Ownership update !

[Sean Thornton]

They are just negotiating,

Kev inflates the price

Princey values it all at fuck all

Kev says "I'm not going anywhere then"

Princey "you keep the real estate then, I just want the Team"

The 3rd party comes up with the real valuation for the lot

They quibble over the Dooley Statue, McCabe gets that, Princey covers the losses this Season, smiles and handshakes, job done

The independent valuation will be stipulated in the accounts.

Maybe HRH just doesn't have the cash to fund a total buy out?

Did McCabe say who started the litigation?

 

[The Crab]

We dont know his either ... or his intentions

All what are hearing at the moment, ala McCabe is one sided .... and I am sure it wont be long before we hear the words from McCabe ....

"I have the fans best interests at heart" .... suggesting The Prince hasn't ...

All the Prince can do is get the best deal he can, takeover (maybe), then off we go on the next cycle of The Blades

I think part of the problem, for me at least, is that none of us has a real idea of what the Princes intentions really are. I would think, if he is going to play a bigger part, that it might be a good idea to win a few hearts and minds rather than the stony silence we seem to be getting so far.

 

[Sean Thornton]

I think part of the problem, for me at least, is that none of us has a real idea of what the Princes intentions really are. I would think, if he is going to play a bigger part, that it might be a good idea to win a few hearts and minds rather than the stony silence we seem to be getting so far.

True. We don't know if McCabe has a plan. Just in case.

 

[Davalon]

Very true.

In my experience, you only have to let someone "think" they are in the inner circle without actually being in it. Some people are much easier to keep "on message" that way.

Very much so.

Feed people a bit of info, make them feel a little priveliged and hey presto you'll often have them part of the propaganda machine for fear of losing their 'position'.

 

[Davalon]

It helps when you have people desperate for a bit of media attention.

There were certainly one or two of those with BIFA. HH and JS spring to mind.

 

[Deaneandagana]

True. We don't know if McCabe has a plan. Just in case.

The disappointing element in this is that a business squabble is being played out in public, it is standard practice in M&A practice for both parties to sign NDA’s & keep the matter confidential.

As I said KMc’s PR machine is slick.

 

[Fraggle Blade]

No foreigners? Are we a racist club?

There were certainly a few of the "older" shareholders muttering about wanting no "foreigners" in our club.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

Clearly its not for me to get involved in a Sheffield United matter but all I can do is give you the SAFC experience and for you good people to ask yourselves a very specific question, which is "why does the prospective owner want to buy us".

We were bought by a Yank hedge fund billionaire who knew nothing about football and he bought us for just £10m to £15m. Thats the whole show - Stadium Of Light, Academy Of Light (youth infrastructure), the whole lot.

We are in the PL and doing shite so he peddles the manager - the new manager wants new players - so we sell some, buy shite, some we cant get rid of on the wages we are paying so to get rid of some we have to agree to pay some of their wages to the buying club. We do this what, 7 or 8 times with managers? they reckon we are still paying some of these players off even after 2 or 3 years.

One of our DOFs was a son of one of the owners golfing mates who then came in bought shite and left with his tale between his legs, burbling something about "the Udinese Model" or some such shite. fucking shysters, the whole lot of them. People being made millionaires for zero achievement.

Eventually having stunk the top flight out for a decade the Chairman decides that he has had enough and bails out (effectively). By now we are £130m plus in debt - even with the PL/Sky money. It beggars belief.

Coupled with this the club is badly run, very badly run. Our CEO knowingly shields a bloke who ends up going to jail for relations with a minor and she goes. We then appoint a former male model as CEO.

Players come and go, the club has no control on them, a drinking culture is nurtured, we sell everything we can - we replace them with SEVEN loanees - all of whom dont give a single fuck about SAFC and allow other contracts to run down to the tune of where we now have up to 20 players leaving in the summer, all now bottling tackles because they dont want to get injured and risk having no contract by next season with another club.

On a smaller scale this has been going on for 60 years.

I could go on and on and on and on about the shambolic way that SAFC has been run but give me a footballing scenario and using SAFC as a yardstick I can tell you what not to do.

A once respected football club now a joke club. Heartbreaking.

Desperate stuff, and not at all an easy read.

Said it before, but variants of this “Overseas Hedge Fund Magnate Buys FC as Bauble Vanity Project, Discovers it’s Not as Easy as His Ego and Yes Men Told Him it Was, Fucks FC Up, then Fucks Off” has become an archetypal story of “our” game in the Sky/Prem era.

There were always shady businessmen in football, but most of them were local smalltime, and the damage they could do was limited accordingly. In the last 25 years, the game in this country has been surrendered to / appropriated by transnational capital. Technically, it’s as good as it has ever been. Morally, socially, politically, it sinks deeper into the stinking cesspit it has willingly dug, and continues to fill, with every new season.

Up til now, SUFC have just about avoided wading in. McCabe, whatever his many faults, has been a big factor in this. Condolences to you, MBH. May those Rokermen rise again.

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

The disappointing element in this is that a business squabble is being played out in public, it is standard practice in M&A practice for both parties to sign NDA’s & keep the matter confidential.

As I said KMc’s PR machine is slick.

Wouldn’t call it slick. He’s a fan and speaks from the heart, obviously that means as a fan he’s going to say the things we want to hear because we all want the same thing.

I’m worried about the Prince’s intentions. He doesn’t come across even as a would be footy fan on an ego trip with more money than sense.

Why would he want to own us outright? Sure the money in the PL is huge but look at Sunderland and you see how easy it is to squander huge amounts of money.

The Prince has new links with some property company, the Lane sits on valuable land close to the city centre.

Think I’d prefer to stick with McCabe every day of the week.

 

[MBH]

There were certainly a few of the "older" shareholders muttering about wanting no "foreigners" in our club.

This doesnt have to be racist though.

We have seen owners from far and wide come in and simply not understand the English game. The Yanks have been a case in point - at Villa, SAFC, Man United - varying amounts of ballsups have been made. the only ones who have had a great deal of success has been at Man City and Chelsea although they have had hundreds of millions to spend on superb players and managers.

I'll put it out there that we would all like too see our clubs run by people from Sheffield or people from Sunderland or people from Birmingham (club dependent) and I think that this is more to do with the parochial nature of English football and the affinity that we have with our clubs. We want it kept in house and I for one dont blame fans for wanting that.

I'll ask you Blades whether, in an ideal world, you would rather that you were owned and managed by people from Sheffield or people from a foreign field?

 

[Davalon]

Stuck between a rock and hard place on this topic myself.

Like many others I trust KM to a large degree and there's an unknown element to the Prince.

Trouble is we know KM doesn't have the funds to bring in the finished article like other clubs at this level and therefore we're constantly expecting rabbits from hats.

FWIW it seems yesterday was just a PR exercise but that doesn't mean the Prince is the better option.

I'm just finding the comments hard to decipher at present as there seems some contradiction. Then again I'm no businessman either.

 

[Deaneandagana]

Wouldn’t call it slick. He’s a fan and speaks from the heart, obviously that means as a fan he’s going to say the things we want to hear because we all want the same thing.

I’m worried about the Prince’s intentions. He doesn’t come across even as a would be footy fan on an ego trip with more money than sense.

Why would he want to own us outright? Sure the money in the PL is huge but look at Sunderland and you see how easy it is to squander huge amounts of money.

The Prince has new links with some property company, the Lane sits on valuable land close to the city centre.

Think I’d prefer to stick with McCabe every day of the week.

Don’t think KMc is helping the club / manager / team with his Copthorne coffee morning & publicly airing his issues with his business partner.

Not sure he can be seen to be putting the club first on this one

 

[Bartleby]

This doesnt have to be racist though.

We have seen owners from far and wide come in and simply not understand the English game. The Yanks have been a case in point - at Villa, SAFC, Man United - varying amounts of ballsups have been made. the only ones who have had a great deal of success has been at Man City and Chelsea although they have had hundreds of millions to spend on superb players and managers.

I'll put it out there that we would all like too see our clubs run by people from Sheffield or people from Sunderland or people from Birmingham (club dependent) and I think that this is more to do with the parochial nature of English football and the affinity that we have with our clubs. We want it kept in house and I for one dont blame fans for wanting that.

I'll ask you Blades whether, in an ideal world, you would rather we owned and managed by people from Sheffield or people from a foreign field?

I'm not really sure - there have been some awful cases of mismanagement from British owners at some clubs as well.

I'd agree it's not necessarily racist though.

 

[MBH]

Wouldn’t call it slick. He’s a fan and speaks from the heart, obviously that means as a fan he’s going to say the things we want to hear because we all want the same thing.

I’m worried about the Prince’s intentions. He doesn’t come across even as a would be footy fan on an ego trip with more money than sense.

Why would he want to own us outright? Sure the money in the PL is huge but look at Sunderland and you see how easy it is to squander huge amounts of money.

The Prince has new links with some property company, the Lane sits on valuable land close to the city centre.

Think I’d prefer to stick with McCabe every day of the week.

They buy the club for a relative song, get promotion for a relative song and then they get sucked into chasing the PL dream to fill their egos. when they realise a la SAFC that they are in too deep, they revert to type, stick their fingers in their ears and go back to their former lives leaving us as fans high and dry.

Ellis Short has now fucked off back to Texas and is 5000 miles away. I dont think he has stepped foot on Wearside all season. He's given up. He failed to make his money, has had his fingers burnt and now he is probably desperately trying to recoup his cash any way he can. Hence SAFC has spent almost zero this year.

 

[Fraggle Blade]

This doesnt have to be racist though.

We have seen owners from far and wide come in and simply not understand the English game. The Yanks have been a case in point - at Villa, SAFC, Man United - varying amounts of ballsups have been made. the only ones who have had a great deal of success has been at Man City and Chelsea although they have had hundreds of millions to spend on superb players and managers.

I'll put it out there that we would all like too see our clubs run by people from Sheffield or people from Sunderland or people from Birmingham (club dependent) and I think that this is more to do with the parochial nature of English football and the affinity that we have with our clubs. We want it kept in house and I for one dont blame fans for wanting that.

I'll ask you Blades whether, in an ideal world, you would rather that you were owned and managed by people from Sheffield or people from a foreign field?

Obviously in an ideal world you would prefer local ownership..................but the priority is "Good Ownership" wherever it comes from.

 

[Nick Jansky]

It helps when you have people desperate for a bit of media attention.

Bit harsh on Pinchy, that........

 

[MBH]

I'm not really sure - there have been some awful cases of mismanagement from British owners at some clubs as well.

I'd agree it's not necessarily racist though.

I dont disagree with you.

Whatever happens I hope it works out for The Blades and I hope that you dont ever go down the Sunderland AFC route. There are some old, traditional football clubs in England, such as Sheffield United, who are a bedrock of our national game and the supporters of each club have an obligation to look after them and ensure that they are run properly. where they arent they should let their feelings known.

Unfortunately for SAFC apathy now rules and we are resigned, for now, to our fate.

Hopefully we shall rise again.

 

[Bartleby]

they get sucked into chasing the PL dream to fill their egos. when they realise a la SAFC that they are in too deep, they revert to type, stick their fingers in their ears and go back to their former lives leaving us as fans high and dry

Sounds like Bradford City - Premier League to administration in around a year, and a lop sided half extended ground as a reminder of the overspending.

 

[Bartleby]

I dont disagree with you.

Whatever happens I hope it works out for The Blades and I hope that you dont ever go down the Sunderland AFC route. There are some old, traditional football clubs in England, such as Sheffield United, who are a bedrock of our national game and the supporters of each club have an obligation to look after them and ensure that they are run properly. where they arent they should let their feelings known.

Unfortunately for SAFC apathy now rules and we are resigned, for now, to our fate.

Hopefully we shall rise again.

I hope we never do as well. Can't see you avoiding the drop I'm afraid but good luck all the same.

 

[Fraggle Blade]

See my reply to Worksop. Your final sentence is bang on.

The Prince has supposedly said we'll lose money this year. Who will fund that?

When someone asked how much money the Prince had put in McCabe said that it wasn't right to quote specific numbers.....but for the first 3 years, the Prince and McCabe had shared the finance equally......he didn't say who had funded the last two years losses.
The Prince was away in his government post for 3 years and has only been back in the boardroom personally since I think McCabe said April 2017 after his role had completed. I don't know exactly what ppl are expecting the Prince to come out and say?

 

[MBH]

Obviously in an ideal world you would prefer local ownership..................but the priority is "Good Ownership" wherever it comes from.

Yes and its in very short supply (pardon the pun). Look at our nearest and dearest up the road, 52k every week, massive stadium and all the ingredients for top flight success, you would think, bar good stewardship. Ashley is a law unto himself and whilst he has got the black and whites onto a sound financial footing the club is not run well and success has not followed them either.

However the likes of Bournemouth, Leicester (via administration) and Burnley are all prospering ie none about to go tits up.

Burnley has never got above their station. They have gone up and down a couple of times but never prostituted their club for an instant PL fix. Their fans stuck by them, they have a no nonsense unfashionable British manager and they are surely a model club for the likes of SAFC to follow - IMHO.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

The disappointing element in this is that a business squabble is being played out in public, it is standard practice in M&A practice for both parties to sign NDA’s & keep the matter confidential.

Indeed. One party has certainly appeared to be keen on it not being played out in public. Were I advising the Prince though I’d suggest one of his associates makes some effort to publicly respond to some of the suggestions implied at the meeting yesterday – though perhaps best left till the season ends.

 

[MBH]

I hope we never do as well. Can't see you avoiding the drop I'm afraid but good luck all the same.

We are going down. Its not even a question and hasnt been for a while now. The club has gone, the players have gone and its all over bar the mathematics of it. Not only that but you will find few SAFC fans who will argue with us going down. We've been shite all season, have not coped with the Football League and we will now take our medicine and be punished.

It takes a certain type of team to get out of this division and whilst the division may not be pretty and the players may not be well known - they are all at least one thing - grafters - something that SAFC yearns for. We have a set of bottling, soft as shite, premier league wannabees and piss heads. We've been over run and taught a lesson.

We're down as the bottom team and club. The icing on the cake will be losing at home to Burton Albion.

 

[snootyfenooty]

The Prince has new links with some property company, the Lane sits on valuable land close to the city centre.

This Bramall Lane/valuable land thing is a fallacy. A plot that size is probably worth about £10m on the open market. Then what, build another hotel or some student flats on it? Prime real estate for housing it aint. The return would be chicken feed for someone of the Prince's stature, he wouldn't be arsed with that.

 

[Fraggle Blade]

Someone asked about why the Prince had bought the Belgian club.......an answer wasn't forthcoming, but it was interesting to note that the Prince had asked McCabe to be involved with that project, but he had flatly refused. A sharp turn for McCabe who liked to get involved with this sort of thing previously.

 

[Fraggle Blade]

This Bramall Lane/valuable land thing is a fallacy. A plot that size is probably worth about £10m on the open market. Then what, build another hotel or some student flats on it? Prime real estate for housing it aint. The return would be chicken feed for someone of the Prince's stature, he wouldn't be arsed with that.

Plus McCabe said there were safeguards in the contract that the Blades would not move from Bramall Lane in his lifetime, or ever play in blue / white stripes.
Someone asked for a longer guarantee, but obviously McCabe said you can never say never.....but it is protected for a time.

 

[Fraggle Blade]

Wouldn’t call it slick. He’s a fan and speaks from the heart, obviously that means as a fan he’s going to say the things we want to hear because we all want the same thing.

I’m worried about the Prince’s intentions. He doesn’t come across even as a would be footy fan on an ego trip with more money than sense.

Why would he want to own us outright? Sure the money in the PL is huge but look at Sunderland and you see how easy it is to squander huge amounts of money.

The Prince has new links with some property company, the Lane sits on valuable land close to the city centre.

Think I’d prefer to stick with McCabe every day of the week.

McCabe said the Prince is a huge footie and NFL fan.

 

[Worksop II]

but look at Sunderland and you see how easy it is to squander huge amounts of money

Or look at Leicester, and a side benefit is one less Golf Course ... Win - Win for them

 

[UnitedBlade]

Unfortunately £60m of the loan is with a third party.

Oh, that doesn’t help. I thought FFP was designed to stop 3rd party loans?

However, if Short wants to get some of his money back, if you do go down he needs to prioritise getting back to the Championship first time.

Good luck anyway.

 

[UnitedBlade]

Wouldn’t call it slick. He’s a fan and speaks from the heart, obviously that means as a fan he’s going to say the things we want to hear because we all want the same thing.

I’m worried about the Prince’s intentions. He doesn’t come across even as a would be footy fan on an ego trip with more money than sense.

Why would he want to own us outright? Sure the money in the PL is huge but look at Sunderland and you see how easy it is to squander huge amounts of money.

The Prince has new links with some property company, the Lane sits on valuable land close to the city centre.

Think I’d prefer to stick with McCabe every day of the week.

On the one hand his mate, Tareq Hawasli (also a director of our club), runs this Private Equity real estate company Darin Partners so we need to be wary.

On the other hand it is set up to attract Middle Eastern rich people to invest in UK real estate. It’s starting small, £200M in the first tranche and the Prince will be one of many investors. I would think a football ground in South Yorkshire is about bottom of their list of Uk property in which to invest. You could argue rent would go up with EPL promotion but I doubt this is their targeted area.

I would be very concerned if a private equity property company owned our ground. They wouldn’t give a fuck who they sold it to.

If the Prince buys the Lane, I would think it has to be a personal purchase. And it makes sense to keep the package of ground and club together. If he doesn’t buy I’m not sure how long Kevin would keep it or to whom he would eventually sell to.