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Depends on how much he sells the club for and whether he's going to write off that £110m or not, innit?

That'd mean relegation will only cost him £4m. Lucky bastard.

Gotta get a fans' consortium sorted out, go Barca/Real style now because that's the only way this club becomes relatively self-sufficient in the short-run.

How much did Ashley pay for the club? £134m for the all the shares plus taking on the £80m debt, am I right? That means he paid about £210m for the club. He's put £110m in at interest-free rate into the club. I imagine he'll sell for £100m and change the interest on the debt to something more standard (7% or something). It depends on how willing the new owners will be to finance a spending-spree of sorts because we're already losing money every month. Fake edit: Or is what .com saying is that he'll just forget about the £110m he's put in and just sell the club for £100m straight, taking the £110m as a loss?

Either Ashley is in some serious financial trouble or he's just a major idiot for selling now when losing £30-40m this year but getting us promoted will instantly mean that our valuation rises by more than what he'll lose this year.

Just doing some research on club finances and found out that Man Utd's wages when they won the Premiership in 06/07 was £74m. Our wages right now are £74m.

The universe is moving toward ultimate complexity. Physicists disagree

Why not go Barca/Real style? Fan membership, yearly payment, elections for Prez etc.

I'm guessing Parky means as part of a consortium. I think anyways. Consortiums worry me because if one partner wants to fuck off, then the whole club is in trouble. Even at Liverpool, where they only had two people owning the club, they're going through a lot of trouble right now. I suppose it might be different if everyone who's part of the consortium is local, but I'm still worried.

I'm not sure. How much is he worth? £50-75m? He won't have enough to get us started. We'll have to borrow massive sums of money again and if we get in financial trouble, we'll really be fucked this time.

That's blatantly not true. im pretty sure ive heard that before to be honest I'm 100% sure its not true. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/5291486.stm

Even if you're retired, you can still be called up. And if you don't show up, you get suspended from playing for your club.

They should have this before the CL final. The neutrals don't care if it's after. Saying that, I'd rather Everton won.

Excellent shout.

This thread will go bananas when he gets his debut.

19% say they're not renewing, 15% say they'll buy. How representative do you think this poll is? If so, our crowds might still be pretty high next season, assuming Shearer stays.

I'm really liking Never Gonna Give You Up. The more I hear it, the better it gets.

One of my favourite players at the club. I hope he stays.

Gourcuff signs for Bordeaux. Erm, why did Milan include an option to buy in the loan? Wouldn't you want to see Gourcuff play in the same team as Pato and Kaka before giving up on him?

Cunt There's no strangers to love...

Yeah, let's discount what they did in the other 58 matches that they played then.

I know. I wrote something to explain that but deleted it (in the previous post). His style of play means that he's going to be excellent until he's 35. He's not fast, he doesn't have incredible strength and generally, his game is not a physical one. He's not going to lose his passing ability which is why he'll be around for a long time.

The greatest of a team is defined over more than one season though isn't it? I know where you're coming from, but years from now people will be referring to this team as the 'treble-winning side' like how the '99 Man Utd team are referred to. The spine of the team, scarily, is still really young - Pique, Toure, Iniesta, Messi and Xavi - so it's scary to think what they can achieve in the next few years if they remain motivated.

This must go down as Barca's best ever team, surely? First Spanish team to win the treble. Scored a record-breaking 145 goals in about 60 matches. 104 league goals, 2nd of all time in that category, I think. Also two or three of the best footballers on the planet playing together and them just mowing down the opposition. Stunning fact that I just found out after reading their wiki page: They have never not qualified for Europe. Since European competition began in 1955, they have qualified for Europe through the league in each and every single year

Indeed, fact it's the exact same trophy should be a dead give away. But the group stages now exist!! Therefore it's harder to win it!!!