ikri

No. He spent money, that's not the same. He bought and sold players behind the manager's back on any number of occasions.

Championship clubs certainly clubs don't, have any of them ever been taken over by a multi billionaire who actually invested his own money? There's plenty of clubs with massive potential in the league but they're all run by local businessman and so are the 3 teams that were promoted. Look at Leeds, you could buy the club and bankroll them to the premiership for less than it would cost to buy us and you would then have one of the biggest clubs in the country, but if you aren't in the premiership they aren't interested in doing some work to get there. QPR. Prior to the Man City takeover their owners were the richest owners in football by a wide margin. They've not really thrown their financial weight around though.

They're used to it. Literally

How do you know that? If one of the clubs biggest assets leaves, can he demand the same price for it? You're talking like Ashley gives a flying fuck about the club any more even though it's rotting right in front of him and you. It should be part of any takeover discussions, any potential investor would want to make sure that any funds generated by the sale of assets either led to a reduction in the asking price for the business or ensure that the funds stayed within the business.

There were stories around back in January that they needed to offload players to balance the books. Even with their SPL win they won't have pocketed too much more money and the potential loss of TV revenue could fuck them over. It wouldn't have too much of an effect on them though, they still have a huge, fanatical fanbase and Champion's League football so even if they were to go under they would likely find a buyer.

Thats why they are fucked mate Anyone would think we were jinxed.

Have we ever lost a competitive game that was shown live on 5?

Should we just rename the club Harchester United and be done with it?

If he has any self respect he will not take it. We should pay him the whole amount in 5p pieces, make him count every single one to make sure that we're not underpaying him.

Aye, someone on the radio was saying that Man U and Liverpool's debt was "manageable" now but if they ever fell on hard times, ie fell out of the top 4 they would be in dire straits. Liverpool might be fucked even without dropping out of the top 4

Considering he's never even acknowledged that he made any mistakes to begin with makes me think that he's learned nothing.

Why is this even being brought up? I'm fairly certain that Shepherd has stated publicly his dislike for Keegan. Keegan quit here in September because he didn't have control over transfers yet he'll come back to work with Shepherd who has a history of buying and selling players without consulting the manager.

So, just how did we end up with £6.6m in interest payments or have they simply fucked up the figures?

And I'd imagine they might even be offering less than then, he wanted £400m didn't he back in September? I'm sure I read somewhere that the bid he recieved was closer to £150m. I think he might bite their hands off for £150m now

Didn't Llambias mention that Ashley had received a "derisory" offer for the club when it was up for sale in September? They could be trying to revive that offer.

it's what's known as the Newcastle effect. If what Taylor said has been true, that there's been no one-to-one training in the last 5 years, I think we have an answer to why almost every player who has come here since Sir Bobby left has ended up looking like crap. There have been so many opportunities for someone to take him aside and give him a few pointers on everything from the timing of his runs to finding space, Martins would have improved no end. Telling midfielders that it might be a good idea to try playing a few balls between the opposing defence and the opposing goalkeeper for the fast running guy to run on to might have helped too. It might also explain why most of our youth players graduate out of the academy only to see themselves stagnate when they reach the senior squad.

Ranger scores

you'll have to explain that one again to me ? Loose wording, apologies. Effectively, if he writes off the debt for the purposes of sale then he will have to pay it himself and thus the £100m he receives from a buyer will pay that off and he will be left with zero, thus he gets nothing. Overall, it will have cost him £130m (before any other injections) - the original cost of the investment. I don't think that is what he intends to do, I think he intends to leave the debt in the business and thus the overall cost to a buyer would be £200m (£100m to Ashley, £100m to re-finance the debt). Ashley in turn would receive £100m for what he paid £130m for (before any other injections), thus a £30m loss. The debt is owed to Ashley though, if it were owed to a 3rd party then your assessment would be correct but if he's willing to write off the debt owed to him then it doesn't require any re-financing. Ashley takes £100m for the club and writes off the £100m owed to him by the club. He takes a huge loss on the loans he's made to the club and the £34m extra that it cost him to buy the club, but he won't have to pay anything out of his pocket to sell the club, it's all money that's already been spent and now lost.

Possibly Ashley is thinking that he's going to have to throw another £50m into the club's coffers this season and any further seasons we stay in the Championship, even if we manage to rebound straight back into the Premiership it'll require another £50m to fund the club when we get there. Even if the club somehow managed to start turning a profit that would allow the club to start paying that loan back, how long would it take before he got his money back? 10 years? 20 years? By selling up now and writing off the £110m loan he gets to walk away with £100m in cash and won't have to put any additional funds into the club with no guarantees of him ever getting that money back.

If they weren't interested back in September, why not? Do they not have enough cash to match Ashley's earlier valuation? Are they just looking for a cheap club? Have they only recently found the funds? I'm sure the fact that the price-tag on our club has been reduced by 75% must have something to do wth it. It was up for 400 million pounds last September was it not? If it's 100 million pounds now, that's quite a cut. I've always thought that figure was a bit weird, it was only reported from a single source when all the other sources were saying £240m was the asking price. The 400 million figure may have been the price in dollars, since at the time $400m would have been roughly £240m.

If they weren't interested back in September, why not? Do they not have enough cash to match Ashley's earlier valuation? Are they just looking for a cheap club? Have they only recently found the funds?

I'd wonder where he'd found 15m from and how much it was really going to cost the club. Shepherd started the rot here, Ashley utterly failed to arrest the decline, but the rot set in with Freddy. I'm fed up with the club simply lurching from one crisis to another and that's something that wouldn't stop with Shepherd's return.

Isn't Rick Parry about to become unemployed?

The Shearer negotiations would seem to me to be the most obvious reason for the sale. I'd hazard a guess that Shearer has all but said no to taking over full time with whatever restrictions Ashley has placed upon him should he take over (no money for new players, have to sell most of the 1st team, etc.). Ashley's simply getting out before everyone starts demanding he fuck off for screwing up another managerial appointment. First Keegan, possibly now Shearer. All he'd have to do next is hit Sir Bobby whilst driving out of the ground for the trifecta.