Is there currrently an indipendent fans association?

[JJ Sefton]

Brealey did indeed want out and BIFA beef with him was that he was asking too much for the club. If BIFA pressed him into selling for less than he was holding out for, I can't see anything wrong with that.

Indeed. My memory is that Brealey had lost interest in the club after his ground redevelopment plans fell through and his shares - which he had more or less bought by accident in the first place - had been on the market since 1987. Woolhouse was always preening about as the White Knight but he never actually acted on it. The Hashimi business smoked him out in 1990 (convenient for Reg that) but in the longer run it also revealed that Woolhouse didn't have any cash and so Brealey ended up with the club again in about 1993. BIFA came along a year or so afterwards, about 1994, and McDonald turned up in 1996.

In other words, Brealey had wanted shot of the club for about ten years but a viable buyer only turned up a couple of years after BIFA got going.

This does not prove that BIFA brought the sale, but it does indicate that BIFA, or something like it, was not an insurmountable obstacle to a sale.

 

[Fjortoft's Aeroplane]

So what do we do to address the situation? Ask them which ones we should be blaming?
I'm as pissed off as anyone but I don't see what a fans association can do at this point in time.
If there was an obvious solution like a potential buyer that KM won't sell to then maybe there would be a point in putting some pressure on him but I don't understand what we're trying to achieve.

I certainly think that one goal could be to outreach to potential buyers. I think another could include doing some digging and deciding if the pressure should be on McCabe to sell his other 50%, OR if perhaps we think we'd be better off with the Prince selling his 50% either back to McCabe or to another party.

 

[Darren]

Indeed. My memory is that Brealey had lost interest in the club after his ground redevelopment plans fell through and his shares - which he had more or less bought by accident in the first place - had been on the market since 1987. Woolhouse was always preening about as the White Knight but he never actually acted on it. The Hashimi business smoked him out in 1990 (convenient for Reg that) but in the longer run it also revealed that Woolhouse didn't have any cash and so Brealey ended up with the club again in about 1993. BIFA came along a year or so afterwards, about 1994, and McDonald turned up in 1996.

In other words, Brealey had wanted shot of the club for about ten years but a viable buyer only turned up a couple of years after BIFA got going.

This does not prove that BIFA brought the sale, but it does indicate that BIFA, or something like it, was not an insurmountable obstacle to a sale.

More or less correct, but Woolhouse bought the club on an instalment plan and Brealey had to go to court to get the club back when Woolhouse fell behind on his payments. Brealey came back just in time to sell Deane in 1993 (obviously he was more interested in getting his money by then than the club, though in the end that was a short sighted decision as if we hadn't sold Deane we would have stayed up and he would have got more for a PL club). It was 95 when MacDonald turned up and there was lots of will he won't be, before Reg finally sold up.

 

[JJ Sefton]

So what do we do to address the situation? Ask them which ones we should be blaming?
I'm as pissed off as anyone but I don't see what a fans association can do at this point in time.
If there was an obvious solution like a potential buyer that KM won't sell to then maybe there would be a point in putting some pressure on him but I don't understand what we're trying to achieve.

Well BIFA had the virtue of a single aim - Get United sold. Right now we'd have to go for 'Get United promoted'. No doubt, McCabe et al would say "Well, that's what we want to" to which BIFA 2.0 could reply "Well, as you clearly haven't got the first fucking clue how to do it, let us help"

Decision making at the Lane has been pisspoor in recent years. Let's throw a bit more grey matter at them.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Hadn't Brealey been trying to get himself 'ousted' since 1987, with no success apart from the Woolhouse debacle?

Very true. But it doesn't change the point Silent made. BIFA backed McDonald, that's a fact.

BIFA was an excellent idea that ended up being hijacked by a few look at me Bigger Blades who liked to hear their names on the Radio and see their pictures in the Star.

Old Reg made them look pretty stupid at the Trades club meeting and let's not pretend that Bifas input led to a lower price being accepted. Market conditions caused that.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Very true. But it doesn't change the point Silent made. BIFA backed McDonald, that's a fact.

BIFA was an excellent idea that ended up being hijacked by a few look at me Bigger Blades who liked to hear their names on the Radio and see their pictures in the Star.

Old Reg made them look pretty stupid at the Trades club meeting and let's not pretend that Bifas input led to a lower price being accepted. Market conditions caused that.

We now know that McDonald was a crook, but who knew that at the time? I remember folk being euphoric when he turned up and started building a new stand on that empty side of the ground. The truth is that, in 1996, United needed new ownership.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Anyone read Animal Farm ?

 

[BushBlade]

I certainly think that one goal could be to outreach to potential buyers. I think another could include doing some digging and deciding if the pressure should be on McCabe to sell his other 50%, OR if perhaps we think we'd be better off with the Prince selling his 50% either back to McCabe or to another party.

I'm not convinced that any of us could do a better job of finding a buyer than McCabe, with his global connections.
I don't really know how we could find agreement between us on who should own the club out of those two, how we could properly assess it and why either of them would pay much attention to us even if we did.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Anyone read Animal Farm ?

My mates older brother reckoned he bought the video back from a trip to Holland.

 

[JJ Sefton]

I'm not convinced that any of us could do a better job of finding a buyer than McCabe, with his global connections.
I don't really know how we could find agreement between us on who should own the club out of those two, how we could properly assess it and why either of them would pay much attention to us even if we did.

Maybe we need to pressure him to bring a Chief Exec in, someone to scout around and actively find some actual investment, not this mythical "game changing" tuppence.

 

[Fjortoft's Aeroplane]

I'm not convinced that any of us could do a better job of finding a buyer than McCabe, with his global connections.
I don't really know how we could find agreement between us on who should own the club out of those two, how we could properly assess it and why either of them would pay much attention to us even if we did.

Personally I don't have global connections, I barely have connections on my street to be fair. However I know for a fact that there are some very well connected and well educated Blades out there, who could at worst effect nothing, and at best pull a rabbit out of the hat for us. So what's to lose?

 

[BushBlade]

Anyone read Animal Farm ?

I've seen the film. That bloke fucking a pig and two rough lasses doing a horse and a dog.

 

[JJ Sefton]

I've seen the film. That bloke fucking a pig and two rough lasses doing a horse and a dog.

Darren, Highbury_Blade, and judge in 3, 2, 1...

 

[BushBlade]

Personally I don't have global connections, I barely have connections on my street to be fair. However I know for a fact that there are some very well connected and well educated Blades out there, who could at worst effect nothing, and at best pull a rabbit out of the hat for us. So what's to lose?

Time, effort and credibility? Alienating our owners?
I can't imagine these high powered and well connected Blades are waiting for some small time fucker from Shepherds Bush to organise them but if you want to try, it's not my job to stop you. I'll just wish you good luck.

 

[BushBlade]

Maybe we need to pressure him to bring a Chief Exec in, someone to scout around and actively find some actual investment, not this mythical "game changing" tuppence.

Ok, let me know how you get on.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

well connected and well educated Blades out there, who could at worst effect nothing, and at best pull a rabbit out of the hat for us.

Niece's sixth birthday party Saturday.
Don't s'pose you've got their number?
Nice bit o' jelly an' ice cream with a bit of David Copperfield.
Crack on.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Time, effort and credibility? Alienating our owners?
I can't imagine these high powered and well connected Blades are waiting for some small time fucker from Shepherds Bush...

You diiiiiiirty old man.

 

[Sean Thornton]

We now know that McDonald was a crook, but who knew that at the time? I remember folk being euphoric when he turned up and started building a new stand on that empty side of the ground. The truth is that, in 1996, United needed new ownership.

No they didn't but it was the wrong call from a pressure group which is likely to happen again because of a lack of expertise.

We did need new ownership as you say, Brearley was desperate for cash and at the time we luckily ended up with McCabe. Now he's made plenty of well documented mistakes but compared to the rest of the names mentioned he was a Godsend.

The trouble with these fan groups is they want to be run by people you wouldn't put in charge of a whelk stall and you can bet some of the same people from the past would be putting their names forward again, to fight the good fight. Imagine some posters on forums who don't have a clue on the financial side of football on a committee meeting with McCabe and co? Good idea in theory, in practice an ego trip.

 

[Fjortoft's Aeroplane]

Time, effort and credibility? Alienating our owners?
I can't imagine these high powered and well connected Blades are waiting for some small time fucker from Shepherds Bush to organise them but if you want to try, it's not my job to stop you. I'll just wish you good luck.

I totally understand the cynycism here, but I just don't wish to stand back and watch my club implode anymore. I'm at the point where doing ANYTHING is preferable to doing nothing.

 

[JJ Sefton]

No they didn't but it was the wrong call from a pressure group which is likely to happen again because of a lack of expertise.

We did need new ownership as you say, Brearley was desperate for cash and at the time we luckily ended up with McCabe. Now he's made plenty of well documented mistakes but compared to the rest of the names mentioned he was a Godsend.

The trouble with these fan groups is they want to be run by people you wouldn't put in charge of a whelk stall and you can bet some of the same people from the past would be putting their names forward again, to fight the good fight. Imagine some posters on forums who don't have a clue on the financial side of football on a committee meeting with McCabe and co? Good idea in theory, in practice an ego trip.

Well, McCabe's 'expertise' hasn't done much for us lately. I'd agree that McCabe was a Godsend early on, but people forget, so was Brealey once upon a time. "The sweetest apple, is the soonest rotten", as the auld song goes.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Maybe we need to pressure him to bring a Chief Exec in, someone to scout around and actively find some actual investment, not this mythical "game changing" tuppence.

Didn't we pay Birch around £600k to do that?

That Les Strafford bloke had some good contacts. His mate Wolf Tone may have his number

 

[Sean Thornton]

Well, McCabe's 'expertise' hasn't done much for us lately. I'd agree that McCabe was a Godsend early on, but people forget, so was Brealey once upon a time. "The sweetest apple, is the soonest rotten", as the auld song goes.

Genuine, sadly oft repeated, errors though. He's not shady like the ones mentioned though.

 

[Darren]

No they didn't but it was the wrong call from a pressure group which is likely to happen again because of a lack of expertise.

We did need new ownership as you say, Brearley was desperate for cash and at the time we luckily ended up with McCabe. Now he's made plenty of well documented mistakes but compared to the rest of the names mentioned he was a Godsend.

The trouble with these fan groups is they want to be run by people you wouldn't put in charge of a whelk stall and you can bet some of the same people from the past would be putting their names forward again, to fight the good fight. Imagine some posters on forums who don't have a clue on the financial side of football on a committee meeting with McCabe and co? Good idea in theory, in practice an ego trip.

Go on, I'll ask. Why was MacDonald so bad? He built the new stand, pumped some money into the club and saw us seriously challenging for promotion to the PL for a couple of years. Admittedly, he got fed up, pulled the plug and left us swanning around the lower reaches of D2. But things never got anywhere near as bad as they have under McCabe.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Genuine, sadly oft repeated, errors though. He's not shady like the ones mentioned though.

Brealey was no more shady than McCabe.

 

[Revolution]

Genuine, sadly oft repeated, errors though. He's not shady like the ones mentioned though.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - there's a good argument that for all his faults Brealey was a better owner than McCabe has been thus far.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

"The sweetest apple, is the soonest rotten"

Ronnie Drew.

 

[JJ Sefton]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - there's a good argument that for all his faults Brealey was a better owner than McCabe has been thus far.

As I see it Brealey took over more or less by accident in 1981, when he underwrote a share issue, nobody bought the shares, and he ended up with them. He tried to redevelop the ground with a pretty visionary plan, and spent big on players for the lower divisions. Then his ground scheme went under and his investment in players hit diminishing returns. From there you can read the rest here...

http://www.s24su.com/forum/index.ph...ent-fans-association.44457/page-2#post-921907

Fact is that Brealey left us in a better state than he found us, on and off the field, and gave us four seasons of top flight football. McCabe has given us one season and turned us from an established Division Two side into an established Division Three side.

 

[BushBlade]

I totally understand the cynycism here, but I just don't wish to stand back and watch my club implode anymore. I'm at the point where doing ANYTHING is preferable to doing nothing.

That's fair enough and I'm not about to pour scorn on it but I just don't see it achieving anything other than providing a platform for some of our worst 'supporters' on a massive ego trip and who'll think a couple of appearances on Calender will set them up for the next Celebrity Big Brother.

 

[BushBlade]

As I see it Brealey took over more or less by accident in 1981, when he underwrote a share issue, nobody bought the shares, and he ended up with them. He tried to redevelop the ground with a pretty visionary plan, and spent big on players for the lower divisions. Then his ground scheme went under and his investment in players hit diminishing returns. From there you can read the rest here...

http://www.s24su.com/forum/index.ph...ent-fans-association.44457/page-2#post-921907

Fact is that Brealey left us in a better state than he found us, on and off the field, and gave us four seasons of top flight football. McCabe has given us one season and turned us from an established Division Two side into an established Division Three side.

Bearley had the problems with a jute mill in India, as I recall, something to do with it polluting a large area after some kind of leak. I think it hit his finances and he couldn't afford to subsidise us further so wanted out.

 

[Dkc]

The club isn't being seriously mismanaged at the moment. It' more open and transparent than it has ever been. Just like us, our owners want nothing more than to gain promotion.

Everyone, myself included, is mightily pissed off that we're not challenging for the top two this season and it's going to be the Play Offs at best. And some of us are looking for someone to blame. But I don't think there's any one factor. It's a combination of bad luck on the field and in the transfer market. Other factors like the plumeting oil price could have persuaded the Prince to tighten his belt (yes I know his primary business is not oil, but his nation and markets are built on it)

I still think Adkins is the right man and a couple of decent signings could see us finishing in the top four, with the second leg of the Play Off semi at home. I could actually see us winning at Wembley too, though I doubt many would make the trip.