He went bankrupt??? First I've heard of it..... Very well said! As you say, some are still holding onto the past, and even the positive things that he does or say they try and put a negative slant on it! i think he deserves his chance and everything he says he is trying to do for the club sounds positive! I;d certainly ratehr be a Hornet than a Ranger (or a Hatter) at the moment
I've had an open mind about the new owner since he took over, but for some reason, this is all ringing a few alarm bells. Perhaps there's a bit of "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is" in my mind. What we're getting today is that Mr. B is committed to the club and has the financial clout to be able to do so, that we could have work on the new stand started by this time next year, and that there are funds to bring in 5 more permanent signings and some loanees too. Added to the retention of existing board members, abandonment of mad plans to install his gran as CEO (or something) and the backing of the women's team... it just sounds to me like someone's trying to be a perfect chairman, and making pledges that can't be kept. I really do hope I'm wrong, of course.
Well, he does seem clever with words......... The debt down to 8m? Yes - the first 1m payment of the bonds was due immediatly that he gained complete control - as per the original offer document. Invested 10m already? No - clearly that would be seen litteraly - but committed 10m (ring fenced) to the ground & the team? Yes, that's feasable. Had offers? This I can't see at all. Maybe others were waiting around for a cheap deal and missed the boat? Even so, they wouldn't offer 10m over & above the debt. Which one of us wouldn't have tried to buy him out of his deal when it first became public if we had the money? All of us would have had a go after what we first heard of him. To be far he continues to come across quite well but we will know more by September and then 14 months from now. Those 2 target dates will tell us if he is full of it or whether there is any substance to what he says.
Finally the PR people have earnt a couple of quid!! The point I take is that he is "an equity investor". As such and this has always been my belief he will build the capital of the club ie. its worth which means eliminating the debt and increasing the asset value. What his timescale on this is I would guess 8 years at which point he may opt to sell the club and pocket a massive profit if he plays it right. Of course he'd be stupid to pay himself a salary, its his club after all and so would be paying himself a revenue and HMRC a massive amount of unnecessary income. Still waiting for the new season to let the football do the talking but at this point I wouldnt ask for more and am very happy we're not a Cardiff or the like taking on more debt.
As ever a well reasoned point made Aberdeen , Agreed, tis good to see things moving in the right direction!
Conspiracy theories? This is hardly JFK. A man comes along and buys a football club (of which he is not a fan). All we know about him is that he used to run a strip club and has previously been declared bankrupt. He then claims to have invested £10m in the club (source of funding unknown) and further claims to have rejected offers which would have seen him make in excess of £10m profit. The previous owner, a well-connected billionaire, struggled to find an appropriate buyer for years. Those are the facts. I am not trying to put a spin on them and, genuinely, I have no agenda where Bazzini is concerned. Like the rest of you, surely, I want to believe in him and hope that he is building a successful, sustainable operation. But I am amazed that many of you feel that the facts, as stated, don't give rise to some obvious questions.
Thing that intrigues me is the so called offers for 10 and 15M , If true why didnt these bidders come forward earlier and bought the club for a lot less! If true why didnt he pocket a decent profit! Theres a hell a of a lot about this we still dont know, gonna be interesting times ahead as things unfold!
Of course there are questions but you need to look for the most likely scenario, outstanding questions where did the money come from? We're not entitled to the answer on that one. Ten million into club, easily visible is 4 million (3.5 working capital plus 500K shares), 1 million first payment, 2.5 million second payment so theres another 2 or 3 million gone in somewhere possibly as a working capital float for the start of the season. Lord Ashcroft whilst being a billionaire was not phoning his mates looking for a buyer. It was his organisation and yes I find it strange that we didn't have a bunch of suitors looking to buy the club and even stranger that the sale was made at such a discount, why weas that? I don't know but it would indicate some secondary personal deal on the outside of the main purchase eg. a personal profit share e.g. between Israeli and Belize bank accounts but we're not going to uncover that one. The detailed business plan would be nice to know but I believe theres enough credibility in a win win scenario of rebuild the capital within the club (invest in fixed assets and player trade profitably whilst bringing in additional revenue streams and increasing both turnover and profitability). Its thye best way for Mr B to maximise his return on investment and also gives us a club to be proud of.
Look - I am sorry to pour cold water onto your laps but unless you have a finanical background it is easy to be misled by people "talking" I do not mean to be rude to anyone here and am not suggesting anyone does not understand - however there are skills in life and some people have spent years studying, working in and understanding finance. Others get a life Baz says a couple of things that we want to hear and suddenly he is a great bloke and is doing a good job. Sorry it does not work like that. For what it is worth I spent five years as the Finance Director of an Investment Company and across those years I had hundreds - literally - of people coming and asking for us to make an investment in their "idea". Very, very few were able to fly. But almost all were set out by glib tongued wannabees who would try to sell ice to Eskimos. There is no conspiracy theory and I am sorry if some of you are tired about hearing that Baz has failed numerous times in business ventures and is a ex-bankrupt - he did not pay off his debts to get released from bankruptcy. The idea that such a man has now invested over £10m of his own money in the club is laughable - he will be including the £6m that "he" has earned from recent sales if that figure is to be arrived at - but whoever bought the club would have got that and could claim to have invested it if they did not take it out. Talk is cheap and as Aberdeen says - his PR team have finally got him saying the right things - but talk does not build football clubs. lot of very decent honest people have lost money to fraudsters who sound plausible and who spin a good web of deceit. I remain on the fence. He has done nothing wrong since he took over and may do a great job - who knows - but he has never done a great job in the past and has not got any track record to speak of. For those of you tired of hearing he is a bankrupt try telling us some positive "facts" about his business past.
I'll start talking negatively about him when he has done something negative towards the club!! Yes it is all 'talk', but if he has no intentions of doing what he has said, then he will be made to look very stupid later on when all this doesn't materialise. He hasn't needed to come out and say everything he has... and from what he has said, there has been a lot done, and a lot in the pipeline I doubt many of us actually believe he has invested this £10m, but that he has reinvested most of it, through player sales etc - but at least it is going to the right places, rather than half a million salaries for the Chairman and Chief Exec At the moment it is just promises - time will tell if they are seen through or just hot air - but if he doesn't do them, then there will be a severe backlash....
Leo i understand what you are saying but i think these interviews have shown Bassini as different to the person he was being painted as by the doom merchants a couple of months ago. While talk can cover some of these things he has said some that are facts. £450,000 on a new PA system, 300,000 on a new big screen, employing people to look after the pitch, getting more money out of Saracens this year that we have previously so that it virtually pays for getting a new pitch for which we have already paid the deposit. These are things that have actually happened and not things like you say are opinions he can put a spin on. That is more than some thought he would do for us. I think it is time people gave him some room to breathe so he can build 'his Watfird'. He might turn out not to be quite the moron some doom and gloom merchants would have us believe.
Fair play Kev and as I said I am still on the fence. My only point was that some people this morning have been using Baz's words as proof that he is a good guy and everything will be all right - all my argument is is that words count for nothing - it is actions that count. In my book so far his actions have been more positive than negative but in total those actions are few as yet. We simply need to remember that he has previously misled a lot of people with companies that failed so we need to at least bear that in mind. There is an old saying about leopards not changing their spots.
I for one hope he turns out to be the best thing for Watford since sliced bread. At the moment though I would not yet lend him a brass farthing. Anyone can spend money - was three quarters of a million on a PA system and big screens what we needed as a priority over a left back?
No worries Leo, i do get your points. I am still relativiely on the fence but am moving towards thinking he is a good thing for the club! I am still a 'wait and see' if he follows these through, but certainly want to give him every chance to do what he says he wants to, rather then twist everything he says or does into a negative - not aimed at you, but some others have! All the off the field stuff is great, but we know we need players. He has indentified (assuming after discussions with the management team) that we need 5 more permanent players, and even the positions needed, including left back. Now it's all about giving Sean and Ross the resources to convince the players Watford is the place for them!
Leo - a left back is a priority over all of those things. But if he has given money to Wilson and Dyche to find a left back (he isn't going to get involved himself until an LB has been identified) why should that stop him spending other money on ground improvements in the mean time?
In the article that states he wants 7 players he states a left back as one of those. It is not like the ground improvements have come instead of signing important players. I think it is unfair to say because he has made ground improvements he doesn't care about the players. He can look after the ground and make immediate changes. Unless he wants to interfere with the team he will leave the identifying of a good left back to Wilson and Dyche, so if you are unhappy the ground has been worked on before a left back has signed then tell Wilson & Dyche to get a shift on.
