Prince Buys into Belgian Club: KFCO Beerschot Wilrijk

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Two ways to look at this, half empty and half full (it's the Blades Way).

Half Full - This is a good move to ensure that the creme of what most agree is one of the best youth academys in Europe come to Bramall Lane, at least as a first step into English football, but ideally as key contributors in a Blades' side trying to compete in the Premier League.

Half Empty - This is only a good move for HRH and the McCabes (I'm assuming the McCabes are also involved in this club as the press release states McCabe persuaded HRH to invest). They don't think the Blades could ever be one of the bigger, richer teams in the PL without first gambling large sums of money in getting promoted and then staying up. They've figured out that throwing money at a League One or Championship club is only one way of generating future millions from football and that it's a very risk option. A far better option is to make money on academy graduates. It's worked so far at SUFC (Walker, Maguire etc etc) so why not replicate that financial model elsewhere.

I guess I'm suggesting this could be the start of a HRH/McC academy empire that stretches around the world and makes someone (not SUFC) a fortune.

There's an in-between option I guess, in that the two top guys do see the academy model as the way of generating the cash to gamble on the bigger but more riskier prize of establishing a genuine PL competitor.
 
GaryHamsonsLeftBootLace said:
Two ways to look at this, half empty and half full (it's the Blades Way).

Half Full - This is a good move to ensure that the creme of what most agree is one of the best youth academys in Europe come to Bramall Lane, at least as a first step into English football, but ideally as key contributors in a Blades' side trying to compete in the Premier League.

Half Empty - This is only a good move for HRH and the McCabes (I'm assuming the McCabes are also involved in this club as the press release states McCabe persuaded HRH to invest). They don't think the Blades could ever be one of the bigger, richer teams in the PL without first gambling large sums of money in getting promoted and then staying up. They've figured out that throwing money at a League One or Championship club is only one way of generating future millions from football and that it's a very risk option. A far better option is to make money on academy graduates. It's worked so far at SUFC (Walker, Maguire etc etc) so why not replicate that financial model elsewhere.

I guess I'm suggesting this could be the start of a HRH/McC academy empire that stretches around the world and makes someone (not SUFC) a fortune.

There's an in-between option I guess, in that the two top guys do see the academy model as the way of generating the cash to gamble on the bigger but more riskier prize of establishing a genuine PL competitor.
Click to expand...


Their aim appears to be a strong side themselves in the top division rather than a feeder club to us. Or anyone else.

Is there a link to McCabe and/or SUFC other than the Princes co- ownership only I haven't seen one as yet.

On this, half full, with someone's tab end dropped in I'm afraid.
 
Come from away said:
Until we hear from McCabe it will be a mystery, perhaps soon we will know what it really is!
Click to expand...

Aye
Once he's done that, it is incumbent on him to explain what Brexit REALLY means & the TRUTH about Global warming

Uncle Kev you really are a TWAT

PS once he's sorted those, we need the definitive explanation as to 'inverted comma' "quotation mark" usage.
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
Or preferably, on red and white...
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I'm sure there was a plan* mooted for the fans to buy the club a while ago. Maybe we could Club together to get HRH his money back and be co-owners? Then just raise a bit more every season when Kevin comes round saying we've lost six million, where's your three.......


* in the loosest possible meaning.
 
Sean Thornton said:
Their aim appears to be a strong side themselves in the top division rather than a feeder club to us. Or anyone else.
Click to expand...

I don't buy that. The Belgian top division isn't even on a par with the Championship. It's clearly the academy (he goes on about the 700 youth team players in the PR) he's after. If you think about it, it's a sensible business model. You can spend over £100m like Boro did and spunk it all up the wall, or spend £2m a year on an academy and make £30-40m from a couple of decent graduate player sales. Duplicate that around the world and you're laughing. It's not the billions the PL can bring, but it's a much less risky model.

And don't forget, HRH has experience in this regard as he was Minister of Sporting Development for Saudi Arabia.

The flaw, from a Blades point of view, is that to make money on the graduates they have to be sold for millions, not given to Sheffield United for free to help them get out of the Championship.

I'm being negative I know, but look at the history, it's easy to understand why...
 
Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn said:
Aye
Once he's done that, it is incumbent on him to explain what Brexit REALLY means & the TRUTH about Global warming

Uncle Kev you really are a TWAT

PS once he's sorted those, we need the definitive explanation as to 'inverted comma' "quotation mark" usage.
Click to expand...


Now, not later. Is it "poor Coventry fans" or 'poor Coventry fans' when describing the wankers?
 
I can understand that McCabe has invested money into Sufc but:—

We are in exactly the same position that we were in since McCabe took over other than he personally owns all the real estate.
Hardly made a positive contribution, just lost money funding his mistakes whilst acquiring the real estate.
 
GaryHamsonsLeftBootLace said:
I don't buy that. The Belgian top division isn't even on a par with the Championship. It's clearly the academy (he goes on about the 700 youth team players in the PR) he's after. If you think about it, it's a sensible business model. You can spend over £100m like Boro did and spunk it all up the wall, or spend £2m a year on an academy and make £30-40m from a couple of decent graduate player sales. Duplicate that around the world and you're laughing. It's not the billions the PL can bring, but it's a much less risky model.

And don't forget, HRH has experience in this regard as he was Minister of Sporting Development for Saudi Arabia.

The flaw, from a Blades point of view, is that to make money on the graduates they have to be sold for millions, not given to Sheffield United for free to help them get out of the Championship.

I'm being negative I know, but look at the history, it's easy to understand why...
Click to expand...


As United don't appear to be involved at the moment, just HRH personally, it's all pie in the sky. Why would his co-investors want to supply players to anyone on the cheap?
 



bertieblade said:
I can understand that McCabe has invested money into Sufc but:—

We are in exactly the same position that we were in since McCabe took over other than he personally owns all the real estate.
Hardly made a positive contribution, just lost money funding his mistakes whilst acquiring the real estate.
Click to expand...


He effectively owned the real estate from day one due to his shareholding. He took on the real estate financing as well when it was transferred.
 
Sean Thornton said:
I'm sure there was a plan* mooted for the fans to buy the club a while ago. Maybe we could Club together to get HRH his money back and be co-owners? Then just raise a bit more every season when Kevin comes round saying we've lost six million, where's your three.......


* in the loosest possible meaning.
Click to expand...
If 20,000 supporters put £1k in we could probably pay him off. That's no more than Arsenal fans pay for an ST.
Then if we each paid an extra £500 each season on top of ticket prices, we could buy some better players and have a higher wage bill. And it would still be cheaper than an Arsenal ST. Can't afford it? Just drink less on match day.
 
BushBlade said:
If 20,000 supporters put £1k in we could probably pay him off. That's no more than Arsenal fans pay for an ST.
Then if we each paid an extra £500 each season on top of ticket prices, we could buy some better players and have a higher wage bill. And it would still be cheaper than an Arsenal ST. Can't afford it? Just drink less on match day.
Click to expand...


That's the one!
 
If we lost the prince we would be back on the downward spiral like before. Hopefully this involves united.
 
I think there's an inclination to see money poorly spent as money not spent at all. Weir brought in his share of players and was sacked quickly. Clough brought in an obscene quantity of players. We spent close to £2m on one player in League One, which is silly money relative to the division. Adkins was limited but still brought in the likes of Sharp and Hammond, and while the latter was a giant waste of money, it was still money.

We banked a fair bit of cash from outgoing players yet we now know we lost £6m last season. It was said earlier in an interview with the Prince that we could break even this year but that would likely turn into a loss if we brought in players in January, which we did.

My issue with our board in the McCabe era has always been how we spent our money, not what we spent. Warnock's list of 30-40 "forwards" of which about three were any good. Buying BOTH of Akinbiyi and Horsfield when either one was a gamble and only ever a short term prospect. Our biggest transfer in the Premier League was on (I think) Claude sodding Davis while the rest of it got pissed up the wall on the "cheap" options like Sommeil and Li Tie. When we went down we entrusted big money to Brian Robson and a large wage bill to Blackwell.

The plan from the Prince had been for the bulk of the investment to come in the Championship, but that was before we spent a lot more time in League One, so I assume plans can change. The fact is, we still don't really know how much money the guy has and how much he intends to put in, but what we do know is that throughout our time in League One we were consistently able to attract managers and players and sustain one of the larger budgets in the division, and occasionally make signings like Brayford that other teams must have looked at in the same way we look at what teams like Villa or Wolves can spend on one player.

This Belgian move seems like just another open question about our finances. All that concerns me is that, recent results aside, I see United moving in the right direction under Wilder's control. To be honest, the less I have to think about money from a Saudi royal the happier I am.
 
Addison said:


So in other words its nothing to do with the Blades!
Click to expand...

That does not sound good. Chris is reknowned for being honest in interviews and he seems to have avoided answering a good question from Buchan. This does not augur well.
 
UnitedBlade said:
That does not sound good. Chris is reknowned for being honest in interviews and he seems to have avoided answering a good question from Buchan. This does not augur well.
Click to expand...

Can't really be seen to pick sides at the moment though eh...
 
UnitedBlade said:
That does not sound good. Chris is reknowned for being honest in interviews and he seems to have avoided answering a good question from Buchan. This does not augur well.
Click to expand...


Yet despite no link whatsoever to Sheffield United Football Club ( other than HRH's involvement) people are getting excited about something that's not been said.

Buchan should be asking McCabe, not Wilder, who did the right thing by giving him a tablet.
 
Sean Thornton said:
Yet despite no link whatsoever to Sheffield United Football Club ( other than HRH's involvement) people are getting excited about something that's not been said.

Buchan should be asking McCabe, not Wilder, who did the right thing by giving him a tablet.
Click to expand...
Disagree, perfectly acceptable question from Buchan.

They should also be asking McCabe and the Prince but Wilder is the face of the club week in, week out whether he likes it or not.
 



BushBlade said:
If 20,000 supporters put £1k in we could probably pay him off. That's no more than Arsenal fans pay for an ST.
Then if we each paid an extra £500 each season on top of ticket prices, we could buy some better players and have a higher wage bill. And it would still be cheaper than an Arsenal ST. Can't afford it? Just drink less on match day.
Click to expand...

Drink less on match day,I would rather us be in non league,shameful on your part Sir.
 
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