[Archived] Glazer Set For Utd

[cn174]

That's patronising (at best) and shows your ignorance of the facts. Park Ji-sung is South Korea's best player and recognised by most as PSV's best player. He ran the game against Milan in the Champions League semi-final.

Not all Asian players are coveted because they represent merchandising opportunities. Park is probably the best Asian player right now and we'd be lucky to have him at Ewood.

I'm not sure Man U is the best move for him but if he shines for the Champions League Semi-finalists then why isn't he good enough for a team that only reached the last 16.

321831[/snapback]

I was only jokiiiiiing!

[modes98]

Of course Man Utd are buying him because he's a good player, but I'm sure the incentive of increasing profit in Asia is one reason why they are going for him instead of another defender. I would.

321833[/snapback]

He's not a defender. He plays in midfield.

321836[/snapback]

He didn't say he was a defender!

Why do PSV play him up front? (thinking to CL games)

[American]

Actually, the marketing possibilities are probably one of the factors. As they should be. Why not go after players from other markets where they can sell more shirts? More clubs should do that, but, as in this case, the player should be good enough that he will help the club.

[Philly Rover ®]

Good enough to help the club... unlike Diego Maradona Jr. for instance?

[Korean John]

I was only jokiiiiiing!

321840[/snapback]

In that case, I apologise.

I work in Asian football and it does get annoying when the English press can't mention an Asian transfer target without talking about shirts and tv deals.

Hopefully, the profile of Asian players is beginning to rise and maybe we'll be able to move away from that kind of thinking.

The media talks about making millions in Asia and somehow it has become accepted as the truth but there has been little evidence of it so far.

Talk of 600 million people watching a City-Everton game because of Chinese players was just false. Nakata at Fiorentina and Nakamura at Reggina are two of the most famous Japanese players but have hardly set the world on fire or earned their clubs lots of money.

Signing Park will make Man U the most popular foreign team in Korea, taking over from PSV. Two Koreans play for Eindhoven and have done for over two years, and I can honestly say that I have never seen a PSV shirt in all my time here.

Of course Man U are a much bigger club and it will be big news in Korea but if the club is expecting millions of Koreans to sign up for Man U TV to watch games that will be shown at 2 am wearing the shirt, they are in for a shock because it won't happen.

As I said before, talk of cracking the Asian market by signing PArk, is a bit far-fetched. Chinese and Japanese fans will have no interest in a Korean player moving overseas, just as nobody cared in Korea or Japan when Sun Jihai went to City.

[LeChuck]

Oh come on...you don't honestly believe Man Utd have suddenly shown interest in Park purely for his football ability do you?

There's no doubt he's a good player, if he's to have any impact on ManUre's revenue then he'll have to be playing on a regular basis and Park is good enough to do that...but it's too much of a coincidence that they're going for a player they don't really need at a time when they're looking to make large increases in revenue to cover the debt.

just as nobody cared in Korea or Japan when Sun Jihai went to City.

321941[/snapback]

I can't remember the exact figure, but when Man City played Everton there was a huge amount of people watching the game in China because of Li Tie and Sun Jihai.

I am certain Glazer will want to squeeze more money from the Asian market by marketing Park over there, it may even link with his efforts to get an independent TV deal.

Edit: After a little research, I found this;

something like 400,000,000 tuned in to watch City v Everton

No interest indeed...

Edited June 8, 2005 by LeChuck

[philipl]

There is a bit of difference between China and Korea.

The Glazer take over becomes ever more surreal. Having said a fond good bye to Gardner and the other two non-execs, they have reinstated the commercial director the Glazers voted off the Man U board at the last AGM.

So much for their claim to be acting in the best interests of the club all the time.

David Gill is in Florida learning about the detail of the Glazer plan they want him to implement.

Remember Gill is the man who complained about lack of seeding when Man U went out to AC Milan in the last 16 of the Champs League (after Ferguson had come second in their Group to avoid the Spanish sides- allegedly) saying that with their level of investment, Man U deserved a guarranteed return or something to that effect.

[Korean John]

I didn't say that Man U were interested in Park only for football reasons - just that it's tiresome when the press and ,yourself obviously, cannot seem to imagine an Asian player moving to an English club on the basis of talent alone.

Is it a coincidence that Man U are signing him soon after Glazer's takeover? I have no idea but Park's performances in the CL raised his profile around Europe before Glazer came on the scene and it was always going to be this season or next before he moved to Spain or England.

Newcastle and Spurs and a number of Spanish and Italian clubs showed interest but PSV and another season in the CL seemed more appealing. Man U could be a different matter.

As to Man U not needing a player like him at this time. Are you sure? Keane, Giggs and Scholes are not getting any younger and Park can, and has played, in the middle, as an attacking midfielder and on the wing.

400 million people didn't watch the Everton-City game- it's a myth.

After googling, I saw reports ranging from 750, 600,500,400,300, 140 and more. At the time, the Chinese press were laughing at the British newspapers coming up with such nonsense.

[Korean John]

Little bit more research.

According to the Asian Footbal Confederation -last summer's Asian Cup final between China and Japan drew the biggest TV audience in Chinese sporting history with 18.5% of the population, or around 250 million, watching.

The game was a huge deal in China against bitter rivals- everybody in China was talking about it for the week preceding the game, it was the biggest thing in Chinese sport for years so I doubt that 150 million more people would watch City-Everton than the biggest game in Chinese football history.

Prior to that, the most watched game was China-Brazil in 2002 with around 180 million.

Both games were played at 6pm (i think, or early evening anyway) on Saturday evening- not at midnight like the fabled Everton-City game.

[Lee]

Speak to clubs like Man City, Everton and Fulham who have had Chinese and Japanese players, and they'll tell you that they've made nothing from overseas deals in terms of shirt sales and the like.

Most shirts in the far east are fakes as it is!

[Korean John]

Speak to clubs like Man City, Everton and Fulham who have had Chinese and Japanese players, and they'll tell you that they've made nothing from overseas deals in terms of shirt sales and the like.

Most shirts in the far east are fakes as it is!

321984[/snapback]

I'm involved with the Peace Cup - an eight team tournament to be held in Korea in July, Spurs will be there.

Florentina were also invited but as they wanted TV rights to their own games- the invitation was withdrawn.

They were invited because as Nakata plays for them, the organisers hoped that would increase interest in the competition in Japan.

When negotiations were still ongoing however, the Italian said the being paid to appear in the tournament was the first time they had made any money in Asia because of Nakata.

[philipl]

Some snippets concerning the Glazers-

The Glazer family are apparently deciding to conduct Man U business in Tampa and by video conference rather than face the risk of meeting Man U fans this side of the Atlantic. That will make Gill, Hunby and the reinstated Anson even more isolated and vulnerable as the people on the ground in Manchester.

There was a statement by a Junior Minister in the House of Lords last night that the Office of Fair Trading should look at the Man U sale. I fully expect that the OFT will decline the invitation but if they do use the Glazer take over as a pretext to look into competition in football it would bring a new element of uncertainty to the game in general and the Mancs in particular.

The Deloitte & Touche report on football finances has some interesting things to say about Chelsea. It does highlight that it is possible to grow football revenues rapidly- Chelsea up from £93m to £144m under Abramovich- but that has been in the back of massive investment and newly achieved football success (For Man U under the Glazers, there is little scope for investment and the club has already been reaping the revenue benefit of on-field success). Apparently Abramovich has set a four year target and plan for Chelsea to overhaul Man U as the world's "biggest" football club in revenue terms. To have such a well-funded and aggressive competitor headed by the Mancs' ex-CEO adds one more very significant difficulty for the Glazers.

It will be interesting if the reported ultimatum given to RFW by the Glazers is true- win the Prem in 05/06 or you are out.

Edited June 9, 2005 by philipl

[philipl]

A flood of Glazer stuff this morning following The Times doing an expose of Glazer's business plans which essentially recycles The Independent story of last week-end.

Possibly the most significant discovery if it has substance is lurking in the middle of this BBC story. If the money boys at Shareholders' United really can prove that there were manipulated spikes in the Zapata share price at the time the Glazers were using their Zapata shareholdings as collateral for borrowings to buy Man U, the Glazers are in deep trouble up to and including jail sentences. Speculation at the moment but with the Manc supporters no doubt re-energised in their hate campaign, the bloodhounds will be out.

Sacking Bobby Charlton is inevitable if the Glazers want to keep the Man U business tight within the family to avoid public scrutiny- their usual modus operanda. There are other reports contradicting Charlton's imminent dismissal as a director.

Bloomburg, the American financial newswire is very unimpressed by the Glazer deal for Man U. They point out that the rate of interest Glazer is paying on his borrowings is pretty well a record high for any borrowings for any major buyout. The Financial Community are clearly calling this one a very high risk of failure (and no doubt have collateral on most Glazer assets as well as Man U to back it up).

Summing up the Glazers' business proposition, they are going to raise ticket prices by over 54% and look for a doubling in sponsorship by Merchandising United (tricky if the customers are revolting) In short they are looking to dump the whole of their £830m purchase (£34m in banking fees) onto the Manc supporters. Of course the hidden agenda is to wreck football by a grab at media rights to make the Glazers a shed load of cash out of the deal whilst they fleece the fans as they fight that one out in the Courts. This is The Times comment on the numbers- very little margin for error.

Meanwhilst, the natives are turning nasty and the police have been called in.

Edited June 10, 2005 by philipl

[philipl]

The fans hit the ######

[cletus]

If it was ANY other club in the world (except Bumley) i`d be sympathetic.....but as far as i`m concerned man ure (& their fans) can go & #### themselves with something sharp & spikey.......after all, they are THE most arrogant fans in the world.

[Nayef]

Possibly the most significant discovery if it has substance is lurking in the middle of this BBC story.

From oil to sausages in no time at all?!

[philipl]

The Independent points out that Glazer business plan includes no provision to repay the loans he's taken out.

Oops!

[BRFC4EVA]

Park is a damn fine player imo and would be a good addition to the United team. Surely as a South Korean rather than chinease, its difficult to claim that its just being done for the Asian market as their population is limited and im sure not that popular in outside of S. Korea.

[philipl]

The Guardian doing its bit of analysis. The key point they make is the £25m a year transfer figure is a cap by the lenders- it is quite possible the actual budget will be much lower as the Shareholders United has crunched Glazer's own numbers and shows that Glazer will have to sell to survive unless he has refinancing tied up.

However, The Times has come up with a corker in its digging. One of the Bank Covenants Glazer has signed puts a £10m upper limit on transfer spending for this summer's transfer window. No wonder Ferguson is trying to offload Saha, ended up with Van Der Sar when he was looking at Buffon and is targeting Park from PSV when others are looking at Essien.

The graphs in that Times article are very instructive. It shows Glazer assuming Man U stay within the existing broadcast rights deals and a consequent dip in broadcast revenues when the Sky deal is renegotiated thanks to the meddling fool in the European Commission.

More than ever, it is obvious that Glazer has to rip the Premiership TV deal apart and destroy the finances of Blackburn Rovers (and 16 other Prem clubs) to avoid financial destruction himself.

Edited June 11, 2005 by philipl

[jim mk2]

The Times also says Glazer has the option of paying himself a £150 million "dividend" on completion of the takeover.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Ferdinand backs United fans over Glazer

Man United defender Rio Ferdinand today came out in support of fans protesting against the Glazer takeover.

"Football is a working man's game, the game of the people. If this heartless billionaire comes in and raises ticket prices beyond the grip of the ordinary working man it will be a sad day for football," commented the multi-millionaire, currently demanding a new £120,000 a week contract.

"I'm completely on the side of the fans," said Ferdinand. "The ticket prices show a total lack of understanding for the average salaries of the working classes."

"I was banned from football for eight months so I know what it's like to be unemployed. It was a real struggle for me to survive on 70 grand a week, so I know what it must be like for other supporters in that situation," he said.

Ferdinand revealed that during his suspension, he used to drive past factories in his £135,000 Aston Martin on the way home to his £3m mansion and empathise with the lives of ordinary Mancunians.

"I'm fully behind the fans who are against these price increases. Football is a working man's game and it's sad to see supporters being ripped off by greed," said Rio, before driving off to see a girlfriend in his new Ferrari Convertible.

..............................................................................................

Thank you Philipl for your contributions and links on this thread.

When Glazer was trying to take over the club last year, we had the usual PR stuff coming from his spokesman - claiming that Malcolm wouldn't be looking to hike up prices at Old Trafford. That's exactly what he plans to do.

Ordinary supporters will be priced out, and more seats will be taken over by private boxes for the "prawn sandwich" brigade - the type of champagne-drinking corporate sponsors who pay big money and don't give a damn about the traditions of the game and who actually runs the club.

Meanwhile, the team will be dragged to the USA every year to play friendlies in Florida, to bail out the Jewish-American tycoon who doesn't have the balls to set foot in Old Trafford. This was the guy who made his money from renting out trailer parks and ruthlessly upping rents for elderly residents, and now he wants to bleed United fans dry as well - from the comfort of his Florida mansion.

The bearded American gnome represents the ugly face of capitalism. But I'll probably be accused by Scotty of talking moralistic crap....

[philipl]

A description of how the Hedge Funds' noose on Glazer/United will tighten if the Glazer business plan doesn't work.

I've always had a downer on the Mancs. I'll be cheering every kick against them last season.

CSKA v Man U in the third qualifying round for the Champs League would be just perfect combined with a renaissance of Liverpool in the Prem and Everton retaining 4th.

[JC4LAB]

Malcolm Glazier looks like that that Racing commentator to me..who was on Celebrity Big Brother and didnt talk to anyone either..but in fairness to him did the previous owners of Man U really have the fans interests at heart or were they milking the club through dividends?How much was being paid out in Dividends each year?Is the club not just swapping dividends for interest payments?

[FourLaneBlue]

I was only jokiiiiiing!

321840[/snapback]

In that case, I apologise.

I work in Asian football and it does get annoying when the English press can't mention an Asian transfer target without talking about shirts and tv deals.

Hopefully, the profile of Asian players is beginning to rise and maybe we'll be able to move away from that kind of thinking.

The media talks about making millions in Asia and somehow it has become accepted as the truth but there has been little evidence of it so far.

Talk of 600 million people watching a City-Everton game because of Chinese players was just false. Nakata at Fiorentina and Nakamura at Reggina are two of the most famous Japanese players but have hardly set the world on fire or earned their clubs lots of money.

Signing Park will make Man U the most popular foreign team in Korea, taking over from PSV. Two Koreans play for Eindhoven and have done for over two years, and I can honestly say that I have never seen a PSV shirt in all my time here.

Of course Man U are a much bigger club and it will be big news in Korea but if the club is expecting millions of Koreans to sign up for Man U TV to watch games that will be shown at 2 am wearing the shirt, they are in for a shock because it won't happen.

As I said before, talk of cracking the Asian market by signing PArk, is a bit far-fetched. Chinese and Japanese fans will have no interest in a Korean player moving overseas, just as nobody cared in Korea or Japan when Sun Jihai went to City.

321941[/snapback]

Excellent post and says much of what I think but haven't had the gumption to put down. Although...leave clarey alone - she was just joking!

As for Park not being related to marketing opportunites...we will see if United go on a South Korean tour sometime or not. Park is a cracking player make no doubt but United wouldn't be much of a set-up if they didn't exploit his popularity in his homeland.

As for media reports about Asia...well, some people believed the crap about Rooney being "bigger" in Asia than David Beckham...anyone with a brain (and, let's be honest...eyes) would know why that could not be possible. Yet it is reported by some crappy journalists back here as gospel, despite the nearest those people getting to Asia is their weekly trip to the local curry house.

Personally I'd like Rovers to sign a Chinese player as it'd help my South China Rover s Recruitment bid along more than just a bit. They only seem to support the big teams unfortunately (bit like back in England) unless I threaten to expel them when they suddenly discover an affectation for Rovers. Despite that, of the football fans on the main university campus here they are divided along the lines of United, Chelsea, Real Madrid and AC Milan unfortunately. I'm trying to big up Rovers and, as a second choice, Barcelona but it's tough. Doesn't matter where you go...TV dictates who the big clubs are. I've got big hopes of Barca cutting into the popularity of those facist Real smug-istas but as for Rovers...come on Sparky gives us something to shout about.

Edited June 13, 2005 by FourLaneBlue

[philipl]

What a surprise! Chelsea set to enter bidding for Park. That was a road accident just waiting to happen to RFW given the close Chelsea/PSV relationship.

With the Mancs about to announce record ST sales, I always thought the fans' disgust at Glazer would be limited to guerilla tactics which will make life very un comfortable for the Glazers should they come to the UK and the likes of Gill should they stay on to take Glazer's wodge.

Chelsea sticking the boot into the current world number 1 whilst they are in this transition phase is a far more damaging proposition for Glazer. Forcing over-payment for Park and upping their wage structure through Ferdinand has to be part of the game.