellino has one massive plus point in his favour, and its not so much that he appears to be a wealthy individual (although that will help with what I consider to be the positive point), but despite all his volatility, evidence would show that he is in a project for the long term. 20 years plus at the Italian side, would suggest that he probably likes the prestige of owning a football club, and thus you would have to think that should he take over ourselves, then his commitment would also be long term. Rumours about his popularity appear to be divided between love and hate with the Cagliari fans, so its difficult to make a judgement call on how well he would eventually go down with ourselves, although at present recent events would suggest he hasnt been shown in a good light, unfortunately for us, neither our present owners nor the Flowers/Haigh consortium are coming out of this smelling like a bed of roses. I can't say much about about the other consortium, but their recent statement doesnt inspire me with confidence, as what they have said we have heard all before. Many have also mentioned that Cellino hasnt actually funded Cagliari himself but done it through a positive influx of transfers monies, and obviously see that as a concern, especially given how we were run whilst under Bates. Now forgetting all the other associated costs with running a football, and if we just deal with the buying of selling players, I don't have an issue with having to sell our better players if it enables us to improve our team, what Cellino's wealth would bring, is the ability to hold on for the best possible offer. Under Bates I'm sure Ross would have been a been a Boro player back in August, and we wouldnt have seen any of the sale proceeds. I'm hesitantly grateful that GFH stuck to their guns and kept our best player at this moment in time, although they appear to have had to scurry around, with their hands down the backs of sofa's to be able to fund that, and that is not a sustainable way to run a football club. Cellino's wealth at least would allow him to negotiate from a more beneficial position, and if say Ross had been sold for £8 million, and then only £6 million was utilised to fund further purchases, then I don't have an issue that the other £2 million has been kept back for some other reason. Now I will hold my hands up and say that their is no evidence that the other two consortiums wouldnt be in a position to do the same, but we have little to no evidence of this, and from press releases, social media rumours etc. I have my doubts Other than some mega rich investor who has more money than sense that he wishes to throw into a football club, I'd be more than happy with a new owner, being able to say that they could afford to run the club or at least cover shortfalls for a period of time say 5 or 10 years, and a transfer kitty of a couple of million pounds per year (on the basis that we don't get into the premiership that is). Unfortunately it would appear our current owners are unable to do this, and they way the two local consortiums are running around trying to obtain funds to purchase the club, I'd have my doubts about their long term funding, and no other ideal investor in the picture, as much as I rather not say this, Cellino is the guy for me.
Billy, if you read my post when everything has settled down, and compare it to your own, I'm sure you'll realise that my post is a more reflective & realistic statement of fact than your publicity splurge that might have been written by Tory Boy himself (actually, more like his PR people, 'cos we know what happens when he gets let loose on Twitter without a PR check!). I also think you'll find that I am no more bitter & twisted then usual.
A great club shouldnt be settling for the best of a bad bunch, so I can understand the haters. But it is what it is and for that reason Cellino in. Loiner would be on a rampage if he was still about
Billy totally agree with what you say there, however the issue with Haigh, as Bucks rightly points out, from a communication point of view the guys is a walking nightmare. I don't want to hear little hints here and there on social media, that are somehow made to get us the fans excited without actually telling us anything, especially when those little hints start to expand, and yet don't come to fruition. I don't want comments like " good news to follow" or smiley faces posted on twitter, especially during transfer windows, I'd be more than happy to wait for official announcements on the club website for that news. I don't want to hear about hints of takeovers and funding following said takeover, to find out that it then doesnt happen. The reason for the failed takeover is totally inconsequential, and if he had stayed quiet, until the deal was agreed (or in actual case not agreed) and then made an official press release, then again I wouldnt have an issue. He comes across to me (and I'm not aiming this at anyone on here in particular) as one of those people who come on forums like this feeds you the smallest bit of info, refuses to expand on that information for confidential reasons, and then we find that what had been posted was totally incorrect. There are a number of posters on here, that post information they have from a "source", some of those have a fairly high degree of accuracy, others unfortunately don't, and if Haigh was a forum poster, I wouldnt be putting him in the high degree of accuracy category. As much as I, like most people on here detest Bates, he and his team at least knew how to conduct themselves regarding the release of official information about the club, and thus at that time, we probably did rely a lot upon those posters with "a source", where as now we dont need to as I'm sure if we were relaying the turf at Elland Road, Haigh would be on twitter telling us he had just been to B&Q and bought lots of grass seed, only for us to then find out later that it was the wrong grass seed, and the pitch would therefore be a total mess, or else not altered from the previous year.
Billy (& Aski, since you state you fully agree with Billy's post), Please re-read post #66. You made a series of statements which I have briefly rebutted, but you have not backed up your statements by taking my comments apart. I suspect that you are not able to, and your refusal to address my comments suggests that you're all talk & no substance - i.e. you've been blowing Haigh's trumpet, but cannot justify it when faced by a realistic perspective.
LiE has just posted that McCormack himself said it was Cellino blocking his move, have you nothing to say about that and WJ makes very valid points. I would have preferred the £1m going towards a new player, I don't care about the women's team. 7% interest and the loan is just that, a loan, it isn't pumping any money in. Many of us have already said getting shot of Bates and a loss making Radio station were blatantly obvious, not sure why you feel his remarks are bitter.
Whitejock I am not disputing your post in reply in response to Billy's initial post. Billy said Haigh had done a certain number of things (now as you say this is what you would expect, or on one or two matters disagree with), and I totally agreed that Haigh had done exactly what Billy said he had done. On those exact issues, as you pointed out, you expect anyone in his right mind to make the majority of those decisions (I accept that the loan issue is different, and a minimal interest rate, with no set date of repayment would have been viewed in a more positive manner). I can also understand your point about the ladies football team, however given the level of supposed debt that GFH have run up, would that additional £1 million that Haigh "invested" in the ladies team, have made much of a difference. Possibly it could have funded a transfer in, or more likely it would just be used to cover running costs, so our debt would be £1 million lower, in comparison to a feel good factor within the community, with a so called "publicity stunt". I have no where stated that I like Haigh or want Haigh involved in the club, in fact I would like to think that after the first line of my post, the additional 15 lines I posted afterwards would give a more truer reflection on my feelings towards Haigh. All I did is agree that Haigh had done the majority of things that Billy says he has done, you confirmed that you would have expected him to do those things, so in that respect he has met your expectations in those matters. Unfortunately, you, like myself probably expected a lot more, and so far we have heard more words than actions, so he has not exactly exceeded those expectations. I'm guessing from the rebuttal comment, that is more aimed at Billy than myself, as I don't disagree with what you have said. I agree that he has done the things Billy has said, on the majority of those issues, I agree with yourself that I would have expected him to do those things, with the one or two slight exceptions mentioned above, but I am not going to nit pick over the semantics, but I would have like to think that rather than blowing Haigh's trumpet ( again I presume this is actually aimed at Billy, but just in case I wanted to clarify), the substance of my post, would quite clearly demonstrate I don't want Haigh involved with the club.
