I've got a colleague who is from the Valencia area and asked him if anyone in his family might know someone who supports Granada. I was met with a negative.
Interesting use of words in the official statement. "transfer of ownership" and statement from the directors of the football club, suggests to me that it has been taken away from Baz rather than what he would like us to think, that it was all his decision.
From the perspective of the Trust: http://watfordsupporterstrust.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/note-on-possible-probable-takeover/
I must admit, yesterday i was tentatively excited about all this, but today i have very firm reservations. After knowing more..or at least, hearing more on the grapevine, re Dyche, the staff, the youth from Italy...i'm worried, as we all are, that Watford will lose the Hart (if you'll pardon the mild attempt of humour) of the club. As has been said, we can only sit back and watch, and hope that after spending so long negotiating and observing, they have gained some understanding of what that heart is, and how important it is to us, the fans.
The trusts statement has of course been overtaken by events, but I listened to the chairman giving an interview with 3CR this evening and he did not inspire me in any way what so ever. Despite them having a minor voice in some of the committees within the club, they have no clout at all. It is about time that every football club board in the country was obliged to have fans representatives involved with proper voting rights. Those representatives should be answerable to those that have put them there, which in turn would encourage decent supporters trusts with mass membership.
i agree, though they seem to know what's going on, they can't seem to get their voices heard, or even listened to that often. i hesitate to ask 'what's the point'...but... Your idea would be a great one!
But H, may point out what happened with Baadiff I don't think they will be pumping in 100's of millions but it will be their train set as such!! I do feel for SD and his tenure may be coming to an end if the Pozzo's want their man at the helm of the goodship Watford FC!!
I looked at NZ's link to Grenada and out of a squad of 26 there were 6 players on loan from Udineze. I, too, am worried where in the pecking order we would be. I would think, assuming Mr Pozzo is Italian, that we would not be number one. That said we must question why does he want to buy WFC but at this stage any guesses would be pure speculation. This applies to both players and any money which may be received from player sales, which would be very easy to move to and from clubs in the same stable, and could be to our advantage or disadvantage depending on which way the wind is blowing. What would happen to the pecking order if for example, we are a top half team which one year makes the play offs and then wins promotion to the premier league, because any team has an almost equal chance in the play offs. Would the vast increase in revenue and the qudos of owning a premiership team have any effect on the pecking order. And I for one would like to see SD remain as manager and see what he can do on a proper pitch. So far I think he has done better than both Rogers and McKay ( I find it difficult to type those last two words ! )
There have been a few comments around suggesting that Baz has left us in a better condition than he found us in. Yes the team has done better and the pitch has been started, but what we don't know is at what cost. Are there skeletons in the cupboard with a stack of unpaid bills to keep them company? Until we know the answer to that, if we ever will, it seems a little premature to heap lots of praise on him.
I'm hoping with the guardian type setup of the bondholders which placed severe restrictions on the use of cash from player sales that there will not be too ,any skeletons to find. You can be sure anybody pumping in a few million plus taking on clubs liabilities will do a thorough dig and will not come in if they don't think it makes footballing business sense so I'm hoping the Pozzos use their full acumen and move us forward. I would think the vision is a europe wide stable of clubs able to benefit from each other. Our academy is probably something they want to learn from and duplicate. Imagine the attraction for the young players of spending a year or two abroad with continuing education eg. Brits to Italy, Italians to the tropical paradise that is watford, I can see this pulling more talent into the mix and offering an extension and improvement to the existing academy principle. Really hope they don't try and fix things that aren't broken...
I was surprised to read the comments in the Observer. What has LB ever done to these people apart from buying "their" football club, and aparently setting it on a course for stability, rogered their wives and girlfriends, if they have them or pet hamsters if they don't. While one may or may not agree with everything LB has done the personal level of the attacks is quite breath taking and even worse should you actually disagree with one of these intellectual giants. I worry about any take over; what inspires the new owner to make his (or her) move, why would a group of business men or a family from one nation wish to acquire a football team in another, with the big clubs I can see a profit motive but at our level? When Elton John appeared what were the older members of our community thinking, or when George Petchey arrive or any of the others?
I have been catching up with my mail and find a comment from someone who has been very reliable in the past about behind the scenes events. The comment was that due to the obscure way of setting up the banking arrangements at the club, not even the person in charge of finances knows what the state of the club is. This will now have to be sorted, but the suggestion was that no one knows at this time if there is enough money to pay for the pitch.
