OzzieMandias

before 1991 the US had never had a president who got them into Arab lands. Since then they have been there more often than any other country. Which other country had given its troops the opportunity to compete abroad the way them Bush's have ? Where were you when those other presidents presided over the embarrassments of previous decades. Were you there ? Did you live through incompetent presidents. I did, I know how it was, you have no idea unless you we,re there. Well listen to me, this president is far better than any that have gone before. The Bush's have always backed their troops. Okay the last appointment of Rumsfeld didn't work out, but who at the time argues against it ? Did you. Don't remember you saying anything ? So Bush is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. You might want a new president but how do you know the next one would be any better ? How do you know that a new guy, or even woman, would be able to do any better than Bush ? I would rather stick with Bush who clearly knows how to back his troops into body bags than gamble on some unknown.

He's having a great season, isn't he? In the dock again accused of slapping a woman again after an incident in a nightclub again. Meanwhile, grand total of two goals.

NE5 reminds me of George Bush trying to convince everyone that it's all going swimmingly in Iraq.

Aye, from the team of the 1990s, challenging for the big stuff, to the piss-poor squad of today, struggling to stay above the relegation zone. You think that's good and you call ME a mackem?

Had any luck yet winning people over to the "Fat Fred Is Great" campaign?

Welsh.

:obi:

Well, a casino is only a possibility. Depends on getting one of the licenses. Belgravia have talked of hotels, and say they hope to build a casino, but that nothing depends on the casino. Their sums add up without it. I'm curious what property people think we have that is worth buying the rest of the club to get hold of. To me it's the other way around: the deal makes no sense without the football.

You compare us to Man U The only team that has driven up those income streams in a short space of time is Chelsea and they are still making £200m losses. You can't get more advertising, sponsorship unless you are successful, unless Belagravia are going to put in hundreds of millions into the team itself (you can kid yourself it would take less by all means but we are light years behind the top 3) , we can whistle in the wind for the levels that Man U achieve, certainly over the short erm. Long term goals are another matter but I would be strongly sceptical as to the long term goals of Belgravia. So how do you think Belgravia are looking at it?

Improving the team would increase revenue in all sorts of ways. Television revenue gets bigger. The Champions League brings loads of cash. The brand becomes more valuable which means more sponsorship and more shirts etc are sold outside of home territory. I'm sure they can bring in a brand-manager/marketing type who can do a better job than Dougie sodding Hall. But yes, they would also look for revenue in new ways. There have been articles posted on here that mention plans for a hotel or two, and the hope of a casino (though they stressed that no plans depended on the casino). If a hotel on the site would prove to be a solid revenue stream, increasing the wealth of the club and stability of its finances, and they have the investment needed to build it, then as far as I'm concerned they should go right ahead. (Pure speculation, but combine a hotel and whatever at the Gallowgate end with an expansion of stadium capacity and what's not to like?) For sure, the club under Fat Fred probably doesn't have the vision and evidently couldn't muster the cash for that sort of development. We're still paying for the stadium and he's scrabbling around for funds to buy players. thats exactly the wishy washy bollocks i'm on about - no-one has any figures for this, or even proof it happens. Everyone is taking it as fact. We already have massive sponsorship contracts. We already have international fans. Exactly how many Malaysians went out and bought merchandise during our last campaign? IIRC absence of the champions league matches brought in £5m in one year - is that a big enough return for someone to invest however many 100 mill and GAMBLE on the fact they can build a team that will get into the top 4? I think we can take it as fact that an investment group capable of putting upwards of £150 million into taking over the club is at least confident that they're not throwing all that money away. Now, whose judgement do we reckon is more firmly based in a consideration of the various financial realities? Theirs? Or yours?

Improving the team would increase revenue in all sorts of ways. Television revenue gets bigger. The Champions League brings loads of cash. The brand becomes more valuable which means more sponsorship and more shirts etc are sold outside of home territory. I'm sure they can bring in a brand-manager/marketing type who can do a better job than Dougie sodding Hall. But yes, they would also look for revenue in new ways. There have been articles posted on here that mention plans for a hotel or two, and the hope of a casino (though they stressed that no plans depended on the casino). If a hotel on the site would prove to be a solid revenue stream, increasing the wealth of the club and stability of its finances, and they have the investment needed to build it, then as far as I'm concerned they should go right ahead. (Pure speculation, but combine a hotel and whatever at the Gallowgate end with an expansion of stadium capacity and what's not to like?) For sure, the club under Fat Fred probably doesn't have the vision and evidently couldn't muster the cash for that sort of development. We're still paying for the stadium and he's scrabbling around for funds to buy players.

Some things don't change.

That's a pretty grim fucking avatar, ChezGiven.

The gathering pace of this story reflects the fact that if anything is going to happen, it's going to happen soon. The club is vulnerable to a takeover because Fred has got us into a weak position. Finances in a mess. In clear danger of relegation. Desperately in need of reinforcements come the January transfer window to avert the possible drop, but likely to increase the financial problems by borrowing to fund player purchases and worsen the wages/turnover ratio. And all this the season before a massive hike in revenue from television rights. Fat Fred has three options. 1) He can leave things pretty much as they are, with maybe a couple of token player purchases, and hope to ride out the season without being relegated. 2) He can do whatever financial shenanigens are needed to change the manager and make some major player purchases, in the hope that this extra effort/expenditure will avert relegation. 3) He can cash in his chips. If we get relegated it's a disaster however you look at it, but it'll be a much worse disaster for both Fred and the club if he's borrowed heavily in the attempt to stave it off. Either way we'd immediately have to get rid of all the big wage-earners. We'd probably have to start trimming the wage bill even if we managed to survive in the Premiership. Going down, it wouldn't be quite as bad as Leeds but it wouldn't be pretty. The best we can hope for under Fred is to ride out the storm and then carry on stumbling from crisis to crisis, with more knee-jerk managerial appointments and supposedly crowd-pleasing player purchases. He's taken us as far as he can. I don't think anything less than a major investment in the club is going to stabilise things and move us up to the next level. If that takes building a casino, well, deal me in. Otherwise we're stuck in Fred's vicious circle. As for selling up, if Fred is going to do it, now is the time. He must know this too. If he doesn't sell out now, he might not be able to sell out at all, and if we get relegated, he's never going to get the price his shares might fetch now. In a financially weak position, his only bargaining counter is time. To make sense, a buy-out needs to happen in time for some activity in the January window – new owners aren't going to be very interested in Championship football either. So Fred will stall in the hope of getting the best possible price at the last possible minute. It's a dangerous game, because if he stalls too much, he might lose the deal altogether. Interesting times.

Can't see it happening, but we should be pleased if it ever did. His reputation's a bit like Sven's. Everyone slags him off because everyone slags him off. I laughed when Liverpool bought him. I've stopped laughing now. He's an accomplished player, good attitude, miles better than any of our current forwards bar Owen.

No, but he was pretty well looked after in Budapest.

Some people might buy shares simply on the assumption that a buy-out is in the offing and that this will raise the share price.

To the fact that the club don't own the land, add the fact that redevelopment would also be limited by the preservation order on Leazes Terrace, and that they'd have to pay off the loads taken out to build the stadium before they knocked it down again. At the very least, any investor intending to redevelop would need guarantees from the city that they were allowed to do it -- so that possibility would be there on the table in advance of any takeover. Can't see it meself.

If Belgravia also owned the club, nothing whatsoever. As outside sponsorship, naming rights run into millions, but we'd be more likely to get a Bolton kind of amount than an Arsenal kind of amount.

If anything's going to happen it'll happen while there's still a possibility of sorting this season out. Nobody's going to want to buy a relegated club.

I notice also that there were more Havant fans (4) arrested than Millwall fans (3).

http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=455&ArticleID=1875595

No shït, Sherlock.

Millwall do have some twats following them around. But the problem here is more overreaction by the rural plod, tbh.

It went down hill when you brought up the "why Waddle, Beardsley, Gazza, Robson, Lee and Cox all left the club." question yet again. It's off topic and the bickering it eventually leads to just spoils a good thread. I think that's the point of it – to render any discussion useless.