[Archived] Rovers Takeover

[BuckyRover]

Philip doesn't need me or anyone else to stand up for him but your comments are totally unworthy of you and even asinine. I can assure you that he is aware of far more than he can ever print on here and is motivated only by good intent and of being a true supporter of the club.

Our paths cross from time to time and from speaking with him I know he has only one interest in this matter and that is the well being BRFC. He may at some stage choose to disclose who his contacts are and who he speaks to, that isn't a matter for me to discuss, however I know who they are and I also know the reliability of the information.

If you don't know the people you are talking about you should save your ridicule for more deserving targets.

I stand by my comments.

[nicko]

Well you would indeed be imagining, but dream on... I'm off to split some hairs, find Gazza, buy him a bottle o' dog and ask him how you can make billions out of company worth £144m??? See you next week!

No, you won't.

And while you're away check the history of the Jack Walker takeover, the wealth of his company at the time and the family ties there too.

What a good job there weren't internet pests around 20-odd years ago when a tax exile wanted to bail out his club and found a way of doing it.

[Spansterkid]

No, you won't.

And while you're away check the history of the Jack Walker takeover, the wealth of his company at the time and the family ties there too.

What a good job there weren't internet pests around 20-odd years ago when a tax exile wanted to bail out his club and found a way of doing it.

Before I go, you consider the state of English football finances at the time, the state of Rovers at the time and taking GCSE maths!

[Moppy]

Before I go, you consider the state of English football finances at the time, the state of Rovers at the time and taking GCSE maths!

jesus hold old are you, 5

[artemorethanlabore]

The reasoning "if they didn't have much money the deal would be a huge risk, they probably wouldn't take a huge risk = they have much more money than what is publicly available" doesn't exactly fill anxious fans with a huge amount of confidence, you can probably understand that perspective. We're all hoping for the best, but Ali Syed's approach - at least from a fans point of view - was much more inspiring and included a real acknowledgement of and communication to the fan-base. Indian poultry industry and agent-business/tv-licensing - with the recent history of the PL in memory, why would we be sold on that combination?

[Eddie]

No, you won't.

And while you're away check the history of the Jack Walker takeover, the wealth of his company at the time and the family ties there too.

What a good job there weren't internet pests around 20-odd years ago when a tax exile wanted to bail out his club and found a way of doing it.

I think the major difference there is that he was a supporter of the club. If you have ties to the club then you can at least have some assurance that the intentions are good and that the new owner won't jump ship at the first sign of trouble.

I have major concerns about this deal. I fear that they may not be around for long. I fear that they may have had to have borrowed money. I fear that they may not even put that much money in. Most of all though, I fear that they have convinced themselves that they may actually be able to make money from this. Football is a broken business model. There is a way to make money from it, a select few do, but for the vast majority of clubs that is a pipe dream. I'm very happy for a new owner to HOPE that he might make money from the club, but it's like placing a bet, when you've handed the money over you have to consider it to be a loss until the very moment that your bet wins. Realistically no owner will be able to make money from owning Blackburn Rovers. I worry that we'll have some hot-shots come in, whore out the club across Asia, bring in some young players who are really owned by agents and are only at the club so that a few suits can turn a nice profit in a boardroom when they are sold on after a season or two and that in reality we'll be back to square one.

Say what you want about Syed, but at least the man realised that there was a PR side to a takeover. Like I said at the time, any idiot can say the right things, but it at least shows that you're putting some thought into it.

[nicko]

The reasoning "if they didn't have much money the deal would be a huge risk, they probably wouldn't take a huge risk = they have much more money than what is publicly available" doesn't exactly fill anxious fans with a huge amount of confidence, you can probably understand that perspective. We're all hoping for the best, but Ali Syed's approach - at least from a fans point of view - was much more inspiring and included a real acknowledgement of and communication to the fan-base. Indian poultry industry and agent-business/tv-licensing - with the recent history of the PL in memory, why would we be sold on that combination?

You would rather have someone who tried to kid the punters - and the press?

OK.

This VH lot need to get their story across at some stage, that is granted. But talking about sensible investment - where there has been none for years - is a start.

The figures quoted are a bit lower than I heard to expect to be spent. The one I heard was a little bit bigger but not silly.

Either way ANY spending in January will be better than you could have been able to without a takeover. And having ANY miney may put you better off than some of your struggling rivals come January.

The great fear for any fans is a repeat of Portsmouth and West Ham. Flash clowns coming and throwing money around to win points and prizes, leaving the place in a shambolic mess. And nice, clean money it was too, wasn't it?

Rovers have been spoiled by the memory of one of the best benefactors in football history. Accept that era is over.

[BuckyRover]

Football HAS to become self financing. It's the future.

[Iceman]

spandex kid is on a mission

I think right now, im going to wait and see what happens. It looks like a done deal, but thats just a small part of this deal. Its what is behind this deal, that im very interested to see what happens. What are their plans, who are the people involved with the plans, and what are their long term strategies.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Philip doesn't need me or anyone else to stand up for him but your comments are totally unworthy of you and even asinine. I can assure you that he is aware of far more than he can ever print on here and is motivated only by good intent and of being a true supporter of the club.

Our paths cross from time to time and from speaking with him I know he has only one interest in this matter and that is the well being BRFC. He may at some stage choose to disclose who his contacts are and who he speaks to, that isn't a matter for me to discuss, however I know who they are and I also know the reliability of the information.

If you don't know the people you are talking about you should save your ridicule for more deserving targets.

The comment was, I believe, directed at Philip's sensationalist editorialising, which has been ludicrous and totally unhelpful over the last 24 hours.

[BPF]

It's not a done deal yet.

[rovgers]

Before I go, you consider the state of English football finances at the time, the state of Rovers at the time and taking GCSE maths!

Don't you just love school holidays!!

[Roversider]

You would rather have someone who tried to kid the punters - and the press?

OK.

This VH lot need to get their story across at some stage, that is granted. But talking about sensible investment - where there has been none for years - is a start.

The figures quoted are a bit lower than I heard to expect to be spent. The one I heard was a little bit bigger but not silly.

Either way ANY spending in January will be better than you could have been able to without a takeover. And having ANY miney may put you better off than some of your struggling rivals come January.

The great fear for any fans is a repeat of Portsmouth and West Ham. Flash clowns coming and throwing money around to win points and prizes, leaving the place in a shambolic mess. And nice, clean money it was too, wasn't it?

Rovers have been spoiled by the memory of one of the best benefactors in football history. Accept that era is over.

I don't always totally agree with Nicko but he is spot on here. Syed was too open and gained too much from his PR machine.

Whatever we say Jack is long gone and the Trust either haven't got the funds or the willingness to spend more.

Our concern should be that there is a business model being proposed that might work, can't say it will work until it happens. However playing the 'Not invented here' card won't move Rovers forward. This has a chance and John Williams and the Trust clearly think so too.

Finally, the only people who have a say are the owners. I know they can get it wrong but they also could get it right. We should not be condemning this until we see what is going to happen. They aren't getting rid of Sam and John Williams which I think is a good start and will free some funds up for January. That is a definite improvement on where we have been.

[TimmyJimmy]

I stand by my comments.

Shame.

[John]

They aren't getting rid of Sam and John Williams which I think is a good start and will free some funds up for January. That is a definite improvement on where we have been.

Potentially a very small improvement though - our squad is pretty average in a number of areas. £5 million (which is what is being "reported") is obviously more than we have to spend now however transfers are not an exact science and can easily go wrong.

Easier said than done, but best for us all to wait and see as some more detail will emerge over time. However most fans would naturally be disenthused with the information we have available at the moment.

[philipl]

Just visiting biefly whilst grabbing a sandwich.

Have we any clarification on whether the Financial Times of India are correct or not? Is that Indian bank financing the buyers to purchase the club or not?

Incidentally, Jack Walker was worth more in 1987 than VH Group appears to be worth today.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Excellent post, bears repeating. it's a nuthouse on here.

Hope your right about this. I would suppose that the strategy is as you say but with idea of eventually selling the club at some point down the road if they need to liquidate assets or get a good offer.

Problem from everyones perspective is it would be easy for us to be relegated such is the increasing quality of the mid table of the Prem and the only modest investment in the sqaud. We are going to be totally reliant on having a very good manager and finding excellent young players who other clubs with bigger resources/profiles have not sniffed out. Very very tricky. There must be a lot of faith in Kentaro.

Also football clubs with good squads can have a rubbish run of games, become unstable, and ultimately go down. Look at Newcastle, West Ham etc over the years. These teams had comparatively far more quality than their contemporaries than we have to ours at the moment. The game is inherantly super risky unless you have large investment and a very good manager.

So what I can't get my head around is if you are buying to diversify a vulnerable balance sheet why would you aquire a club for 40m which would eastily third in value if relegated? And also, if you look at other examples, bleed huge amount of money on wages while trying to reconfigure the squad for the Championship? It seems barmy from a business perspective.

There has to be some desire here to own a football club for the fun and prestige of it. The numbers are too daft to make a sensible business plan from my perspective, unless VH really think you can generate large funds from merchandise in India. That idea seems too speculative to me to hinge a purchase on.

Of course there is risk. They didn't go from having one chicken coop to being India's largets poultry company in one generation without taking risk. But I don't see it as barmy.

Firstly, they have a clear business need within which owning Rovers plays a role - increasing their brand exposure in the UK. It may mean shirt or even stadium sponsorship rights to see any benefit, which will generate another thousand pages of outrage on here, but if Arsenal fans can stomach their beloved Highbury disappearing as a ground and a name, then I don't see the problem.

Secondly, as Iamarover clearly lays out, they can be held accountable and have a viable plan for running Rovers. A plan that that doesn't have the fatal flaw of the current one: that of trying to compete in an open transfer market with teams who will always have far more money than us. The idea of having preferential access to good young players is a clever way of getting around the fact we will always be outspent trying to buy proven quality. Some of us have been saying for years that the academy HAS to succeed for us to survive at this level - this is a neat way of greatly adding to our chances of getting our hands on young, cheap players who can deliver at this level. We have been heavily handicapped by paying top dollar to attract mediocre older players who all to often don't deliver, get injured, lose interest or all three. Getting 10 million off the wage bill while having a good chance of increasing the calibre of the squad is a risk well worth taking because if we don't take it we are bound to get relegated sooner or later and almost bound to go bust because of our insane wage bill.

IT's not a slam dunk plan and it's not a buy Beckham and rebuild the Riverside tomorrow plan, but it's a better plan than we have right now.

[Laurence]

Potentially a very small improvement though - our squad is pretty average in a number of areas. £5 million (which is what is being "reported") is obviously more than we have to spend now however transfers are not an exact science and can easily go wrong.

Easier said than done, but best for us all to wait and see as some more detail will emerge over time. However most fans would naturally be disenthused with the information we have available at the moment.

It'd make no sense at all to publicise the actual amount of money we might have to spend - that made me feel uneasy about Ahsan Ali Syed, the way he announced we'd have £100m. Great business sense!

[S15]

Just visiting biefly whilst grabbing a sandwich.

What sandwich did you get?

[John]

It'd make no sense at all to publicise the actual amount of money we might have to spend - that made me feel uneasy about Ahsan Ali Syed, the way he announced we'd have £100m. Great business sense!

Completely agree - however why put any figure on it, just say there will be some money available for transfers.

Clubs would catch on anyway if we were to start making big transfers! (i.e. realise we have more money to spend).

Same with league table positioning, why say we are happy to finish 12th-14th.

It is not a PR game of course but you would hope a takeover would put everyone in a very positive frame of mind.

[nicko]

What sandwich did you get?

Hard cheese and stuffed chicken.

[Hughesy]

Makes little sense to me.....

Venky accounts - Accounts

Balance Sheet

Shows there empire on here - Uttara Foods and Feeds Private Ltd

debts for uttara foods?? -

[PAFELL]

Well you would indeed be imagining, but dream on... I'm off to split some hairs, find Gazza, buy him a bottle o' dog and ask him how you can make billions out of company worth £144m??? See you next week!

Can you not just stay off this board instead, if all you want to do is riddicle another poster.

You do not seem to understand that Rothschilds, the trust and John Williams have all looked and checked on the weath or otherwise of the VH group.

In the next few days the prem will also be doing their own checks to see if VH have the money to run Rovers for a year. If all VH have is £144m, they will not have much left after the first year running a premiership club. Minus 25m to buy the club, 16 mill to pay the debt off, 5mill they have put aside for january - this does not leave much left to pay the wages etc etc.

So you must believe that VH will fail the prem ownership test that has started.

[philipl]

Hard cheese and stuffed chicken.

And the bank finance?

And the fact the club are playing down the Kentaro link?

[imy9]

Spanster-

How much money have VH group accumulated over the last 30 years, any figures? £10 million? £300 million?

Is the brothers film company registered under the VH Group books? How many other companies exist like this for the family?

Point is Rothschild know, Ali Syed said he would invest £300 million in the club and SAID he was a billionaire- why did he not get past Rothschild, was the source of the money a problem? I dont know, does anyone?

I have always believed if in doubt always go with the common sense answer, until I hear anything different I am VERY positive about this venture.