Prince Abdullah

[Snowflake]

Leeds and Everton may go down and Brighton are having a purple patch in their history. Maybe a Tottenham? I see it the only teams that are Prem established are wealthy. You may not want to be a wealthy club and all that comes with it but this is the 2020's, there is no room for a community based team. It is all about money, money and money if you want to stay in the big league.

Money alone will not achieve success. It has to be linked to good recruitment of staff and players, although that is easier if you can pay for the right people.

 

[Dkc]

Ah yes the halcyon days of being owned by local dignitaries and traders and dropping into div 4

We dropped into Div 4 for a single season after spending over 90 years in the top two divisions.

 

[LurkerBlade]

It’s not a shambles, they took a calculated risk to keep the squad together knowing that if the proverbial financial shit hit the fan they would have to sell a player in January.
We hardly sold anyone apart from Ramsdale after promotion, that’s what’s caused the issues but on the flip side we’ve kept out best players and got promoted.
We even spent £4m on Anel which looks a shred bit of business.
Give me PA over any other owner in my lifetime.

Exactly how I see it!

Wilder and PA always said they wanted a self sustaining club and when it was going well we were all happy. When we went down to continue that model we should have sold players and picked up young potential (This is exactly what PA said we would have to do) he took a risk because we were looking good for promotion (He is a gambler of sorts) he kept Sander and Ndaiye when he could have used them to "pay the bills".

I may be making it too simplistic, the club may be run poorly and i'll look like a mug, but that seems to make sense to me.

 

[Alex Cheeseright]

Money alone will not achieve success. It has to be linked to good recruitment of staff and players, although that is easier if you can pay for the right people.

Yes

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

We dropped into Div 4 for a single season after spending over 90 years in the top two divisions.

We dropped into Div 4 for a single season after spending over 90 years in the top two divisions, when McCabe came home, he's one of our own

 

[Dkc]

We dropped into Div 4 for a single season after spending over 90 years in the top two divisions, when McCabe came home, he's one of our own

McCabe wasn't in charge when we dropped into the 4th division.

 

[metalblade]

I wonder if this thread would exist if PA was the prince of Monaco?

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

McCabe wasn't in charge when we dropped into the 4th division.

You re write the song to it works for you

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

I wonder if this thread would exist if PA was the prince of Monaco?

Possibly for some posters. I'd be interested what specific amount of money these people insist that someone spends on the club to fulfil their demands of new players, upgraded/ new ground, new training ground and upgraded hotel.

 

[JJBlade]

Cheating is a bit much tbf. It implies he did it consciously to gain an advantage which I doubt.

Can we not agree that it's a bit bad? Not ideal? He was clear about his financial situation, so should have known he wouldn't be able to make the payments. He could have sold players to make the payments, spent less or sold his personal assets.

I'm not saying he's worse than any other owners, or deserves loads of stick, or that Kev was any better. Just not on board with the praise

The club is a football club first and foremost,
What happens on the pitch determines the entire stability of the club, not paying the gas bill on time.
Good players with value on the pitch is what makes a football club valuable and secure, not desperately selling them for less than their worth because the gas bill's due and then watching them become more valuable players at other clubs 6 months later.

I'm not just talking about the Harry Maguires and Kyle Walkers and Phil Jagielka's, I'm talking about dozens and dozens of players of a lesser ability that have done well elsewhere. Don Hutchinson springs to mind, a 30 year old that we couldn't wait to offload for whatever we could get for him, he then went on to move three times to different clubs for £5 million plus, in the days when £5 million was quite a lot of money for a player.
He was sold quickly and cheaply probably because some director was worried about the gas bill.
Take care of the football and the rest falls nicely into place.

 

[AWetFlannel]

The club is a football club first and foremost,
What happens on the pitch determines the entire stability of the club, not paying the gas bill on time.
Good players with value on the pitch is what makes a football club valuable and secure, not desperately selling them for less than their worth because the gas bill's due and then watching them become more valuable players at other clubs 6 months later.

I'm not just talking about the Harry Maguires and Kyle Walkers and Phil Jagielka's, I'm talking about dozens and dozens of players of a lesser ability that have done well elsewhere. Don Hutchinson springs to mind, a 30 year old that we couldn't wait to offload for whatever we could get for him, he then went on to move three times to different clubs for £5 million plus, in the days when £5 million was quite a lot of money for a player.
He was sold quickly and cheaply probably because some director was worried about the gas bill.
Take care of the football and the rest falls nicely into place.

Comes a point though where financial gambling and refusal to sell players ends up looking like Bury.

Surely we want football in a place where it isn't tempting for clubs to gamble like this, in other industries this would be considered nuts.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Possibly for some posters. I'd be interested what specific amount of money these people insist that someone spends on the club to fulfil their demands of new players, upgraded/ new ground, new training ground and upgraded hotel.

You mean the Titans of Industry on here who are legally allowed to strip their companies of money because that’s what they can do, innit?

 

[Mendi]

Looking to sell he wants out. Sky running the story he has told Jim White. 4 weeks and a sale.

 

[GrunkyPeep]

Looking to sell he wants out.

WUEDP???!!!??

Huge if true!

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

He's been at the helm for 2 promotions to the PL in 4 years. We could have been in the hands of somebody much, much worse. I will only ever look back on his reign with a large amount of positivity.

We were. Thankfully Abdullah won the court case.

Penny for McCabes thoughts right now...

Abdullah has overseen a league 1 title and 2 promotions to the PL in 4 years.

McCabe oversaw a promotion to the PL in 06 and a relegation to the champ and then league 1.

 

[Katzenjammer]

 

[nopigfansintown]

Good that he's put it in the public domain so quickly.

 

[Chingo]

Need to clear up a few misconceptions here:

• We didn't overspend while we were in the Prem. Every promoted team this season has spent more than we did. We also had the lowest wage bill - by far - in the PL. We were spending about 50% of our revenue on wages. That was the lowest ratio in the league by a country mile.
• Prince Abdullah has not funded anything or given the manager any money at all. He has invested a total of £5m since he joined the club. £5m. In total. And that was only when McCabe begged him for money to cover basic running costs.
• It is extremely rare for clubs in receipt of parachute payments to be placed under a transfer embargo or administration. It is reserved for basket case clubs like Leeds and Portsmouth, who quite evidently overspent. We did not overspend, clearly, yet we were on the brink of administration this season. And I honestly think without the FA Cup run we would've gone into administration.

I don't think anything I said above is particularly controversial. And it is all correct. I just don't know how you can arrive at the conclusion that the Prince is a good owner if you take even one of my points into account.

He said today he has put £40 million of his own money in!

 

[biggiesablade]

Tits on her

 

[Oohaah! Bob Bookah!]

Tits on her

never noticed, honest!

 

[Chingo]

Comes a point though where financial gambling and refusal to sell players ends up looking like Bury.

Surely we want football in a place where it isn't tempting for clubs to gamble like this, in other industries this would be considered nuts.

Could you imagine the uproar if we had sold the jewels in the position we were in in January?

With social media nowadays it would have made the Deane and Fjortoft sales seem trivial

 

[Katzenjammer]

Tits on her

Can tell they sag a bit though.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Good that he's put it in the public domain so quickly.

Agree....altho if you were cynical you could argue its like a free sales advert
he's sort publicity to let all and sundry know a historical Premier League club with a decent fanbase/ stadium is now up for sale.

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

Didn't really listen to what she had to say as she seemed to be putting a couple of other points forward....

 

[Upton_Blade]

Tits on her

Met her a couple of times. Look even better when you're stood next to them

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I'm not a fan of the Prince, however we must give him some kudos for not selling Ndiaye and Berge in the JTW.
Those decisions have cemented our promotion.

Must we?

It seemed like they were as good as sold. I'm not sure what happened on that final day with the 11th hour flip flop but I'm not convinced it's as cut and dry as the Prince thought "no, fuck it. we'll keep them and onwards to promotion..."

Seems I'm in the minority. Can't wait for the Prince to leave. I attribute very little of our recent success to him.

 

[Maidenhead]

Must we?

It seemed like they were as good as sold. I'm not sure what happened on that final day with the 11th hour flip flop but I'm not convinced it's as cut and dry as the Prince thought "no, fuck it. we'll keep them and onwards to promotion..."

Seems I'm in the minority. Can't wait for the Prince to leave. I attribute very little of our recent success to him.

I'm with you.

The only reason that Berge and N'Diaye didn't leave in January was because the right offers for them weren't on the table, and they know that they will have many more options in the summer.

I'll be amazed if they're still both here come September whatever money United put on the table.

 

[JohnDenver]

Must we?

It seemed like they were as good as sold. I'm not sure what happened on that final day with the 11th hour flip flop but I'm not convinced it's as cut and dry as the Prince thought "no, fuck it. we'll keep them and onwards to promotion..."

Seems I'm in the minority. Can't wait for the Prince to leave. I attribute very little of our recent success to him.

Who knows what happened in that window?

The financial detail is something I’ll leave to the forum accountants to pick over, as I’m way out of my depth. But just the indisputable fact we were put under an embargo is telling of a club not well run.

If people are crediting PA with gambling and winning, I hope they know what he was gambling with before they reach a judgement.

When all is said and done, the football staff are the heroes of this season.

 

[borg elite]

Skip to 4 minutes in for today's Talksport interview with PA and discussion.

 

[Sean Thornton]

I'm with you.

The only reason that Berge and N'Diaye didn't leave in January was because the right offers for them weren't on the table, and they know that they will have many more options in the summer.

I'll be amazed if they're still both here come September whatever money United put on the table.

“The only reason”

Spoken with the confidence of a man who doesn’t really know but likes to believe he does.

AKA - a guess.