Unbelievable

Good post. Completely agree.

Good news. A cheap option (providing we can agree on wages) who should do well in the CCC. I'd consider a 2 year contract to give us some stability up front.

The company has advisors (a merchant bank, stockbroker) who would put a value on it based both on its historical performance and more importantly on its projected performance. The projections are then examined by an independent firm of accountants and tested for reasonableness. It is then "floated". The company's merchant bank would underwrite the floatation .i.e. buy any excess shares not bought by the public or other institutions. The valuation was not Ashley's although he would have had a target in mind and prepared projections accordingly. The company has substantially underperformed since floating. There has also been a lot of criticism of the communication by Sports Direct and its PR generally is pretty awful (Ashley called his shareholders "whingers" in an interview not so long ago). Ashley has also taken flak for appointing people who are mates of his and not considered to be up to the job. In some ways thats fair enough because the City's assessment of being up to a job isn't always fair or based on detailed knowledge, but when results are disappointing its hard to defend. I only mention all this because there is a bit of a familiar pattern in some of it. Thanks quayside.. Seems like Ashley is only marginally to blame in this one. It's happened before and it will happen again: some stocks will take off after flotation, and some will plummet. It's always a gamble, and if there is any blame to be attributed it seems the "professional" corporate bankers play a big a role as any party in setting the price and convincing investors that the price is a fair assessment. You are right regarding his subsequent behaviour, it is quite clear that the man is not a very corporate figure, rather he is a self made man who doesn't understand the complexity of running a large corporation in the public eye, or indeed a football club. I respect what he has achieved building up his empire (entrepreneur myself, although on a completely different level unfortunately), but it's hard to see how he can go much further if he doesn't possess the required intelligence himself and/or puts his trust in people who he likes on a personal level but keep letting him down business-wise..

quayside, serious question: who determines the flotation value of PLC shares?

Jose Enrique.. Was shat on from a great height by most of our managers, especially Kinnear, but is one of the few who can hold their head up high at the end of this season.

It is for the long term borrowings. Overdraft is another thing, a short term working capital, just like your credit card account. I wasn't referring to the financial vehicle per se, rather the consequence. How come we suddenly have reports that an external creditor can claim an external loan with several days notice and thereby sink us in the shit..? Wasn't Ashley's prudent financial strategy (if you can call it that) meant to prevent this sort of thing from happening? Why didn't he provide shirt term working capital himself? I ask this partly because he is one of the primary reasons for needing it, i.e. pay the full price when you buy, accept installments when you sell..

Still, this sort of thing was supposed to be staved off now we are in the "safe hands" of Fat Mike, wasn't it?

Well, well, well, and I thought we should be thankful to Fat Mike for sorting us out financially at least..

Unbelievable!

Expect Krul to want to leave if this is what Shearer & Co (or whoever else will be the manager) have in mind.. Feyenoord will be looking for a new goalkeeper and he is their primary target. He won't want to warm our bench when he could be their No. 1.

Dammit, that would have been the icing on the cake..

Send Scholes off ffs

Gets told off..

Booked, finally..

Should have been 3

Send the fucker OFF!!!

Get in! Gonna love see Ferguson and Ronaldo get all worked up..

YES!!!!!!!

Book the fucker

English teams make these games boring. It's the only way to contain Barca and have a chance.

Sort of player that wouldn't have made it through a UK football academy for being too slight to play professional football..

Nah

Been very quiet tonight tbh. Rooney has done much more (not that that's a lot anyway) dont agree, ronaldo's done well when on the ball but has been really isolated, rooney has been invisible Agreed, started off well, but seems to not be involved much lately.. Man U need to get him involved more if they want a chance to win this. You could argue Barca is defending well to contain him though..

Will be lovely to see the Portuguese cunt cry his eyes out tonight..