[ENG] Premiership 2010/2011 (30 Viewers)

Enron

Tickle Me
Moderator
Oct 11, 2005
75,662
:agree:

Any club who deals with Madrid can demand what they want because they will mostly get it. I don't think Kaka is the man for you though. You would be better asking for 40 million then sign two top players at 20 million each.

I still stand by what I said. Even without money Sven would do well.
I wouldn't really want Kaka. But yeah, the sky's the limit.
 

Fred

Senior Member
Oct 2, 2003
41,113
If Cesc wants to go and you can get around 50 million. I think Arsenal should take the money. If Cesc does not want to stay how will he perform next season?
Thats true, but they are messing around and do not want to pay us a fair price, if they do give us a fair price, we should take it and look to life after him.
 

Nicholas

MIRKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jan 30, 2008
38,737
Thats true, but they are messing around and do not want to pay us a fair price, if they do give us a fair price, we should take it and look to life after him.
Indeed. Thankfully I'm glad Arsenal are not persuaded by the weak properganda Barcelona put out. Arsenal should be stubborn about the affair until the deal is right for Arsenal. Cesc comes in last to the situation by how unproffessional he has acted.
 

Nicholas

MIRKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jan 30, 2008
38,737
Revealed: The Glazer family's staggering £1.1billion debt that will stun Manchester United fans
By John Sweeney and Andrew Head
Last updated at 12:01 AM on 7th June 2010

The Glazer family's ability to keep control of Manchester United is in doubt again after it emerged the American owners are struggling with debts of £1.1billion.

The revelations, to be made by BBC's Panorama programme on Tuesday night, expose £400million of previously unknown debt and cast more uncertainty over how much money manager Sir Alex Ferguson will be given to strengthen his squad this summer.

The programme Man Utd - Into the Red centres on the Glazers' ailing shopping-mall empire, run by their company First Allied Corporation, and is based on the findings of City analyst Andy Green, a United supporter who has joined the anti-Glazer green and gold campaign.

Green said: 'The Glazers have called the US property market appallingly badly. They borrowed more money at inflated valuations right at the top of the cycle.

'These are people who tell us not to worry about Manchester United debt because they are great businessmen. In their core business in the US they got it absolutely wrong.'

Green found the Glazers owe almost £400m on mortgages on 63 of their 64 shopping malls. Many were taken out with Lehman Brothers before the company went bust, triggering the global recession in 2008.

Green's findings also show that many of the malls fail to generate enough income to cover the mortgage, and he claims the Glazers have been so badly caught out by the collapse in US commercial property values that some of their properties are in negative equity.

The banks are so worried about the loans that 28 of First Allied's shopping centres have been put on a 'watch list', and Green discovered that four have gone bust in the last two years.

On one property alone owned by First Allied -Crosswoods Commons in Columbus, Ohio - the Glazers have negative equity of more than £1.4m after the receiver who took control of the site in February admitted he was struggling to find a buyer in the recession and expects to sell for less than £1m.

Green said: 'Around a quarter of them cannot pay the interest on their mortgages already. Another quarter are coming off interest-free deals and, when those interest-free deals end, those shopping centres won't be able to pay their mortgages either.

'So the whole thing adds up to a real cash-flow problem for the Glazer family.'

As well as showing their present financial difficulties in America, the investigation also raises a question mark about the Glazers' takeover of United in 2005.

The family borrowed £500m to buy the club and paid the remaining £272m in cash, but Green has discovered that they remortgaged 25 of their shopping centres in the six months before the takeover.

He said: 'One has to ask: was the cash they put into Manchester United just debt, but from somewhere else?'

The Glazers' leveraged buy-out of United has since plunged the club £700m into the red. Combined with the £70m the family owe against their NFL team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, news of First Allied's £400m debt pushes the total past the £1bn mark.

The key issue hanging over the Glazers, say Panorama, is how they continue to service their debts. With some of United's payment in kind (PIK) loans soon to be charged at a toxic 16.25 per cent, it questions whether the Glazers can stay in control even though they maintain the club are not for sale in the face of public interest from the Red Knights consortium.

The Glazers declined to comment about First Allied. A spokesman has said the family do have debts of at least £1bn but added they have assets worth more than double that.

However, Panorama also point out that Tampa Bay are in the bottom three of the NFL's wage table, while United have yet to make a major signing since Cristiano Ronaldo was sold to Real Madrid for £80m a year ago amid doubts over Ferguson's transfer budget.

United claim the manager has access to up to £100m for new players, and chief executive David Gill has insisted the PIK repayments have nothing to do with the club.

When asked about counter- claims by a Glazer source that the family may indeed use the club's money to pay off those loans in the future, a United spokesman said: 'The club stand by everything David Gill told BBC radio and that the PIKs have no recourse to the club's assets.'

Neither the Premier League, the FA or new sports minister Hugh Robertson were willing to be interviewed by Panorama.

But Wigan chairman Dave Whelan, who considered buying a majority stake in United for just £11m 20 years ago, said: 'I don't think anybody can be satisfied with how Manchester United are being run because we're talking of three-quarters of a billion pounds of debt.

'That can't be the right thing to do and cannot be the right thing for professional football in the UK.'

Panorama: 'Man Utd – Into the Red' will be shown on BBC1 on Tuesday at 10.35pm.

Daily Mail

Thought I'd post this, I know Red likes reading this stuff.
 

Nicholas

MIRKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jan 30, 2008
38,737
The only significant business owned by the Glazer family besides Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has been severely hit by the recession and is carrying over half a billion dollars in debt.

An investigation carried out by the investment analyst Andy Green in conjunction with the Guardian and the BBC's Panorama programme reveals for the first time the financial health of the family's business interests in the US.

It centres on First Allied Corporation, the Glazer company which owns and rents out shopping malls across the US. First Allied is registered in New York and Delaware, where private companies do not have to make their accounts public, but Green found publicly traded mortgages on 63 of the 64 shopping centres First Allied lists on its website.

The insight those mortgages provide into First Allied's difficult financial position makes it clear that the Bucs and United – which is £717m in debt as a result of the Glazers' takeover – represent the family's principal businesses and sources of cash, now and in the future. It makes clear that there is very little chance the family's other businesses will contribute to clearing United's debt, and raises the possibility that family members will need to continue drawing loans and consultancy fees from the club – they have done so to the tune of £22.9m so far – to finance their lifestyles.

Analysis of mortgage documentation has revealed that four First Allied shopping centres have recently fallen insolvent due to low occupancy. Receivers have been appointed to sell those malls in Columbus, Ohio; Denton County, Texas; Roswell, Georgia and Cobb County, Georgia. One further centre, Lakeview Crossing in Dallas, Texas, fell behind with its mortgage last month.

The mortgages were almost all for loans taken out against the shopping centres with Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank which collapsed in 2008. Twenty-five were remortgages taken out in 2004, the year before the Glazers bought United. Those deals released $83m in equity, with a further $29m equity freed from remortgages in 2006 and 2007. A Glazer family spokesman declined to comment about whether this was how the family raised part of the £272m cash paid to buy United. The Glazers borrowed the other £559m to buy the club, £275m of it in high-interest "payments in kind" from hedge funds, and have made the club responsible for paying it all off.

The public trading of the mortgages means detailed financial information about the shopping centres is disclosed monthly by the trustees of the mortgage packages, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo. The latest figures, to the end of last month, show that besides the four shopping malls which have gone into receivership and Lakeview Crossing now shown to be in default, 28 – 44% of the remaining centres – are on a "watchlist", meaning the banks are concerned about whether the rental income will be enough to service the mortgages. Seventeen centres receive rent insufficient to cover the required mortgage repayments. The First Allied portfolio is heading for a major further challenge because the mortgages on 30 of the 63 centres are on interest only periods which end this year.

Centres elsewhere are enjoying full or almost-full occupancy and making a profit above their mortgage repayments. The analysis shows overall that the Glazers have $567m (£392m) outstanding in mortgages, and the total rent First Allied received from its tenants meant the company cleared $9.7m before tax last year. First Allied is still above water, therefore, but that total for earnings is nothing like the income required if the Glazers' £202m, 14.25% interest, "payment in kind" loans at United were to be repaid from this outside business.

"The picture of First Allied revealed by the mortgages shows that although we have always been told the Glazers are very successful business people, they do not have a business besides the Bucs and United – which they bought with debt – generating much money at all," concludes Green, who is also a United fan severely critical of the Glazers' debt-laden takeover.

The Glazers are understood to accept their property business has been badly affected by the economic downturn, although they point out that $9.7m does at least represent a profit in a sector which has seen spectacular collapses, in the US and here.

In the prospectus launched by the family in January to borrow £500m in bonds for United, First Allied Corporation was the only "principal outside business interest," besides United and the Bucs, listed by any of Malcolm Glazer's six children, all United directors.

Edward and Kevin Glazer said they were officers of First Allied; Avram, Joel and Bryan Glazer listed only United and the Bucs, while Darcie Glazer-Kassewitz, Malcolm's daughter, said she was co-president of the Glazer family's charitable foundation, which is associated with the Bucs.

The absence of other businesses may explain why the Glazers remain so determined to hold on to United – they believe the club's commercial income will continue to boom – despite the family's deep unpopularity with supporters due to the debts their takeover has loaded on to the club to pay.

The Glazer camp, supported by United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson and chief executive David Gill, have stressed in recent months that United is financially secure despite interest payable last year of £69m, and the total in interest, fees and charges since the takeover, of £460m.

The spokesman for the family pointed to United's increased earnings – up to £278m last year – and significantly improved sponsorship deals, stressing that the club has generated substantial cash and its priority is to provide Ferguson with money to strengthen the squad.

The Manchester United Supporters Trust has called on its members to delay renewing their season tickets until the Glazers sell up, and these revelations of First Allied's position highlight how much the family needs United fans to keep paying their money over. Only by United remaining commercially successful can the family pay their debts, and earn a return from what was the world's richest, debt-free club.

Guardian aswell
 

Red

-------
Moderator
Nov 26, 2006
47,024
Ta, Nicholas.

I think we all know that what is happening is unsustainable.

It's just a question of how stubborn the Glazers are going to be.
 

The Curr

Senior Member
Feb 3, 2007
33,705
James Corrigan: In debt, nothing to spend, stars may leave and owners hated. Interested?


When Kenny Dalglish – or as he will soon be renamed "Kingmaker Kenny" – conducts his first interview for the role of manager of Liverpool Football Club it will be interesting to hear him set out the job description. We can only pray he speaks very slowly and very honestly. For it is only fair the candidates be made completely aware of what is expected of them.

But then, we all know Dalglish won't really be involved in the process and that he's only been called upon to douse the anger of the mutineers. It'll be down to whichever puppet the owners/board choose. Whoever it is – whether it's the chairman, chief executive or a £10,000-an hour headhunter – they will have to be some salesman. A smooth-talker whose next assignment will not be to sell sand to the Arabs but sell a debt- ridden club to the Arabs. Perhaps the spiel to the prospective gaffer should go something like this...

"Right let's get down to it – the last chap was a disaster. Rafa Benitez failed dismally. In six seasons he reached only two Champions' League finals, winning only one of them to go alongside his one FA Cup. How dare he? And don't even get us started about the Premier League. Do you know it took him five seasons to lead the club to its best League season in 19 years. Five seasons? I ask you, how much time did he want?

"Yes, yes, 2008-09 was rather promising on the face of it, losing just two games and collecting more points than any other runner-up in the history of the League. But we found out what he was about in the next campaign. Way down in seventh, a whole seven points off the fourth-place finish with which we would have been satisfied. It couldn't go on, so it didn't. Particularly when the press came on side and started printing the myths dressed up as damning statistics.

"Benitez signed more than 70 players for more than £240m. True, 30 of them were youth players and he did sell quite a few, too. In fact, when you do the actual maths his net spend is more like £80m, less than Spurs and, of course, less than Manchester City in the same period. But £240m sounds better, don't you think? And the wages? Well, yes, ours are about three-quarters of United's and Chelsea's, but what's that got to do with anything? This ungrateful man thought just because the new owners have given him virtually nowt to spend since they took over in 2007 he could whinge about it. Couldn't he see we're all suffering here? That even poor old George and Tom, as hard as they have tried, have been forced to put the club £350m in debt.

"So, you'll understand, we had to get rid of him. He would definitely have caused a fuss when we sold Torres and Gerrard and gave him £15m for squad strengthening. You wouldn't mind managing without those two would you? After all, Rafa effectively had to last season, with the Spaniard always injured and the new England captain in the worst form of his career.

"Still, there was no need for anyone to focus on that when they could blame him for selling Xabi Alonso and bringing in Alberto Aquilani. The most outrageous thing was that we only made £10m because of that piece of dreadful business. No, he had to go and now we have to go for a manager able to mask the cracks as we move ever deeper into the red and try to sell this club for a price it is simply not worth.

"So here's what we expect from the new boss in a nutshell. You must qualify for the Champions' League every year, winning it more often than once every six years and reaching the final every three years; you must do better in the Premier League than simply finishing a better second than any team before; and you must do all this on a smaller budget than your rivals, despite the fact everybody will claim otherwise. Do all that – and more importantly do it without moaning – and you'll be a hero in Liverpool and Texas. And please don't suffer one bad season that may or may not be a blip. Because you'll never be able to prove it was a blip. Because we'll get rid of you straight away and Fleet Street will applaud us for doing so.

"The fans? To hell with them. Thanks to those who we will soon have to call our 'friends in the press', the Anfield faithful can be dismissed as being more deluded than those cultists in Waco. Didn't you know they only stuck by Rafa because they had made him the figurehead for their protests. Well, that's what the columnists said anyway. It soon became accepted as a journalistic truth that the Liverpool support was 'in denial' when it came to Rafa and that in their hatred of the Americans they couldn't spot his inadequacies. Insulting? Perhaps just a little bit, considering we're talking here about fans who have consistently proved to be among the most knowledgeable. But it did the trick. They were talking rubbish – Rafa was rubbish. Had to go.

"So that brings us nicely on to you. How can you say no? Liverpool is a massive club, as you well know. And if we're bought out by some rich Arabs one day we might again have the finances of a massive club. To be honest, I wouldn't expect that to be Dubai now as they're more skint than we are. But someone with bottomless pockets will turn up. You just need to give off the illusion this club are as big as they ever were while we're waiting.

"So if you will just sign here, Mr Hiddink? Mr Hiddink? Mr Hiddink? Please don't slam the door, we've only just mended it from when Souness left...

"Valerie, get me Dalglish on the phone. Ask him if he would be kind enough to stop the fans from rioting, will you?"
 

cimenk

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2008
3,129
Real Madrid have already started on Gerrard. Big teams almost always launch a media campaign to get the players they want.

On another note, I saw Harry Rednapkin is our number one priority for manager. :sergio:
How is Liverpool fans reaction regarding the possibility of Redknapp? I remember someone wrote it here that Redknapp is English version of Del Neri, both of them are good coach but don't fit for big club like Juve and Liverpool.. I see Liverpool emulate what Juve just did, appoint a manager that just bring their team to 4th spot
 

Enron

Tickle Me
Moderator
Oct 11, 2005
75,662
How is Liverpool fans reaction regarding the possibility of Redknapp? I remember someone wrote it here that Redknapp is English version of Del Neri, both of them are good coach but don't fit for big club like Juve and Liverpool.. I see Liverpool emulate what Juve just did, appoint a manager that just bring their team to 4th spot
I don't see Redknapp coming to Liverpool considering he can spend way more there than he can here.

That said, Harry is a fine coach when he has 24 players to choose from. He's connected to the club, but I really don't see it happening.

We're more likely to end up with Sven or Hodgson.

As for whether or not I'd like Harry at the club. I think he's one of the better options at the moment. In contrast to Del Neri, who wasn't a top option.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 30)