[Archived] Rovers Might Have Been Sold?

[Iceman]

I think, what the sponsorships bring to the plate, is that if he signs mega sponsorship deals, he would most probably put some of that back into his pocket. I think the module that he is working around is, that eg if he signs a big sponsorship deal say with an Indian company (Samoosa Palace for instance), that he will use from that money to market the club, and on other expenses and still take back some money on what he might have spent. Many companies, use supplier money to market or advertise their products, sort of a contribution, to have their name splashed all over the place. We certainly don’t have that many sponsorships, and the ones we do have are hardly that big anyway(I speak under correction though) . I can see Mr Syed looking at the likes of Fly Emirates, perhaps at new shirt deals with say Nike or Adidas etc, perhaps have his own WGA group as a shirt sponsor.

Mr Syed is no mug, he knows exactly what he is doing and he will look like really stupid, if he suddenly does a U Turn and does the exact opposite of what he has said. Perhaps he has come out fighting too much, and perhaps he has said too many good things, without a negative comment or perhaps a word of caution to the fans. Its quite understandable, that he needs to win over the fans, the Trustees and Blackburn and its surrounding areas by doing some good things and saying some even better things.

We have all the right to be a bit cautious, a bit negative, but blimey this is one helluva good feeling to have right now. we as fans have been patient, we have struggled with nothing, we have had to bitch and moan at every opportunity, because of lack of signings, lack of funds, improving the Riverside stand etc. Be excited, because IF this takeover goes ahead without any hiccups, then we will be so much better off, and with the youngsters emerging, with JW and Big Sam still in charge, you can guarantee that a) the youngsters will still be given the chances, a smooth running of the club and c) finally a chance to sign 1 or 2 good players and to compete with any club in the league.

[philipl]

On the WGA numbers.

Syed's moneys for its investment pool are being transferred in tranches- that is why you are seeing various numbers $375m, $1bn, $2bn, $7bn, $8bn. Shifting that amount of "real" wealth (as opposed to banker fantasy money) takes time and it also makes sense to take it steadily to see that the team/locations/model actually works. The 90% ownership masks the reality that it is in fact all his own money as I understand it.

For me the key statement yesterday came from the Irish builder Mr McCabe whose business received E300m in a debt/equity infusion who simply said "Syed is the real deal".

Two words of caution (please note I am not being against anything):

- do we know if the memorandum of understanding was actually signed yesterday?

- in Premier League terms, £300m over 15 years is seed funding and no more. This is not a return to Jack and Kenny buying a different player every day and the fans having the luxury of booing a current England international (Jeff Thomas) playing for the opposition because they don't fancy him being bought by Rovers.

The way I see things, the present Rovers team set-up is very close to being very good. Spotting and signing the right new Tugay and the right new Roque Santa Cruz will put us into real Cup winning and 5th place finish contention.

Everything is about how people are perceived. I bet that yesterday, the phones rang off the hooks with agents trying to place their players with Rovers whereas before the same agents were not taking calls from Rovers. One benefit Syed will have received from yesterday is that his WGA has suddenly become one of the most famous investment vehicles in the world and I bet they are swamped with investment propositions and CVs this morning- to that extent phase 1 of the reason for buying Rovers has already been achieved and all he's done is paid for six people to have a weekend in Blackburn!

[Ewood and I Would]

Telegraph's take on the situation...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/blackburn-rovers/7948935/Ahsan-Ali-Syed-plans-to-give-Blackburn-manager-Sam-Allardyce-100m-transfer-fund.html

[Ste B]

If this was AN Other club I'm sure we'd all be sat round now shaking our heads wondering what it's all about. "Another Portsmouth in the making?" £100m over five years?!? Sponsorship will account for that? I doubt it.

Still, there's little you or I can do about it is there? There are people who get paid an awful lot of money to make sure that this is being done for the right reasons and for the long term future / stability of the club. What that club will look like in 15 years time I have no idea. Radically different I'd imagine.

Strap yourselves in and hopefully we'll enjoy the ride.

If this board had existed in 1991 when we put the bid in for Lineker, what would people have been saying then ?

"That bloody Jack Walker, who does he think he is"

"If its too good to be true, then is probably is"

I'm sure that if the club is sold, then it will be sold to the right party regardless of any media comments. I'm sure the Reservoir SlumDogs will be examined and questioned by the Trustees at a similar level to how they are currently scrutinising the club,

[47er]

Is that the first time we've heard that he's been following us for 10 years?

Every time I read articles like that I get a little tingle down my back. He refers to Sam as 'Big Sam' none of the corporate Mr Allardyce stuff from him.

I hope and pray he's good to his word because we will have some very exciting times ahead if he is.

I agree with earlier comments that we have some very good players coming through and it looks like mr Syed agrees with this point from his comments. Just add somegood young players to the squad and see where that takes us.

There's no reason why we couldn't emulate the success of Tottenham and push the top 4 with some key additions to our squad. I just hope we don't see Season Ticket prices emulate Tottenhams!!

He said in an earlier interview that he'd "been following Rovers for some time".

[Ewood and I Would]

He refers to Sam as 'Big Sam' none of the corporate Mr Allardyce stuff from him.

Yeah as long as he doesn't take it too far....

[47er]

Paul--your post above is just negativity and pessimism. What do you want to realistically happen?

[bluebruce]

He's green too..

http://www.rtcc.org/2010/html/western-gulf-advisory.html

Although intrestingly that article values WGA at $275m rather than the £8bn figure we have been hearing.

Don't worry too much about that...doesn't say the article date but it has a copyright 2009 at the bottom. The company's value rocketed last year I believe? Not sure about 8 billion though, thought I'd heard 1 billion, and it may be rising to some higher figure I forget.

[Iceman]

You'll have a hard time getting anyone to agree with you jim. I do but I suspect we are the exception.Syed has talked of making Rovers "title contenders" again. Fair enough, great ambition but City have spent £350m and not come close to it yet,they remain a joke club. If we all want Rovers to go down this road fine, I am very concerned because the outcome is predictable. Perhaps Martin O'Neil is looking for a job??

You also forget that City's owners, want immediate success(short term) Syed, has come out and said that he wants Rovers to be in the champions league, but not in the short term

Sorry to pick this particular post TGM but it represents a recurring theme on here - we can do it the Rovers way. I'm sorry this just doesn't make sense. Would Fergusson, Wenger, the various recent managers at City, Chelsea etc be spending obscene millions on transfers and more on wages if this "new way" could work? Nobody won anything by bringing in players, grooming them and selling them at a profit.

I agree with your view on Lerner and how he has made Villa look a real PL club with the Holte etc. the ground looks fantastic. Just a shame the manager quit, the team has won nothing, Milner is leaving, Friedel is rumored to be next and the owner is demanding players be sold as he's doesn't want to fund more signings. Ten days ago I would have said Lerner was the best example of a foreign "investor" a club could have - just shows how wrong you can be

Balotelli - £22.5m and £3m / year on a five year deal. That's the first £37.5m gone. I read somewhere we are going to "invest" £30m a season so just one player puts us in to the second year's budget. This is what we are competing with if Syed is serious in saying he wants to make Rovers "title contenders.

again Paul, where have you heard we will spend 30mill on 1 player? What City does, and what we might do is completely different. As my post above, Citys owners want immediate success, they will do anything to get that success, spending money on everything that moves. You are making comparisons with us and City, when perhaps you should be making a comparison with us and lets say Villa would be better i suppose...

Lets get a grip on reality.

[Majiball]

Paul, keep posting mate your helping keep my head in reality.

As carried away with this as I know I'm going to get until its signed and sealed and players in the door, caution is required from some quarters.

Iceman are Villa not the 3rd highest spender in recent times??? I'll be happy with a couple of good young hopefuls and an experienced striker.

Just imagine spending more than 6 million on one player for a change, two weeks ago we were dreaming of it, hopefully soon it could be a reality. We haven't done that for over 5 years.

[philipl]

There is no doubt City has screwed the market in the way Pompey and West Ham did before them. At least City are not in Rovers' space.

City have simply shown what it is to be totally incompetent. They have spent £350m and produced a side that the one they started off with could have beaten if they are honest with themselves!

Part of the excitement of Syed's plan is the fact it is long term and one of steady building. I do expect we will be Cup contenders after the first two signings but I don't expect Champions League contention for several seasons- Syed comes over as a chess player who is moving all his pieces on the board and thinking several moves ahead.

That means a bit of money for transfers and wages in the early windows so that very obvious weaknesses in the current squad are addressed

Getting the commercial side moving with investment now backed up by a stronger on and off pitch team than we have now and seeing how far the commercial team can turn his investment money into commercial returns which can fund more spending

Seeing how his initiatives stimulate crowds which then requires stadium development which stimulates ore attendance

Investing in the Academy to generate a flow of new players which augment the players bought in....

and so on and so on. The big questions will come when existing personnel move on, what happens if/when we have a bad season, how we handle the inevitable bad publicity when a player misbehaves or the crowd blots its record of good behaviour etc etc.

[Manchester Blue]

Balotelli - £22.5m and £3m / year on a five year deal. That's the first £37.5m gone. I read somewhere we are going to "invest" £30m a season so just one player puts us in to the second year's budget. This is what we are competing with if Syed is serious in saying he wants to make Rovers "title contenders."

Lets get a grip on reality.

Spurs are showing Citeh that you don't have to splash obscene amounts of cash to compete, not peanuts by any stretch, but not silly money. A decent well constructed team built over time will always do better than a team that chucks money at anything. Also Arsenal haven't splashed silly money around either and they have been top 4 for some time, if you wanted to check out how much they have made on the likes of Flamini, Hleb etc etc you'd see they aren't just throwing money around either.

[bluebruce]

Just imagine spending more than 5 million on one player for a change, two weeks ago we were dreaming of it, hopefully soon it could be a reality. We haven't done that for over 5 years.

I'm sure you haven't overlooked this, but we did it last summer...

[Iceman]

Paul, keep posting mate your helping keep my head in reality.

As carried away with this as I know I'm going to get until its signed and sealed and players in the door, caution is required from some quarters.

Iceman are Villa not the 3rd highest spender in recent times??? I'll be happy with a couple of good young hopefuls and an experienced striker.

Just imagine spending more than 5 million on one player for a change, two weeks ago we were dreaming of it, hopefully soon it could be a reality. We haven't done that for over 5 years.

Granted they probably are, but at a rough guess i would think that there spending has been far less laughable, than what we are seeing at City. Im trying to think, of 1 Villa player that was signed for more than 20mill. They have spent quite a bit of money, but they have been spending money for longer than what City has. The signings that Villa has made, has also been much better than at City eg Young, Downing, Milner(English Players), Petrov etc.

I'm sure you haven't overlooked this, but we did it last summer...

6mill in fact

[Majiball]

I'm sure you have overlooked this, but we did it last summer...

Now its right.

[bob fleming]

If this board had existed in 1991 when we put the bid in for Lineker, what would people have been saying then ?

"That bloody Jack Walker, who does he think he is"

They did anyway didn't they?

"If its too good to be true, then it probably is"

Difference being that Jack Walker was well known as a lifelong Rovers fan, we knew him, or at least Walkersteel. 20 years later and the Premier League is full of clubs in massive debt - or ex Premier League clubs who have spent huge amounts of money and are stuggling to get back - some of which are ruined and lucky not to have gone out of business.

As I said we'll just have to wait and see - fingers crossed and all that.

Anyway, enough of my caution / realism / pessimism. Woo Hoooo!!! We're loaded!

[philipl]

Daily Telegraph article largely re-cycles what they have said before

They do say it is not known whether the Memorandum of Understanding was signed or not.

[Brfcrule1]

The only thing I am worried about hopefully he splashes enough money so that our resident Iceman,Iceman2England,Basturk4England or whatever his name is can splash out on a new avatar maybe next we will have Kalinic/Ollsen4England .

[imy9]

Paul-your comments are needed as are jims to keep us on the ground, you guys are the ying to our yang!

Very excited but we need to remain cautious, bet portsmouth thought they were going to challenge for top four when alex took over.let the guy buy our club first...

[Majiball]

Granted they probably are, but at a rough guess i would think that there spending has been far less laughable, than what we are seeing at City. Im trying to think, of 1 Villa player that was signed for more than 20mill. They have spent quite a bit of money, but they have been spending money for longer than what City has. The signings that Villa has made, has also been much better than at City eg Young, Downing, Milner(English Players), Petrov etc.

I'm not sure we should primarily go down the sign young English players route. Look at the likes of Delph so expensive for what he was then. I think we should look to younger players but perhaps from abroad and only if we can get them on the pitch. With heavy investment in the academy we'll soon be producing a steady stream ourselves, I just hope they complement the current good coaches we have their IE Bowyer, McPhillips and Ireland with a few from more established youth producing countries.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

IMO I can't see the point in investing silly money in the team - we certainly don't need to spend £100 million this year as

a) we'd still struggle to attract top players without being ripped off on wages

B clubs would ask for even sillier mony than now.

There are still some talented players about who would fit into our transfer ethos - young, resale value or older experienced and free.

WIth a transfer kitty around 20 million at the beinning of the summer we may have been able to bring in three or four of the following players... Dos Santos, Ben Arfa, Lewandowski, Guti, Raul, Klose. These would enhance the squad and add flair/goals.

TBH if we are able to simply complete for the likes of the above then it would be exciting enough without the mega risk strategy of established mega bucks internationals.

The club could then focus on picking up bargains and players with something to prove/ developing the academy - Not the established players that city are buying for the gravy train.

I hope Mr Syed is genuine with his attentions but believe we have to keep realistic. UEFA Cup (whatever it's called now)football and the ability to upset the big guns now and then would be brilliant.

[vizcaya]

Club statement

[Majiball]

Does that mean the "thingy" hasn't been signed???

[only2garners]

Does that mean the "thingy" hasn't been signed???

It means everything is going fine so far but they won't be saying anything significant until everything is sorted.

[Amo]

Am I the only one who's heard next nothing to about this on SSN? I'm sure if this was one of the big city clubs, they'd be reporting from outside the stadium throughout the day, and wheeling out ex-pros to discuss the potential of a takeover.