[Archived] Rovers Might Have Been Sold?

[Guest bluerovers]

The guy is reportedly worth billions and doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

The only thing that can't possibly be true is his supposed fortune.

Nor did Roman Abramovich until he bought Chelsea.

[tony gale's mic]

In the context of the point being made, i guess it's more important when the page/article for him was created, rather than the dates referred to in the article itself

Wikipedia itself has grown exponentially in the last three years in terms of the number of articles on it.

Plus I'm fairly sure given his back story a google search for him three years ago wouldve produced much more than any of our searches for Syed have done (although now theyre littered with stories of him wanting to take over Rovers and being a conman)

Nor did Roman Abramovich until he bought Chelsea.

Really?

Wikipedia was a pretty small operation back in 2003 and wasn't used on anywhere near the same scale it is now.

Still, just in case you did happen to be one of the people that used it then, did you search the site for Abramovich's name before he took over Chelsea, or are you just making things up?

An excerpt from his current article:

By 1996, at the age of 30, Abramovich had become so rich and politically well-connected that he had become close to President Boris Yeltsin, and had moved into an apartment in the Kremlin at the invitation of the Yeltsin family. In 1999, and now a tycoon, Abramovich was elected governor of Russia's remote, far eastern province of Chukotka, and has since lavished £112 million (€ 132 million) on charity to rebuild the impoverished region. The identikit image being pieced together for us was of a self-made man who was not only powerful and wealthy, but acutely aware of those who had done less well in the tumultuous 1990s, when the Soviet Union fell.

I think it's fair to say that if he wasn't currently in charge of Chelski, he'd still have a fairly sizeable page now.

[Wiggy]

Sorry the link is expired, but the same point...Forbes .

Can we really imagine Syed being number two next year? Sources of wealth " Inherited, CEO of 131 companies, financial genius."

[BuckyRover]

It's a silly discussion really. I can't argue that it is possible to be an anonymous billionaire, because they would be anonymous and thus we wouldn't know about it.

I will refrain from calling him a conman at this juncture.

[ada2020]

Wiki and google, the definitive credit check.

[Henwah]

Wikipedia itself has grown exponentially in the last three years in terms of the number of articles on it.

Plus I'm fairly sure given his back story a google search for him three years ago wouldve produced much more than any of our searches for Syed have done (although now theyre littered with stories of him wanting to take over Rovers and being a conman)

I agree completely that there is pretty much zero about the guy pre-2008 which is odd, i was merely pointing out that a lack of wikiness is not that meaningful in itself.

Regarding the lack of info about - I know it is tenuous, but the company website does say that information about clients is kept confidential which 'could' explain the subversive nature of their dealings (if they are real at all), however I have also conceded in a previous post that it seems unlikely that they have done that to such a degree that they were completely off the radar until the past month or so, where they are in the media attempting to invest here there and everywhere, with limited evidence of success

[Wiggy]

It's a silly discussion really.

Not silly at all, it is overwhelmingly the most worrying factor about the bid. Landlords ,scruffy rooms and overambitious educational claims are secondary.

[Henwah]

Wikipedia itself has grown exponentially in the last three years in terms of the number of articles on it.

Plus I'm fairly sure given his back story a google search for him three years ago wouldve produced much more than any of our searches for Syed have done (although now theyre littered with stories of him wanting to take over Rovers and being a conman)

Really?

Wikipedia was a pretty small operation back in 2003 and wasn't used on anywhere near the same scale it is now.

Still, just in case you did happen to be one of the people that used it then, did you search the site for Abramovich's name before he took over Chelsea, or are you just making things up?

An excerpt from his current article:

I think it's fair to say that if he wasn't currently in charge of Chelski, he'd still have a fairly sizeable page now.

Although in fairness, history becomes more relevant and interesting once people are interested in 'his-story'

[MikeB]

When oh when will we know SOMETHING (whether it be good, bad or ugly) - either from BRFC or Uncle Ali.

[tony gale's mic]

Not silly at all, it is overwhelmingly the most worrying factor about the bid. Landlords ,scruffy rooms and overambitious educational claims are secondary.

Exactly.

[Duff's Minder]

Without wishing to clog up the debate it is worth mentioning that I work for a division of the Financial Times that tracks global M&A deals. We have 250 dedicated journalists worldwide tracking every deal over $5m that has been done sine 1999. We have no record of Western Gulf Advisory until June this year when they did the Australian deal.

It might be possible for someone to have ownership of over 130 companies and for us not to know about any of them but it is pretty damn unlikely and Mr Syed doesn't seem to be the secretive type.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Given that he has got this far in a high profile due diligence, signed up top-notch advisory firms and so on, the liklihood is that he has got some serious money. Or do none of these idiots not only not look him up on Wiki but only rely on checks that are less reliable?

The question is, where, why and how did it appear from so suddenly? It's his back story that isn't supported, not whether or not he has any money.

[Henwah]

If the deal had broken down over any of the factors we've been debating and looking at ourselves i.e. messy flats with nice flowers, piles of letters (incidentally including a receipt for safeways, which was bought out 2 years before the pictures were taken..), strange accounts, etc, surely it would be a 'deal-breaker' if you pardon the phrase. I'm no PR expert, but in my mind we would have had a comment from the club by now, as there would be nothing more to discuss and the club would want to dis-associate themselves from the con-men (if this was the case) asap to maintain their own reputations if nothing else - why would they hang about?

[ada2020]

Not silly at all, it is overwhelmingly the most worrying factor about the bid. Landlords ,scruffy rooms and overambitious educational claims are secondary.

Yeah it is far more important than the fact the club has allowed him 4 weeks exclusivity, presumably based on the fact he has a bit of dough to buy the club.

This thread is lame, little in the way of facts and the biggest issue apparantly is that a multi billionaire hasn't created a wiki page to brag about the money he has.

Are you for real.

Roll on when this is all over.

[tony gale's mic]

Given that he has got this far in a high profile due diligence, signed up top-notch advisory firms and so on, the liklihood is that he has got some serious money. Or do none of these idiots not only not look him up on Wiki but only rely on checks that are less reliable?

The question is, where, why and how did it appear from so suddenly? It's his back story that isn't supported, not whether or not he has any money.

It's also the money.

He's probably got acccess to a good few million, whose it is is anyone's guess but I agree that you can't walk in without any money.

But not billions. That doesn't add up in any way shape or form.

[Brownie]

Got it from inside the club that things were frantic today, can't go into detail but very significant work was 'demanded' today and had to be done today

[tony gale's mic]

Yeah it is far more important than the fact the club has allowed him 4 weeks exclusivity, presumably based on the fact he has a bit of dough to buy the club.

This thread is lame, little in the way of facts and the biggest issue apparantly is that a multiple billionaire hasn't created a wiki page to brag about the money he has.

Are you for real.

Roll on when this is all over.

Do you even know how wikipedia, or for that matter encyclopedias work?

People don't write about themselves.

Other people write about you. Especially if you're a multiple billionaire.

Wikipedia is just an example - there's naff all on google too. If you're worth that much money you'll be mentioned somewhere in the great big cyberspace.

Syed must be thinking he's found the most gullible set of football supporters going..

[mogster]

Is the last day of exclusivity tomorrow?

If so, from Monday we may have a whole new set of bidders...

[S15]

Got it from inside the club that things were frantic today, can't go into detail but very significant work was 'demanded' today and had to be done today

Bloody Julie getting arsey again?!

Jesus Christ.

[ada2020]

Got it from inside the club that things were frantic today, can't go into detail but very significant work was 'demanded' today and had to be done today

Queue the frenzy!!!!

[MikeB]

Got it from inside the club that things were frantic today, can't go into detail but very significant work was 'demanded' today and had to be done today

Therefore, is takeover more or less likely.

In all probability, things have been frantic for many days.

Not sure that this will help the natives sleep any easier tonight!

[deryck guyler's spoon]

Yeah it is far more important than the fact the club has allowed him 4 weeks exclusivity, presumably based on the fact he has a bit of dough to buy the club.

This thread is lame, little in the way of facts and the biggest issue apparantly is that a multi billionaire hasn't created a wiki page to brag about the money he has.

Are you for real.

Roll on when this is all over.

Surely you cant dismiss Goldberg's allegations as easily as that?

Still, at least you've dismissed them quicker than Mr Syed.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Syed must be thinking he's found the most gullible set of football supporters going..

Most repetitive, certainly.

[bluebruce]

Yet no one's heard of him in India or in Italy.

Ok I'm not passing any judgement on Syed's bid until the evidence is concrete, but I'm actually really fed up of people saying this over and over. I've been reading this thread for a long time and not posting much, and as best as I can recall, the only evidence that anybody has gathered that he isn't known in any particular part of the world is that a western-named journalist who is mates with the potentially dubious Goldberg apparently asked a regional financial authority in the region of India he hails from but presumably doesn't really do business in anymore whether they knew who he was. This (potentially one) person didn't know who he was. Allegedly.

Correct me politely if I'm wrong, there may be one or two discrepancies in what I'm about to say but I'm sure it is mostly accurate. Nobody has asked everybody or apparently anybody in his hometown if they know who he is. One person/organisation in his home region has been asked and nobody else. One person in the whole of India who isn't even Indian has done the asking, and nobody else in India has been asked as far as I know. Nobody has asked everybody or anybody in Italy if they've heard of him. Nobody has asked everybody in the world if they've heard of him.

People who definitely HAVE heard of him: McCabe, Julia Thiem, French football marketing guru, the rest of Ali's people and associates (granted, many of these we haven't heard from), the people at Cubbie Station, the Bahrain authorities, a letting agent in London, the people who registered all his companies (incontrovertible evidence of which exists in England, Switzerland, Bahrain and Canada)...and more recently, Adrian Goldberg, the BBC, Blackburn Rovers, Rosthchilds, quite a lot of the world's media, and all of the fans at Blackburn Rovers. (As a slight aside from my real point, most of these people have done digging on him and his people, and not found ONE piece of SOLID evidence that he doesn't have major financial assets...a few question marks but no proof)

The man obviously exists (some of you are acting like he is a conjured phantom). He obviously has at least SOME international business dealings, regardless of what level they are at. And he obviously has enough money to hire a team of people to help him conduct the takeover bid and PR around it. Yes, we don't know yet whether he has the money and means he boasts about, but we don't know he doesn't either.

But what I'm really sick of, is people presenting the following as FACT when it just isn't established as such: "Nobody has heard of him in X, Y, Z", because the evidence for this is preposterously porous. There is very little digging has been done to prove this assertion, so stop casually using it as fact people, please. I wish somebody would do more digging on it.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Therefore, is takeover more or less likely.

In all probability, things have been frantic for many days.

Not sure that this will help the natives sleep any easier tonight!

MikeB - you tell us - you were very confident a few days ago that the deal would DEFINITELY go through. Why not so confident now ?