The savvy Colorado sports magnate (I mean, he owns the Nuggets, Rapids, and some of the St. Louis Rams) Enos Stanley Kroenke got his hands on 160 more shares of Arsenal, bringing his total stake to 28.58% and surely preparing for some future ownership battles with the fatty Ulisher Usmanov.
At $8,500 a piece, the shares weren't cheap, but Kroenke is loaded (and being married to a Wal-Mart heiress doesn't hurt either) and is cementing his position in charge at the Emirates.
For Kroenke, he's been on the record in the past about not wanting to hit the 30% ownership threshold that would require him to make a formal offer for the remaining shares, but his quest for control is evident. Usmanov is still very much on the periphery, popping up here and there to offer spending money to the EPL's most frugal club, but with Kroenke still lurking underneath that 30% ceiling, anything is still possible.
Friday, July 10, 2009
More Shares to Kroenke
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Hicks & Gillett Live To Fight Another Day!
Those two cowboys in charge of LFC have managed to lasso themselves a stay of execution from that crippling bank debt, renegotiating a new lending agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland. The other bank that's owed a shit-ton of money, Wachovia, hasn't announced any revised agreements, but you figure that it will follow.
RBS are insisting on significant payments within the next six months, which worries me greatly; after all, how are you gonna do that? Well, you could sell all your best players, for a start. There are enough rumors about Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, two absolutely vital players in the midfield, heading to Spain if they don't get better contracts to stay at Anfield, and it gets me a little scared.
That said, Gillett sold his 80% stake in the Montreal Canadiens, worth some 333 million pounds ($550 million), and you can bet that quite a bit of that cash will go to alleviating the debt.
It's not quite zero hour in Liverpool, but it's close. The morons have shown that they want to keep LFC at the top (ok, second from top) rather than run some bargain-basement EPL franchise with all that money spent on Glen Johnson, a frickin' right-back. Sure, he was a bit pricey for the position, but with the new Champions League regulations trickling down from UEFA, those English teams need to have more homegrown players in their squads and the purchase makes sense. As Rafa says, you can't compete in the EPL without spending some money.
As for the other owner, Tom Hicks has also been looking to sell off chunks of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars, which is great for those poor, mishandled franchises, and should also help show the bank that they have enough cash to keep LFC going.
I'll come down off the ledge, stop hyperventilating and get ready for the extended tenure of Hicks & Gillett at my beloved club. I mean, if they're selling all their other sports franchises and getting the money into LFC to buy players, keep players and maybe win us a title, I think I can forgive them for their wheeling and dealing.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Rafa Benitez stands his ground!
As if the Gerrard incident wasn't enough of a distraction (according to the media, anyway), more clouds are looming at Anfield as Rafa decided this morning to reject his contract extension, presenting a neat prepared statement explaining his decision (unlike his scrappy, scribbled tirade against Fergie last week).
This will be cleared up soon, I hope, but it doesn't change the fact that we could be in for another long standoff between manager and owner, the likes of which finished off Jose Mourinho, a superb manager, at Stamford Bridge.
Let's hear it from Rafa first, shall we?
"The owners feel that the manager's decisions need to be subject to the chief executive but I know that I am subject to results and to our fans and they are the best judges I will ever have. I have a lot of experience in football at different clubs and if you do not have a technical director and you are the manager you have to have control of the football decisions. But always within the confines of a budget which is controlled by the owners and the club.What he's asking for isn't much, but conversely, it's a lot to ask for within the context of the modern-day EPL. He wants more control, something I think he's earned over the course of his time there (contrast his power struggle against the relative ease with which 'Arry Redknapp, the game's flightiest manager in history, grabbed full control of Tottenham Hotspur), and the owners are reluctant to give it out.
In this scenario the manager knows the amount of money he has available to him and can decide how much he should spend on each player according to the needs of the team. The only person who can decide the value of a player to his squad is the manager because he knows what elements are needed to improve the squad.
My relationship with the owners is better than people think. I have regular contact with them and especially with Tom Hicks who has always been very supportive. The talks between my agent and the advisers of the owners have been very positive and friendly and our differences are about my responsibilities."
As American sports owners, the GM/Coach system makes sense to them. It's one they inherited when taking over the club, and it's one they aim to maintain. In that system, they're insulated from shouldering the brunt of the blame, as they can fire the coach and let the GM take the full force of media scrutiny. Shit, it's not like they're in charge of anything at the very top. That's why they hire their GM to do it all for them!
So they're covered on the bad side, and if they are successful, all the praise is shared around, and they seek kudos for their foresight in hiring a wonderful GM who then hired a wonderful manager, something they knew their GM would do, and thus everyone's a winner.
Thank god this system is finally being resisted, although at what cost? Hicks and Gillett remain in charge while we stumble aimlessly with a scorned manager? You'd think that a half-season at the top of the league might grease their wheels a little.
(It's worth pointing out that this system, once used all over Europe, is being dismantled virtually everywhere. Spurs don't do the Director of Football bollocks any more, and big La Liga clubs are realizing it doesn't work also.)
While Lerner and the Glazers let their managers control everything, definitely an honor Ferguson and O'Neill have earned as a result of long and successful careers, Rafa Benitez is once again forced to beg for his supper. They made him beg for Torres, they made him beg time and again for Barry, and now, he has a chance to stand up for himself.
If managers are to be crucified for their failures (see: Keane, Keegan, Ince, Curbishley), then they should be beatified for their successes. Rafa's turned the perennial 4th place team into something different this season, perhaps even a second- or third-placed team, but he's still begging and pleading with the middleman and his overlords like he's a relegation-threatened manager looking for a life raft.
The need for a mandate at a club like Liverpool is essential; you can't be left to manage the club when you're cut off from decision-making at every important junction. The Glazers have the sense to leave SAF to it, as do owners at virtually every other major club, so why are Hicks and Gillett being so different? OH, right, it's because they like to swing their dicks around whenever the mood suits them, just to remind everyone who's really in charge. Meanwhile, they make the transatlantic flight once every 6 weeks to see a game, and are virtually absent the rest of the time.
It's a sad state of affairs, and one that I hope is rectified soon. He's not asking for much. Benitez wants to manage there well into the next decade and try to build the club back up into being a consistent force at the top of the league.
However, he can't do that with one hand tied behind his back while a middleman holds the rope.
[Apparently Hicks is singing the right tune today as well, but there's still a ways to go. I get the feeling Rafa won't sign unless he gets what he's looking for.]
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Friday, September 26, 2008
A new American in the EPL
He's the one on the left. Not so short, then.
From Sports Illustrated online
Texas businessman Ellis Short bought a significant stake in Sunderland, the English Premier League told The Associated Press on Friday.
Short is co-founder of Dallas-based private equity group Lone Star Funds. In August, he acquired more than 30 percent of the consortium that owns the club in northeast England.
I thought Friday afternoons were when you released the bad news. Maybe this is bad news over there. I don't know. What I also don't know is who, exactly, Ellis Short is. Follow after the jump to find out with me.
Geez, Short's wiki is only slightly longer than mine. Not a lot of info there. The SI article mentions that he did not buy the club outright, but instead bought into the above consortium, Drumaville, which bought Sunderland in 2006. Drumaville, to the best of my knowledge, was put together solely to buy Sunderland. Before the new purchase by Ellis, it was a group of nine people, headed by former Black Cat Niall Quinn. There has been no information released as to who sold the 30%+ of shares to Ellis.
So what about Ellis? His money seems to come from Lone Star Funds, a private equity firm based out of Dallas. According to their website, LSF has assets totaling over $13 billion. LSF work all over the world, but not always cleanly. According to the Japanese government, LSF purchased a bank, transferred funds via a shell, and failed to pay taxes on the profit. The government has had no luck in resolving the case. He has also faced problems in South Korea. In 2006, the government sought extradition for Ellis in a case that sounds a lot like the Japanese one.
Beyond that, very little is known publicly about Ellis. He is married, and according to this story, she is a wonderful woman. Ellis also owns a Scottish castle, and is therefore living my dream.
Offhand, he sounds a bit like Mike Ashley before Ashley purchased Newcastle. They both made a shedload of money off of businesses they started, but stayed out of the press for the most part. Seriously, beyond today's stories on Ellis' takeover, there is very little else about him online. Wonder if Ellis will pork up and start showing up everywhere in a Sunderland jersey?
By the way, he knows his castle is in Sutherland, and the club is Sunderland, right?
Another take on this at EPL Talk
Thanks to jjf3 for using the tipline on this one
Read more on "A new American in the EPL"...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Old news: Hicks family and Liverpool are not BFF
Nothing will ever be simple for the Hicks family in Liverpool. They were welcomed with the same cautious enthusiasm that met soldiers in Baghdad square (well, we're led to believe so anyway), and now, they've been exposed as rather insidious and dishonest since then.
Liberators on one hand, now they're the dismal status quo holding us back.
Well, it seems like even a monumental win over Manchester United this weekend STILL couldn't buy them some second-hand goodwill.
Tom Hicks' son, Alex Hicks, thought that a night on the town would be a bit of fun, although a drunk American outside the Cavern Club is going to draw some attention, especially when traveling with a small cadre of minders and bodyguards (Rule #1: no matter how restless and crude the natives appear to be, treat interaction with them as something more relaxed than an anthropological journey).
Back at the hotel, a fight broke out, and his bodyguard punched out a security guard and spent the night in the clink.
From the report:"Witnesses said alcohol and cutlery were hurled out of an upstairs window to the street below. A drunken fracas is believed to have revolved around Alex Hicks and his group of friends."
He was charged with assault and sent on his way, but it is yet more bad press for the already embattled Americans in charge at Anfield. At least Gillett has been seen at some games recently! He even tried to sing along with You'll Never Walk Alone!
Still, it's worth noting that the incident took place at the Hard Day's Night Hotel, the recent downtown development of a Beatles-themed hotel. There's an All You Need Is Love joke in there somewhere...
Friday, August 15, 2008
EPL Previews: Liverpool, aka "Limperpool FC"
You didn't think some non-Scouse was going to write this, did you?
The Liverpool saga this summer has been like every other tidbit of drama I've endured at Anfield since Rafa and the Yanks began their fraught courtship. A protracted mess of he-said, she-said wrangling that always ends up public, and yet it seems like they fight about something new every week. First it was the need for transfer funds, then it was the Klinsmann debacle, then it was funds again, then it was Rafa's job security, then chairman Rick Parry's job security, and now, funds for Gareth Barry.
It is the definition of "soap opera" through and through: a diverse cast of characters constantly bickering and who never retain any knowledge from week-to-week, so much so that you think you're forever watching the same bloody episode.
Sadly, the product on the pitch is just as much a part of the same soap. Flashes of brilliance and melodrama punctuated by long periods of sitting around and waiting for something to happen. My beloved club are in grave danger of becoming the ultimate paper team: one that matches up well with their opponents in theory, yet routinely underwhelms on the pitch.
It's a tough pill to swallow, and every summer, when we bring in one or two big-name players, my excitement levels rises, the teamsheets look formidable, and then, as we witnessed on Wednesday, it doesn't rise to the occasion.
Looking at this year's squad brings the same salivation. Robbie Keane, although a little pricey at 19 million pounds, brings a verve and inventiveness that Torres will surely benefit from up front. Too often, the Spanish whiz was left to his own devices up front, and while he created and scored a lot of goals, having a good wingman can only be a good thing. Right?
Should the pair find their psychic connection, they'll score a lot of goals, and on paper, they're the best strike pairing in the country. (Lest I forget the exciting intangible that is David N'Gog, a young Frenchman who managed to rebuff the charm and smile of Mr. Wenger)
The midfield is unchanged, as the courtship of Aston Villa's prized midfielder has amounted to nothing but tension and bruised pride. Xabi Alonso was shopped everywhere from Wenger's treehouse to the exotic gates of Juventus, and nothing happened there. Mascherano's been enjoying himself at the Olympics (I hear the refs are a little off?), and Gerrard, besides building his new gymnasium, has struggled with a couple of groin strains. I am not concerned, although I might need words with his WAG should the nagging injury persist much longer.
Babel, Benayoun, Lucas and Damien Plessis serve as willing, largely-inexperienced understudies, although in this day and age, the concept of depth is so coveted that I'm glad to have the quality we do.
Contrast this with Arsenal, who essentially become a JV team beyond their best 15 players.
The biggest shifts have come at the back, with a whole slew of new, unknown faces and names: Andrea Dossena joins from Udinese, and if his first match is any evidence, I'm scared shitless to have him patrolling left-back in Aurelio's absense. Riise is gone, although Hyppia is still lingering should Carragher, Agger or Skrtel need a breather. Arbeloa, another concern at right-back, will share some time with Finnan and the free Swiss transfer Phillipp Degen, a guy I've barely seen in LFC Red yet.
Itandje has been mercifully shipped off, and Diego Cavalieri will provide Pepe with a rest every month or so.
On paper (fuck, there I go again), it's a servicable squad, one that's undergone a few major changes from last season, and one that should score goals. By pre-season standards, the results of these tinkerings and experiments were far from promising, and we're lucky to be level on aggregate with Standard Liege heading into the 2nd leg of the CL qualifying round. (The joke is that if we struggled with Standard Liege, imagine how badly we'd fare against Exceptional Liege, or Amazing Liege, or Premium Liege.)
Although it's not good to handicap the team just one match into the competitive fixture list, I see the same tired hang-dog limp that's plagued us in previous Augusts and that's put us out of the EPL title race by Christmas.
Of course, I drink the Kool Aid willingly, and there's still a dim flicker of hope that I'll wake up tomorrow and Gareth Barry will be a Red. His cup-tied status should lower the price a bit, and given the prevailing joke that Hicks and Gillett have to root under couch cushions these days to come up with transfer fees means that we might still have a chance.
I'm not amused at our desperate haggling over a million pounds and the relative worth of Steve Finnan, but hey, if this were a soap, we're just playing the part of the idiot uncle from out-of-town for a while.
I am thirsty for the season, and ravenous at the prospect of my wonderful paper team. We look good in print, but we also have a tendency to fold like a sheet of A4 on occasions when strength is needed most.
This all adds up to more of the same, in my eyes. I will go above and beyond in saying that I think we can push for third, but it'll take a miracle (and the sudden ability to beat the Wigans and Boltons instead of dropping points) to get us much beyond that.
Third place, and a deep CL run for the lads. I think we have a cup in us, so I'll plump for the FA Cup.
Reading back on that, I'm reminded as to why I love this game so much. All the negatives in the world can't stop me from reaching for the stars, or at least the stars that I think Liverpool are vaguely capable of.
In the end, with no EPL games complete yet, my predictions look wild, absurd, and ultimately, really good on paper.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Derby's Eleven
Derby County were a fun distraction in the EPL last season, mainly due to their commitment to futility. 11 points from their 38 games saw them return swiftly to the untelevised comfort of the Colaship, and it saw their manager get fined for a tirade against Phil Dowd, as well as being caught in a sex tape scandal!
And now, they're enjoying some interesting times once again, as their ex-owner is fighting with the newly-installed American Investment Group! Oh, and they've signed 11 new players since the end of the season.
Remarkable times ahead at Pride Park, that's for sure.
It appears that their former chairman, Peter Gadsby, was terminated on Friday. This morning, he made a statement showing his anger at the manner in which he was terminated (perhaps something to do with the persistence he showed in trying to get some investment numbers from the new Yank overlords, and even hinted at possible legal action: Nor was there a single official board meeting at which these crucial matters could be raised, an astounding state of affairs for any company, let alone one facing up to serious challenges in a difficult business climate." His statement continued: From the outset, I expressed my unhappiness that such were being made without corroboration and was told that corrected figures would be forthcoming later, when all possible sources of new investment had been explored." However, the weird turn here is that he also offered to buy back the club from General Sport and Entertainment! Such is my disappointment and sense of frustration about the situation that I now contend that the current owners should either make good their financial commitments to Derby County and provide the supporters with proof that their initial promises have been honoured or give me the opportunity to buy the club back and return it to local ownership more atuned to the needs and expectations of its outstandingly loyal supporters.” Meanwhile, the club has been out spending money like Charles Barkley in Vegas, bringing in eleven (!) new faces recently. A week ago, the club added Polish loaner Przemyslaw Kazmierczak (Don't ask me how to pronounce that) to their haul of faces and names who will all need to get acquainted rather quickly: Considering the talent of some players still with the Rams, like Giles Barnes, it's fair to assume that they'll bounce back up, but who can say? Let's just hope for their sake that the ownership situation gets sorted before it becomes too distracting. You get the impression that it's going to take a lot to keep Gadsby quiet.
First up, the business business."Following my appointment as a non-executive director at the time of the club’s takeover by GS&E in January this year, I repeatedly sought confirmation that public pledges of an investment of £50m – £18m to purchase shares, £22m to clear debts and £10m for new signings – were being honoured... Right up to the moment I discovered that my position had been terminated, no answers were forthcoming.
Not particularly inspiring, is it?“On several occasions after the takeover, Adam Pearson [Rams’ chairman of football] maintained publicly that the club would go forward “free of debt” as the result of the investment of “substantial new monies” and it was announced that a takeover worth £50m included £10m for new signings.
So we're looking at possible grounds for unfair dismissal, or some deviation from that if Gadsby himself could only provide evidence that proves what he's saying. “I sincerely hope that, in making my doubts about an unhappy situation public, I may help to exert pressure on the owners to produce a full and precisely detailed account of the terms of their takeover, of the amount of new monies invested, the current financial position and the identity of the investors, as well as future financial intentions.
A rather bizarre game of He-Said, She-Said, isn't it?
- former Plymouth Argyle defender Paul Connolly
- midfielder Paul Green (from Doncaster Rovers)
- Watford left-back Jordan Stewart
- winger Kris Commons (from Nottingham Forest)
- Watford striker Nathan Ellington (loan)
- Ex-Sheffield United striker Rob "f*cking useless" Hulse
- Striker Steve Davies from Tranmere Rovers
- Midfielder Ruben Zadkovich from Sydney FC
- Ex-West Brom defender Martin Albrechtsen
- Striker Liam Dickinson from Stockport County
It's a lot of new faces, and almost enough for a brand-new starting XI! (and they just got turned down by a possible 12th signing, Welsh international midfielder John Oster)
Friday, April 18, 2008
Tom Hicks is a giant, gaping c*nt
At this point, even as a die-hard LFC supporter, I'm extremely fucking tired with the boardroom drama. All the stories and tension are just flat-out boring. I've seen episodes of Degrassi Junior High with more excitement and emotion than this one. Well, not "seen" episodes, more like heard of. Yeah, a friend told me about them. I'll go with that.
However, if there's one way to fire me right back up, it's to threaten to take our Torres away.
From the Times [I'm crying as I cut-and-paste this]:
I mean, for fuck's sake. What will happen next? Anfield was built on a Roman burial ground?
"The Times has learnt that Liverpool borrowed the money to sign Torres, the Spain forward who has scored 30 goals this season and has already become a firm favourite on the Kop, from Atlético Madrid last summer. The club then refinanced that debt on January 25, at the same time as they secured a £350 million refinancing package.Liverpool entered into an 18-month loan agreement with interest of 9 per cent — £2.8 million a year — with a letter of credit to pay back the £31.5 million at the end of the period.
Should Liverpool be unable to pay back or refinance the loan, banks could force the sale of Torres and Babel, who was also included in the smaller refinancing package.
It is unusual for Barclays Premier League clubs to buy players in this way. Deals are normally funded using television income. Liverpool have to pay £30 million a year in interest payments on the £350 million loan, the terms of which end in July 2009. There was no official comment from the club last night."
I mean honestly. Our best striker since the young Michael Owen, and we might lose him because Hicks had to fucking borrow money to pay for him??????!?!?!? How much money did that cunt invest in the first place? Oh, that's right. He borrowed almost all of it. While the MLB is an entirely different beast, Bud "Inept" Selig is on to something when he puts prospective owners through a series of rigorous tests and checks before letting the existing owners vote and decide as to whether to approve the sale. By contrast, the EPL [suck it, Barclays] is a lawless frontier town by comparison, with conglomerate, Russian oil merchants and feckless idiots lining up for miles around to get them a juicy piece of the global soccer pie. Hicks is one of these feckless idiots. If I find out he took out a mortgage or something on our stadium to fund his son's Ivy League college bills, I swear to fucking Christ, I'm gonna gut the bastard.* And so, Tom Hicks, I will close this delightful post with a soft message to you, the architect of so many of our recent troubles [scratch that, ALL of our recent troubles]:
All sensationalism aside, this is absolutely fucking unacceptable. If ever we needed further proof of the cowboy wheelin' and dealin' ways of our obese Texan overlord, here it is! He swans into Anfield 18 months ago, wide-faced and bright-eyed, promising us the world with his talk. And now, in-between stories of him trying to push his detractors out of the giant, life-sized pram he lives in, we get revelations like this.
Tom, if you're out there, please, fuck the fuck off. Go back to Houston and diddle yourself with ballpark franks. Please stop running a much-beloved team into the ground because your own insecurity dictates that you have to act like a petulant 14-year-old. Buy Noggin. Buy some shares in Google. Whatever you choose to do with your money, I don't care. Construct a scale model of an aircraft using lunch meat. Buy the Harlem Globetrotters. Go out and get the world's most expensive handjob. I don't care. Just stop ruining something I really, really, really, really, really care about.
* Not really. Please don't come looking for me, FBI. This is tongue-in-cheek. I'm not threatening anyone's life.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Hicks and Gillett start packing quietly
A quiet drink in a Liverpool pub over the weekend turned sour for Tom Hicks Jnr, and now, it's looking like the sour taste is spilling over into the boardroom.
The news this morning is that the ownership team of Hicks and Gillett is going to grant the Dubai International Capital [DIC] permission to examine the club's accounts, the first step towards making an official takeover bid.
Oops.
This isn't going to be good.
The Americans' reign in the EPL has not been very calm, with several highly-publicized fights in the media with Rafa Benitez, as well the uproar over their shaky financial standing and loan re-financing. It's been rough, but they did manage to bring world-class striker Fernando Torres to town, along with some other unpolished gems, and yet, it's time to sell up. At this point, it's so hard to know what's prompted all of this. They pledged just four weeks ago that they were committed to the long-term prosperity and heart of the club, and now they're suddenly eager to maximize their profits after 12 months in charge. Gillett will apparently be the first to sell up, although he's been more and more of a ghost over the winter, having little to do with the club and leaving his son to do most of his heavy lifting. Hicks, meanwhile, has been vocal and outspoken at every turn, and it's highly likely that the incident over the weekend was the straw that broke the camel's back. He knows they're not wanted, but it will be some time before we, the fans, realize that DIC is no bed of roses either. Of course, the Yanks know how to stretch a dollar, and the likelihood is that they're going to over-value the club in order to bleed more from DIC. The initial takeover in 2007 was valued at 218.9 million pounds, but Hicks & Gillett now put the club's worth in excess of 400 million. They do need to get their 350 million pound loan swallowed back up, but considering the way they went about funding their purchase, that seems a little cheeky to me. DIC will likely be relucant to meet that estimate considering that it's not a guarantee that LFC will make the Champions League next season, but as a life-long fan, I have to trust in that happening. This is a fascinating time to be a Liverpool fan, or a fan of soccer in general. This is the first time we as a club have dealt with these issues, and the sudden shift of power in both management and ownership will surely affect the product on the pitch. Fact of the matter is, this is football now. This is what we have to accept. Clubs are becoming less tied to their localities and more tied to their mythical brands and their long reach over the rest of the world. Identity converted into commerce, history translated into future profits. Wrapping up fourth place [or even third, ha] in the league, and a long run in the Champions League would certainly remove a lot of this bitter taste. But whatever happens in the boardroom, I have to trust that the club won't fall too far from its grace.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Point: Accept your new American overlords
These two aren't the problem at Anfield(photo credit: The Sun)
A bit of digging, though, reveals the comparison to be facile. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona enjoy certain structural advantages, notably their duopoly at the top of La Liga and the ability to negotiate separate TV deals. The clubs are also figureheads for the big rift in Spanish politics, which means they enjoy heavy political support and have at various times received subsidized loans from friendly banks. Liverpool, on the other hand, play in the most unabashedly competitive and capitalist league in Europe, and must compete with the financial resources of Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester United. What happens to the supporter owned team if they miss the Champions League and the fans are forced to make a further capital contribution to pay wages and buy players absent the extra TV and gate revenue? Would a fan owned team be able to make unpopular business decisions, like raise ticket prices, so that Liverpool could keep up with the Big Three? The real issue here is not foreign ownership, and it’s not the fact that Hicks and Gillett have used debt to finance their takeover. You don’t see many Chelsea fans complain that their club is owned by a shady Russian billionaire. Up north, the Glazers are far more guilty on both counts, especially since the original 374 million pound loan to fund the takeover of Man U in 2005 was refinanced the following year into a 575 million pound loan. Where the newly borrowed 200 million pounds went is anyone’s guess, although I would bet a fair bit found its way into Malcolm’s trousers. Plus, the debt is manageable, given that they don’t cancel the Premiership due to a recession, which means revenue is pretty stable. With the new TV deals and increased worldwide exposure, now is a critical moment for a big club to make savvy business decisions and build its global fanbase. Whether it’s good for the long term health of the EPL or not, the actions taken this decade by the big clubs have served to cement their places at the top, and put a widening gulf to the rest of the league. If you are a fan of a big club, now is not the time for provincial thinking. Chelsea and Man U fans don’t complain because their teams have won the league the last three years. The real issue with Liverpool is not foreign ownership, no matter how tone-deaf and bumbling Hicks and Gillett have been. The problem is that the club isn’t winning. And the blame for that rests on the shoulders of Mr. Benitez, not the Yanks. Chelsea fans also backed Jose over their foreign owner, but once the switch was made and winning resumed at Stamford Bridge, they forgot all about their tiff with Roman. Hicks and Gillett have been generous with the transfer funds; Torres and Babel did not come cheap. It’s not their fault that Rafa either a) can’t buy the right players or b) won’t put his best players on the pitch every time out. A managerial change and a few wins would do wonders to soothe the vitriol directed at the Americans.
A counterpoint from Lingering Bursitis to follow in the morning. He's lazy and unreliable, much like Harry Kewell.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Spurs thank their lucky stars
A fairly innocuous Associated Press puff piece on Hank Steinbrenner this weekend yielded very little in the way of things worth reading, except for a small paragraph or two tossed in towards the end.
Hank, 50, the de facto boss of the Yankees, played soccer at Central Methodist and coached for a while at Ocala Vanguard High, and revealed to the AP that they would love to purchase a soccer team.
From the article: He went on to say that he'd still be interested in Spurs or, incredibly, Notts Forest, if the price was right. All joking aside, the Steinbrenners are fairly good businessmen, despite the cash cow spending of the Yanks in recent years. They couldn't care less about another American franchise in any of the major sports, but soccer is the apple of their eye from here on out. Malcolm Glazer's purchase of the Red Devils has opened the floodgates for serious American and foreign investment, and I suppose now that fat Hank is on the trail, the lid's truly blown off the EPL as a place to store some money. Just imagine.... Spurs under Yankee ownership. Fuck. They'd be worse than Man U, QPR, Chelsea and Liverpool combined. At least Ronaldinho would know that once he begins his sharp decline in talent, Tottenham would buy him for 40 million pounds.In the early 1990s, the Yankees were approached to buy a 33 percent interest in England's Tottenham Hotspur for about $32 million. New York passed, a decision Hank regrets.
Fuuuuuuuck me. To think that Spurs, the team of Mabbutt, Gazza and Lineker could have been slowly pulled under the clean-shaven, short-back-and-sides regime of the Yankees... imagine how different that club would be now.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Rams welcome businessmen with the worst website ever
GSE is here! GSE is here!
As we so-very-briefly reported on over the weekend, Derby has joined the ranks of the Yank-owned, their fate now in the hands of General Sports and Entertainment Group.
They're a company shrouded in mystery, one that's seemingly snuck in overnight with foreign, anonymous investors and a cast of former-NBA executives to join current chairman Adam Pearson on the boad of directors.
So what does it all mean?
As Mihir Bose pointed out in his BBC blog yesterday, doing a bit of business like this is a smart, sweet move. It's a purchase for £50 million, about 20 of which goes to the existing directors, 15 covers the 30-year mortgage on Pride Park, and 8 to cover the existing debt. Factoring in roughly £10 million for players and acquisitions, and the club's looking firm again [especially when you consider the exorbitant price tag on so many other clubs in the EPL, like my Liverpool]. GSE went for Derby because they're the first "global brand" they could get their hands on. We can get to that claim in a minute, but the sweetness for GSE lies in the mighty parachute payment doled out by the EPL to relegated clubs [payments in the amount of £6.5 million over the club's first two seasons in lower leagues, although a figure that's set to rise to £11.2 million per year for clubs relegated in 2007–2008]. So, whether Derby fulfill their prophecy of slumping back down to the Coca-Cola wastelands, they'll still make a nice payday and stand the best chance of springing right back up. Bose also points out the planning permission to develop the area around Pride Park, which will surely net them some increased revenue in a developing area. But this is all information best found elsewhere. I'm more concerned with the dog-and-pony show that is GSE. Who the hell are the General Sports and Entertainment Group? Well, cursory review brings us to their website, which is an absolute fucking mess. Branding is so important in this day and age, and GSE's online presence is terrible. Like, absolutely terrible. Their "About Us" page gifts us with this gem: Try to navigate their site with the sound turned up, and every page you click on yields a terrible .wav soundbite of a whistle being blown, someone yelling "PLAY BALLLL!", a golf club being swung, or a crowd cheering. It's amazing stuff, straight out of the web 1.0 range when you factor in the mess of generic clip art that also festoons the site. Ragging on the web site is one thing, but I'm still confused as to what they do. They name things, host events, consult on stuff and place executives in jobs. In addition, their team ownership record is questionable, at least according to their own website copy: from 1999 to 2006, they owned the Fort Wayne Wizards, a single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. Sure, they turned that team's finances and organization around during that time [so their website proudly proclaims], but this is the EPL we're talking about now. From Fort Wayne to Derby? I don't see it just yet. GSE chairman, Andy Appleby, has gleefully spent his first couple of days in charge trumpeting all the ways they differ from the likes of Hicks and Gillett, two egotistical businessmen that admittedly have much stronger portfolios and track records than Appleby himself. Jewell's happy to have them, and happy for the assurances that his job won't be shopped around behind his back. That's more than I or Benitez can say, that's for sure. All I can say is that GSE looks rank amateur, if their online presence is to be believed. One can only hope Derby doesn't feel the burn in the long run."General Sports and Entertainment is a multi-faceted sports and entertainment firm with a national reputation for excellence. General Sports was founded with the notion that the most effective way to build a successful business is through developing strong, sound relationships. We are convinced that there is no better way to build strong relationships than through the power of sports and entertainment."
If that isn't a lot of words saying absolutely nothing, I don't know what is.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Because it has worked so well for Liverpool
That's it, it's officially a trend. Derby County is set to announce new American owners on Monday, if Sky Sports is to be believed. I'm undecided as to which is the better joke, so I'll let you decide:
A) Just wait until they find out the team is in the Championship next season.
B) Just wait until they find out they are not allowed to move the franchise to the States.
C) Just wait until they find out there are no more US players available, because Fulham already signed them all.
D) (fill in the blank in the comments)
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Fuck shit fuck
Look kids, a smiling douchebag!
[Photo Credit: Liverpool Echo]
Fellow Scousers, our nightmare is about to come true.
Hicks & Gillett are close to securing their 350 million pound loan refinancing, which will keep them firmly where they are in the owners' box for the foreseeable future.
The Yank wheeler-dealers borrowed 185 million pounds for the purchase of Liverpool last February, which was augmented by another 113 million from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Somehow, despite Monday's stock market issues, they've managed to assure both RBS and Wachovia that a 350 million pound refinanced loan is a smart idea. How did they do it? By upping their personal guarantees from 30 to 55 million, and in doing so, breaking the hearts of fans and players alike. I'm sick of these two. Dubai is still in the picture, but they're adamant that they won't give a huge profit to the Duo if any buyout was agreed upon. The refinanced loan does keep stadium plans on the table, but it remains to be seen what will happen with the squad and with Rafa Benitez. Gerrard spoke out the other day about the distraction, and now with this new loan deal, there's seemingly no end in sight. The Guardian blog has a couple of good articles about this mess, each of which dives into the numbers and percentages points better than I certainly could. The one thing I do know is that the continued ownership of Hicks & Gillett is bad for the club. The longer they're there, the bleaker things might get, as it won't take much in an already-unstable financial market for the bottoms to collapse out of their heady gambling.
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Fuck. This takes the sheen off last night's Goon shellacking. I'll still find a way to enjoy it later though.
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