[Archived] Rovers Might Have Been Sold?

[Iceman]

Interesting line there, IF his finances allow him, then he would be interested in Beckham. Beckham, would be a major drawcard, and could be his 1st step with regards to marketing the club.

Philip, by your post, i take it that Syed has been in talks for far longer than what we know of?

[Alan75]

He would like Beckham !

And I'm old enough to remember Fulham signing George Best, Rodney Marsh and Bobby Moore - didnt exactly set Fulham on the World stage.

[Ricky]

But you still remember it even now.

[philipl]

He would like Beckham !

Never mind the Beckham bit, read the rest of that link:

The club was established in 1875, becoming a founding member of The Football League in 1888. In 1992, Blackburn was promoted to the new Premier League a year after being taken over by local steel baron Jack Walker. In 1995, Blackburn became champions and the only side other than the big three - Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United - to win it. The club's Latin motto is 'Arte et labore' which translates to 'By Skill & Hard Work'.

"If I was only after the money then I would have chased a big club," Syed explained. "But I have always enjoyed how Blackburn was created.

"I like how they have loyal fans and I want to be a part of them - like a family. If I wanted to make money I could have gone elsewhere. I am looking into them because of their strong substantial base and I am planning on staying there for a long time.

"I am looking for options to buy a house in Lancashire to be a native and a true Blackburn fan. I want to speak the local language of the fans and be seen as one of them - not just as an owner. I always want to be known that way."

Iceman- no; I fully accept that the contact with Syed is only 4 and a half weeks old as of today. If it happens, the Beckham link is the most obvious thing to do to up the club's profile and fill stadiums.

[Paul]

Its 100M for players OVER 5 YEARS isn't it?

I think you will find it has been widely reported as immediate, lets imagine the first 12 months.

If your post has no negativity then the word has no meaning. Anyway to move on:

I'm tolerant of your views and your right to express them and that's why that I asked you to expand on them. Instead you've simply continued to pour cold water on the proposed takeover as you did before.

So I'll ask you again---what do you want to happen? If your doubts about this takeover are so strong, what do you want instead?

OK lets try to be clear about this. I am not pouring cold water on the takeover, earlier I was very clear in saying it was obviously going to happen. It does however worry me as to where this will leave the club in the future and raises a number of questions which I think are important. Surely we have all learnt something from the investments at clubs such as Leeds, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Newcastle to name but a few. If it is wrong to question how our club will be funded in the longterm I can only apologise,

I'll raise one question as an example and I'll be interested to see if anyone can put up an arguement as to why this is unreasonable. From what I gather the manager will have £100m available in the short term for transfers. Usually "transfers" in this sense implies the cost of buying the player, it is divorced from the wage bill. I have no figures to prove the next statement but think many examples can be found to show the real cost of a player over the period of his contract is the transfer fee plus 80% of that value for his salary. Therefore a £10m player, paid £2m per annum on a four year deal actually costs, £18m - lets not bother with other employment costs such as employer's NI etc. as it merely complicates the discussion.

Before I'm accused of inflating the figures lets use the player's salary as 60% of his transfer fee, giving plenty of margin for error and improving the arguement for those who are more optimistic. Sam is to have a budget of £100m in the near future, so the question is this:

If we have £100m for transfer fees we will need at least a further £60m (over the period of the players contract) to fund the salaries. Over four years this increases the wage bill by £15m per season. Where is the money going to be earned? Please consider Rovers turnover is currently in the £50m+ region. This additional £15m would need to be net of any costs associated with earning the funds. I don't think it's enough to just talk of the new sponsorship, marketing plans etc.

OR

Does the £100m include transfer fees and salaries for these signings? If worked in this manner it would provide £60m in transfer fees and £36m (over four years).

I hope you can see the difference; the first option raises questions on funding wages, the second seems a more realistic approach to me. It does of course raise a question about the amount we have been told but that's churlish so I won't go there.

You asked what I want instead of this takeover. I don't have an alternative and there is no reason why I should. There is every reason why, as a Rovers fan and considering the way the game has changed in the past 15 years, I should question the "whys and wherefores" of what is about to happen at our club. None of this occurred to me when Jack Walker bought the club. Why? We knew who Jack Walker was and secondly the game was entirely different none of us having seen the consequences of poor investment plans in major football clubs. I ask these questions having seen the results of poor investment. Is this OK for you or is it just pouring cold water on the issue?

You asked what do I want instead? Well you didn't quite mean it this way but as a statment of intent I'd have liked the club to have signed Craig Bellamy. Our squad lacks goals, flair, creativity and a "bums on seats" player and I think we missed an opportunity yesterday. Of course his wages would probably have been £2-3m for the season and this would have been a huge gamble if the Syed bid fails............but according to most this sum is just petty cash.

[Guest brianpepper]

Cryer just on talk right wing. Putting it out there nationally which is good for confidence. some good details being put into the public domain.

Obviously alcoholic and irani were dismissing of it all once cryer had hung up

[Paul]

And I'm old enough to remember Fulham signing George Best, Rodney Marsh and Bobby Moore - didnt exactly set Fulham on the World stage.

On the other hand Alan I can recall being very excited when we signed the likes of Archibald, Ardilles, Moran and Stapleton to name a few. I know the situation is different bit it did raise a buzz around the place.

[unluckymorton]

Call me cautious if you like, but I've always been suspicious of people / companies who openly talk publicly of proposed financial expenditure.

His open declaration on how much money he proposes to spend on transfers, now makes it difficult for the club to negociate incoming transfers and also helps to line the pockets of agents and player wage negociation.

In my experience discreet business deals are usualy the most successfull.

Whats that old saying about a fool and his money.

He cant be that much of a fool if he's made billions by the age of 36. What stands out to me is that he is not in it for the money but for his passion of Blackburn Rovers and that he wants to be one of us. For the last two weeks fans have been going on asking 'how much money has he really got' and 'how much is he really going to spend'. He has now made a statement of intent to let the fans and the football world aware of his plans, nothing wrong with that at all. We were in a position at the beginning of the transfer window where we had to be tight lipped about exactly how much we were willing to spend (if anything!) so we could try to make the most out of the limited resources available, now we have a billionaire wanting to back us it will be a refreshing change, we will be able to go out and compete with the big boys for good quality players. We need to show the world we mean business, and that's exactly what he's doing.

As for making player & agent negotiation difficult, it will be a damn site easier negotiating with £80m-£100m behind us than it has been in the last few transfer windows.

As for signing Beckham, bring it on. That would work wonders for marketing and we would get fans from all over the North West, if not all over the country coming to Ewood to see him play.

[brian_gallagher85]

And I'm old enough to remember Fulham signing George Best, Rodney Marsh and Bobby Moore - didnt exactly set Fulham on the World stage.

Not arguing that they where great players, but I don't think that they where huge names worldwide.

The sheer number of Galaxy and Milan that you see bearing his name is surely what he will be wanting to replicate.

[47er]

I think you will find it has been widely reported as immediate, lets imagine the first 12 months.

OK lets try to be clear about this. I am not pouring cold water on the takeover, earlier I was very clear in saying it was obviously going to happen. It does however worry me as to where this will leave the club in the future and raises a number of questions which I think are important. Surely we have all learnt something from the investments at clubs such as Leeds, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Newcastle to name but a few. If it is wrong to question how our club will be funded in the longterm I can only apologise,

I'll raise one question as an example and I'll be interested to see if anyone can put up an arguement as to why this is unreasonable. From what I gather the manager will have £100m available in the short term for transfers. Usually "transfers" in this sense implies the cost of buying the player, it is divorced from the wage bill. I have no figures to prove the next statement but think many examples can be found to show the real cost of a player over the period of his contract is the transfer fee plus 80% of that value for his salary. Therefore a £10m player, paid £2m per annum on a four year deal actually costs, £18m - lets not bother with other employment costs such as employer's NI etc. as it merely complicates the discussion.

Before I'm accused of inflating the figures lets use the player's salary as 60% of his transfer fee, giving plenty of margin for error and improving the arguement for those who are more optimistic. Sam is to have a budget of £100m in the near future, so the question is this:

If we have £100m for transfer fees we will need at least a further £60m (over the period of the players contract) to fund the salaries. Over four years this increases the wage bill by £15m per season. Where is the money going to be earned? Please consider Rovers turnover is currently in the £50m+ region. This additional £15m would need to be net of any costs associated with earning the funds. I don't think it's enough to just talk of the new sponsorship, marketing plans etc.

OR

Does the £100m include transfer fees and salaries for these signings? If worked in this manner it would provide £60m in transfer fees and £36m (over four years).

I hope you can see the difference; the first option raises questions on funding wages, the second seems a more realistic approach to me. It does of course raise a question about the amount we have been told but that's churlish so I won't go there.

You asked what I want instead of this takeover. I don't have an alternative and there is no reason why I should. There is every reason why, as a Rovers fan and considering the way the game has changed in the past 15 years, I should question the "whys and wherefores" of what is about to happen at our club. None of this occurred to me when Jack Walker bought the club. Why? We knew who Jack Walker was and secondly the game was entirely different none of us having seen the consequences of poor investment plans in major football clubs. I ask these questions having seen the results of poor investment. Is this OK for you or is it just pouring cold water on the issue?

You asked what do I want instead? Well you didn't quite mean it this way but as a statment of intent I'd have liked the club to have signed Craig Bellamy. Our squad lacks goals, flair, creativity and a "bums on seats" player and I think we missed an opportunity yesterday. Of course his wages would probably have been £2-3m for the season and this would have been a huge gamble if the Syed bid fails............but according to most this sum is just petty cash.

First point-the 100M has been reported both ways------ as being available immediately or available over 5 years.In fact the LT is saying that right now. I don't know which one is true and I honestly don't know which I'd prefer!

Secondly I asked you what you wanted instead of a takeover "realistically". To answer "sign Bellamy" is a rather strange answer and is certainly not realistic without a takeover.

Your statement....... "All we have heard is how wonderful it will be. I have great difficulty in believing much of this and frankly 45000 capacity stadium just confirms it for me."

Yet according to you you are not negative and not pouring cold water on a takeover. Well it doesn't seem that way to me. You've accepted there is no alternative so that makes your stance even more difficult to understand.

[brian_gallagher85]

My god the waiting is killing me already, thankfully I'm off on my hols tomorrow....it'll all have been sorted when I get back, it always does. We signed Benni and RSC when I've been away before

[Iceman]

My god the waiting is killing me already, thankfully I'm off on my hols tomorrow....it'll all have been sorted when I get back, it always does. We signed Benni and RSC when I've been away before

so why dont you go more on holidays Brian, makes sense now as to why we were always looking at the Benjani's and the Beatties of this world

[Derbyshire Blue]

I'd be very upset if a large chunk of the 100 million and he would cost a fortune (figures quoted for Galaxy unreal) on a over the hill ageing Beckham... that wouldn't necessarily improve our team overall... and how much do you think Rovers would make on shirt sales with his name on after he's taken his cut...we aren't Real Madrid

[brian_gallagher85]

Is there room on your floor for January Iccers ?

[Iceman]

Is there room on your floor for January Iccers ?

i have some spare space for you in my Igloo mate Rovers needs you to go on holiday in January, if things dont work out before the 1st September

[mogster]

Paul Plunkett is still trying to create a bit of a conflict saying that Saurin Shah is still trying to buy the club....... YYYAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNN

[John]

As said previously, don't think publicly stating figures for transfers etc is that wise - just means we will have to pay inflated fees.

Obviously the lack of understanding on football is an issue here (hopefully not a sign of things to come).

Don't get me wrong, this could be good news for us, however some are getting far too carried away, at this stage, with his comments etc - similar comments have been heard at other clubs when foriegn owners have come in.

[Majiball]

I'd be very upset if a large chunk of the 100 million and he would cost a fortune (figures quoted for Galaxy unreal) on a over the hill ageing Beckham... that wouldn't necessarily improve our team overall... and how much do you think Rovers would make on shirt sales with his name on after he's taken his cut...we aren't Real Madrid

No we are not Madrid, but we are bigger than LA Galaxy

Loan him ala AC milan.

Found this paper enjoy, LOL

Comm 423

The Value of David Beckham

Dik Yi Tse (230052113)

Ryan Darmasubrata (230055322)

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate one of the most phenomenal transfers in the football world. The transferred of David Beckham from Manchester United to Real Madrid has becoming the talk of not just football fans but the financial expert for the last 2 years. Unlike most transfers, the David Beckham transfer has revolutionized player transfer in the football world. It became the standing point on how football player is not valued according to their skills on the field but rather on their skills outside the field. The paper will evaluate the cause, the reasons and the effect of the transfer based on both technical and financial aspects.

In order to evaluate the transfer based on its financial aspect, we will use analytical theory of production and competition between firms.

Variable cost satisfies the following formula:

Return function:

C: variable cost

S: unit price of the product

K: fixed cost

σ: rate of diffusion

r: discount rate

T: duration of the facility

With the formulas above, we try to justify the returns of the football clubs under different environment. From the calculations, we can see the change of revenue for the football clubs between fixed costs at different levels of market size.

David Beckham

David Beckham is an English footballer, widely regarded as the biggest icon in the sport. He currently plays for Real Madrid and he is the captain of England national team. David Beckham is especially noted for the quality of his crossing and the ability to hit free-kicks particularly from long-range and swinging corners. He is also famed for his celebrity lifestyle trappings, media attention and marketing potential. Early on in his career Beckham secured a number of lucrative sponsorship deals including Brylcreem, Adidas, Vodafone (which ended in July 2005) and Diesel. Despite the USA's uneven acceptance of soccer, Beckham's recognition in the USA is strong enough to enable him to appear in print and television advertising for various sponsors, including Gillette razors. He has become more well known in North America since the success of the British film Bend It Like Beckham, about a British Sikh girl who idolizes David Beckham and harbours ambitions of being a football player.

David was born on May 2, 1975 in Leytonstone, London to Ted and Sandra Beckham. David's parents were Manchester United supporters and he accompanied then to many of the games. He signed for Manchester United as a trainee in July 1991 and he was instrumental in helping the club win the FA Youth Cup in May 1992, scoring in the second leg of the final against Crystal Palace. His Premier League debut eventually came at home to Leeds United on April 2, 1995. Partially as a result of injuries to key starters, David established himself in the first team during the 1995/96 season. David's match-winning performances during 1996/97 helped United to win another Premiership title and reach the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League. On a personal level, he was voted Young Player of the Year and second in the overall Player of the Year poll. Manchester United's 1997/98 season was one to forget as they finished second to Arsenal in the League, lost to Barnsley in the FA Cup and were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Monaco. David enjoyed a memorable moment, when he was selected for England's World Cup Finals squad. He’s been a team member ever since. Beckham captained England for the first time in a friendly match in Italy and retained the armband for the friendly with Spain and the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Finland, against whom he scored an important goal at Anfield.

Beckham made his 85th appearance for England in 2005 and is expected to captain the team at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. If so, he would become only the sixth England player to represent his country at three World Cup competitions (although Sol Campbell and Michael Owen are expected to achieve this feat at the same time), and the fourth (after Billy Wright, Bobby Moore and Bryan Robson) to captain the team at more than one World Cup. Beckham is also a reasonable candidate to record 100 appearances for his country.

He captained his country for a landmark 50th time in the friendly international against Argentina in November 2005. Beckham is one of only four players to have appeared 100 times in the Champions League.

The reasons for transfer

Manchester United

First reason: David Beckham only had 2 more years contract with Manchester United and under the Bosman rule, every player can sign another contract with another team in the term of 6 months before his contract expired. Because of the clause of the Bosman transfer rule, any club can get David Beckham signature without paying any fee to Manchester United, if David Beckham decide not to sign any new contract within the next one and a half years, Manchester United would lose their biggest asset without getting any returns.

Second reason: David Beckham relationship with his manager was in the midst of trouble. David Beckham popularity has divided his concentration between his job on the field and on the runaway. With having conservative method of running a football club, Sir Alex Ferguson, Manager of Manchester United had concern that David Beckham was not performing as best as he should. Hence arguments had arisen in numbers of occasion.

Third reason: Pepsi and Adidas played a big role in forcing David Beckham to move to Real Madrid. For Pepsi, it would be more profitable for them to have David Beckham to play in Real Madrid because Real Madrid has three other players that have sponsorship deals with Pepsi. But the biggest influence came from Adidas, which is the main sponsor to David Beckham. Manchester Untied is sponsored by Nike, Adidas biggest competition in the industry and Real Madrid is sponsored by Adidas, so it would be so much better for Adidas to have David Beckham to play in Real Madrid instead of Manchester United.

Fourth reason: Manchester United needs more young players in their squad, while the average age of their rosters has reach 30 years old, Manchester United needs to find another potential young player to maintain their reputation, the sale of David Beckham would bring the necessary capital for the investment.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid is a very successful club with champion’s reputation at their back, their starting lineup is filled with star players, hence their advantage was also their biggest weakness. With many star players in their team, Real Madrid has a high fixed cost in their operation, but most of their star players are not very commercial. Majority of the players are just big names within the industry or in the European market. Real didn’t have any network in the Asian and North American market at the time. With football to be the number one sport in Asia, Real Madrid was missing majority of the action. As a result in 2002/03 season, Real Madrid only spotted themselves the 8th on the list of the richest club in the world.

Real Madrid needed to find a player who would pioneer their marketing strategy to the whole world. They are not only looking for someone who can bring sponsors to their stadium, and not just a poster boy for the campaign, but also has the skills to show in the field. This is the ultimate reason why Real Madrid was very determined to get Beckham.

The effects of David Beckham to Real Madrid

Real Madrid's revenue from club merchandise, such as shirts, jumped 67 per cent in Beckham's first season alone, and climbed another 6.5 per cent in the year to June. Overall commercial income, which includes money from deals with the likes of Siemens, Adidas and Pepsi, which have all grown in value with the "Beckham effect", now stands at around £80m a year. Real Madrid also earned £48m (26 per cent of turnover) from match-day income (primarily ticket sales), £44m (24 per cent) from television, and £16m (8 per cent) from promotional activities such as lucrative overseas tours and friendliness, which have also become better earners because of David Beckham. And whereas Real Madrid's annual wage bill (£98m) now equates to 52 per cent of turnover, and is falling towards an expected ratio of 47 per cent next year.

With the financial improvement, Real Madrid is now the richest club in the world, beating Manchester United who won the title 8th consecutive years.

2005 Football clubs revenue ranks :

1 Real Madrid (Spain) $330 million

Manchester United was No. 1 when it had David Beckham. Now Real Madrid has him and became No. 1.

2 Manchester United (England) $295 million

Slips out of the top spot for the first time in the nine-year history of the rankings.

3 AC Milan (Italy) $280 million

Nearly 60 percent, or $165 million, of its revenue is from broadcasting – more than anyone else.

4 Juventus (Italy) $274 million

Averages only 26,600 fans but moves up from No. 5 last year thanks to a lucrative TV contract.

5 Chelsea (England) $264 million

Its otherworldly payroll makes it No. 1 in annual net losses, which reportedly were $244 million.

Evaluating the transfer

In determining the justification for the transfer, we use the analytical theory to prove that even though Real Madrid paid a large sum of transfer fee and obligated to pay a high salary to David Beckham, the acquisition would profit Real Madrid more because the larger market size that David Beckham can open for Real Madrid.

To make the calculation to be accurate as possible, we had made some assumptions for the numbers used in the calculation. Reader should keep in mind that because Real Madrid is a private organization, it is very hard to find the actual data about their current and past financial statements. Nevertheless, we did our best to present the numbers as it would present the actual case scenario.

Fixed cost (K), because we do not have the actual numbers for the fixed operation cost from Real Madrid, we use the assumption that fixed cost would be equal to the salary of the players. We know that there are other things that contribute to the clubs fixed cost but for the sake of the formulation we are ignoring that. The fixed cost increased from $98 million to approximately $117 million because of David Beckham.

Discount rate ®, according to our research, the closest number that we found for the discount rate during that time in Spain, was the checking account interest rate, provided by the banks in Spain. Hence we use this number as our discount rate.

Term of project (T), David Beckham was 28 years old when Real Madrid bought him from Manchester United, using the assumptions that most football players can play until the age of 34 years old, we use the length of project to be 6 years.

Uncertainty rate (sigma), if Real Madrid did not buy David Beckham, they would have an uncertainty rate of 50%, that is they either succeed or not. With David Beckham on their squad, they have bigger uncertainty because they have to add the possibility that will David Beckham can work together with his teammates and produce something positive for the team or will he have some problems in adjusting to the new Spanish strategy. From the marketing strategy, they would also be concern that if David Beckham’s fans would still like him in Real Madrid jersey.

The value of product (S), we used the assumption that major football clubs would want to have a success in both the domestic and international competition but as an organization major football clubs also want to bring profit for their business. Because of these factors we concluded that the value of S should be 2 instead of 1.

Market size, we use the assumption that Real Madrid previous market size which is the European market to be 100 and the new potential market involving the Asian and North American market would be 145. The 45% increase due to that in North America, football is not that popular, North American people would prefer to watch and buy basketball, American football, baseball or hockey. For the Asian market, the increase of market size would come from people that buy the merchandise, there is a little chance that they would come to the actual game.

Analysis & Conclusion

From the calculation, it proved that bringing David Beckham to Real Madrid squad was a positive move. The transfer has solved Real Madrid’s problem of having high fixed cost and low returns. David Beckham has managed to open the Asian and North American market for Real Madrid to expand, hence now Real Madrid with high fixed cost on their organization can work and do business more efficiently in larger market size environment.

With the emerging of internet and globalization, major sports clubs have tried to improve their business strategy by purchasing international players that can open more potentials market for their business. Another example besides David Beckham is the Chinese International Basketball Player, Yao Ming. Yao Ming was purchased by the Houston Rockets Basketball Club in US. With the help of Yao Ming, NBA (National Basketball Association of America) and Houston Rockets have managed to gain substantial market in the Asia. NBA opened merchandise stores all over Asia and has extradition match between American Basketball Club and the Chinese Basketball Clubs. Their website subscriber, www.NBA.com, has increase significantly during the past 2 years. With major website subscriber coming from the Asian market, it is only for certain that the expansion program will continue with other Asian basketball players coming to the NBA. In baseball, The Seattle Mariners imitated the strategy by purchasing a Japanese National Baseball player, Ichiro. Ichiro is now a market symbol for the major league of baseball, tourist flow from Japan has increased significantly to Seattle. American baseball has gain more popularity because of Ichiro. Ichiro merchandise is one of the top selling merchandise in the league.

The main reason for this trend among major sport clubs is the revenue coming from the selling of merchandise and television broadcast license. With the improve technology and internet, fans in other parts of the world can watch their favorite player and club match through website and live television broadcast. The distance and time factors have been eliminated by the technology, hence potential customer is closer in today time. Another factor for the trend is the sponsorship revenue coming from companies that want to put their brand on the team’s jersey. With sponsoring a sport club, major companies can make brand recognition by associating their brand to a specific sport clubs or players. The better the clubs perform, the better publication that the sponsor company will achieve. The last reason is the revenue coming from exhibition games. An exhibition game is when a sport clubs have a friendly match with other sport club from different country. Higher fee has to be paid to attract famous clubs to come to do exhibition match.

Today sport industry is not just about winning a game but also about how much money the games will generate for the clubs, the revenue and reputation are the two main factors that influence the livelihood of a sport club. The higher the fixed cost, the more necessary for club to find a player that can open bigger potential market.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

Cryer just on talk right wing. Putting it out there nationally which is good for confidence. some good details being put into the public domain.

Obviously alcoholic and irani were dismissing of it all once cryer had hung up

Talksh1te constantly sneers at the likes of us. Now if Mr Syed was taking over at Tottingham..........

[Blackburn Ender]

Seem to remember the 'billionaire' Mike Ashley talking the same talk when he bought Newcastle.

That worked out really well, didn't it?

Why should Rovers be just about the only club to find a true sugar daddy with a heart of gold?

What's the Latin for seller beware?

[beanie]

As said previously, don't think publicly stating figures for transfers etc is that wise - just means we will have to pay inflated fees.

Obviously the lack of understanding on football is an issue here (hopefully not a sign of things to come).

Don't get me wrong, this could be good news for us, however some are getting far too carried away, at this stage, with his comments etc - similar comments have been heard at other clubs when foriegn owners have come in.

I'm pretty sure the inflated fee's thing would have happend anyway if i was chairman of a club and a club who had just been taken over by a billionaire owner came in for a player i'd chance my arm that they had more to pay than they would have had weather or not he had talked about 100 m or not. Plus is that not why he has said he would be keeping on current management team and by that i'd have thought john williams and his lot as he does not know about that side of football so we don't get ripped off.

[Iceman]

Seem to remember the 'billionaire' Mike Ashley talking the same talk when he bought Newcastle.

That worked out really well, didn't it?

Why should Rovers be just about the only club to find a true sugar daddy with a heart of gold?

What's the Latin for seller beware?

as Rovers supporters, we are never happy. we are never happy when we have nothing, and we are never happy when we MIGHT have some money. We really need to make up our mind right now,because ultimately with no money, we will be in a mess soon. So right now, we just got to a ) trust Syed, and b ) have faith in the guys selling the club, that they are selling to the right individual.

Its normal for people associated with the club, to start questioning the motives behind the bid, but it is also frustrating when you have to scrap for every penny, and to lose your best players, because we dont have the financial strength to hold onto them, and because we lack ambition.

Syed will be able to bring a sense of excitement back into the club, we wouldnt have to sell players, just to be able to cover expenses, and our ambitions will be more than just finishing 10th to generate a bit more extra money for transfers. We would have a real chance of achieving more than what we have in the last few years, perhaps take that extra step up from the regular semi finals we have had, and go all the way with the little quality we might add to the squad. BRFC for the Win

[Metaler]

For those who want to know what Talk Sport think of the takeover

http://www.talksport...in/episode/8288

click on the 1800-1900 link

listen to the advert and then scroll to 37.15

[Guest Kamy100]

I am little bit confused this morning.

I have talked to two of Saurin Shah's advisers this morning. Both of them are adamant that they are still very much in with a chance of buying Rovers, they concede that Syed Ali has made big steps over the last week, however they say that they had productive talks with Rothchild's yesterday. They believe that Mr Ali still has some issues on which he has to convince the Trust on. They are due to have further talks this week.

[BRFC1995]

Seem to remember the 'billionaire' Mike Ashley talking the same talk when he bought Newcastle.

That worked out really well, didn't it?

Why should Rovers be just about the only club to find a true sugar daddy with a heart of gold?

What's the Latin for seller beware?

mike Ashley is unduobtedly the thickest billionaire ever, appointed past it Keegan and had Denis wise buy players? Yeah that was always gonna work'

bought absolute crap and stuck them all on 50k, xisco?

I can't see the frugal nature of the current management going that far off kilter as to cause frictions in the camp, just get value for money in a higher quality of player now.

Kind of glad everyone just signed new contracts, can't really start demanding better deals when this happens.